ABSTRACT
trade unions are essentially associations of manual and/or non-manual workpeople, including professional grades, formed to safeguard and improve the working conditions of their members and more generally to raise their status and promote their vocational interests. The structure, status, cohesion, and strength of the movement depend partly on recognition of common interests by the workpeople and their determination to combine together to formulate and attain their objectives, but also on the political, economic, and social conditions of each country. There is therefore great variety from country to country. The attitude of the Government and of public opinion towards the movement is often a powerful and even a decisive factor. In totalitarian countries the movement either is a creature of the Government performing the functions allotted to it, or, as in Nazi Germany, is forcibly suppressed except for such vestiges as can be maintained “underground.” In democratic countries it has the right to exist, subject to some legal limitations, it may be viewed favourably or unfavourably by the Government, and its power and authority are largely dependent upon the quality of its leaders, the efficiency of its organization, and the interest and loyalty of its members.
