Trade Unions

Union density

In looking at union strength, a key starting point is the level of union density, defined as the proportion of employees who are union members. In some countries union density figures are collected as part of broader labour market surveys. In others there are derived from the membership figures produced by the unions themselves. The density figures, particularly where they come from union membership records, are not always precise, either because the unions themselves do not publish detailed figures or because the published figures include a proportion of union members who are not employees. In some cases these members are pensioners, in some cases students and in some cases the unemployed. However, estimates are included for each country and are set out in the table.

The figures¹ make clear the great variety of levels of union membership, ranging from 74% of employees in Finland and 71% in Sweden to 9% in Lithuania and 8% in France. However, it must at once be noted that union membership is not the only indicator of strength. In Spain, for example, support for the unions is shown by the large number of votes they receive in works council elections, and in France the unions have repeatedly shown that despite low levels of membership they are able to mobilise workers in mass strikes and demonstrations to great effect.

The average level of union membership across the whole of the European Union, weighted by the numbers employed in the different member states, is 23%. The average is held down by relatively low levels of membership in some of the larger EU states, Germany with 19%, France with 8%, and Spain with 16% and Poland with 15%. The three smallest states, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta, have levels well above the average.

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, although recent changes in the Swedish system of unemployment benefit have had a negative impact on union membership. However, high union density in the Nordic countries also reflects an approach that sees union membership as a natural part of employment, as shown by the relatively high proportion of employees – around 53% – who are union members in Norway, where unemployment benefits are not paid through the unions.

Elsewhere unions have to face a more hostile climate and this is evident in some of the newer EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe, which generally have below average levels of union membership. Eight of the 10 states in this position have union density levels below the EU average, including the largest, Poland, where 16% of employees are estimated to be union members. Only Slovenia, with union membership at 30% of employees, and Romania, where union density has been estimated at 33%, although union sources put it at around 50%, are in the top half of the table.

However, if the levels of union membership are very varied, the direction in which they are moving is less so. Only eight states out of the 27 EU states plus Norway – Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway and Spain – have seen a gain in union members among the employed in recent years, and in most of these countries, this growth has not kept pace with the overall growth in employment, meaning that union density has drifted downwards. The two exceptions appear to be Ireland and Italy. In Ireland union membership was gradually increasing until 2008, although it fell because of the economic crisis in 2009. However, overall employment, which had previously been rising faster fell more rapidly, so union density rose in Ireland from 32% to 34% between 2007 and 2009. In Italy union numbers continued to rise, even as overall employment fell, leading to an increase in union density in 2010.

In the rest of the EU overall union membership has fallen. The losses are clearest in the states in Central and Eastern Europe, where industrial restructuring and a fundamental change in the role of unions has had a major impact. But there have also been major membership declines in the countries of Western Europe. In Germany, for example, the main union confederation, the DGB, has lost 48% of its membership since its peak in 1991, although the greatest losses were in the former East Germany. Similarly in Portugal, unions have lost members, although the figures are less precise. In the UK, where unions suffered major losses in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, membership numbers have more or less stabilised, although there has been a fall in union density.

The main reason why the membership figures for UK unions have been better in recent years has been the growth in employment in the public sector, where unions are stronger. Higher union density in the public than in the private sector is a common factor across much of Europe both east and west. In France, for example, official figures covering the period 2001 to 2005 show that 15.2% of those directly employed by the state were in unions, compared with only 5.0% in the private sector. ² In Poland, a survey in 2008 found that union membership was highest at 25% in education, science and health, which are largely in the public sector.³ Similarly in Sweden, the highest level of union membership is in part of the public sector, local and regional government, which has a density of 85% for non-manual and 83% for manual workers – while the lowest level of membership is in part of private services, retail and wholesale distribution, where density is 59% for manual and 57% for non-manual workers.⁴ In the Netherlands union density is highest in public administration – at 36%, while in hotels and catering it is only 11% (figures for 2009).⁵

There is greater divergence in the proportion of men and women in unions, although these figures are not available for most countries and reflect a range of factors including the extent of part-time working and the sectors in which women and men are employed. In Spain, for example, a 2007 government survey found that men – with a union density of 21.7% – were more likely than women – at 16.7% – to be in unions, although the gap between the two is narrowing.⁶ In contrast in Sweden, the LO survey referred to above found union density was higher among women – at 74% – than among men – at 69%.

Union structures

Union confederations, the peak structures of unions at national level, are organised in many different ways in the EU.

There are only five states where there is a single union confederation for all, or almost all, union members. These are Austria, Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia and the UK, although something very close to this pattern is found in both Germany and Greece. In Germany, as well as the dominant DGB, there is another confederation – the DBB – organising substantial numbers of public sector workers, and a much smaller Christian confederation. In Greece, one confederation – GSEE – organises the private sector, while another – ADEDY – organises the public sector.

In five states in Northern Europe, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and, to a lesser extent Estonia, divisions between the confederations are on occupational/educational lines, with different confederations organising manual workers, non-manual workers and those with a graduate-level education (only manual and non-manual in Estonia where the division is in any case not absolute).

The commonest pattern is where there are several confederations, whose rivalry at least initially was political or religious. This is the position in 16 countries, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

However, the basis for the division between rival confederations varies in different parts of Europe. In Western Europe and the Mediterranean island states, the fault line runs between confederations whose differences in some cases emerged during the Cold War and in some cases go back much further. This is the case, for example, in Belgium, France, Italy, and Portugal, as well as in Cyprus and Malta, although in most of these countries the political connections that led to the initial antagonism have weakened over time. In Central and Eastern Europe, one of the key divisions is between the confederations that emerged from the reformed official trade union structure of the Communist period, like KNSB in Bulgaria or OPZZ in Poland, and those whose creation grew from opposition to the then government – Podkrepa in Bulgaria and NSZZ Solidarność in Poland.

There are also other complexities. In Italy, Spain and Luxembourg, there are important groups of trade unionists in specific industry-based confederations – in the finance sector in Italy, in public administration in Spain, and in both finance and public administration in Luxembourg. In Slovenia and Hungary union confederations divide along both political and industrial lines. In the Netherlands as well as the FNV, which resulted from a merger of socialist and catholic confederations, and the CNV, which comes from the protestant tradition, there is a third confederation, the MHP, which was originally set up to represent more senior staff. In Spain there are important union confederations, which are purely regionally based, reflecting a demand for greater autonomy and, sometimes, independence.

There has been little indication that these organisational divisions will disappear in the near future. Attempts, in both Romania and Lithuania in 2007, to form new alliances between union confederations, with the possibility of an eventual merger have not produced results, and discussions on a merger between CFE-CGC and UNSA in France in 2008 and early 2009 also failed to reach agreement.

In contrast, within confederations there has been an ongoing tendency for individual unions to merge. Some of the largest unions in Europe are direct products of mergers over the last 10 years. They include Verdi – now the second largest union in Germany, which was formed in 2001, Fagforbundet – the largest union in Norway, formed in 2003, 3F – the largest union in Denmark, formed in 2005, Unite – the largest union in the UK, created in 2007, and Unionen – the second largest union in Sweden, which came into being in 2008. More recently, PRO-GE, the second largest union in Austria, was the result of a merger in 2009.

However, experience in Finland, where two separate mergers in 2009 and 2010 failed to go through as planned, with only some of the unions involved finally agreeing to merge, indicates the potential problems involved in bringing unions together.

In any case, in some countries, the structure is not based on strong individual unions operating through branches at local level – the situation in Germany and the UK for example. Instead the basic unit is the individual workplace union which then joins with other similar bodies to form industry federations or regional union groupings, which in turn affiliate to the confederations. Examples of this include the unions in Poland, other than Solidarność, as well as France, Romania, Portugal and Greece.