Trade unions in Luxembourg: Residual institutional strength and declining mobilization capacity

Luxembourg has undergone far- reaching economic and demographic changes over the past four decades. The years of economic crisis and of the demise of the steel industry from 1975 to 1985 were followed by twenty ‘splendid’ years with annual average GDP growth of 5.3 per cent (Zahlen 2012). The main driver of economic growth during these years was Luxembourg’s role as a financial hub, whose development was fuelled by lax financial and fiscal regulations (Pieretti et al. 2007; Zucman 2015). As a result of the growth of financial activities, the labour force considerably diversified, increasing from 154,000 in 1981 to more than 440,000 in 2020. Today, 46 per cent of jobs are filled by cross- border workers from neighbouring countries, 27 per cent by resident immigrants, with a large majority coming from other member states of the European Union (EU), and 27 per cent by native residents. (...)