Some countries, such as Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, and the other Nordic countries, have strong, centralized unions, where every type of industry has a specific union, which are then gathered in large national union confederations.
The LO has about 1.5 million members (including pensioners), which is a sixth of Sweden's population (Swedish blue-collar density in 2000 was 83% and in 2019 60%; the total density of blue-collar + white-collar employees in 2019 was 68%).
In addition, there are two other Finnish union confederations for more educated workers, with combined membership of approximately one million.
Union membership, however, tends to be concentrated in some specific areas, especially the public sector.
Unions in some sectors, such as public transportation (e.g. SNCF and RATP), are likely to enter well-publicized strikes.