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6th November 2008
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Page 41, 6th November 2008 — HOW MANY?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

It is difficult to be sure of the proportion of drivers that are members of a union

A uthoritative figures on trade union membership in haulage are difficult to come by, but URTU's Bob Monks estimates

that 20% of drivers have joined a union of one sort or another URTU itself has 15,000 members, a figure that has remained steady in recent years, with around 1,500 joining but the same number leaving — usually because they retire, lose their job or leave the industry.

Monks' 20% estimate is based on a number of figures. There are around 750,000 HGV licences held in the UK, but some of these are not utilised (including Monks' own, for example). There are between 400,000 and 500,000 HGVs licensed, but some of them are double-manned, so Monks believes we have somewhere between 550,000 and 600,000 working truck

drivers. It is 20% of this figure that he believes pay dues to one union or another.

He adds that public sector workers are more likely to be in a union than those in the private sector, where he estimates that union membership is more likely to be "somewhere in the teens" in percentage terms. In other words, fewer than one in five of the drivers you see behind the wheel of a truck is likely to be a union member.

Unite's Ron Webb puts the percentage slightly higher, particularly if van drivers are included. Unite estimates it has 180,000 driver members in the road transport industry as a whole, including both hire-or-reward and own-account hauliers, making it by some margin the largest union in the sector.

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People: Bob Monks, Ron Webb

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