"Recognising a trade union" refers to collective bargaining. Reps can still represent members without recognition - and have a detailed understanding of the employee relations environment, T&C's, etc.
Obviously formal representation gives the union more influence through representing a (proportionally large) group of employees.
I believe recognition can be forced in UK if 50% of a trade group are members of a single union. A ballot with a majority in favour would also be involved however I can't remember whether that is of members only or all affected employees.
Something else to bear in mind is that a TU has no obligation to (though they may) provide representation for a matter pre-dating their membership, such as joining after an incident or redundancy announcement. My (non railway but recognised) place had an interesting example recently of two employees in the same role, one member one non-member, who were having their roles regraded, eyeing promotion. Following the union supporting the case, the member was promoted but the non-member wasn't. The non-member joined, then requested union representation to support their case.
Obviously formal representation gives the union more influence through representing a (proportionally large) group of employees.
I believe recognition can be forced in UK if 50% of a trade group are members of a single union. A ballot with a majority in favour would also be involved however I can't remember whether that is of members only or all affected employees.
Something else to bear in mind is that a TU has no obligation to (though they may) provide representation for a matter pre-dating their membership, such as joining after an incident or redundancy announcement. My (non railway but recognised) place had an interesting example recently of two employees in the same role, one member one non-member, who were having their roles regraded, eyeing promotion. Following the union supporting the case, the member was promoted but the non-member wasn't. The non-member joined, then requested union representation to support their case.
