Trade unions of the world, 2001, 5th ed.

Book abstract:

The first edition of 'Trade Unions of the World' was published in 1987. Since then, the world trade union movement has experienced more wide-ranging and fundamental change than at any time since the 1940s. Globally there has been a major expansion of trade unionism free from state control, precipitated by the break-up of the official trade unions in much of the former Soviet bloc as well as the movement to increased pluralism in many African and Latin American countries. In many of the developed countries of the Western world, however, unions have lost members with the shedding of blue-collar jobs in older manufacturing industries, and have found it difficult to establish a foothold in high-growth private sector services.

This volume covers the impact of these changes and others country-by-country, looking at every independent nation in the world, including approximately fifty European countries. Pan-European trade unions or confederations are also covered. The length of each country entry broadly reflects the scale, level of development and political and economic influence of its domestic trade union movement. For each country entry an introductory section provides outline data on the national political and economic context within which the trade unions operate. This is followed by an overview of the history, structure, scale and influence of the trade union movement. A third section describes the various trade union centres, including detailed information on affiliates for some countries where the trade union movement is highly developed. Finally, where there are major organisations standing outside the principal trade union centre these are described in a further section.

At the back of the book is a useful index of trade union acronyms.