State of the unions (2): Union membership is in long-term decline

As a local government employee, the main gripes I pick up on about unions is their underlying political agenda. Cuts, outsourcing & contract changes imposed by Labour were meekly ignored whilst they're suddenly militant about Tory cuts.
I think most employees want to see their union spending time and effort on employment issues, but public sector unions seem to think their purpose is act as rabble-rousers for the a Labour party that's as aloof from the man in the workplace as it's ever been.
In local government, the dogmatic union-backed equal-pay initiative (which was widely seen as a levelling-down exercise) cost Unison in particular a lot of members.

Thank you for this extremely interesting comment, Chris.

It's interesting to hear that some local government employees are put off union membership as a direct result of the "underlying political agenda" of the unions.

How widespread do you think this perception is?

And what do you think would be the most effective way for unions to counter the perception that you mention here?

It's my personal view, but one I've heard from numerous colleagues too.
I think unions could counter it by focussing on employment issues firstly and if there are wider strategic issues affecting their members these should be secondary. Any other non-employment related work they do should be dropped.
The march in London in March was very well attended primarily because it tackled an employment issue - pensions.
I suspect the march taking place in the same location later this month will be nowhere near as big - primarily because it's just attacking the Govt rather than any particular employment-related issue.
It's not that I'm against protesting against government policies - I've done so myself several times - it's because I don't think that trade unions are the vehicle to do so - they're being used as such because the Labour party couldn't muster anything more than a laughing stock under their own banner.

Thank you for providing such an extensive and interesting response, Chris - it is very much appreciated!

It will be extremely interesting to see how the union event on 20 October measures up to the one from earlier this year.

Employers are able to engage directly with employee representatives in non-unionised partnership agreements; not only on employment issues, but wider business strategy in an atmosphere of trust. For example, looking at growth forecasts together ensures that employees get a fair deal, without undermining the long term stability of the business. The decline of unions has been accompanied by an increase in such non-unionised employee partnership arrangements in mid-size to large businesses. We are likely to see an increase in these types of arrangements as unions decline further.

A wider issue is the disengagement of union members which undermines the mandate and credibility of union leaders. For example where union leaders are able to take industrial action based on 70% of their members not bothering to take part in ballots. This only reinforces the view that most action and protest is driven by political ideology, which is a shame given the good work done by some of the smaller unions.

Thank you for taking the time to compose and share this excellent comment, Chris.

Do you have any views as to how the unions could or should go about countering the "disengagement" of their members?

And yes, it will be very interesting indeed to track the "increase in [...] non-unionised employee partnership arrangements in mid-size to large businesses."