A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organisation of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
A national trade union center is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such as the Nordic countries, different centers exist on a sectoral basis, for example for blue collar workers and professionals.
LO, The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions was founded in 1898 and was an umbrella organisation for 18 Danish trade unions. At the end of 2018, it merged into the new Danish Trade Union Confederation.
The Cooperation Committee of the Nordic Labour Movement, better known by its abbreviation SAMAK, is an alliance of social democratic parties and labour councils in the Nordic countries. SAMAK consists of all social democratic parties and trade union organisations in the Nordic countries, including in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. The current President of the Committee as of 2021 is Jonas Gahr Støre, the leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and Prime Minister of Norway. Jan-Erik Støstad is the General Secretary, and Kjersti Stenseng is Chair of the Board.
Paula Lehtomäki is a Finnish politician. She started her political career in 1996, when she was elected to the Kuhmo town council. In 1999 she was elected to the Finnish Parliament, and again in 2003. In 2002, she was elected as the vice-chairman of Keskusta. In April 2004, she was chosen as the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, making her the youngest minister in Matti Vanhanen's first cabinet.
Unions have been compared across countries by growth and decline patterns, by violence levels, and by kinds of political activity.
Akademikerne – The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations Danish: Akademikerne was founded in 1972 and a national trade union center for 25 Danish trade unions.
FTF – Confederation of Professionals in Denmark was founded in 1952 and was one of the three national trade union centers, with about 80 Danish trade unions affiliated.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is the world's largest trade union federation.
The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common to the Nordic countries. This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level collective bargaining based on the economic foundations of social corporatism, and a commitment to private ownership within a market-based mixed economy — with Norway being a partial exception due to a large number of state-owned enterprises and state ownership in publicly listed firms.
The Ghent system is the name given to an arrangement in some countries whereby the main responsibility for welfare payments, especially unemployment benefits, is held by trade unions rather than a government agency. The system is named after the city of Ghent, Belgium, where it was first implemented. It is the predominant form of unemployment benefit in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. Belgium has a hybrid or "quasi-Ghent" system, in which the government also plays a significant role in distributing benefits. In all of the above countries, unemployment funds held by unions or labour federations are regulated and/or partly subsidised by the national government concerned.
The European social model is a concept that emerged in the discussion of economic globalization and typically contrasts the degree of employment regulation and social protection in European countries to conditions in the United States. It is commonly cited in policy debates in the European Union, including by representatives of both labour unions and employers, to connote broadly "the conviction that economic progress and social progress are inseparable" and that "[c]ompetitiveness and solidarity have both been taken into account in building a successful Europe for the future".
Ögmundur Jónasson is an Icelandic politician who has served as a member of Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, since 1995. He is currently the Chairman of the Parliament’s Constitutional and Supervisory Committee and is a representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He is the former Minister of the Interior (2011-2013); Minister of Justice and Human Rights and Minister of Transport, Communications and Local Government (2010-2011); and Minister of Health and Social Security (2009).
The Nordic countries are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland.
Kristina Persson is a Swedish politician of the Social Democrats. She served as Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Minister for Strategic Development, under Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, from October 2014 to May 2016.
The union density or union membership rate conveys the number of trade union members who are employees as a percentage of the total number of employees in a given industry or country. This is normally lower than collective agreement coverage rate, which refers to all people whose terms of work are collectively negotiated. Trade unions bargain with employers to improve pay, conditions, and decision-making in workplaces; higher rates of union density within an industry or country will generally indicate higher levels of trade union bargaining power, lower rates of density will indicate less bargaining power.
Trade unions in Norway first emerged with the efforts of Marcus Thrane and the formation of the Drammen Labour Union in 1848 which organised agricultural workers and crofters. However, with Thrane's imprisonment and the suppression of the union in 1855, it was not until 1872 before a union was founded again, by print workers. In 1899 the first national federation, the LO, was founded. During this period interactions with trade unions in Denmark and Sweden played a great influence over the development of trade unions in Norway.
