The decline of union density brings real challenges for trade unions throughout the world and it pushes them to look for creative and efficient forms of reorganizing in order to keep defending the rights and needs of the workers. There are many reasons for membership decline which can vary from neoliberal macroeconomic policies to workers becoming more skeptical about unions. The list of factors that is related to the lost of membership can be extensive and unions around the world have build strategies to overcome these barriers.

In this context, it becomes relevant to investigate the successful actions used by unions to increase membership; to understand how they change and adapt in terms of structure and culture; to explore the innovating and prosperous examples on collective bargaining, among others. Therefore, the literature available on this website aims to enlighten the debate on the union’s strategies that tackle these issues.

It is worth to note that the union renewal debate does not only involve the increase of membership through expansion of organizing efforts since strengthening bargaining power and political influence are strongly associated with organizing members. Therefore, this area covers a variety of issues as presented by the headlines below.