4. Organising in the recession

Amidst the challenges that unions will face during the economic downturn there exists an opportunity. An opportunity to talk up trade unions and to speak about and demonstrate how workers can and do benefit from the presence of a strong collective voice in their workplace and beyond.

Whilst many of the factors that will shape the environment within which unions will be operating over the next few years may be beyond their immediate control, there are steps that unions can take themselves to make the most of these opportunities.

These include making sure that density in workplaces where unions are recognised by the employer are as high as possible, taking steps to reverse the decline in the lay representative base and as vigorously as possible making the case for unions talking up union successes and promoting the broad range of work that unions do with and on behalf of workers.