International trade union organization

An international union structure made up of labour centres, federations, or confederations.

"The reality of globalisation is that the issues confronting working people increasingly have international aspects. And yet, international trade union activity too frequently remains a distant or unknown option, even for committed trade unionists. Global Unions' leaders agree that, with some exceptions, few members of their affiliates actually know of the existence of the international organisations to which their organisations belong - much less understand their policies."
(ACTU, visited 2007-06-12)

The Council of Global Unions

"Most of the international trade union organisations share similar policies and ideas and are essentially working towards the same goals. Co-operation between these organisations has always been close and continues to get better. One particular result of this increasing co-operation is that the international trade union movement has started to use the name Global Unions for some joint actions or campaigns."
(International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), A Trade Union Guide to Globalisation, visited 2007-05-06)

The international union movement is made up of:

• The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), formed in November 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL);
• The Global Union Federations (GUFs) which reunite national unions on an international level by sector or occupation are EI, BWI, IAEA, ICEM, IFJ, IMF, ITF, ITGLWF, IUF, PSI, and UNI;
• The Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD, which is not a trade union per se, but an official body representing the union confederations of the 49 OECD member countries.

(adapted from Global Unions, visited 2009-12-10)