Recruitment:One of the most serious problems facing unions is the rapid turnover of staff in some sectors. Mandate, which represents workers in the retail and bar trade, says it has to recruit 12,000 new members each year just to stand still.
Mandate national official Linda Tanham says that in some areas the union seeks to recruit new staff at the time of their induction training.
There are currently about 200,000 people employed in the retail sector and some 45,000 of these are members of Mandate.
Jack O'Connor, president of the country's largest union Siptu, says it has devoted resources to organising additional workers in recent years. This has enabled the union to grow its membership despite reduced employment in traditionally unionised sectors such as manufacturing. Siptu membership increased from 170,000 to 220,000 between 1990 and 2006. This includes some 22,000 members from overseas.
Mr O'Connor says that the rise in the absolute number of union members over recent years "muffled the alarm bells that should have been ringing about a declining share of an even more dramatic jobs growth".
He says that the issue will turn on the degree to which unions are prepared to invest seriously in organising workers.
"What is worrying me about the trend in density is that it is not worrying enough people in the trade union movement. This is not about building institutions, it is about maintaining the leverage that workers can exercise to protect their conditions."