Trade Union Membership and Influence, 1999-2014

In this briefing note, we provide a current assessment of trade union membership and influence within the workplace. We use data from the Certification Officer, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes Survey and the Workplace Employment Relations Survey to examine unions’ fortunes over the period 1999-2014. We show that union membership density continues to fall in Britain, but that the network of workplace reps has remained relatively resilient. We also show that unions continue to deliver observable benefits for their members in respect of terms and conditions, but the size of those benefits has decreased over the past decade.