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

40%
20%
0%
-20%
-40%
32%
-22%
76
OPINIONS OF TRADE UNIONS (I)
Trade unions know problems of One can trust trade union leaders
ordinary employees well
27%
23%
-25% -25%
24%
-27%
20% 19%
-31%
-26%
Latvia Lithuania Estonia Latvia Lithuania Estonia
Totally or somewhat agree Totally or somewhat disagree
The trade union movement does not have great popularity among the public.
One in five Latvian wage earners said that his/her co-workers considered trade
union membership important. In Lithuania and Estonia, this view is held considerably
more seldom. The low rate of unionisation is not due to opposition
from employers. In Latvia and Estonia, only about one-tenth of the workers
reported that their employer took a negative attitude toward membership of the
trade union movement. In both these countries, about one wage earner in three
thought that the employer did not oppose unionisation of the employees, and
over half felt that the question did not matter to the employer or was of no current
interest.
In Lithuania, the situation differs somewhat from that in the other Baltic
countries, because one-fifth of the respondents considered that their employer
regarded membership negatively, and similarly one-fifth felt that he regarded
it positively. The employers' attitude toward the trade union movement is thus
clearly more negative in Lithuania than in the other Baltic countries. This is
probably due to the many problems in Lithuania's working life and business
life, which have resulted in delays in wage payment, for example. This, in
turn, has meant increased disputes between the trade unions and the employ-