Only 31% of people across OECD countries believe the political system lets people like them have a say, according to the OECD’s 2026 Trust Survey, and those who feel they have no say trust their national government far less. At the OECD Global Forum on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy on 12 October, TUAC General Secretary Veronica Nilsson put forward the trade union answer: social dialogue.
In the last decade alone, citizens have faced multiple crises, from the pandemic to soaring energy and living costs and mounting inequalities. In this context, rebuilding trust takes genuine influence over decisions and evidence that government responds, TUAC insists. Social dialogue offers both, through a permanent channel to governments and public institutions.
Trade unions stress that this influence starts at work and reaches far beyond it. People involved in decisions at work gain confidence they can carry into civic and political life, and union membership narrows the gap in who takes part in politics.
But trade unions and the workers they represent face rising repression, TUAC warns. The ITUC Global Rights Index 2026 reports attacks on free speech and assembly in a record 50% of countries, while workers suffered violence in 32%, up from 26% a year earlier. These attacks come on top of the spread of platform work, self-employment and other precarious forms of work, which make it harder for workers to join or form a union.
That matters because social dialogue can also help protect democracy itself, TUAC points out. In 2015, Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the critical role trade unions, employers’ organisations and civil society organisations played in ensuring a peaceful democratic transition. Unions have played a similar part in Spain, South Africa, Chile and Poland.
Tripartite social dialogue has a crucial role to play in policymaking. When governments, trade unions and employers work together to agree the reforms that are needed, those reforms are more likely to succeed, and that helps rebuild trust.
TUAC calls on all governments to make freedom of association, collective bargaining and social dialogue part of their strategy to strengthen democracy, not just their labour market policy – starting with ratification and full implementation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
