Unions continue to lose members: nearly 100,000 in two years

The number of union members continues to fall. This year there are 98,000 fewer than in 2019, a decrease of 6 percent, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which measures the number of members every two years.

In more than ten years, the number of union members has fallen from 1.9 million to 1.5 million. The unions had not had so few members since 1966.

“In recent years, unions have made a case for better regulation of flexible working. And that has also been adopted by employers. So you could say that despite the decreasing number of members, unions still matter,” says Niels Jansen, lecturer in employment law at the University of Amsterdam.

Older men and women in particular are members of a trade union. 22 percent of trade union members have reached state pension age. In 2019 that was still 18 percent. According to the CBS, this is because more union members remain union members after reaching the state pension age.

Didn’t think about it

In other age groups, both male and female members decreased. The National Working Conditions Survey shows that people are mainly not members of a trade union, because they have never seriously thought about it.

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