Austria: the Confederation of Austrian Unions keeps loosing members

16,400 fewer members last year, is the 2009 evaluation of the evolution of the size of the seven sectoral unions representing 1.22 members. In spite of these dreary results, the ÖGB doesn’t see reasons to dramatize. Even if this drop is bigger than between 2007 and 2008 (- 9,000 members), it is still relatively low given the crisis context. Besides, it is much lower than the decreases of previous years – 63,000 members in 2006-07, the year of the scandal of the Bawag union bank. Finally, all unions aren’t affected the same way. Pro-Ge, born from the recent merger between the metal and chemistry unions, is most badly hit with -14,281 members and, to a lesser extent, Vida, the services union. GPA-dip, the union of private employees, and the two civil service unions (GÖD and GdG), gained a few thousand members. In the Austrian union sphere, the current debate isn’t about the number of members but about finances. The last issue of “Trend,” Austria’s key economic magazine, explains that the reform the ÖGB presented in 2007 provided for annual cost cuttings from €51 down to €29. Three years later, the goal hasn’t been achieved since the budget for the ÖGB and its seven federations amounts to €50 million, according to a source of the magazine. Despite this, the union isn’t going bankrupt. It is only waiting for its unions – mainly wealthy public service unions – to unfreeze the funds they statutorily owe. Trend says that this momentary block is telling of the ongoing balancing within the union world, of functions and powers.