diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index 59cb790b8..8ba563677 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -7996,10 +7996,21 @@ void Tokenizer::simplifyStructDecl()
 {
     unsigned int count = 0;
 
+    // Skip simplification of unions in class definition
+    std::list<bool> skip;
+    skip.push_back(false);
+
     for (Token *tok = _tokens; tok; tok = tok->next())
     {
         Token *restart;
 
+        if (tok->str() == "{")
+            skip.push_back(!Token::Match(tok->previous(), "const|)"));
+        else if (tok->str() == "}" && !skip.empty())
+            skip.pop_back();
+        else if (!skip.empty() && skip.back() && tok->str() == "union")
+            continue;
+
         // check for named struct/union
         if (Token::Match(tok, "struct|union %type% :|{"))
         {
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index f24b80ea0..3980d2c9a 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -213,6 +213,7 @@ private:
         TEST_CASE(vardecl12);
         TEST_CASE(vardecl_stl);
         TEST_CASE(vardecl_template);
+        TEST_CASE(vardecl_union);
         TEST_CASE(volatile_variables);
         TEST_CASE(syntax_error);
         TEST_CASE(syntax_error_templates);
@@ -3536,6 +3537,13 @@ private:
         ASSERT_EQUALS(res1, tokenizeAndStringify(code1));
     }
 
+    void vardecl_union()
+    {
+        // ticket #1976
+        const char code1[] = "class Fred { public: union { int a ; int b ; } ; } ;";
+        ASSERT_EQUALS(code1, tokenizeAndStringify(code1));
+    }
+
     void vardec_static()
     {
         {