Trade unions find new ways to attract members

In the face of declining membership and financial difficulties there is an increasing awareness among Norwegian trade unions of the need to modernise their organisations in order to adapt and improve services to their members, as well as to recruit new members. Two trade union initiatives launched in 2002 seek to use new technologies to recruit and communicate with new members, or to contact non-unionised employees. Both are aimed at younger employees working in information and communications technologies.

The development of trade union information and communications technology (ICT) strategies has been on the agenda for some time in the Norwegian labour movement (NO9803155F and NO9910159F), but unions have been slow to recognise the potential of new technology in relation to recruitment and organisational activity. In face of declining membership rates and financial difficulties (NO0012116F), however, there is an increasing awareness of the need for unions to modernise their organisations in order to adapt and improve services to their members, as well as to recruit new members, in particular from the ICT sector. Indeed some unions will owe much of their future existence to their ability to recruit in the new companies and industries created by these technologies.

In January 2002, the Norwegian Union of Graphical Workers (Norsk Grafisk Forbund, NGF) launched a 'digital trade union' concept - a trial project aimed at attracting new groups of employees by means of ICT, among them the increasing number of young non-unionised employees within the ICT sector in Norway. Similarly, the Finance Sector Union (Finansforbundet) is soon to launch a subscription-based career advice and labour market service, called Rom, directed at non-unionised employees.

The digital trade union

NGF launched its 'digital trade union ' (digital fagforening) initiative on 14 January 2002. It is meant to act as an alternative trade union organisation for employees in the ICT sector, and its services will on the whole be accessible only via the internet. The ICT sector in Norway is characterised by little trade union activity, and a low union density rate (TN0108201S). However, based on the belief that all employees need and want their rights and interests to be protected, NGF is seeking to meet these demands by providing an alternative to the more traditional ways of pursuing trade union activities, which may seem alien to many new groups of employees, in particular to young workers within the ICT sector.

The 'digital trade union' offers the same types of services given to the ordinary members of NGF, although in a more individually-oriented way. Members may receive advice and guidance with regard to traditional trade union issues such as pay and working conditions, as well as more individually-oriented issues such career development and opportunities. The membership fees remain the same as for ordinary members, and include other benefits provided to ordinary members. All communications, transactions and membership activities take place in a web-based or 'virtual' environment. Via the internet, members may take part in discussion groups, and also obtain relevant trade union information, up-to-date news, professional information and so. In future, the aim is also to develop the organisation into a professional forum for the exchange of views, experience and knowledge.

Service for non-unionised employees

Another ICT-based trade union initiative will see the light of day in June 2002, when the Finance Sector Union of Norway formally launches its Rom project. The stated objective of Rom is to bridge the gap between younger generations and the more traditional elements of trade union activity in the finance sector, although it will not be concerned with traditional trade union issues and activities as such. Rather it will provide, on a subscription basis, work- and career-related legal and financial advice on issues such as pay, employment contracts, insurance and pension schemes. External experts will partly provide these services, and Rom has already signed agreements with various providers in the 'career development' field.

Like the NGF 'digital trade union', the main target group of the new 'organisation' is young and more individualistic employees - the so-called 'nomads of working life'- in the ICT sector. These are employees in knowledge-based sectors who do not have a traditional relationship with and approach to notions such as jobs, branch and trade unionism. As an alternative to ordinary membership of the Finance Sector Union, employees may subscribe to the various services provided by Rom. Rom will be a wholly web-based service, and a precondition for subscribing to Rom's services is internet and e-mail access.

Commentary

In the face of declining membership and recruitment and financial problems, some trade unions are now trying to find new ways of making their organisations more attractive to new groups of employees, in particular young workers. This is a recognition of the fact that, in the electronic workplace, the old ways in which unions have traditionally communicated with members may no longer be the most appropriate.

The ICT sector has traditionally been a difficult arena in which to recruit new members, because there has been significant reluctance among both employers and employees towards trade union organisations.

NGF is a member organisation of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge, LO). NGF's digital union initiative forms part of a larger recruitment campaign by LO, which will be formally launched in January 2003. A number of measures to attract new members will be initiated, such as comprehensive radio and TV commercials, as well as increased use of the internet. LO also aims to recruit younger people still in education, and has opened itself up to student membership. Students are offered advice and guidance in the same way as ordinary members. The hope is that these students will remain in LO when they enter working life.

Similarly, the Rom initiative is but one of several initiatives to restructure and renew the organisation of the Finance Sector Union. The finance sector has been subject to considerable changes in the last 10 to 15 years. 2002 marks the first time that all finance sector employees are subject to a decentralised bargaining structure, in which the main bulk of wage increases and working conditions are determined at the company level. Previous experience from the banking sector indicates that such wage developments have been to the unions' satisfaction, although wage gaps have increased and a large proportion of employees remain at the level of the central pay increases after the local settlements. The leader of the Finance Sector Union, Dag Arne Kristensen, argues that the new structure has allowed the unions and employees greater influence on pay and working conditions at the company level. (Håvard Lismoen, FAFO Institute of Applied Social Sciences)