Trade UnionsUnions are organizations that represent people at work. Their aim is to protect and improve people's wages and conditions of employment. They also campaign for laws and policies that will benefit workers. Unions exist because an individual worker has very little power to influence the decisions that are made regarding their job. By joining forces with other workers, you are more likely to have a voice and influence. All kinds of jobs and industries are covered by unions. Some unions represent people who do a particular job or work in a specific sector - for example, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), as its name suggests, represents journalists, and the Union of Financial Staff (UNIFI) is made up of people who work in different professions. in the financial sector. Other unions bring together a mix of people from different jobs and sectors. Britain's largest unions are the GMB, UNISON and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU). They represent people working in a range of different professions and industries in the public and private sectors. This is often because unions have merged with other unions in order to increase their membership and influence. Unions are democratic organizations that are accountable to their members for their policies and actions. Unions are normally modeled on the following structure: * Members - people who pay dues to belong to a union * Union representatives - sometimes called shop stewards - who are elected by union members to represent them to management * Branches - who support union members in different organizations at the local level. There is usually a branch secretary who is elected by local members. District and/or regional offices - full-time union officials usually work there. These are people who are paid to offer advice and support to union members at the local level.