Trade Union in Europe
In this blog I want to briefly explain the concept of a trade union and the presence of this characteristic matter across Europe. The basic concept of a trade union is “an organization of workers who have united to achieve common goals” such as better working conditions, the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies; but actually an union entails a lot more than what meets the eyes, there are more aspects that are affected with this practices.
After the second world war specifically after the fall of the Iron curtain in 1989, the unionization movement in Europe has declined substantially due to the different European policies that have been established in order to benefit the workers and ensure a healthy and well constituted environment in which the people working can carry out their tasks and be reattributed for them. The statistics show that “three out of every four people employed in the EU are now not members of a trade union. Furthermore, in every EU country outside Scandinavia (except Belgium), trade union membership is either static or continues to decline”.
Even though the trade union percentage has declined there are still some countries in Europe that have a highly unionized population such as “The three Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden and Finland are at the top of the table with around 70% of all employees in unions. In part this is because, as in Belgium – which also has above average levels of union density – unemployment and other social benefits are normally paid out through the union”
In conclusion the trade Unions across Europe have decline in a large part thanks to industrial restructuring, but as we all know this phenomenon is still out there, and there are some countries where the trade unions still have a relevant role.
References
http://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Across-Europe/Trade-Unions2
In this blog I want to briefly explain the concept of a trade union and the presence of this characteristic matter across Europe. The basic concept of a trade union is “an organization of workers who have united to achieve common goals” such as better working conditions, the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies; but actually an union entails a lot more than what meets the eyes, there are more aspects that are affected with this practices.
After the second world war specifically after the fall of the Iron curtain in 1989, the unionization movement in Europe has declined substantially due to the different European policies that have been established in order to benefit the workers and ensure a healthy and well constituted environment in which the people working can carry out their tasks and be reattributed for them. The statistics show that “three out of every four people employed in the EU are now not members of a trade union. Furthermore, in every EU country outside Scandinavia (except Belgium), trade union membership is either static or continues to decline”.
Even though the trade union percentage has declined there are still some countries in Europe that have a highly unionized population such as “The three Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden and Finland are at the top of the table with around 70% of all employees in unions. In part this is because, as in Belgium – which also has above average levels of union density – unemployment and other social benefits are normally paid out through the union”
In conclusion the trade Unions across Europe have decline in a large part thanks to industrial restructuring, but as we all know this phenomenon is still out there, and there are some countries where the trade unions still have a relevant role.
References
http://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Across-Europe/Trade-Unions2
http://liammacuaid.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/civil-rights-march-cut.jpg
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