The

European Trade Union Confederation The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at the European level. In its role as a European social partner, the ETUC works both in a consulting role with the European Commission and ...

was set up in 1973 to promote the interests of working people at the European level and to represent them in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

institutions. It is recognized by the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the European Free Trade Association as the only representative cross-sectoral trade union organization at the European level. Some countries, such as

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, Sweden,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, and the other Nordic countries, have strong, centralized unions, where every type of industry has a specific union, which are then gathered in large national union confederations. The largest union confederation in Europe is the German Confederation of Trade Unions. Usually there are at least two national union confederations, one for academically educated and one for branches with lower education level. The largest Swedish union

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

is the blue-collar Swedish Trade Union Confederation (''Landsorganisationen'', or LO). The LO has about 1.5 million members (including pensioners), which is a sixth of Sweden's population (Swedish blue-collar density in 2000 was 83% and in 2019 60%; the total density of blue-collar + white-collar employees in 2019 was 68%). Finland's equivalent is the

Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK ( fi, Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö; sv, Finlands Fackförbunds Centralorganisation, FFC) is the largest trade union confederation in Finland. Its ...

, with about one million members out of the country's 5.2 million inhabitants. In addition, there are two other Finnish union confederations for more educated workers, with combined membership of approximately one million. In Denmark union density in 2015 was 68%.Anders Kjellberg and Christian Lyhne Ibsen (2016
"Attacks on union organizing: Reversible and irreversible changes to the Ghent-systems in Sweden and Denmark"
in Trine Pernille Larsen and Anna Ilsøe (eds.)(2016) ''Den Danske Model set udefra - komparative perspektiver på dansk arbejdsmarkedsregulering'', Copenhagen: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag, p. 292 In comparison,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

has one of the lowest union densities in Europe, with only about 10% of the workers belonging to unions. Generally, several unions are represented inside large companies or administrations, normally with one from each of the main national confederation of unions and possibly independent unions. Union membership, however, tends to be concentrated in some specific areas, especially the public sector. Unions in some sectors, such as public transportation (e.g. SNCF and RATP), are likely to enter well-publicized strikes.

Footnotes

{{Trade unions in Europe de:Liste von Gewerkschaften in Europa it:Elenco delle federazioni sindacali europee fr:Liste de syndicats dans le monde