They have been slowly dying. They resist in the public sector (like the one you joined), in manufacturing (a shrinking sector in itself), and in call-centres. Everywhere else, they don’t really have a meaningful presence anymore. Part of the reason is the atomization of work in smaller and smaller companies, and temp-agencies being normalized; traditional union practices and laws struggle to fit these conditions. This is absolutely on purpose and effectively government-encouraged since the Thatcher years.
> I’ve never even heard of a union closing
They don’t “close”, they merge when membership falls below sustainable levels. You can look at the statistics on union membership to see the actual story.
I agree with everything you wrote here, when I wrote "relatively common", I meant relative to the USA. I didn't mean to imply this was the golden age of union membership in the UK at all.
They have been slowly dying. They resist in the public sector (like the one you joined), in manufacturing (a shrinking sector in itself), and in call-centres. Everywhere else, they don’t really have a meaningful presence anymore. Part of the reason is the atomization of work in smaller and smaller companies, and temp-agencies being normalized; traditional union practices and laws struggle to fit these conditions. This is absolutely on purpose and effectively government-encouraged since the Thatcher years.
> I’ve never even heard of a union closing
They don’t “close”, they merge when membership falls below sustainable levels. You can look at the statistics on union membership to see the actual story.