Union numbers decrease

UNION membership has continued to decrease as more employees find its relevance in the commercial world declining, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics report Australian Social Trends 2000.

In 1999, 26 per cent of employees were members of a trade union, compared with 51 per cent in 1976.

The ABS report said that a major catalyst for the drop

was an increase in the number of jobs within the service

industry and in numbers of part-time or casual jobs.

“The amalgamation of unions that took place in the 1990s may have also hastened the decline in union membership,” the report said.

The number of separate unions fell from 295 in June 1990 to 132 in June 1996.