Huffington Post misleading on UNISON membership

I was struck by a report in the Huffington Post about falling membership of GMB and UNISON. The report was clearly based on the annual returns submitted by each trade union to the Certification Officer, but had used the total membership figures rather than more important figure of the number of members contributing to the general fund (i.e. the number of members in employment paying subscriptions).

Being interested in such matters (as regular readers of this blog, Sid and Doris Blogger, are well aware) I thought I would look at these more important membership figures for our trade union over the past decade or so (since the commencement of Tory austerity);

Table One: UNISON membership 2010-2021

Year	Membership (millions)	Annual percentage change
2010	1.375
2011	1.318	-4.1%
2012	1.302	-1.2%
2013	1.283	-2.7%
2014	1.270	-1.0%
2015	1.256	-1.1%
2016	1.226	-3.0%
2017	1.214	-1.0%
2018	1.205	-0.9%
2019	1.213	0.8%
2020	1.251	3.1%
2021	1.229	-1.8%

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unison-the-public-service-union-annual-returns

These figures do not tell the tale that the Huffington Post was telling. UNISON’s total membership did indeed fall between 31 December 2020 and 31 December 2021, but only the laziest journalist would describe this as a "slump in the membership" if they were aware of this historical background (which can be accessed online in a matter of minutes).

If anything these figures demonstrate a return to the gradual decline in UNISON membership which has been a feature of the period since 2010, following an increase in membership in 2019, and particularly during 2020. This might not have given a “clickbait” headline, but it would have been an accurate piece of reporting had it been reported.

As a general union organising across a number of sectors, the aggregate membership increase or decrease in UNISON in any given year will mask quite different experiences in the different sectors and regions of the trade union. However, the figures submitted to the Certification Officer are an authoritative source for our aggregate membership figures.

The real membership challenge facing UNISON in the coming period is to make UNISON membership feel relevant and important to members during the cost of living crisis. If UNISON is not seen to be fighting to defend our members standard of living, then many members may decide that their monthly subscription is one of those expenses on which they will cut back.

In fact we need to go beyond "making members feel" that UNISON is fighting to defend their standard of living, by actually fighting to defend our members standard of living. In the period since 2010, UNISON's approach has generally been one of symbolic opposition to austerity in order to recruit and retain members. Not only has this approach coincided with a dramatic fall in real pay for our members, it has also seen a 10% fall in UNISON membership.

Now is the time to lead our members in a fight for higher pay.