Private sector unionisation at 'dangerously low levels'

An article in the April 2013 edition of Labour Research magazine highlights that the trade union presence in the UK private sector 'has hit dangerously low levels.' The decline in unionisation has been rapid in the manufacturing sector, where the proportion of workplaces with any union members fell from 24% in 2004 to just 15% in 2011. In private services, which is the sector of the economy where employment is fastest growing, union membership presence is 6% although in hotels and restaurants this falls to only 3% of workplaces. In construction - which accounts for 8% of overall employment - only 7% of workplaces include some union members. The LRD analysis is based on the 2011 Workplace Employment Research Study First Findings:
http://www.lrdpublications.org.uk/publications.php?pub=LR&iss=1655 (subscribers only)