Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

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In any case, the proportion of uninformed persons was considerably greater in
Estonia than in Latvia and Lithuania. From this, it can be concluded that the
trade union movement in Estonia has been able to make a clean break with the
old way of working that was normal during the Soviet period. Present trade
union activity in Estonia is not perceived as being a continuation of old times.
Respondents were unable, however, to say what the trade unions actually do
nowadays and how they work.
The general uncertainty among wage earners as to how the trade union movement
operates can also be seen in the fact that most of them do not know
whether the trade unions have possibilities of controlling or monitoring adherence
with agreements made. In Latvia, one in five employees believed that the
trade unions had at least quite good possibilities of controlling compliance
with agreements; 15 % of the workers in Lithuania and 14 % in Estonia were
of that opinion. Correspondingly, a minority of the wage earners thought that
the possibilities in question were poor. In all three countries, nearly half the
employees could not answer the question at all; and, further, almost one-quarter
were unable to formulate their view one way or the other and chose the
neutral alternative. This being so, the proportion who were uninformed varied
between the high figures of 67-70 %, depending on the country: in a nutshell,
two-thirds of the wage earners could not say whether or not the trade union
movement was able to control adherence to agreements made.
How well or badly are trade unions able to control workplaces' adherence
to agreements, in general? Percentage of all respondents.
LATVIA LITHUANIA ESTONIA
Very well 4 % 1 % 2 %
Quite well 16 % 14 % 12 %
Not well nor badly 22 % 24 % 23 %
Quite badly 6 % 11 % 11 %
Very badly 4 % 7 % 5 %
Do not know 48 % 43 % 47 %
Total 100 %
(N=904)
100 %
(N=909)
100 %
(N=900)