Women are leaving unions in droves: we need answers

[IwantToRetire]

From sexual harassment to the denial of flexible working patterns, women’s issues are sidelined and their voices silenced in our movement – and they are voting with their feet https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/women-are-leaving-unions-droves-we-need-answers

Statistics published by the Department of Business and Trade reveal that trade union membership declined by 200,000 in 2022. Women employed in the private sector account for a staggering two-thirds of this decline (129,000).Women employed by the private sector, likely to be in low-paid, part-time or precarious work, are those most in need of trade union protection — so why are so many leaving?

If the most oppressed half of the population are leaving trade unions surely this is a red flag that must be taken seriously by the entire labour and trade union movement?
Questions should be raised around these figures to ensure that working women are not reaching conclusions that unions are irrelevant, unimportant or are disinterested in their rights.

We should not permit this staggering rate of women leavers to be brushed under the carpet.

For anyone who cant access the article it has been archived at https://archive.ph

(Off topic: Interesting that when I added the Morning Star link above mumsnet did NOT link to the article and show the article title, photo etc.. Usually I find these atuomatic links quite annoying, but am now intrigued. Does mumsnet have a list of urls they never want to be linked to!)

If you want a non-political trade union Affinity covers a range of jobs including banking, teaching, civil service, university sector etc.

https://workaffinity.co.uk/

They were recommended by the Free Speech Union.

As to membeship falling from the lowest paid groups of women - I cannot believe this is so. Thinking the cost of living crisis has hit cleaners is a bit naive. They were always in a cost of living crisis, this is just a worse one, and most will never have joined. When I was a cleaner I don't remember anyone being in a union. It is far more likely women a bit further up the pay range who could have afforded being in a union a few years ago that are now leaving. And for some the striking is making their pay issue worse. I know a postie who was about to leave his union because he was fed up of loosing pay striking.

It is a very good idea for any woman to be in a union if you can afford it. It is a very bad idea to pay subs to a union, or political party for that matter, that does not have any idea what a woman actually is. The Morning Star at least has got that from the off pretty much. They get materialism. They must be right wingers!

Slightly going against the theme of the OP, have read recently of women employed in VAW groups who have through a union, achieved improved conditions.

One was a joint action by counsellors who are nearly always employed as freelance workers. But they were able to negotiate that they were employees and so got access to benefits such as sick pay, holidays etc..

2 other cases (sadly) were about bullying culture by senior staff (bost DV groups - you couldn't make it up) and although I dont think long term the structures have made this less likely to happen, the CEO of each group had to stand down. Part of this is that through funding pressures many smaller autonomous refuges have been forced to amalgamate into a bigger charity, and too often thise means that the financial turnover becomes at a level that funders then presurise the groups to employ people from big business.

And as far as I know the big business model doesn't provide a better service for women seeking support. Its just the funder cant be bothered with having to deal with small groups even though at the frontline they may be a better support for women.

Sorry, I think in the case of the 2 DV organisations, one was bullying the other was racism.

Care is one sector that could really do with unionisation. Female dominated, low pay and a shortage of workers.

I was a union member for over 40 years, senior in my branch, dealt with lots of cases and was one of the few people that managed to get workers reinstated after being sacked. I was really proud to be part of the union, and intended staying in after I retired. Then came the conference that told us all that TWAW, and that was the end. So, I contacted HQ to say that I was going to resign, and that was that. There was no way that you could argue against the rabid campaigning and nonsense spouted - in 2018 over 300 TWs were murdered, and we had to believe that. No proof -just slogans and buzzwords. So, unless things have changed, women wont be joining the mens clubs.

I joined The Association of Teachers and Lecturers because it recognised Librarians as equal professionals. Then it was amalgamated into the NEU and became very teacher focused, with support staff add ons.
I have left now. I feel sidelined, and I disagree with its TWAW stance.

Why I’m not in the union despite fervently believing in the importance of its existence.

I think there are likely a lot of reasons for women leaving and many of the will be economic. In particular I think most low paid women are less likely to feel able to use the one big weapon unions have - withdrawal of labour - because they are more likely to be trying to support children on their own and less likely to receive support from friends and family.

Nevertheless, having been a member of three unions over the course of my working life, I also think sexism by Unions will be a significant factor in making women think there is little point in being a member.

TUC survey showing sexual harassment was rampant in work places 2016, but they have done little about it in the 7 years since
https://www.lrd.org.uk/free-read/sexual-harassment-setting-our-own-union-houses-order
GMB found institutionally sexist in 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/03/gmb-union-institutionally-sexist-inquiry-finds. no significant changes reported in the 3 years since.
Royal College of Nursing (!) in 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/10/bullying-misogyny-and-sexual-culture-at-royal-college-of-nursing-inquiry-finds
TSSA Rail Union, earlier this year:
https://www.ft.com/content/d0a4886a-fc67-4bd5-a701-7a338c0ef363

Unions have a long, long history of sexism. They’ve swept a lot of it under the carpet in recent decades, but the sexism hasn’t stopped.

I had wondered whether women were leaving unions. God knows I couldn't stay in an organisation that had come out with some of the crap some of the unions have said wrt women and women's rights - I now regard some of them as actively hostile forces towards women. And many don't seem to think that's a problem. They seem like bullies.

Thanks for the link, OP.

I’ve been in various unions since I started working 25+ years ago, but left my most recent one (UNISON) last year when they really amped up on all the trans rights shit. It’s like they gleefully found a way to COMPLETELY shut women up once and for all.

No thanks.

It’s like they gleefully found a way to COMPLETELY shut women up once and for all.

100%

That hostility didn't come out of nowhere. It's just revealed a very deep seated contempt, loathing, and even rage.

I dont think they have moved with the times. They seem effective for large employers of workforces on full time contracts. They dont seem to have caught up with the era of zero hours.

I have multiple short contracts with different employers, it means things like i dont qualify for employer pension contributions because they have a threshold for joining of 10k. My union wasnt fussed about this as an issue.

Interesting thread. I do think there’s a dogmatic view of unions on here which is problematic (I don’t mean in Feminism but the rest of the site) and it is worth remembering they were traditionally set up by men, for men, and I don’t actually think that’s changed much.

DH left his union recently. They're dire on knowing what a woman is but that wasn't the tipping point for him. The tipping point was their issuing some long winded rambling statement about Palestine or Ukraine or some such, with a full-time paid union employee talking about it on the news. DH wondered why his working conditions were not great, and as it appeared that the Union couldn't focus on the job of improving his and his colleagues working conditions, rather spending time and money on issues well outside their remit, he decided his subs would be better spent feeding his family.

They also called strikes in a way which was supremely unhelpful for people in his line of work. He left the union and so was able to work on those days - he basically completely lost confidence they were acting in his best interests at all. If you're a woman I think that is multiplied many times over. They're not on our side at all.

I have a screengrab in my archive of a Trade Union conference where all the men are standing to cheer the TQ+ and one woman sitting with her arms crossed!

The overt politicisation of unions is also highly problematic.

Two issues recently here in Scotland - first BECTU effectively causing the bankruptcy of a music festival after calling for a boycott:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/03/doune-the-rabbit-hole-2020/

And secondly a small union (that some have said isn't really a union strictly speaking, but claims the title) causing the closure of a cafe/bar in the Centre for Contemporary Art, leading to job losses. I don't know all the ins and outs, but it certainly doesn't sound like supporting workers to me:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/23471460.glasgow-cca-saramago-cafe-bar-close-good-following-pay-dispute/

None of the links suggest any Union activity that isn't in keeping with their purpose.

Of course unions are political, their entire purpose is to change policies on worker pay and conditions. That occasionally they would miscalculate (or come up against an employer whose business model doesn't work well enough to treat workers well or who would rather sink a business than pay more fairly) will occasionally happen. That doesn't make them overly political.

They're overtly anti business. That's not going to work for workers. They've lost people jobs.

Nothing you've linked to shows them as anti-business. They are, generally, anti-business not providing decent working conditions. And they have, from time to time, held fast to demands that ultimately can't be supported by the some employers. But the vast majority of Union negotiations do not shut businesses down. They do, however, seem to correlate, in general, to higher pay for workers.

This is why I left.

I mean very specifically these two unions, I'm not speaking about unions in general.

And yes, these links are just two brief snapshots of what happened in both situations, both of which played out over months and have been very messy, with various posts and so on on social media.

BECTU seem to have a particular issue with Craig Murray, who is a journalist who was jailed by the Scottish government. (A huge miscarriage of justice). But again, linked to a whole long standing internecine political mess specifically within Scotland, specifically within the arts scene, encompassing very long standing funding decisions etc.

The other union has explicitly said they are anti capitalist and 'anti boss', iirc.

As an academia bod, my union would be UCU. However, I wouldn’t touch them with someone else’s bargepole.

Obviously there’s the Kathleen Stock issue and how they showed that they would throw a woman under the gender identity bus, plus their moves to introduce anti-GC policies.

But I also cannot be doing with their bloody whinging. Our pensions are amazing and, while University life is not the land of milk and honey (I absolutely take their point about the insecurity of short term contracts), and nor should we accept a race to the bottom, the “outside world” is a very different place. I worked in industry for years with no pay rises and shit pensions plus the expectation of long working hours and as for the board caring what staff thought? Forget it. Whining that pay rises won’t exceed inflation rates or navel gazing that what we’ve got isn’t good enough is so out of touch I hardly know where to start.

This.

Same re: gender ideology, Palestine etc. I did briefly join the union when I started in the civil service more than 20 years ago, but left very quickly when they actually argued my grade out of a consolidated uplift. Unfortunately the union reps in that dept were quite aggressive and didn't strike me as the brightest tools in the box; the last people I'd have wanted to involve if I'd had an employment issue.

I was in NEU for a while, but grudgingly, because I'd originally joined ATL and they took it over. When I needed their help (complicated maternity/contractual situation) they weren't very useful. Then I came across Edapt and joined them instead - they're not a union as apolitical but they pay all their staff and they have proper legal training. I'd never go back.