UNION GROWTH IN BRITAIN: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT
| Author | George Sayers Bain,Robert Price |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1983.tb00120.x |
| Date | 01 March 1983 |
| Published date | 01 March 1983 |
BRITISH
JOURNAL
OF
INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS
UNION GROWTH IN BRITAIN: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT
ROBERT PRICE*
and
GEORGE SAYERS
BAIN~
IN
1969, after twenty years during which union density in Britain stagnated, it began to
increase and continued to do
so
for the next ten years, since when it has detlined. This
paper focusses on the upsurge in union density which occurred between 1969 and 1979;
outlines its dimensions; analyses the factors which brought it about; and, in the light
of
this analysis, predicts the course
of
union growth in Britain during the 1980s. In
addition, since the paper is a lineal descendant
of
three earlier papers published in this
journal, (see Bain, 1966; Bain
&
Price, 1972; Price
&
Bain, 1976), it takes this
opportunity to revise and update some
of
the data they presented and to reassess some
of
the arguments they advanced.
I.
AGGREGATE
UNIONISATION
Tables
1
and
2
reveal that aggregate union membership in the United Kingdom
increased by 3.2 million between 1969 and 1979 while potential union membership
increased by
1
.O
million. This wide divergence between the increases recorded in
actual and potential union membership meant that union density rose in this period
from 44 per cent to 55.4 per cent, a level more than
10
percentage points higher than
the previous peak
of
45.2 per cent reached in both 1920 and 1948. In contrast to the
TABLE
1
Aggregate
Union
Membership and Density in the United Kingdom: Selected Years,
1892-1981
Union Membership" Potential
Union
Union
Density'
Membershipb
(000s)
Change
(000s)
Change
(%
)
Change
Year Number Annual
%
Number Annual
%
Level Annual
%
1892 1,576 14,803
1900 2,022 15,957
1910 2,565 17,596
1913 4,135 17,920
1917 5,499 18,234
1920 8,348 18,469
1921 6,633 18,548
1926 5,219 18,446
1933 4,392 19,422
1938 6,053 19,829
1945 7,875 20,400
1948 9,363 20,732
1949 9,318 -0.5 20.782 +0.2
1950 9,289 -0.3 21,055 +1.3
1951 9,530 +2.6 21,177 +0.6
1952 9,588 +0.6 21,252 +0.4
1953 9,527 -0.6 21,352 +0.5
1954 9,566 +0.4 21,658 +1.4
1955 9,741 +1.8 21,913 +1.2
1956 9,778 +0.4 22,180 +1.2
1957 9,829 +0.5 22,334 +0.7
1958 9.639
-
1.9 22,290 -0.2
*
Lecturer in Industrial Relations, University
of
Warwick.
t
Professor
of
Industrial Relations, University of Warwick.
46
10.6
12.7
14.6
23.1
30.2
45.2
35.8
28.3
22.6
30.5
38.6
45.2
44.8
44.1
45.0
45.1
44.6
44.2
44.5
44.1
44.0
43.2
-0.9
-1.6
+2.0
+0.2
-1.1
-0.9
+0.7
-0.9
-0.2
-1.8
UNION
GROWTH
IN BRITAIN
41
Year
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975"
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
Union Membership
a
Number
(OOOS)
9,623
9,835
9,916
10,014
10,067
10,218
10,325
10,259
10.194
10,200
10.479
11.187
11,135
1
1,359
11,456
11,764
12,026
12,386
12,846
13.1
12
13.447
12,947
12,182
Annual
%
Change
-0.2
+2.2
+0.8
+
1.0
+0.5
+1.5
+1.0
-0.6
-0.6
+O.
1
+2.7
+6.8
-0.5
+2.0
+0.9
+2.7
+2.2
+3.0
+3.7
+2.1
+2.6
-3.7
-5.9
Potential Union
Membership
Number Annual
%
(000s)
Change
22,229 +1.7
22,527 +1.3
22,879 +1.6
23,021 +0.6
23,166 +0.6
23,385 +0.9
23,545 +0.7
23,347 -0.8
23,203 -0.6
23,153 -0.2
23,050 -0.4
22,884 -0.7
22,961 +0.3
23,244 +1.2
23.339 +0.4
23,587 +1.1
23,871 +1.2
24,069 +0.8
24,203 +0.6
24,264 +0.3
24,171 -0.4
23,879 -1.2
21,866 -1.9
Union Density
'
Level Annual
YO
(YO)
Change
44.0 +1.9
44.2 +0.5
44.0
-0.5
43.8
-0.5
43.7 -0.2
44.1 +0.9
44.2 +0.2
43.6 -1.4
43.7 +0.2
44.0 +0.7
45.3
+3.0
48.5 +7.1
48.7 +0.4
49.5 +1.6
49.3 -0.4
50.4 +2.2
51.0 +1.2
51.9
+1.8
53.4 +2.9
54.2
+1.5
55.4 +2.2
53.6 -3.2
51
.0
-4.9
Sources:
For
1892-1976
the data are from Bain
&
Price
(1980:
table
2.1).
For
1977-81
the union
membership data are from the
Employment Gazette,
XCI
(January
1983),
p.
26.
For
1977-81
the
potential union membership data are from
ibid.,
S6,
table
1.1
(employees in employment
seasonally unadjusted figure for June), with the addition
of
the unemployed at June of each year
from
ibid.,
S16,
table
2.1.
Notes:
a) The Department
of
Employment compile these union membership data from those supplied
by the Certification Officer
for
Trade Unions and Employers' Associations and from
supplementary information obtained directly by the Department from trade unions. The data
cover the membership
of
all organisations known
to
fall within the definition
of
a trade union as
laid down in section
28
of
the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act
1974,
the essential
requirement being that the body is an organisation of workers which has the regulation
of
relations between workers and employers as one
of
its principal purposes. The data include all
the membership, including that overseas and in the Republic
of
Ireland,
of
unions with head
offices in the United Kingdom; in
1980,
for example, the total membership figure included
74,969
members in branches in the Irish Republic and
37,179
in other branches outside the United
Kingdom. Thus the union density series is slightly overstated because the potential union
membership series refers only to the United Kingdom.
b) Potential Union membership is the labour force minus employers, the self-employed, and
members of the armed forces;
it
includes the registered unemployed.
c) Union density
is
actual union membership as a percentage
of
total union membership. See
also note a.
d) From
1975
onwards the Department
of
Employment excluded thirty-one organisations
previously regarded as trade unions, because they failed to satisfy the statutory definition
of
a
trade union in section
28
of
the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act
1974.
Their exclusion
resulted in union membership being
167,000,
or
1.4
per cent, lower in
1975;
in other words, if
they had not been excluded, union membership in
1975
would have been
12,193,000.
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