Publications

September 2022

  1. Trade union revitalization in the United States of America: A call for a labour movement programme in support of self-organizing workers

    26 September 2022

    From a peak of one third of the workforce in 1955 and still over 20 per cent in 1983, at present only 10.3 per cent of United States workers remain members of trade unions. A significant trend of worker self-organizing and formation of new independent unions has emerged, with little or no involvement of or support from existing unions. To have any significant impact, the labour movement must create a substantial, dedicated, grass roots-focused programme – a labour self-organizing workers’ support (Labor SOWS) programme – that will supplement, but not supplant, the needs of these self-organizing workers. This article argues for organized labour in the United States to play a major supporting role in this unique moment and thereby promote its own revitalization

  2. Voice and representation for ridehailing drivers in sub-Saharan Africa: Pathways for trade union revitalization?

    26 September 2022

    This paper seeks to explore the extent to which new players and nonconventional strategies shape the collective representation and voice of platform workers. Drawing on secondary sources, the paper systematically argues that traditional trade union approaches alone will not suffice in filling the representational gap. The need for a more holistic approach involving trade union responses and other players and strategies is recommended as a policy option.

  3. Trade union responses to organizing workers on digital labour platforms: A six-country study

    26 September 2022

    This paper examines the changing dynamics of the employment relationship in the digital economy and its implications for the continuous adaptation of freedom of association and protection of the workers’ right to organize in the AsiaPacific region. The analysis is informed by interviews with trade unions in six focus countries, selected to represent different legal jurisdictions and demographics. As all of the trade unions interviewed worked mostly with workers on digital labour platforms, and in particular delivery- and travel-related platforms, the paper focuses on how trade unions are overcoming the challenges created in organizing and protecting these workers.

  4. Digital activism as a pathway to trade union revitalization

    26 September 2022

    Technological change is of critical importance for the future of unions. On the one hand, the rapid rise of the platform economy and the decentring of industrial work pose an enormous threat to their very existence. On the other hand, digital tools offer a plethora of opportunities for union engagement with existing members, but also with workers in traditional and emerging sectors with low rates of unionization. This paper examines the experiences of 11 peak union bodies across six countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

  5. New wine in old bottles: organizing and collective bargaining in the platform economy

    26 September 2022

    This article presents a non-exhaustive review of recent forms of organizing and mobilizing platform workers across Europe, with the objective of mapping current variations in trade union strategies towards technological change and analytically distinguishing emerging patterns in representation forms among the platform workforce.

  6. Unity and Revitalization of Trade Unions in Africa

    26 September 2022

    This paper follows the history of organized trade unionism in Africa, from popularity and power in the 1980s to disaffection and splintering into multiple unions at regional, subregional and national level in the 1990s and beyond. It analyses the impact of the considerable rivalry between the two main trade union organizations in terms of financial stability, membership density and representation at the African Union and international bodies.

  7. Trade union revitalization: navigating uncertainty, change and resilience in the world of work

    26 September 2022

    This article assesses six innovative approaches to trade union revitalization through the lens of the unions’ ability to navigate change. It introduces the “triple-A governance” framework, based on the three pillars of anticipation (the ability to understand the dynamics of change that may impact emerging futures), agility (the organization-wide ability to deal with uncertainty and change) and adaptation (the ability to translate anticipation and organizational learning into concrete actions and strategies to create desired change). It further introduces a number of participatory, democratic and non-prescriptive tools that can be used by trade unions to reflect and act upon revitalization: these include horizon scanning, the futures wheel, immunity to change and backcasting.

  8. Trade Union Revitalization: Organizing new forms of work including platform workers (Executive Summary)

    26 September 2022

  9. Trade Union Revitalization: Organizing new forms of work including platform workers

    26 September 2022

    The 2022 edition of the International Journal of Labour Research comes at a critical time, marked both by multidimensional crises affecting many countries around the world and by a surge in the attraction and influence of trade unions in responding to these crises. This year edition highlights the experiences of trade union revitalization worldwide with an emphasis on trade union unity and cooperation and the challenge of organizing new forms of work including platforms workers where young people are over-represented.

  10. Old-age pension models worldwide from an ILO perspective: What workers’ organizations need to know

    14 September 2022

    This policy brief aims to show evidences that workers’ organizations can make a vital contribution to informed discussions on pension reform policies and their implementation at the national level.

  11. Closing gender gaps in social protection: What workers’organizations need to know

    14 September 2022

    This policy brief provides an overview of the root causes of gender-related social protection gaps and the ILO’s strategy for filling them.

  12. Creating fiscal space for financing social protection: What workers’ organizations need to know

    14 September 2022

    This policy brief intends to provide workers’ representatives with a better understanding of the challenges related to the creation of fiscal space for social protection financing and the different policy options to overcome these challenges with a view to effectively contributing to policy discussions on mobilizing resources for adequate investments in universal social protection at country level.

  13. Extending social protection coverage to informal economy workers: What workers’ organizations need to know

    14 September 2022

    This policy brief aims at helping workers' representatives to better understand the complexity of and the challenges for extending social protection coverage to workers in the informal economy, and the different policy choices which countries have implemented to overcome these challenges.

  14. Workers’ guide to ILO Conventions concerning minimum standards of social security

    14 September 2022

    The guide aims to help workers’ representatives to promote the ratification of ILO standards, and in particular Convention No. 102, and to ensure their application at national level as a basis for progressively extending adequate and sustainable social protection to all.

August 2022

  1. Trade unions in transformation: Experiences from Europe and Central Asia

    31 August 2022

    The aim of this study is to look at seven cases of trade unions actions in Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in the years immediately before and during the COVID-19 crisis to identify lessons that can be learned for trade union revitalization and recovery from the crisis. This paper looks at positive experiences and innovative examples in a complicated trade union environment where labour and trade union rights are under pressure.

  2. Trade union revitalization: Experiences and key lessons from Southern Africa

    31 August 2022

    Within the framework of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) programme on “Trade Unions in Transformation-Actors for Change”, a number of studies have been commissioned to look at innovative practices and positive experiences of trade union revitalization in various regions around the world. This paper focuses on good practices related to trade union revitalization in the Southern Africa region.

July 2022

  1. Decent work deficits among rural workers

    07 July 2022

    This report is a summary of the findings of 16 case studies commissioned by the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) in mid-2021 to examine the situation concerning decent work and existing opportunities for trade union organizing in rural economies in selected countries and economic sectors in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Eastern Europe.

June 2022

  1. Pay transparency legislation: Implications for employers' and workers' organizations

    21 June 2022

May 2022

  1. Social Dialogue Report 2022: Collective bargaining for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery

    05 May 2022

    This first edition of this new ILO flagship report focuses on collective bargaining.

April 2022

  1. Dealing with crises arising from conflicts and disasters-ILO training manual for workers’ organizations

    06 April 2022

    This training manual focusses on situations that are at the crossroads of humanitarian assistance, development, peacebuilding and resilience. It contributes to anchoring the role of the ILO and the social partners across this field. The manual offers practical guidance to workers’ organizations in taking a central role towards contributing to the prevention and mitigation of the effects of conflicts and disasters; engage in early warning and preparedness; assist in the immediate response in a conflict-sensitive manner; promote long-term recovery; and contribute to sustaining peace.