7
14. At least two reservations (and there are others) must be made to
these figures. First, paid-up membership (as estimated in the Register
from union accounts) is substantially lower, and is apparently declining
as a percentage of claimed membership. Between 1974 and 1975 alone the
percentage of paid-up members fell from nearly 82 to 78 implying that
as a proportion of all employees union membership rose by less than 1%
although this was a year of economic recovery. In 1970, the percentage
of paid-up membership appears to have exceeded 93*. Second, there is a
significant but unknown degree of dual membership; mobile workers may
belong to two or three unions in different trades (this is perhaps
particularly true of seamen, a very large proportion of registered
seafarers in fact working mainly in land occupations, but keeping their
seaman's book and union card as an insurance). Particularly, in
industries where both left-wing and right-wing unions are important, some
workers belong to both. Union officials in some trades involved have
put the proportion of their members in this position at between 5% and
10%. So that, in all, effective union membership is significantly lower
than the nominal figures suggest.
15. Union membership density appears highest in utilities, water and
land transport, low in private commerce and service occupations (where
there are in any case many self-employed**), and lowest in construction
and manufacturing (apart from a modest concentration in textiles and
certain long-established craft trades). Although about half the
industrial labour force consists of women, only about 60,000 are union
members, although (in nominal terms, at least) female union membership
appears to be rising faster than that of men.
/16.
There
* In earlier years, claimed membership generally tended to exceed
paid-up membership considerably. 1970 appears to have been the year
when the Registrar of Trade Unions achieved most success in relating
claims to reality.
**
Some unions apparently accept these as members, since workers will
move between paid work and self-employment. There is indeed, a small
number of "mixed" organisations of workers and employers (not
included in the figures above), though their total membership is only
between 5000 and 6000.