Landsorganisasjonen i Norge

Folkets Hus union headquarters at Youngstorget in Oslo (2007)

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions , in short LO , is Norway's largest trade union confederation . It consists of 26 individual trade unions with a total of over 930,000 members (2018). The LO was founded on April 1st, 1899 as Arbeidernes Faglige Landsorganisasjon (AFL) and has had its current name since 1957. The trade union federation corresponds to the DGB in Germany .

The LO sees itself as non-partisan. Historically, however, the LO has been shaped by socialist and social democratic ideas. In terms of organization and personnel, there was and still is a close relationship with the Social Democratic Workers 'Party : for decades, union membership was linked to collective membership in the Workers' Party.

The LO is a member of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

organization structure

Even if employees can be direct members of the LO, most of the members are organized in one of the sub-unions. The size of the union federations varies between 1,000 and 300,000 members. The unions encompass one or more professions. Around 600,000 of the LO members are employed, which corresponds to around a quarter of Norwegian employees.

The highest decision-making body is the Congress, which is held every four years (most recently in 2013). The “national committee” ( representantskap ) meets twice a year; the secretariat, which runs day-to-day business, meets weekly. The LO board consists of 8 people.

In each Fylke is a regional office ( district office ).

International

LO is a member of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), an association of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (also known as Frie Faglige Internasjonale (FFI) in Norway ) and the World Confederation of Labor (WCL). ITUC represents 166 million workers in 309 member organizations in 156 countries.

Membership development

year	Departments	Members (December 31)
1899		1,578
1900		4,842
1910		47,453
1920		142,642
1930	1,861	139,591
1940	3,556	306.341
1950	4,605	488,442
1960	5,129	541,549
1970	4,448	594.377
1980	3,798	748.040
1990	3.211	785.586
2000	2,448	811.812
2010		865.573
2014		910,000
2017		930,000