Critical discussion of contemporary British trade unions, informed by cutting edge research into understanding the complexity of union identities and the role of niche unionism.  Whilst media and politicians often refer to 'the unions' as if they were homogeneous, even the most rudimentary exploration of union names reveals that unions actually project extremely diverse identities. It develops a new approach to understanding unions based on their projected identities through the application of a new multi-dimensional framework of analysis. The framework allows individual unions to be plotted against the sources of union identity derived from systematic observation of unions' observable characteristics.