TRADE unionists have every reason to welcome the new Employment Rights Act 2025. After years of anti-union legislation, restrictions on industrial action and attacks on workplace rights, measures that strengthen workers’ protections represent a significant shift in the political landscape.

But while legislative change is important, it would be a serious mistake for the trade union movement to believe that Parliament can solve the challenges facing organised labour.

The truth is that unions face an existential crisis that cannot be legislated away.

Across much of the private sector, union membership remains stubbornly low. Millions of workers have never belonged to a union, have never met a workplace representative and have never experienced collective bargaining.

Entire sectors of the economy operate with little or no meaningful trade union presence. In logistics, hospitality, social care, retail and the growing gig economy, many workers face insecurity, low pay and poor conditions while unions struggle to establish a foothold.

At the same time, even within the public sector — traditionally the strongest base of organised labour — there are warning signs that should concern every trade union activist. Recent polling has shown significant support for both the Conservatives and Reform UK among public-sector workers represented by trade unions. Whatever our political views, this should serve as a wake-up call.

Trade union membership does not automatically translate into trade union consciousness.

If workers do not see unions delivering tangible improvements in their working lives, if they do not feel connected to workplace organisation, and if union activity is reduced to servicing rather than organising, then we should not be surprised when frustration finds expression elsewhere.

For too long, many unions have become increasingly dependent on institutional influence, legal protections and national negotiations. These things matter, but they are not substitutes for workplace power.

The history of our movement teaches a simple lesson: rights are rarely handed down from above. They are won from below through collective organisation.

Trade union rights exist today because generations of workers organised, recruited, educated and fought for them. That lesson remains just as relevant in 2026 as it was in 1926.

The Employment Rights Act can provide unions with better tools. It can improve access rights, strengthen protections for representatives and make organising easier. But tools do not build organisation on their own.

A union organiser with legal rights but no members remains powerless. A workplace with recognised collective bargaining but no active representatives will struggle to defend workers’ interests. Legislation can create opportunities, but only workers themselves can build power.

This is why the labour movement must place recruitment and organising at the centre of its strategy.

Every union should be asking difficult questions. How much resource is devoted to recruiting new members compared with servicing existing ones? How many activists are being developed in non-union workplaces? How many organising campaigns are being launched in sectors where union density remains low? How often do unions work together to avoid duplication and maximise their collective strength?

No single union can reverse decades of decline alone.

The challenges facing workers increasingly cut across traditional industrial boundaries. The growth of outsourced work, fragmented supply chains and platform-based employment means that unions must become better at collaborating. Organising drives should not be viewed as competitions between unions but as opportunities to expand the collective strength of the movement as a whole.

Where one union has experience, resources or workplace access, that knowledge should be shared. Where workers move between sectors and employers, unions should co-operate to maintain organisation. Where new workplaces are being targeted, unions should support one another rather than operate in isolation.

The movement grows stronger when unions recruit workers into trade unionism, not simply into individual organisations.

None of this means abandoning political campaigning. Winning legislative reforms remains important. Anti-union laws still need to be repealed. Employment rights still need to be strengthened. Governments matter.

But governments come and go.

A change in administration can weaken or reverse legal gains. Workplace organisation, however, creates a power base that cannot be removed by the stroke of a minister’s pen.

The trade union movement should therefore view the Employment Rights Act not as a destination but as a starting point. It provides an opportunity to rebuild workplace organisation, particularly in the private sector where the need is greatest.

If we fail to seize that opportunity, no amount of favourable legislation will reverse the long-term decline in union density. If we succeed, legislative reform will be reinforced by something far more powerful: organised workers acting collectively in their own interests.

The future of trade unionism will not be secured in Westminster alone. It will be secured in workplaces, delivery offices, warehouses, factories, shops, call centres and depots across the country.

The task before us is the same one that built our movement in the first place: recruit, organise and empower workers. Everything else depends upon it.