RESEARCH NOTE: Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 1995

Abstract

This note reports our most recent survey of unions and union membership in New Zealand for the year ended 31 December 1995. It builds on our earlier surveys for the 31 December years for 1991-1994. The pattern already firmly established of declining union membership has continued with unions losing a further 13,700 members in the most recent year. This represents a decline of 3.6 percent over the number of union members at 31 December 1994. These losses occur at a time when the workforce (as measured by the Household Labour Force Survey) continues to grow and accordingly union density has fallen more sharply than has union membership itself.