(Source: Report on the Millennium Review, 117th meeting of the ICFTU Executive Board, November 2001)

The 17^th World Congress (Durban, 2000) launched the Millennium Review to renew and re-energise the international trade union movement in the era of globalisation. The Review analysed the priorities, strategies and structures of the international trade union organisations and made recommendations for changes to meet the challenges of globalisation. The Women’s Committee took an active part in the process, setting up its own Millennium Review Group for the purpose. It made its own submission to the Executive Board in November 2001 (see Appendix).

The Report of the 2-year Review, submitted for consideration by the ICFTU Executive Board (November 2001), consisted of proposals for specific initiatives, as well as recommendations for further analysis and lines of work arising out of findings made during the Review process. These were presented under the five themes around which the Review was conducted:

1. Organising, Strengthening National Trade Unions and Resources for International Action

2. Dealing with Companies and Other Employers

3. Transforming the Global Economy

4. Constitutional and Regional Issues

5. Campaigns and Communications

Following is a summary of the recommendations which were adopted by the Executive Board:

Organising, Strengthening National Trade Unions and Resources for International Action

• While more women are joining unions than ever before, they are under-represented in membership levels and in particular in decision-making structures. Urgent and comprehensive action is needed to address this gap.
• The union movement worldwide is ageing rapidly, to the extent that the future strength of the movement is threatened. Unions need to reach out to and organise young workers, through traditional and innovative organising action.
• Organising new workers in new industries will increase membership of women, young people, migrant workers and others, increasing the diversity and representativity of the union movement.
• More coordinated international action is needed to support organizing, including through action around international chains of production, and organizing and fighting for the rights of women and men in informal, unprotected and atypical work, who are often confined to the margins of the economy and society.
• The international trade union movement must increase resources to allow unions to achieve their objectives in the global economy (it is estimated that less than 1% of all the membership dues collected by unions world-wide are dedicated to international action).

Dealing with Companies and Other Employers

The partnership between the ICFTU, ITS and TUAC has provided a new and more effective basis for international action concerning employers, especially multinationals. More cohesive and strategic common action between international, regional, national and sectoral union structures will provide the basis to secure new and stronger negotiating relationships with employers into the future.

Transforming the Global Economy

Better worldwide coordination of trade union analysis and research should be achieved, as part of a global effort to build research capacity and awareness on the global economy. Much closer linkage between international policy work, campaign action and mobilisation are needed to transform the structures and activities of the global and regional institutions, and to overcome the free-market ideology which dominates the lives of working women and men around the world.

Constitutional and Regional Issues

The ICFTU Constitution needs to be changed to reflect the changes taking place in the world of work and the trade union movement itself. Better linkages between global and regional structures are required, and efforts to achieve common ground with organisations not linked to the ICFTU should continue.

Campaigns and Communications

The union movement must intensify its international campaigning and mobilization action, with far closer connection between national and international action and much better means for developing and transition country unions to be fully involved. New approaches to union communications with members and with the public are needed to ensure that the trade union message is heard and understood in every corner of the globe.

A Common Identity for the International Trade Union Movement

There is a clear recognition of the need for a common identity for the international trade union movement. The Millennium Review report recommends the development of "Global Unions" to serve this purpose, and to provide a platform for international analysis and campaign action. Some immediate steps are proposed for developing the work of "Global Unions", including calling a meeting in early 2002 to discuss practical initiatives and collaboration.

Global Unions

“Global Unions” is a reflection of the steady process of closer co-operation among the ICFTU, the Global Union Federations and TUAC since the “partnership” was formally established at the 1996 ICFTU Congress. Global Unions provides a common identity and a platform for co-operation and joint action by its partner organisations.

The key to winning trade union identification with Global Unions, and making it “more than just a logo”, is to give substance to its role as a platform for joint action. So far, a joint web-site has been running successfully since April 2000, a number of joint statements have been issued under the Global Unions’ name and a few joint actions have been organised. The future of Global Unions also depends on greater co-operation between affiliates at national level. This could be encouraged though education work on international issues with trade union organisations in both developing and developed countries.

The State of the Unions Today

This Discussion Sheet focuses on the first theme, which dealt with the state of the unions today. Key points of the report are as follows:

• The current membership of the ICFTU, at around 156 million members (N.B. latest figure stands at 158 million – November 2002), has increased by 85% since 1982. The ICFTU is clearly the largest and most representative democratic global social movement, present in every region and dealing with issues across the spectrum of global policy.
• Nevertheless, the international trade union movement still only includes a limited fraction of the global workforce (estimated at around 3 billion workers) in its membership. Due to the continued failure of international and national policies to create decent and sustainable jobs, hundreds of millions of these unorganised workers are found in the so-called informal economy with no protection whatsoever.
• In the formal economy, the main reason for low levels of unionisation is the continued repression and violation, by governments and by employers, of the right of all workers to free and democratic trade union representation.
• Almost all of the recent growth in ICFTU membership is the result of new affiliations, with an increase of 65% in the number of affiliates since 1982 and most of these following the end of the Cold War. During the 1980’s and 1990’s total union membership in the world’s largest economies fell dramatically – around 30% or more in each of Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Many developing country unions have seen their membership decline or fail to grow, as a result of structural adjustment policies which have slashed public sector expenditure and in many cases, as a central policy objective, reduced workers’ rights. In transition countries the combination of failed economic policies and the end of the connection between union, party and government has led to large falls in numbers of recorded members.
• At a time when globalisation, coupled with the huge increase in the numbers of countries represented in ICFTU affiliation, have placed unprecedented levels of demand on the international trade union organisations, the financial base of the ICFTU has not kept pace. In real terms, the ICFTU’s income per individual member of its affiliates has declined by around 22% since 1994. Information and communications technology have enabled the ICFTU and its partners to work far more effectively than in the past, however this has by no means compensated for the underlying trend. The increasing reliance on these technologies in international trade union work has however limited the possibilities for many developing country affiliates to participate on an equal basis in the daily work of their international bodies.
• During the 1990’s, the number of individual members of the ICFTU coming from industrialised countries has increased by 11% (mainly through new affiliations), while the number from the least-developed countries increased by 111%. Almost half of the ICFTU’s total membership is now from developing countries. Thus, while tens of millions of developing country workers are now represented within the ICFTU, the Confederations’ ability to work most effectively with and for these and other union members is restricted by lack of resources.
• A great many of the daily problems confronting national union organisations are international in origin, whether due to the actions of international institutions or multinational enterprises. In many cases, this has yet to be reflected in the level of financial investment in international trade union organisations by their national affiliates, or in the degree to which international action is integrated into the work of national affiliates.
• Aside from violations of trade union rights, there are other key factors in the overall decline in union density. Privatisation has reduced total public sector employment, where union density is usually higher than in the private sector (see Appendix I - Discussion Sheet 1.1). The growth in part-time, casual and contract work has made recruiting and retaining union members more difficult. As governments around the world have deregulated and employment relationships have become more and more fragmented, “atypical” work is becoming increasingly “typical”. Technological change over a period of decades has reduced employment levels in industries where union membership has traditionally been high. Transfer of production from one country to another by multinationals seeking the cheapest possible labour, often with guarantees by “host” governments to stop workers organising (such as in free trade zones - see Discussion Sheet 1.1), have all contributed to lower levels of unionisation.
• One clear trend over the past two decades is the growing proportion of women in the trade union movement. This is attributed in part to increasing female participation in the workforce, as well as the adoption by unions of more “female friendly” policies and activities. Nevertheless, women are still under-represented in union decision-making structures and leadership positions. (see Discussion Sheets 1.4, 2.1)
• Union mergers have been put forward as one means of dealing with the problem of declining membership, and re-building membership levels has been advanced as a major driving force in many union merger processes. However most national union mergers have, for good reason, focused initially on consolidating existing membership, while organising workers in less stable and less permanent jobs has not had the same priority.
• The most significant and disturbing trend emerging from the research is the crisis in youth membership of trade unions world-wide. (See Discussion Sheet 1.8). Of the 221 affiliates of the ICFTU, only 42 provided estimates of their age composition in responses to the annual questionnaire. From these responses, an average of 9% of union members are less than 25 years old, while around 20% of the global workforce is believed to be under 25. In the UK, one of the few countries where substantial research on this question has been done, the average trade union member is aged 46 while the average worker is 34. Figures from South Africa show that union density for younger workers in 1999 was less than half that of older age groups. The available figures show that this pattern is by no means isolated to a few countries, and during the Millennium Review process many developing and industrial country affiliates have expressed their concern that the union movement in their country is ageing dramatically and rapidly.
• In a number of countries, the trade union movement itself is divided and fragmented, often along political lines. A great deal of work, particularly by the ICFTU Regional Organisations, has been done in recent years to promote unity of purpose and unified structures in the trade union movement, especially in countries where there are several ICFTU affiliates. Where the international trade union movement has a key role in supporting the building of effective and strong unions, a multiplicity of union structures can seriously restrict the effectiveness of international support.

Specific recommendations

• Continue and substantially reinforce the work of the international trade union movement on gender equality issues, and further increase the level of activity on other discrimination issues;
• Launch a “Global Unions Youth Initiative”, aimed at:

− Developing more effective and cohesive international campaigning for youth employment, education and training and other issues of particular concern to young people; and,

− Developing more effective international support to trade union recruitment and organising of young workers.

• Conduct further comprehensive international research into labour market issues, union organising approaches and trends in union membership and composition, including gender and age questions, “atypical” work, migrant workers and other specific groups. This research should aim to assist international trade union organisations to organise and retain members and increase the diversity of unions in membership and representation.