• The FGTB defends the interests of workers in the workplace.
• The FGTB defends the interests of workers in collective negotiations.
• The FGTB offers services to its members.
• The FGTB helps and defends the unemployed.
• The FGTB represents and defends the workers.
• The FGTB defends workers' interests at regional and federal level.
• The FGTB organises all workers.
• The FGTB informs its members.
• The FGTB, a modern trade union with a fighting spirit.

The FGTB defends the interests of workers in the workplace.

Alone, people are vulnerable. Collective trade union action means that the interests of all can be defended. In the workplace, this action is organised via the trade union delegation, the works council and the health and safety committee... where they exist. Because, although there are legal obligations, a large number of companies still escape them. Such is the case with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). When one realises how very many of them there are in Belgium, one can understand that an essential fight has to be fought there for economic and social democracy. The FGTB has been behind numerous workers’ victories.

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The FGTB defends the interests of workers in collective negotiations.

A great many problems cannot be settled at a company level. General questions, such as salary, working hours, flexibility, etc. are settled by means of "collective bargaining agreements". These are negotiated within "joint committees", between representatives of trade union organisations and employers’ representatives. These collective agreements also apply to workers within SMEs. The benefits obtained by the trade unions apply to all undertakings in the sector. It is this way that the FGTB is able today to operate in solidarity with workers in SMEs. To achieve its objectives, the FGTB informs, makes claims to and negotiates with employers: this is social dialogue.

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The FGTB offers services to its members.

The FGTB has created research, training and study institutions. It also offers trade union and cultural activities aimed at workers and their families.

• In the Walloon Region, the Walloon Study, Research and Training Institute (IWerf) and the André Genot Centre for Popular Education (CEPAG), which produces television and radio programmes for the Walloon FGTB, International Solidarity of North-South Workers, an NGO (non-governmental organisation) for Third-World support (SITNS), the Walloon women’s committee, FGTB students, FGTB trade union youth group, groups in charge of organising immigrants, the unemployed, pensioners and early retirees.
• In Brussels, the Brussels cultural centre, ECOSOC - a social economy non-profit organisation, the Work and Health foundation, the association "Living in Brussels".
• In Flanders, The Institute for Trade Union Training, the Cultural Hub, the Welcome association (immigrant workers), Werklozenwerking (workers out of work), KOPA (training projects for workers out of work), Vlaams Vrouwenbureau (for women), ABVV Jongeren (young people), Bruggepensioneerden en Gepensioneerden (retirees and early retirees).

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The FGTB helps and defends the unemployed.

The FGTB is a body that pays unemployment benefits. It does so on behalf of the State, of course.

Each FGTB Regional office pays the benefits whilst providing the best and fastest service.

Moreover, it advises, helps and guides the unemployed at every stage. It defends their interests if they have a dispute with the National Employment Office.

In each FGTB regional office there is a Social Law Office (ODS). Here, every member can consult with social assistants, experts, lawyers, etc. The Social Law Office represents workers before the labour courts; it files proceedings, serves notices and raises citations before them.

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The FGTB represents and defends the workers.

The life of society is interspersed with councils, committees, offices, etc., in which the trade union organisations are officially represented : that's called social dialogue.

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The FGTB defends workers' interests at regional and federal level

The FGTB makes social choices and supports a plan that guarantees the interests of workers who are both active and inactive (the unemployed, early retirees and retirees). That way, by using co-determination mechanisms, by conducting campaigns, it leans on the policies set out by all the powers against which it wants to constitute a counter-force.

The FGTB is also one of the main players in inter-trade negotiations, in which, every two years, employers' and union representatives attempt to draw up an interprofessional (nation-wide agreement), which is a pledge of solidarity amongst workers.

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The FGTB organises all workers.

Workers include the unemployed and early retirees and retirees. They are men and women. They are young people. They are immigrants.

The FGTB is attentive to the special circumstances of all these groups. It listens to the expectations of everyone.

One of its current challenges is precisely to continue a guarantee of solidarity amongst all workers, even if they sometimes have slightly different characteristics that could divide them.

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The FGTB informs its members.

Finally, the FGTB informs its members by means of the newspapers "Syndicats" (Unions) and "De Nieuwe Werker" (The New Worker), and also information brochures and radio and television programmes (economic and social platforms), broadcast by the RTBF - VRT.

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The FGTB, a modern trade union with a fighting spirit

The FGTB today has more than a million members. The FGTB is a democratic organisation, representative of the world of the workplace. It defends workers within numerous bodies and institutions.

All its members, activists and delegates are able to express themselves freely within its organisation. They are represented at all levels of internal institutions. Its organisation is governed by a constitution.

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