The Federation of Private Employees (, FEP) was a Luxembourg

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

representing private sector, white collar workers in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. It was dissolved in 1998.

History

The union was founded in 1918, when the recently founded National Federation of Private Employees merged with a union of white collar workers in the mining industry. Until the 1960s, it focused on attempting to change the law to give its members similar working conditions to

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

s. From 1965, it became involved in more

collective agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with a ...

s, and this helped it increase its membership, which reached 16,000 by 1974. In the 1970s, the union worked closely with the

Luxembourg Workers' Union The Luxembourg Workers' Union (, LAV) was a general union in Luxembourg. The union was founded in 1920, as the Luxembourg Mining and Metalworkers' Union. This was a merger of the Luxembourg Miners' and Ironworkers' Union with the Luxembourg Metalw ...

(LAV), but this led to internal disagreements, and the Luxembourg Association of Banking and Insurance Employees (ALEBA) split away in 1976. In 1979, the union's leadership left, along with some of the members, to join the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation, successor to the LAV. The union's membership fell to only 5,000 by 1989, and the following year, the right wing of the union split away, forming the National Union of Private Employees — Reformers (SNEP). In 1998, it lost its last seat on a representative body, and it dissolved soon afterwards.

References

{{Reflist Clerical trade unions Trade unions established in 1918 Trade unions disestablished in 1998 Trade unions in Luxembourg