Comments on: For Gen Y, trade unions should be a springboard not a safety net https://leftfootforward.org/2016/10/for-gen-y-trade-unions-should-be-a-springboard-not-a-safety-net/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Mon, 10 Oct 2016 08:32:15 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 By: Trade unions must offer more than nostalgia – how can they move forward? | Left Foot Forward https://leftfootforward.org/2016/10/for-gen-y-trade-unions-should-be-a-springboard-not-a-safety-net/#comment-835889 Mon, 10 Oct 2016 08:32:15 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=115589#comment-835889 […] See also: For Gen Y, trade unions should be a springboard not a safety net […]

]]> By: Denis Lenihan https://leftfootforward.org/2016/10/for-gen-y-trade-unions-should-be-a-springboard-not-a-safety-net/#comment-834989 Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:09:13 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=115589#comment-834989 Indeed there are many reasons why trade union membership is decreasing at the moment – the nature of the labour market, employer and government hostility, the raft of anti-trade union legislation and so on, and no doubt the outlook of young people is another element.

But young people have never been more in need of union representation and it also true that the reason given by many non-union members for they not being in a union is that they have never been asked!

Also it is, and has been, common for young people in transient and temporary employment to not join unions until they become more established in a role or career.

The trade union movement must do more though to reach out to young people and they should consider all means to do so – free membership might be an introductory measure for example.
It is not true though that trade unions are an irrelevance in the Private Sector either as evident by the high density in industries such as car-manufacturing, energy, defence and retail.

]]> By: CR https://leftfootforward.org/2016/10/for-gen-y-trade-unions-should-be-a-springboard-not-a-safety-net/#comment-834927 Fri, 07 Oct 2016 08:47:03 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=115589#comment-834927 Trade Unions have become an irrelevance in the Private Sector.

]]> By: Imran Khan https://leftfootforward.org/2016/10/for-gen-y-trade-unions-should-be-a-springboard-not-a-safety-net/#comment-834916 Fri, 07 Oct 2016 07:42:35 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=115589#comment-834916 A good analysis Chris and in keeping with what I find on my daily round of journalism and interviewing people. I don’t have the figures but the drop in union membership over the last fifty years is indicative of the changes in society and societal attitudes. That membership is now almost entirely confined to the public sector and declining there as well with outsourcing and self employment through agencies. The antics of the rail and tube unions are more nails in the TU coffin.

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