Eurofound’s European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) publishes a comparative report on trade union strategies to recruit new groups of workers:
Trade unions across Europe tackle declining membership and density levels head-on
(DUBLIN, IRELAND) Trade union membership and density, ie union membership as a proportion of the eligible workforce, are crucial indicators of industrial relations systems. Over the past decades, there has been a progressive erosion of trade union membership and density in many European countries. A new comparative report from Eurofound’s European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO), outlines strategies employed by trade unions to tackle these declining trends, to adapt their organisations to the changing labour market character and conditions, and to better represent the interest of a diversified workforce.
The report outlines the challenges and public debates regarding trade union membership and density levels at national levels in the 27 EU Member States and Norway, including good practice examples of successful recruitment strategies and campaigns. The public sector, including utilities such as public transport, electricity, gas and water supply, and traditional manufacturing activities still represent the core of unionised sectors. Increasingly, trade unions across Europe are improving the representativeness of other categories of workers, such as women, young people, migrants or workers in non-standard contractual arrangements, with both individual and organisational strategies, they are fighting to maintain and recruit new members.
The trend of declining trade union membership and density levels is not uniform across all EU Member States. The report identifies three main country clusters. The first cluster shows at least one positive trend, either in membership or in density levels, and includes Cyprus, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain and Norway. The second cluster includes the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden), France, Malta, Slovenia and the UK, where little movement of either membership or density levels has occurred. The third cluster regroups the eight central and eastern European countries where trade union membership and density have both decreased remarkably in recent years. Belgium is the only EU Member State with positive developments in both trade union membership and density levels.
