The Confederation of Trade Unions of Yugoslavia also was a party-dominated mass organization. It had the constitutional mandate of protecting the rights of workers and preserving the self-management system. It also oversaw selection of delegates to the Federal Assembly from economic enterprises and delegates to the management bodies of those enterprises. The structure of the confederation was the same as that of the party and SAWPY, but the ruling body, the Council of the Confederation, did not allot positions according to ethnic or regional quotas. Seats on the presidium of the council were held by the national heads of the Yugoslav trade unions and the presidents of regional trade union councils. Party influence in the trade unions remained very strong through the 1980s; virtually all officials were party members, and worker membership in the unions, although voluntary, was considered automatic in many enterprises.

In the Yugoslav self-managed enterprise system, there was no true adversary function for unions or their officials, because there was no true distinction between employers and employees. Agreements were made between worker groups within and among enterprises, cutting across union organizational boundaries (see The Economic Management Mechanism , ch. 3). The function of the unions was to preserve party influence by selecting the members of the workers' councils, to ensure that the enterprise was run according to the self-management laws, and to protect the working environment. Until 1987 union officials also were expected to suppress "work stoppages," but they offered little resistance to the increasing number of strikes between 1987 and 1990.

According to a 1986 national poll, 71 percent of workers identified themselves as either members or officers of a trade union, while 25 percent denied membership. These figures varied considerably from official membership statistics, which claimed a 97 percent enrollment. Other poll results showed a lack of broad, active support of the unions, even among members; the majority of workers polled did not believe that the trade union system was a useful institution in representing their interests, and a small percentage of members took an active role in the organization. Nevertheless, the presence of a genuine trade union structure controlled at the enterprise level was a significant departure from the enterprise politics of the "conventional" communist states.

Data as of December 1990

NOTE: The information regarding Yugoslavia (former) on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Yugoslavia (former) Trade Unions information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Yugoslavia (former) Trade Unions should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.