A Paragraph to Ponder

From the U.K. Prospect magazine (July 2013) - Bad Job for Britain:

"Meanwhile as trade unionism dwindled in the private sector with the disappearance of the heavy industries, and the declining size of the average workplace, the centre of gravity of British unions shifted to the public sector.  It also moved up the income and status scale.  Astonishing, 52 per cent of union members now have a degree or some other higher education qualification, compared with just 41 per cent of the workforce as a whole.  So, in their 150-year history, the unions have moved from being mainly guilds for skilled craftsmen to being mainly guilds for public sector professionals, with a phase in the middle when they also recruited poorer, less skilled workers."