Unions report stable membership

A decline in union membership was registered in 2002 and 2003 but figures in the Annual Report by the Registrar of Trade Unions for 2003-2004 indicate that unions may be containing the downward trend, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Trade unions reported a stable membership level over the 12-month period preceding June 2004, when there were 86,156 members in the various trade unions.

The collective agreements deposited at the registry of the Employment and Industrial Relations Department indicate that 34.7 per cent of the collective agreements signed in 2003-2004 concerned the manufacturing sector.

In 2003-2004, most of the collective agreements were negotiated either by the General Workers' Union or the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.

The collective agreements deposited at the registry of the Employment and Industrial Relations Department in the period under review indicate that 56.9 per cent of them were negotiated by GWU and another 34.7 per cent by the UHM.

In 2003, the administrative records reported eight industrial actions, whereas six industrial actions were reported last year.

It is estimated that, in 2003, these industrial actions resulted in 3,306 of workdays lost whereas 1,652 workdays were lost due to industrial actions last year.