Home Secretary Alan Johnson will speak at a reception at the House of Commons to mark the decision by Connect, the union for professionals in communications, to merge with Prospect on 1 January 2010.

The Connect merger raises Prospect membership to 122,000 professionals compared with 102,000 just a year ago.

It follows similar decisions by the Association of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and the Jersey Civil Service Association, which both merged with Prospect in November 2009.

Prospect represents engineers, scientists, managers and other specialists in more than 300 private and public sector organisations. It is the largest multi-sectoral union in the UK with a key focus in energy, telecommunications and ICT, scientific research, defence, agriculture, environment and heritage.

Paul Noon, General Secretary of Prospect, will say that effective representation has been the guiding principle behind the growth of Prospect. “Almost 1,000 skilled workers sign up to join Prospect every month. They need individual and collective representation with their employer and Prospect provides it.

“All the evidence shows that our no-nonsense negotiating model is proving to be increasingly attractive to professionals working in every sector of the economy.”

Connect members will be organised in a dedicated communications sector of Prospect, designed to cater for the needs of this fast-changing industry. Leslie Manasseh, Deputy General Secretary of Prospect and Secretary to the Connect sector, will say:

“The resources that will be available in the merged union will give added weight to recruiting and organising in this very challenging sector.”