If trade unions are to reverse the membership decline sustained since 1979, more young workers must be recruited. This paper examines the views of young workers towards trade unions by reference to survey data. It argues that there is little evidence of a 'Thatcher's children' effect in which principled opposition to trade unionism is widespread. Instead the paper shows that shifts in the labour market, the effects of employer resistance to trade unionism and union inefficiencies have a marked effect on the unionisation of young workers. Throughout much of Western Europe, trade union membership is declining.Nowhere is this decline more marked than among young workers. As a consequence, the average age of trade unionists is rising, and differences between trade unionists and young workers in perception, culture and identity are widening. This 'dangerous gulf' is portrayed by senior trade unionists as bringing into question the future of trade union movements, which are dependent for renewal on the recruitment of young workers (Morris, 1986). This paper examines the linkages between young workers and trade unions in Britain by reference to survey results. It addresses the policy implications of these linkages, or their absence, and the competing explanations advanced to explain the current decline in unionisation among young workers. The paper argues that there is little ideological opposition to trade unionism among young people, but the impact of employer resistance to unions and union inefficiencies are more influential in accounting for the failure to recruit more young workers.A recent review of unionisation among young people in Western Europe showed that rates of unionisation among young people are lower than among their older counterparts and that the rate of unionisation for young people is declining more steeply than among older workers (Serrano Pascual and Waddington, 2000).

Drawing on questionnaire‐based survey data and web‐based data, this article examines the introduction of virtual branch websites within 12 branches of UNISON. The article situates e‐communications within a union communications strategy from the perspective of union members and shows how the virtual branch websites contribute to aspects of union renewal including organization and participation, union democracy and the conduct of industrial disputes.

Based on a survey of members leaving UNISON, this study suggests that more than 40,000 members leave the union every year because of their dissatisfaction with some aspect of structure, organisation or policy. This analysis identifies some of the barriers faced by unions that are attempting to promote more participative unionism in order to reduce rates of membership turnover.

In 1995 Unison implemented a National Recruitment Plan, and, in 1997, a National Organizing and Recruitment Strategy, with the objective of reversing the decline in union density in the public sector. This article traces the development of these initiatives and assesses their results. The article shows that there is limited involvement of lay representatives in the National Organizing and Recruitment Plan, but that there is a positive relationship between participation in union programmes intended to promote organizing and the performance of individual branches. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2009.

Reports a nationwide questionnaire survey of health service and local government union and non‐union workers in the same workplace carried out by NUPE to investigate what factors are influential in the choice to join or not to join a union. Results suggest financial benefits are not an incentive and show that stewards play a pivotal role in recruitment.