Are trade unions dead?

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The new International Trade Union Confederation hopes not: it has just held its inaugural conference in Vienna. It claims to bring together 306 affiliated organisations in 154 countries, which contain nearly 170 million trade unionists.

The ITUC charter speaks of “humanising globalisation” and “exerting more influence on companies, governments and international trade and financial institutions.” The Confederation will have its work cut out. Almost everywhere in the developed world, union membership has dwindled in the past 25 years thanks to competitive labour markets, anti-union governments, the emergence of new industries and downward pressure on wages, especially at the lower end of the scale. There are a few exceptions in Scandinavia, while in Spain union membership has grown, if only from a small base. But elsewhere, the processes of globalisation and liberalisation have sapped the power of organised labour, and reversing them will be difficult in the extreme.

The ITUC certainly cannot restore the power of labour on its own; even national unions are in no position to do that. But perhaps a globalised economy will give birth to a globalised trade union movement – especially at a time when many (especially workers and thus potential trade unionists) are questioning the virtues of capitalism without frontiers?

If so, the ITUC will have to challenge the policies of governments, cartels and firms rather than exercise discrete influence through the ILO. This is a tall order. Trade unions might not be a thing of the past, but they will have to re-invent themselves if they are to empower the world’s labouring masses.