More union report recruitment success

Further evidence is coming out that union membership decline has bottomed out, with a number of unions reporting rising membership.

Transport staffs union the TSSA has announced its first membership increase in seven years in 1999, having recruited a net 750 new members (the highest number recruited for 19 years). By May this year the TSSA had already recruited another 526, putting the union "well on target" for its planned increase of 900.

The union's president, David Horton, told the union's recent annual conference that "we have turned the corner as far as membership is concerned" and "we have improved our recruitment performance since we've turned the corner."

Meanwhile the National Union of Journalists recently reported that its membership had risen for the first time in 20 years to 32,876. The represents an increase of nearly 4% in 12 months.

And the Scottish teaching union EIS has announced that its membership now stands at a record 52,475, up from 51,200 last year. The union's general secretary Ronnie Smith told delegates to the union's annual conference that this was "no mean feat, and credit must go to everyone who has worked both to recruit new members and retain existing members."