A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organisation of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve 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.
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have almost 1,000,000 members of a Norwegian population of 5 million. The majority of affiliated unions organizes traditional blue collar workers, but the largest affiliate is the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees which makes up more than a third of all members. LO is affiliated to the ITUC and the ETUC.
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.
The Confederation of Professional Employees is a national trade union centre, the umbrella organisation for 12 trade unions in Sweden that organise professional and other qualified employees in both the private and the public sectors. The affiliated trade unions represent about 1.2 million employees. In 2018, the TCO affiliated unions made up 37% of all active trade union members in Sweden, making the confederation the second largest of Sweden's three major confederations. The largest TCO affiliate is Unionen with 551,000 active members in 2018. TCO is independent and not affiliated to any political party in Sweden. TCO is an affiliate of the European Trade Union Confederation and Eurocadres.
The Swedish Trade Union Confederation, commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers. The Confederation, which gathers in total about 1.5 million employees out of Sweden's 10 million people population, was founded in 1898 by blue-collar unions on the initiative of the 1897 Scandinavian Labour Congress and the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which almost exclusively was made up by trade unions. In 2019 union density of Swedish blue-collar workers was 60%, a decline by seventeen percentage points since 2006. A strongly contributing factor was the considerably raised fees to union unemployment funds in January 2007 made by the new centre-right government.
Labour unions emerged in Japan in the second half of the Meiji period, after 1890, as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization. Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by a lack of legal rights, anti-union legislation, management-organized factory councils, and political divisions between “cooperative” and radical unionists.
The Confederation of Trade Unions of Burundi is the larger of the two national trades union federations active in Burundi. It is distinct from the Trade Union Confederation of Burundi. Both the COSYBU and CSB are affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
HK Denmark, is a Danish trade union representing clerical workers, workers in retail, and in related industries.
The Danish Union of Metalworkers is a trade union in Denmark. It principally represents workers in the metal industries, but also covers telecommunications, transportation and some other sectors.
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 European Trade Union Confederation was set up in 1973 to promote the interests of working people at the European level and to represent them in the European Union institutions. It is recognized by the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the European Free Trade Association as the only representative cross-sectoral trade union organization at the European level.
The labour movement in Sweden dates back to at least the 1850s, when Swedish workers initiated the organizing of previously spontaneous food riots into strikes, hence acting as an autonomous group.
Disunited and poorly organized for most of its history, trade unions in Ecuador developed only slowly and had only a marginal political impact. Precise figures on unionization in the late 1980s were practically nonexistent, even within the unions themselves. The organized labor movement in Ecuador was divided into four confederations and a number of independent federations. At the local level, labor organizations also took the form of artisan guilds, cooperatives, and neighborhood associations. In addition to representing only a minority of the workers in all sectors of employment, the labor movement traditionally was weakened by rivalry and government repression. Nevertheless, it had influence disproportionate to its numbers as a result of the concentration of trade unions in urban areas, mainly Quito and Guayaquil, its organizational power, and the political impact of strikes and demonstrations on governments that did not enjoy strong support.
Trade Union Confederation of Burundi is the smaller of the two national trades union federations active in Burundi. It is distinct from Confederation of Trade Unions of Burundi. Both the COSYBU and CSB are affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The Danish Trade Union Confederation is the largest national trade union centre in Denmark. On formation in 2019, it had 79 affiliated unions, with a total of 1.4 million members.
Lizette Risgaard is a Danish trade union leader.
The Finance Federation is a trade union representing workers in the financial sector in Denmark.
This article discusses the history and present status of labor unions in Sudan.
