What im about to say applies to belgium, and i dont know about other countries or companies or how it works if a company from another country has a base in belgium, so take everything i say with a pinch of salt.
SO
In belgium every company with more than x amount of employees ( i think its either 50 or 100 ) must have a worker council meeting every month and have worker council member votings every few years, to select what employee will join said meetings with a select few people of the heads of the company. The members are people who have joined a union ( which is just being registered, has nothing to do with your job and which union depends on the job and your political views. Each union is large enough to cause mayhem and force talks ) and have put themselves forward to be in those meetings.
After said voting, the representatives are selected and join the meetings.
While the representative is selected him or her can not be easily fired or laid off. While they are registered at a union they also can not be fired without a valid reason, as that would get the company investigated.
So overall here what union doesnt mean that much, but the process is more important.
I would also like to point out that i love this whole thing, even if ive worked with a complete asshat that was the workers representative and seriously needed to be fired because he did his actual job (handyman) terribly. The fact he was in those meetings meant the workers were represented and im sure he did that part right as he kept being voted for.
What im about to say applies to belgium, and i dont know about other countries or companies or how it works if a company from another country has a base in belgium, so take everything i say with a pinch of salt.
SO
In belgium every company with more than x amount of employees ( i think its either 50 or 100 ) must have a worker council meeting every month and have worker council member votings every few years, to select what employee will join said meetings with a select few people of the heads of the company. The members are people who have joined a union ( which is just being registered, has nothing to do with your job and which union depends on the job and your political views. Each union is large enough to cause mayhem and force talks ) and have put themselves forward to be in those meetings.
After said voting, the representatives are selected and join the meetings.
While the representative is selected him or her can not be easily fired or laid off. While they are registered at a union they also can not be fired without a valid reason, as that would get the company investigated.
So overall here what union doesnt mean that much, but the process is more important.
I would also like to point out that i love this whole thing, even if ive worked with a complete asshat that was the workers representative and seriously needed to be fired because he did his actual job (handyman) terribly. The fact he was in those meetings meant the workers were represented and im sure he did that part right as he kept being voted for.