About LÍV - The Commercial Federation of Iceland

LÍV – the Commercial Federation of Iceland, the largest union federation in Iceland and the largest federation within the Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASÍ), with approximately 50,000 union members in total, was founded on 2 June 1957. 

The Federation is an umbrella organisation for employees working in the retail, office and service sectors. It comprises 10 trade unions and retail workers’ divisions across Iceland, with more than 50,000 full members, making it the largest trade union organisation representing office workers in Iceland.

The aim of LÍV is to improve and defend the rights and benefits of retail, service, and office workers through the improvement of their working conditions, better rights, educational opportunities, workplace democracy, and wages. LÍV negotiates collective agreements for its affiliated unions, excluding VR which negotiates separately as the largest labor union in Iceland, and we furthermore, represent our members and affiliated unions within government authorities, other governing bodies, and our international partners.  

LÍV participates in the following organizations:

The Icelandic Confederation of Labour - ASÍ - www.asi.is
The Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASI) is built up of 46 trade unions of general workers, office and retail workers, seamen, construction and industrial workers, electrical workers and various other professions in the private sector and part of the public sector. These trade unions affiliate to 5 national federations which in turn are affiliated to ASI. In addition, there are 7 national unions that directly affiliate to ASI.

NHK, Nordiska Handelskomité
LÍV joined the forerunner of the NHK in 1960.

UNI Global Union (UNI) - www.uniglobalunion.org 
UNI Global Union, formerly Union Network International, is a global union federation for the skills and services sectors, gathering national and regional trade unions. It has affiliated unions in 150 countries representing 20 million workers.

The head office is in Nyon, Switzerland.

UNI is organized into (regions) :

UNI-Africa
UNI-Americas
UNI-Asia and Pacific
UNI-Europa

And it is also organized based on sectors:

UNI Commerce – the largest sector with over 5 million members
UNI Electricity
UNI Finance
UNI Graphical
UNI Hair & Beauty
UNI IBITS -Industry, business, services and IT
UNI Media, Entertainment and Arts
UNI Postal
UNI Property Services
UNI Social Insurance & Private Health Care
UNI Telecommunications
UNI Tourism.

Furthermore, there are 3 groups that cross all sectors:

UNI Women
UNI Youth
UNI Professional & Managerial