“Trade unions in transition” is a study written by Jelle Visser of the University of Amsterdam, published last autumn by theInternational Labor Organization (Oil, established in 1919 now a UN agency to which the governments and social partners of 187 countries adhere). It is a very interesting document both for the horizon of experiences over which it spreads, for the exhaustiveness of the subject and finally for the vision of possible future scenarios. When dealing with such a vast material within the limits of an article, it is more useful and appropriate not to get lost in an attempt to synthesise, but to deal with specific themes. I will therefore address in this paper a basic question for a trade union organization; unionization rate in relation to the political, economic, social and occupational contexts in which a trade union plays its essential role for the protection of workers and the solidity of the democratic order of a nation. In this regard, the Oil provides essential data (albeit - understandably - in the form of estimates).
The International Labor Organization estimates that the employed world population aged 15 years or over three billion. Of these, nearly two billion, or 61,2 percent, work in the informal economy, mostly in informal businesses or as self-employed workers, or are irregular or precarious workers in the formal sector. According to the Oil, there are 192 million people in the world unemployed again as a result of the financial crisis of 2008. But the unemployment rate is actually much higher, as official unemployment statistics underestimate the prevalence of unemployment in regions and countries without adequate unemployment insurance. In most regions, the participation rate in the labor market is in fact stagnant or declining e it has not returned to levels recorded before 2008. According to current demographic trends, 40 million people enter the job market every year. Population growth rates vary greatly by region, but by 2030, countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are projected to be home to 38 percent of the world's workforce, up from 26 percent in 1990. in these two regions are concentrated the majority of the world's poor and vulnerable workers - according to the ILO - the world average share of workers in undignified conditions will increase, unless they are carried out all over the world - and above all in these regions — major progress in improving the quality of work.
Currently, the manufacturing sector it accounts for 16 percent of total employment in upper-middle-income countries, 12 percent in lower-middle-income countries, 13 percent in developed countries, and only 6 percent in developing countries. With few exceptions, mining, quarrying and utilities account for only a small percentage of total employment as they require large amounts of capital. In 2017, the service sector it employed the largest share of the world's labor force, except in low-income developing countries, where the share of employment in services (21 percent) is much lower than that in agriculture (70 percent). In 2017, three out of four workers were employed in the service sector within developed countries.
Compared to the three billion employed people, 516 million (i.e. 17 percent) join a union. Excluding China's trade unions (and those of the Belarus need Cuba), the total number of trade union members in the world is 214 million and the union membership rate, calculate it on over 2,2 billion people employed, stands at about 10 percent. Not counting the self-employed, workers in family contexts and employers, and therefore considering a total of 1,8 billion employees (1,1 billion excluding China, Belarus and Cuba), the worldwide unionization rate is 27 percent (17 percent excluding China, Belarus and Cuba). This means that around one in ten employed persons and one in six formal workers join a trade union. Unionization rates among employees have been declining since 2000, with the largest declines recorded in developed countries and low- and middle-income countries. In the latter case, the decline is due on the one hand to a rapid increase in jobs (India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam), which outpaced the increase in trade union membership, while on the other hand to the huge loss of members in the former communist states of Asia and Eastern Europe. Developed country unions lost 14 million members between 2000 and 2008 and another 10 million between 2008 and 2017. Other groups' unions, while still declining as of 2008, gained around 11 million members since 2008. As a result, the union membership fee in developed countries it fell to 50 percent of the global total in 2017, up from 57 percent in 2000.
In addition to employees, too many self-employed, around 14,5 million in total, are union members. Many of them work in the informal sector or irregularly in formal enterprises. A large gap in unionization levels is observed between the various regions of the world. We find the two opposites on one side Northern Europe, with extremely high levels of unionisation, and on the other the Arab states of the Middle Eastwith extremely low levels. This scenario changes when the self-employed, self-employed and the informal sector are included. If so, unionization rates are below 10 percent in seven regions: the Arab states of the Middle East with their large numbers of migrant workers, East and West Africa, Central America and South Asia, southeastern and western. It should be noted that this is particularly true for the informal sector, especially in Africa, despite recent growth in membership. In Europe, which is an exception as it has i highest union rates in the world, the decline in trade union membership affected all European regions, although to varying degrees in Northern Europe. In fact, the European average has dropped from 39 percent in 2000 to 23 percent in 2017. However, this decline has slowed somewhat in recent years.
