Executive Summary

Women are driving up trade union membership across a majority of ETUC affiliated organisations, according to the results of the first annual ETUC 8 March Survey which was carried out to assess the extent to which progress is being made in reducing the gender gap in trade unions. Some 18 national confederations have noted that there have been increases in their number of female members ranging from 0.2% up to 2.5% over the last 12 months. In a number of instances, these increases have occurred alongside a decrease in the number of male members, reflecting the overall growth across Europe in women’s employment.

These figures underline the need for trade unions to attract and retain female members and reiterates the importance of ensuring that trade union politics and policies reflect the needs of both men and women.

In terms of trade union leadership, the presence of women is still considerably low and little if any progress has been made in this area in the past year. In fact, some trade unions have taken a U-turn in this regard, replacing female leaders with male ones. The figures would seem to indicate a north/south divide as regards the visibility of women at the top levels in trade unions. However, although many of the Nordic trade unions score relatively well in this area, a small number of other trade unions are making changes at the top. Nonetheless, overall, progress is slow and there is significant room for improvement.

Equal pay continues to be a key issue for nearly all trade unions who replied to the survey. A large number of trade unions noted that the actual pay gap is in fact significantly higher than that published by the European Commission, which reinforces the need for trade unions to continue their actions in this area.

Alongside trade union activities on specific gender issues, most are also active in gender mainstreaming policies and activities. A number of trade unions have some form of trade union charter on gender mainstreaming in place, which mirrors the recently adopted ETUC charter, although these do not exist in all trade unions. Others have already made changes to their statutes to ensure gender mainstreaming.

Overall, it seems that despite the fact that women seem to be stemming the flow of trade union membership, they are still not progressing easily to the top level positions. The glass ceiling seems to be strongly in place, if not reinforced, in all but a few affiliated organisations. Progress, when it does happen, happens slowly.

General introduction

As part of the follow-up to the 11th ETUC Congress in Seville in May 2007, ETUC has carried out the first of what will become an annual 8 March survey. The aim of this survey is to assess the extent to which progress has been made in reducing the gender representation gap in trade unions and to highlight successful gender mainstreaming activities that are taking place within our affiliated organisations.

A total of 46 (out of 82) national confederations from 28 (out of 36) countries took part in this survey exercise.

The following 36 national confederations did not reply to the survey:

USDA Andorra;
CITUB-KNBS Bulgaria,
SEK, TURK-SEN Cyprus,
AC, FTF Denmark
EAKL, TALO Estonia
AKAVA Finland
DGB Germany
ADEDY Greece
AszSz, MOSz, MszOSz, SZEF, ESZT Hungary
BSRB Iceland
ICTU Ireland
CISL Italy
LANV Liechtenstein
LPSS (LDS) Lithuania
CMTU, GWU Malta
USM Monaco
MHP Netherlands
OPZZ Poland
BNS, CNLSR-Fratia, CSDR Romania
Csdl, CDLS San Marino
STV-ELA Spain
Travail Suisse Switzerland
DISK, HAK-IS, KESK Turkey

Three European Industry Federations (out of 12) replied to the survey. They are EuroCOP, EMF-FEM and a number of affiliates from ETUCE (OAJ Finland, SNUIPP France, SKOiW NSZZ Poland, KTOS Cyprus, KTOEOS Cyprus, ATC UK , UTU UK, VPOD Switzerland, DUT Denmark)

The following European Industry Federations did not reply to the survey:
EFFAT
TCL-THC
EMCEF
EFBWW-FETBB
EPSU
UNI Europa
ETF
EAEA
EFJ

Membership of national trade union confederations

A total of 46 national confederations from 28 countries replied to this part of the questionnaire.

In order to assess the extent to which progress has been made in reducing the gender representation gap, this part of the survey asked the same questions as a more detailed questionnaire which all ETUC affiliates were required to complete for the 2007 Congress. Nearly all of the confederations who responded to this section of the 8 March survey had also responded to the corresponding section of the 2007 questionnaire for Congress, hence it was possible to make comparisons. New information was provided for 4 confederations.

Some 16 confederations reported no change in their female membership since 2007, 8 national confederations reported a fall in female membership while a small majority of confederations (18) reported an increase in female membership since last year.

It is interesting to note however, that significant differences appear behind these figures. Of the 8 confederations that reported a decrease in their female membership, these decreases ranged from 0.2% to 5%. Furthermore, in some cases, these decreases reflected an overall decrease in trade union membership, while for others they came, despite an overall increase in trade union membership.

Similarly for the national confederations reporting an overall increase in female membership, the increases ranged from 0.2% up to 2.5%. Once again, some of these increases emerged as a result of overall increases in trade union membership, but in most cases, these happened despite overall reductions in trade union membership levels, which shows that for some trade unions, attracting more women is playing a vital role in maintaining trade union growth.

Women in positions of power within national trade union confederations

Before addressing the issue of leadership in trade unions, it is necessary to distinguish between the powers of the different leadership positions in existence. These are in general recognised as: president, vice-presidents, general secretary and deputy general secretary. In some unions (such as in the Nordic unions, the Netherlands, Germany, etc.) the president is the highest position of the organisation, while in others (Italy, Spain, UK, etc.) the political leadership is held by the General Secretary. It is therefore important to keep these differences in mind when looking at the figures indicating the number of women in trade unions’ leadership positions.

Not all confederations replied to this section of the survey. Of those that did, at a first glance there seems to be a strong north/south divide as regards the visibility of women at the top levels in trade unions. However, although many of the Nordic trade unions score well on this point, a small number of other trade unions are making changes at the top. However, overall, progress is slow and there is significant room for improvement.

At the moment, only four national confederations reported having a woman as president – UATUC, FNV, LO-Sweden and SACO. This represents a decline since the 2007 congress figures where the corresponding number stood at seven. From the organisations that responded to the survey, nine have a female vice president ,(OGB, LDF, TCO, ASI, UNIO, STTK, CMKOS, YS and UATUC). It should be noted that a number of these are positions held jointly with men. Once again, these figures show a fall in the number of women in such positions.

As regards general secretaries, only nine are women (ÖGB (jointly with a male colleague), LDF, LO-N, UNIO, FGTB, STTK and FNV, TCO and LTUC. The value of this already low figure is diminished if we consider that in some of these organisations the general secretary is not the highest political leader.

Out of all of the Deputy General Secretaries in place, only 4 are women. They are in: DEOK, l’USS, LCGB and the TUC and at least one of these has been jointly appointed with a man.

Finally, a majority of confederations do have female confederal secretaries who work alongside their male counterparts.

Gender gay gap

Equal pay continues to be a key issue for nearly all national trade union confederations who replied to the survey. A large number of trade unions noted that the actual pay gap is in fact significantly higher than that published by the European Commission, which reinforces the need for trade unions to continue their actions in this area.

Such actions include training and awareness raising for affiliates and for collective bargaining negotiators, the organisation of annual equal pay days, participation in national bipartite and tripartite activities, carrying out research on the extent of the pay gap, possible obstacles to reducing it, how to tackle the problem via collective bargaining, work on gender neutral job classification systems.

Trade union Charter on gender mainstreaming

Alongside trade union activities on specific gender equality issues such as the gender pay gap, many national trade union confederations are very active in gender mainstreaming their policies and activities. In a large number of confederations, some form of gender mainstreaming charter or a gender equality action plan is in place, which tend to mirror the principles set out in the ETUC charter which was adopted during the 2007 Congress. In some cases, these charters have been in place for a number of years, in others, they are a more recent initiative. However, a small number of trade unions reported that no such instrument was in place and some plan their introduction in the coming months. Quite a few confederations have translated the ETUC charter into their own language and are actively disseminating it to their members for discussion.

Quite a few trade unions have made some changes to their statutes which aim to ensure the presence of women on various bodies and to promote gender mainstreaming across the organisation.

There are also examples of combined national trade union activities to present a national trade union charter, as well as transnational efforts to promote gender mainstreaming by an exchange of practice.

European Industry Federations

We received replies from only two European Industry Federations headquarters – EMF-FEM and EuroCOP as well as several national replies from ETUCE. Given the very poor response rate received, it is therefore not possible to draw any meaningful comparisons with the responses received for the ETUC Congress survey. This is very disappointing as we are aware of progress being made in a number of the EIF’s.

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