Trade Union Leadership and Sustainability in the Contemporary World of Work

Introduction

Workers have a long history of enduring diverse forms of oppression and embarking on various struggles against employers. Prior to the Industrial revolution, there was mass penurization, emasculation and exploitation of workers, but the industrial revolution resulted in the emergence of trade unions as means of ensuring workers obtain a decent share of labor gains and dismantling the instruments of subjugation. ILO (2005) argued that trade unionism is a means for workers to liberate themselves from poverty and social exclusion and further affirmed that the formation of unions was a reaction against the mechanisms of pauperization, notably: low pay, long working hours, child labour and generally appalling working conditions. The description of workers as the engine room of national economies, cornerstone of economic growth and pivots of sustainable development (UN, 2020 ;MGI, 2016; ILO, 2015; OECD 2014) means that nations, economies, sectors and organizations cannot accomplish goals without adequately, structurally and productively optimizing their workforce. Labour efficiency and output is vital to achieving rapid and sustained socio-economic and political transformation, citizenry prosperity, national competitiveness and economic growth. This also underpins the linkage between skills, education, competences, aptitude and the enhancement of productive capacities.(Pologeorgis, 2022; GIZ, 2021 ;Smith et al. 2016; UNDP, 2015). Furthermore, the importance of Labour underscored the establishment of the International Labour Organization as the first specialized agency of the United Nations in 1919 designed to advance socio-economic justice through standards aimed at ensuring accessible, productive, and sustainable work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity. Also in recognizing and empowering trade unions as associations meant to protect and advance workers rights and interests, the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was made at the 86th session of the International Labour Conference at Geneva in 1988 placing great emphasis on the rights of workers to associate freely and bargain collectively as a fundamental policy.

According to Solidarity Center(2023,) unions are a fundamental element of a free and democratic society whose importance extends beyond the workplace—workers who are economically secure are better able to contribute to their communities, and the issues unions address at the workplace often are closely connected with overall societal and community concerns Thus, according to Svensson (2015), the trade union movement has morphed into one of the world’s largest social movement which has played and is playing crucial roles in global social, economic and democratic progress. Trade unions have become the platform through which workers uphold their dignity, maintain their rights and enhance their living and working conditions by seeking a fair share of workplace productivity gains. So whether coming together to create strong voices, seeking to contribute to harmonizing workplace interests and formulating rules governing workplace relations and campaigning against unfair pay, discrimination, or sexual harassment (McNicholas, 2018), workers rely on their ability to join together whether informally or in formal litigation to remedy violations of workplace protections.