Union membership trends in 2011 - calm before the storm?

The TUC’s Stronger Unions website provides a useful summary of the UK Government’s latest report on trade union membership figures. Of particular interest is that in the public sector, despite a membership fall of 186,000, union density rose by 0.2% to 56.5%; bargaining coverage rose by 3.3% to 67.8% and the amount of public sector workplaces where there is a trade union presence rose to 87.1% from 85.8%. As well as a membership surge linked to the pensions campaign last autumn, this report confirms that public sector unions are retaining our core workplace organisation even though overall workforce numbers are shrinking:  http://strongerunions.org/2012/04/26/2011-trade-union-membership-figures-released/