Yes…
The trade union movement has a long and proud, but chequered, history. Not all of it glorious. Although the unions are the traditional champions of workers’ rights, it may well be the case that the unions have already lost their appeal for many of the workers they profess to represent. The figures speak for themselves: 606 delegates attended the 1930 Trades Union Congress (TUC), representing 210 different unions with a total membership of 3,744,320. Total members represented at successive annual meetings rose steadily, plateaued at 10-12,000,000 during the 1970s and have since fallen, equally steadily – small blips apart – to 6,745,909 in 2000.
