Union memberships continue to decline

Trade union membership numbers continue to fall, with the proportion of employees signed up falling to 15 per cent in August 2014, new figures show.

Trade union membership continues to decline, with just 11 per cent of private sector workers signed up.

Bureau of Statistics figures released on Tuesday show an overall fall in the percentage of trade union members from 17 per cent in August 2013, to 15 per cent a year later.

Former ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons tweeted that it was impossible to overstate the membership crisis, describing it as an "existential moment: change, & very quickly or die".