Women see rise in union density

The number of trade union members in the UK has risen slightly and for the first time ever the proportion of women who are trade unionists is the same as the proportion of men.

Figures from the official Labour Force Survey show that there were 7,340,000 trade union members in 2002 compared with 7,330,000 in 2001.

This means that trade union membership has been broadly stable at around 7.3m since 1999. But because the number of people employed has risen faster, the percentage of employees who are trade union members has fallen slightly from 29.5% in 1999 to 29.1% in 2001 and 29.0% in 2002.

There is also now no difference between the proportion of women employees who are union members and men. For both sexes it is 29%, reflecting an increase from 28% for women in 2001 and a decrease from 30% for men.

Figures from the TUC, whose affiliated unions account for around 90% of all union members in the UK, show a similar pattern of broad membership stability. Among the five largest unions three have increased membership, Unison - 1,289,000 (+1.3%), GMB - 704,000 (+2.1%) and USDAW - 321,000 (+3.5%), while two have lost members, Amicus - 1,061,000 (-1.7%) and T&G -835,000 (-1.6%).