Norway: unionization on the wane, fewer than one in two workers was a union member in 2016

Is this the end of a myth? Research foundation Fafo has just published 2016 statistics showing that only 49% of Norway’s employees are members of a trade union. Flirting with the 50% threshold for several years this dip below is hardly a surprise but no less symbolic nonetheless. Confederation organization argue that the overall level is masking contrasting situations but nevertheless are fully aware of the situation and are studying ways of bucking the trend.
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Contrasting realities. According to Fafo, in 2016 almost 1.2 million workers were members of a trade union, 118,000 more than in 2006. However given that the overall number of workers rose by 300,000 in the same period the proportion of union members actually fell from 50.5% in 2006 to 49% in 2016. However the reality may be somewhat different in so far as trade unions have changed over the past ten years. For instance both the UNIO (The Confederation of Unions for Professionals, Norway) and Ak

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