TRADE UNIONS.

For much of the twentieth century the outstanding feature of trade union movements in most European countries was their fragmented character. There were religious, ideological, and nationality divisions. Trade unionism flourished in boom conditions, whether in wartime or during upswings in the international economy. They lost members and influence during economic recessions and wherever state power was directed against them.

BEFORE THE OUTBREAK OF WAR

In 1914 trade unionism was strongest in the countries that had industrialized early and had large urban labor forces. It was weakest in the more agrarian societies, including those of northern and southeastern Europe such as Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Romania, and the small states later to form Yugoslavia.

In Britain, where a significant level of trade unionism had existed before the onset of industrialization in the late eighteenth century, there were 4,117,000 trade unionists in 1914, a trade union density of 24.7 percent (trade union density is the proportion of trade union members within the workforce who can legally join a union). Of these, only 436,000 were female, a density of 8.6 percent. Membership was relatively strong in coal mining, textiles, metals and engineering, printing, transport, glass, gas, and postal services but weak in agriculture, clerical work, food and drink, distribution, and clothing.

For skilled workers in Britain a major part of the appeal of trade unions had long been the medical, unemployment, and other benefits. Paying for such benefits through unions or friendly societies was an important element of what distinguished "respectable" working people from others. When the 1911 National Insurance Act allowed trade unions to administer benefits, it gave a boost to membership for a few unions, notably the Shop Assistants and the Railway Servants.

Trade unionism was also relatively strong in Germany, where it had grown quickly from a density of only 5 percent at the start of the twentieth century. In 1914 there were 2,436,000 members, a union density of 13 percent (excluding the 759,200 members in the nonindependent salaried employee associations). Members were divided between the free trade unions (81 percent), the Christian trade unions (12 percent), and the Hirsch-Duncker unions formed to provide education and mutual aid (3 percent). At the local level there were also divisions by ethnicity: for instance, Polish miners had a separate organization. Such divisions also existed in many other countries of continental Europe.

France also had a large trade union movement. Centered on the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), founded in 1895, membership before World War I peaked at an estimated 1,064,000 in 1912. Catholic unions, which also existed in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, dated back to 1887 in France, whose first national Catholic union formed in 1913. Catholic trade unions had developed relatively late in Italy, most from the start of the century; by 1910 the country had 374 local trade union organizations and a membership of 104,600 (54 percent adult men, 36 percent adult women, and 10 percent minors). These, along with the Revolutionary Syndicalists (who claimed a prewar peak membership of 200,000, an inflated figure) and white-collar workers, were outside the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGL), which in 1913 represented 327,312 workers. In tsarist Russia the formation of trade unions had been permitted after the 1905 revolution, but they were very restricted in their activities, confining themselves primarily to welfare issues. In 1907 there were some 245,000 members, but the numbers dwindled by 1910, then revived from 1912 onward.

Trade unionism was well established in Scandinavia. By 1914 trade union membership in Denmark was at 156,200, a density of 23.1 percent. In 1911, 16.2 percent of manual workers and 11.2 percent of white-collar workers were unionized. In Sweden membership had reached 159,100, a density of 9.9 percent, by 1914; four-fifths of these trade unionists were in mining, manufacturing, transport, and communications. In Norway by the same year, trade union membership had reached 67,600, a density of roughly 11 percent.

WORLD WAR I AND THE POSTWAR PERIOD

World War I and the postwar boom gave European trade unions a massive boost. In the belligerent countries, millions of men were taken out of the labor markets to serve in the armed forces. By the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, some 15.3 million men had been mobilized in Russia. By the end of the war, Germany had enlisted 11.1 million men, Austria-Hungary 7.8 million, France 8.3 million, Britain 5.7 million, and Italy 5.0 million. These were large portions of the fit male population of these countries. In Britain, for instance, nearly 40 percent of the fit male labor force (that is, excluding young boys and the elderly) served in the military. Given the near unquenchable demand for workers, labor was in a potentially strong bargaining position, though this potential was limited by two factors. Many patriotic working people were willing to increase output for the war effort without substantial additional compensation in spite of inflation, and the state assumed additional wartime powers backed by the courts and ultimately by the armed forces. Strikes were banned and there were controls on the labor market. In Britain, for instance, the Munitions of War Act, 1915, not only prohibited strikes and lockouts but also severely restricted labor mobility, enforced rigorous codes of conduct in controlled workplaces with munitions tribunals (special courts), and suspended the trade unions' restrictive practices (which were intended to protect the interests of skilled male labor).

The governments of the belligerent countries needed the support of organized labor. In Germany the old bans on public sector workers joining trade unions were lifted and the imperial government consulted trade union leaders on some issues. In Britain, the leading trade unionist, Arthur Henderson, a member of Parliament, entered the coalition governments of H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George from 1915 until 1917, when he was replaced by another trade unionist. In Britain and Germany, the governments also pressed employers to recognize the trade unions, at least in war industries.

In several countries, trade unionism grew markedly in spite of the depletion of the civilian labor force. In Britain growth came in sectors that had been weakly organized prior to that time and also in areas of strength. By the end of 1918 trade union membership as a whole had risen by 57 percent to a total of 6,461,000 (a density of 38.1 percent); female membership rose by 171 percent to 1,182,000 (a density of 22.8 percent). This growth continued in the postwar boom, with membership peaking at 8,253,000 (a density of 48.2 percent) in 1920, a density not surpassed until 1974. Female trade union membership also peaked in Britain in 1920, at 1,316,000, a density of 25.2 percent, not equaled again until 1961. In France membership in the General Confederation of Labor rose from 0.3 to 1.5 million between 1914 and 1919.

The Scandinavian countries also experienced large increases in membership. In Denmark total trade union membership rose from 138,900, a density of 15.3 percent, in 1911 to 321,000, a density of 39.8 percent, in 1921. In Norway membership in the Norwegian Federation of Labor more than doubled between 1914 and 1919 (from 67,600 to 143,900), with the total union density rising from 7.6 to 20.3 percent between 1910 and 1920. Similarly, in Sweden, total union membership rose rapidly, from 159,100 (a density of 9.9 percent) in 1914 to 350,200 (20.6 percent) in 1918 and to 470,600 (27.7 percent) in 1920.

In Germany the rapid expansion of trade union membership came after the end of World War I, though growth in previously forbidden sectors had been a feature of the war. In 1914, excluding the "unfree" salaried employee associations, trade union membership had been at 2,436,300 (a density of 13 percent), whereas by 1920 it had jumped to 9,192,900 (45.2 percent), a level that remained more or less stable for another two years. The democratic Weimar Republic provided a favorable political and legal climate for trade unionism, but that ended when it was overthrown by the Nazis. Weimar labor laws stipulated legally binding collective bargaining, state arbitration in disputes, the creation of factory councils in larger factories, and some degree of protection against dismissals for reasons of age, sex, religion, and politics.

World War I brought to the surface further ideological divisions within European trade unionism. The war economies, often with trade union leaders directly or indirectly assisting the war effort, led to splits. In many countries, metalworkers were among the most revolutionary. In Britain from 1915 on, militant shop stewards led revolts against their own trade union leadership and against the government over wartime working conditions and other issues in munitions factories and shipyards. Metalworkers across Europe displayed a similar militancy, including in Petrograd, Turin, Milan, and the industrial suburbs of Paris. Militant metalworkers were among the early members of the communist parties. In many countries, but not Britain, separate communist trade unions and national organizations were formed, thereby dividing much of each national trade union movement between democratic socialists and communists. In the aftermath of World War I, revolutions occurred in Hungary and Bavaria, while Italy experienced a wave of factory occupations by metalworkers in Turin and Milan in 1920. Such actions, however, encouraged counterrevolutionary forces, which during the interwar period brought an end to free trade unionism in Italy, Germany, Austria, and Spain (as well as in the Soviet Union, where communism also ended independent trade unionism).

ECONOMIC RECESSION AND RECOVERY

Trade unionism weakened across Europe following the economic recession of 1921–1922, though it was briefly delayed in Germany by high inflation. In Britain trade union membership fell from 8,253,000 in 1920 to 4,753,000 in 1928 (the density dropped from 48.2 to 25.9 percent). It fell slightly again in 1932–1933, but the 1928 level had been surpassed by 1935 and continued to rise with rearmament and economic recovery in the run-up to World War II. British trade unionism suffered a notable defeat with the general strike of 1926 by selected groups of workers, a strike organized to express solidarity with miners and> coordinated by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Its aim was to press the government to subsidize the coal mines. While this industrial action failed, trade unionists took some senior positions in the first two Labour governments, 1924 and 1929–1931.

WORLD WAR II AND THE POSTWAR PERIOD

Free trade unionism was severely restricted in the countries Germany and Italy occupied during World War II. Vichy France had compulsory trade unionism, but strikes and lockouts were banned and the unions were supervised by the state.

In Britain in World War II, as in World War I, trade union membership held up in spite of the large withdrawal of men to the armed forces, a total of 4,653,000 in June 1945. In addition, by December 1943, 467,500 women had joined the women's auxiliary services. Between 1939 and 1944 (the last full year of the war), trade union membership rose from 6,206,000 (a density of 31.9 percent) to 7,936,000 (40.0 percent), with female membership rising from 982,000 (16.0 percent) to 1,815,000 (28.6 percent). Winston Churchill's coalition government (1940–1945) considered working with the trade unions highly desirable, both politically and economically. Ernest Bevin, the foremost trade unionist of the period, was the most powerful minister on the home front.

After World War II and until the end of the 1980s, Eastern Europe was under communist rule and the trade unions were not free. In Spain and Portugal until the mid-1970s, the same was true under fascist or nearly fascist regimes. In West Germany and Austria, a new trade unionism was constructed after the Nazi period, with large industry-based unions. By 1950 trade union density was at 62.3 percent in Austria and at 34.7 percent in West Germany. In both countries, unionization continued to grow: trade union densities reached 63.5 percent in Austria and 37.8 percent in West Germany in 1963, and 58.5 and 39.8 percent, respectively, in 1975. The new West German trade unions tended to be moderate in their wage bargaining and managed to place many of their nominees on works councils.

Trade unionism grew rapidly across Western Europe during the "golden age" of the international economy. Steady inflation encouraged white-collar workers to unionize in order not to be left behind. Bruce Western has argued convincingly that trade union growth was greatly facilitated by working-class parties that formed governments and favored the trade unions, increasing the centralization of industrial negotiations and the trade union management of welfare schemes, which won them the support of people in weak labor market positions.

These conditions were frequently present in the Scandinavian countries. Social democratic governments were in power in Sweden, 1932–1976 and 1982–1991, in Denmark 1947–1950, 1953–1968, 1971–1973, and 1975–1982; and in Norway 1935–1965, 1971–1972, 1973–1981, and 1987–1989. Centralized collective bargaining existed in Sweden and Denmark at least until the 1980s, as did welfare benefits linked to trade union membership and a high level of industrial democracy. In Sweden trade union membership grew from 1,613,800 in 1950 (a density of 67.7 percent) to 3,287,100 in 1977 (a density of 85.5 percent). In Denmark trade union membership increased from 771,100 (58.1 percent) to 1,513,300 (71.8 percent) between 1950 and 1976. In Norway membership rose from 488,400 to 903,600 and density rose from 50.2 to 58.0 percent between 1956 and 1976.

In Britain, trade union membership expanded greatly as well, from 7,684,000 in 1945 (38.6 percent) to 9,693,000 in 1968 (42.7 percent) to its highest level ever, 12,639,000 (53.4 percent), in 1979. Its most rapid growth came in 1968–1979, during Labour governments (1964–1970 and 1974–1979) and the expansionist Heath Conservative government (1970–1974). This was a time of high inflation (it reached 24 percent in 1975) and there was much centralized wage bargaining under various incomes policies. White-collar workers were a significant factor in this growth. By 1979 about 44 percent of all British white-collar workers were in trade unions and about 40 percent of all British trade unionists were white-collar workers. In contrast, many of Britain's old industries, such as coal, cotton, and railways, had declined. Trade unionism remained very strong in these sectors, but by 1979 they represented only 4.6 percent of trade unionists, compared to 15.9 percent in 1948.

Elsewhere in Western Europe, trade union membership grew in spite of fragmentation. France had Marxist, anticommunist, Catholic, and other kinds of trade unions. As in Italy, bitter divisions existed between strong Stalinist communists and weaker democratic socialists; the communist unions often preferred trials of strength to collective bargaining. By 1950 French trade union membership had achieved a density of only just under 19 percent, and by 1963 it was still at 19.1 percent peaking at 22.5 percent in 1975. In Italy membership was higher, at 49.0 percent in 1950, dropping to 30.3 percent in 1963, but peaking at 44.3 percent in 1978. Finland's trade union movement was also deeply divided on political lines, in its case between communists, democratic socialists, and "moderates."

The trade union movement was also fragmented in Belgium and the Netherlands but was much stronger there than in other European countries. Belgium had both a strong socialist confederation (the FGTB) and a strong Christian (or Catholic) confederation (the CSC), as well as a smaller liberal trade union confederation (CGSLB). In the early 1960s the Catholic confederation became the largest body. In 1975 it had 904,672 members, whereas the socialist confederation had 800,000 and the liberal confederation 120,000. In 1950 trade union density in Belgium was at 42.2 percent, remaining almost steady in 1963 but reaching 61.3 percent in 1975. The Netherlands had strong Catholic and Protestant confederations as well as a socialist federation. These worked together in> wage bargaining by necessity, since Dutch law required collective agreements to be signed by all recognized unions. By the late 1960s, however, the state was no longer corporatist in its outlook. In 1975 the socialist federation (NVV) had 600,000 members, the Catholic federation (NKV) 400,000, and the Protestant federation (CNV) 239,000. In 1950 Dutch trade union density was at 43.0 percent, thereafter varying only slightly, with densities of 41.2 in 1963 and 39.1 percent in 1975.

GLOBALIZATION AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

With a harsher international economic climate from the late 1970s on, trade unionism was in retreat in Europe, as in the United States and elsewhere. The only exceptions were Sweden and Denmark. This substantial weakening of trade unionism was partly due to powerful global market forces, one major feature of which was severe competition at low wage rates for much work, especially unskilled. Crouch has emphasized that unions in sectors producing goods and services for international markets are vulnerable and can gain little from domestic political lobbying. Such trade unionism was greatly weakened in Austria, Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia.

While trade unionism was boosted when governments favorable to it were in power, it diminished in hostile political environments. In Britain, for example, the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) and John Major (1990–1997) repeatedly introduced legislation intended to "tame the trade unions" between 1980 and 1993. The government had serious confrontations with trade unions, most notably with steelworkers in 1980 and coal miners in 1984–1985. Although these factors had an impact, trade unions elsewhere were also weakened in this period, even where governments favorable to them were in power. In Britain the arrival of Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997 stabilized trade unionism at the 1997 level; his government left much of the 1980–1993 legislation in place but introduced a legal minimum wage to protect the lowest paid. Trade union membership fell in that country from a peak of 12,639,000 in 1979 (a density of 53.4 percent) to 7,154,000 in 1997 (30.2 percent), rising numerically to 7,295,000 in 2001 (with a larger labor force, density fell to 28.8 percent, however).

Trade unionism recovered in Spain and Portugal after their fascist regimes came to an end. Both countries established trade union rights. Trade unionism flowered briefly in Spain, reaching a membership of 2.6 million in 1976 and a density of more than 40 percent, but it crumbled quickly, to a density of just under 15 percent by the early 1990s. By 2002 trade union density had recovered to about 19 percent. Trade unionism was more resilient in Portugal, with a density of about 30 percent in 2002.

Free trade unionism also grew in the former communist bloc countries of Eastern Europe. Even under communism, Poland had had the courageous independent trade unionism of Solidarity. In 2002 trade union density in Poland was at about 15 percent. Lithuania and Estonia recorded similar densities, with higher levels in Hungary (18 percent), Latvia (20 percent), the Czech Republic (25 percent), Slovakia (30 percent), and Slovenia (40 percent).

Among most Western European countries, trade unionism declined until late in the twentieth century; France, which had a low density before 1980, was the worst affected. In 2002 French trade unionism had a density of only 8 percent, while the reunited Germany's trade unionism level was at 22 percent, and the Netherlands had a density of 21 percent. At the start of the twenty-first century, trade union membership went up not only in Spain but also in Greece (a density of 25 percent in 2002), Italy (37 percent), Luxembourg (45 percent), and Belgium (58 percent). In 2002 trade union densities also remained high in Ireland (38 percent), Austria (40 percent), Finland (75 percent), Sweden (78 percent), and Denmark (80 percent).

Across Europe, trade unionism in the late twentieth century had to accommodate itself to the decline of the old industrial sectors, the expansion of blue- and white-collar work, a drop in unskilled manual labor, and increasingly flexible patterns of employment. The pressure of decline forced many trade unions to attend more to the concerns of female workers, including parttime workers, and to ensure that their organizations were no longer heavily male-dominated. In Britain, for example, by 1999 union density among women workers (28 percent) was close to the level for men (31 percent). Much of the 1999–2000 increase in British trade union membership came from the recruitment of part-time female members. Similarly, after 1979 British trade unions made a greater effort to recruit nonwhite workers.

Western European trade unionism played a major role in politics and society. In several countries, prominent trade unionists joined the government. From 1890 on, trade unionists were prominent in the often huge May Day parades, which highlighted international concerns such as the Spanish civil war, the Vietnam War, the Iraq wars, and nuclear and ecological dangers, as well as industrial concerns. Trade unions often also played a prominent role dealing with local issues in urban areas. They also often fostered music and drama. A notable example was the British TUC's support for drama and the arts through the Centre 42 movement in 1961–1970.

Involvement in politics made trade unions vulnerable to political change. From the 1970s on, the dominant free market economies in Western societies were critical of trade unions as impediments to economic growth. The combination of stiffer international economic competition beginning in the 1980s and such economic views damaged the unions. After union power had weakened, however, the economic ills ascribed to the trade unions remained, and such criticism lost at least some of its edge. If, as many commentators have suggested, the trade unions are in terminal decline, it would seem that in many parts of Europe that decline is likely to last a long time.

See alsoGeneral Strike (Britain); Labor Movements; Strikes; Unemployment; Working Class.

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