Hard sell, door-to-door calls, commission and cut-price offers. The buzzwords of the travelling salesperson have entered the vocabulary of the trade union movement as it seeks to find new recruits.

And it is doing so by appealing to the pockets of potential and existing members.

In the not too distant future, you could find someone at your door trying to enlist you into a trade union. Alternatively, if you are already a member of SIPTU, you could be offered a pair of designer wristwatches for yourself and partner in return for recruiting new members.

Door-to-door selling has enabled American and Australian unions to increase membership for the first time in decades. And SIPTU has just signed up 2,100 new members in the past three months. Not a bad return for the cost of a batch of new watches.

But does the Irish trade union movement really need to ape the Americans or Australians? While its counterparts may face falling membership and declining influence, social partnership has brought the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to the very centre of political decision making and policy formulation.

The ICTU has also recruited an extra 25,000 members, bringing membership in the Republic to an all-time high of 590,140. But there is a darker side to the picture.

Only one new worker in five is joining a trade union and the traditional "no go" areas like small, indigenous family firms are being augmented by new ones, ranging from fast food outlets to hi-tech factories.

While congress is lobbying hard for new legislation on union recognition, its affilated unions know that nobody owes them a living. Making membership more attractive in a competitive world is part and parcel of the process of survival.

One of the pathfinders has been the Irish National Teachers Organisation. "The old days of trade unions dealing only with conditions and salaries are gone," says its general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole.

The INTO intends setting up a specialist unit for members' services shortly, but only when it is clear that it can be self-financing.

IMPACT also has a sub-committee of the executive, which vets concession schemes. It constantly reviews special deals it has already negotiated and one financial institution that did not live up to expectations has been removed from the list.

Both the INTO and IMPACT have captive memberships in the public service, where the workforce is more than 90 per cent unionised. In the private sector the figure is more like 25 per cent and unions like Mandate, which organises in the retail and bar trade, are particularly exposed.

However, Mandate has relatively few fringe benefits. The principal ones are health and car insurance cover.

The general secretary, Mr Owen Nulty, says both were introduced because members sought them. Many are casual or part-time workers who need a car to travel to work and sometimes cannot access health insurance schemes available to permanent, full-time employees.

Providing fringe benefits is "not a main plank" of Mandate policy, Mr Nulty says. "Basically we give core services and the profile of the union has been high because of recent disputes.

"People know we are actively representing casual, part-time workers." But he does not rule out the development of a member services in the future.

One private sector union that has been a trend setter is MSF. Its Irish secretary, Mr John Tierney, believes unions must use every weapon available to them to win members.

"In the United States, unions visit people's homes, but in Ireland and Britain there has been general opposition to going that far. The American is a more `in your face' model".

He says that the George Meany training centre in the US gives detailed guidelines for home visits by union organisers. For instance, it says they should limit calls to 30 or 40 minutes. They should start calls at the end of a factory shift and bring a local union activist with them.

The Irish environment is more sympathetic to unions, but Mr Tierney says that transnational companies setting up here often bring an anti-union culture with them. "There are two ways they keep us out. One is by intimidation. The other is by paying over the odds."

Some high-tech transnationals promote "an informer culture", he claims. Mr Tierney believes opportunities will emerge to recruit - even in the most hostile companies - although it may not happen on a large scale until firms have to belt tighten and unionised workplaces begin to pass them out in pay and conditions.

In the meantime it is an uphill battle. "There's a new generation coming into the workplace who get things like health cover and study leave and assume its all a natural part of the world of work. They never realise what it took to achieve these concessions."

MSF has a number of fringe benefits aimed at attracting young professionals, including an AIB affinity card and preferential interest rates on loans.

One of the most ambitious initiatives of all is being contemplated by SIPTU. It is planning to introduce a pension scheme for workers in atypical employment.

This will require co-operation from the Government and employers. But such a scheme would provide a powerful magnet for attracting members in low-paid, insecure jobs - people who are usually locked out of staff pension schemes.

SIPTU has set itself a growth target of 5 per cent a year. This would require membership increase of 10,000 in 1998.

The union's president, Mr Jimmy Somers, says unions have to become "more responsive and more proactive if they want to be valued by members. Too much of our work has been focused on yesterday."

The Amalagamated Transport and General Workers Union is part of the British Transport and General Workers Union. One unique benefit it provides is convalescent care in T&GWU homes in England and Wales, for members recovering from serious illness.

It's regional industrial organiser, Mr John Bolger says: "The days of old, when you just banged the table are over. You now have to provide as comprehensive a service as possible."

Unlike the other major unions, the Irish Nurses Organisation has no significant strike fund, but it does provide professional indemnity for members.

Another predominantly female union, the Civil and Public Service Union, has focused a lot of its fringe benefits in the health area. Besides providing cover for dental and optical treatment - not available free to civil servants because they pay reduced PRSI - it provides cancer screening.

Its general secretary, Mr Blair Horan, says the CPSU has recognised "for some time now that to remain relevant in the consumerdriven '90s we have to offer a comprehensive service".

The same mantra is repeated across the trade union movement. The terminology of fringe benefits is becoming as pervasive as that of "social partnership".

While the union strike fund is likely to remain the biggest single item on most union balance sheets, the day may not be far off when expenditure on things like membership promotions and legal services will far outstrip strike pay.