Organizing Self-Employed Workers: Creating the Digital Union

By Andrew Bibby

A self-employed AIT consultant is at work in her office in Malmö, Sweden when the phone rings. It's a call centre agent, engaging in direct marketing. Except its not another business, but a trade union representative on the line.

The union is the Svenska Industritjänstemannaförbundet (SIF), the union representing technical and clerical workers. It says its converting between 5 and 8% of its cold calls into membership. The FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands is also targeting the self-employed.

Some unions, such as the International federation of Journalists, have a long history of targeting the self-employed, but it's a relatively new development for most generalist unions. The services offered by the unions to the self-employed are somewhat different in some cases. in Australia, the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists, Managers, Australia (APESMA) has created its own recruitment agency to help people get work. The executive director, John Vines, sees this as a way to get more members.

Unions seeking to sign up the self-employed must ensure they have the facilities to service the needs of these workers. The article outlines the sorts of services made available by unions in various countries.

(ILO World of Work; no. 46, March 2003)