Centre-left parties throughout the world tend to have close relationships with the trade union movement. However, the nature of the relationship varies between countries and often depends on the different structures parties have in place for engaging the unions in the political process.
In Sweden, there is a long history of co-operation between the Social Democratic Party and the main blue-collar trade union organisation, the LO. The head of the LO sits on the national board of the party and a lot of the recent legislation on employment, and the established practice of negotiations, benefits union members. The LO is actively encouraging its membership to vote for the Social Democrats in this month s election.
Despite this history of co-operation, the unions have no formal voting rights in the Social Democratic Party, and the LO is running a campaign to encourage its members to join the party in order to influence policy from a grassroots level. The Social Democrats have 165,000 members, 30,000 of whom are members of the LO and its affiliated unions. The aim of the campaign is to recruit 100,000 new union members to the Social Democratic Party.
The relationship between unions and the Australian Labor Party is more formalised. The unions hold a 60 percent share of the vote in the majority of the state councils of the ALP. State councils vote on delegates for the party s national conference and decision-making bodies and most delegates are nominated because of specific union support. Some in the party see Labor s links with the unions as having contributed to its election defeat in 2001 and a review is underway to limit the unions share of the vote in state councils to 50 percent.
Whilst many unions fear the proposals will damage their influence in the party, others welcome the review as an opportunity to strengthen the unions voice at a national level. The review also proposes to revive the Australian Labor Advisory Council, established during the Hawke administration, which would give unions direct representation at a federal and state level in the party.
In America, there is no formal affiliation between the trade unions and Democrats. Instead, influence is exerted through the determined lobbying of Democrat politicians (and a few sympathetic Republicans) and the funding of individual candidates and campaigns.
Despite the hostility of the Republicans to labour, some unions, for instance truck drivers union The Teamsters, have historically supported, and have a close relationship with, the party. In 2000, for instance, they supported George W Bush. This relationship is purely pragmatic on both sides, unlike that between centre-left parties and unions, which however rocky at times is rooted in shared values and principles.