Factors affecting the size of trade unions in Malta

Abstract

The main aim of this dissertation is to try to analyse the major factors affecting the size of trade unions in the Maltese Islands. As a movement, trade unions are now a body of solid and central importance and, as such, it is consulted by the national government and all other interested parties. In such circumstances nobody can rely on being short-term and reactive in outlook and the change to medium term and pre-emptive policies and arguments has been very marked. Arguably, such changes arise in great part from the wider membership that the movement now encompasses. This has come from a combination of recruitment into the smaller, long-affiliated unions by new affiliations from public sector unions and the major extensions into organisations of the salariat. Shorn of sophistry, a trade union is there to guard vigilantly over workers' rights and while this original concept is still applicable, society has changed and so have the trade unions and their functions. So that when viewed against this background it may not be surprising to find that trade unions have expended in size and in political leverage. Increased mobility and access to information have meant that craft-based unions have declined whilst general and white-collar unions have expanded. One must keep in mind that in recent years there has been a marked growth of government involvement in the economy and in industry.