The latest report by the registrar of Trade Unions, published on January 20, identifies a loss of 4,600 members in the General Workers' Unjoni between June 2007 and June 2008. The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin reports a very slight increase: but this is no cause for either celebration or complacency. Both "catch all" unions are facing declines in traditional membership. Over 9,000 union members in Malta today - out of a total national union membership of about 84,500 - are pensioners.

To the membership challenge, one cannot fail to add the organisational one. The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), Malta' oldest and third largest trade union, has, after 40 years of affiliation, formally abandoned the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions (CMTU) and instead joined the Forum of Maltese Unions (FORUM), thus becoming the latter's largest affiliate. After 50 years of a bipolar, two-way, GWU-CMTU split, tried and tested in the tense political years of 1981-84. Maltese industrial relations are now facing, for the first time in their history, a three-way split: The towering GWU (41,000 odd members); the CMTU (some 30,000, of which 90 per cent are in the UĦM) and FORUM (now with 11,000, of which 70 per cent are in the MUT). Actually, it's more like a four-way split, since the UĦM has argued for, and obtained, separate representation wherever the CMTU had a presence, including at the MCESD. FORUM now has a stronger position to lobby for its own representation, on this, and other consultative bodies. Ironically, this fragmentation follows hot on the heels of so many pious declarations in favour of a national, unitary, Trade Union Council.

Trade unions the world over are realigning themselves in the face of various fresh challenges at the workplace and its encompassing social, economic, political and cultural contexts. Foremost among these is an ever more educated and individualistic workforce, keen on flexibility and opportunity, who may not be interested in full-time, long-term employment with the same business or employer, and who is nevertheless keener to develop positive and congenial working relationships with managers and supervisors (which may be prejudiced and soured by trade union membership, let alone trade union action). It has become evermore difficult, to say the least, to appeal to age-old principles of class consciousness and class solidarity. The large manufacturing milieux which spawned and forged such a strong identity are the stuff of history: the demise of Malta Shipyards may well have been its local swansong. Trade unions have been able to articulate anger, frustrations and disappointments by those who feel impoverished, cheated, deprived or forgotten, but such episodes (certainly in Malta) have become less frequent and hardly galvanize workers to become union members. The appeal by political parties to join this or that trade union - so rampant in the late 1970s to the early 1990s - is now passé.

And yet, trade unions have had similar challenges in the past. Many argued that the emergence of labour parties, the welfare state, minimum wage legislation and other social policy measures, would all spell the death knell of unions, who would find their historic mandate stolen or made redundant.

It has not happened, and not likely to happen yet, mainly because different worker and citizen constituencies need countervailing structures to the abuse of power - whether by managers, employers or government. Sadly, this is, and remains, not a question of if, but when.

In spite of its obvious (and, to some, unpalatable) consumer market orientation, many trade unions have resorted to developing a range of services for their members as customers, not on the basis of notions of affiliation, let alone loyalty. Legal services, insurance schemes, package tours, adult and continuing education, child care, meeting space... the Workers' Memorial Building (GWU HQ) and Dar Reggie Miller (UĦM HQ) are daily abuzz with activities that appeal to a wide range of users. Such an idea is not new; the earliest unions developed out of "benevolent societies" providing such benefits as credit and loans in hard times.

But today it may be worth asking whether so many services offered by trade unions need to be largely restricted to their members. What is a trade union member anyway? Our legislation makes membership a critical factor when it comes to securing a bargaining position for the purposes of collective bargaining; and yet the power of trade unions in civil society certainly goes beyond the membership numbers game. It extends to their ability to sway public opinion at large, beyond their membership, impressive though that may be.

A second consideration is the association of trade unions with hard bargaining and employer antipathy. Of course, trade unions do, and must, dedicate some of their resources to confront what they consider to be the excesses of business and employers. And yet, various employers know deep down that the stuff of trade unionism is generally more mundane, and more cooperative. Dramatic events - notably strikes - get media attention.

The humdrum of patient and painstaking collaboration with management, especially in the private sector, does not. In matters relating to productivity, work design, discipline, recruitment, flexibility, the "management of discontent" and generally ensuring that the enterprise remains competitive and thus preserving both employment and profitability - all these features are typically under-reported and under-appreciated. This more consensual and collaborative rade union behaviour may not square with radical theories of industrial relations (which assume deep seated conflict). And yet, it is common knowledge that business decisions taken with trade union input are typically sounder, and easier to implement. Perhaps we can, and should, say the same about national decisions taken by the government?

This message needs to be better and more widely presented. It is time for the unions to help ditch the old trade union stereotype.

Comments are welcome at: gbaldacchino@upei.ca. The above article represents the author's personal views.

Mr Baldacchino is visiting professor of sociology at the University of Malta and Canada Research Chair in Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.