Increasingly, the name “Global Unions” is being used for the major institutions of the international trade union movement. Global Unions comprises:

• the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which represents most national trade union centres. Most individual unions relate to the ICFTU through their national union centre.
  
• the ten Global Union Federations (GUFs),the international representatives of unions organising in specific industry sectors or occupational groups (EI, ICEM, IFJ, ITGLWF, PSI, ITF, IFBWW, IMF, IUF, & UNI – for full names, see below).
  
• the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD

An individual union will usually belong to a national union centre in its country, which will then affiliate to a world body such as the ICFTU. The same individual union will also usually affiliate to a GUF relevant to the industry where it has members. Often, unions with members in many different industries will belong to more than one GUF.

Global Unions is also the name of this website, which is jointly owned and managed by the 12 Global Unions organisations.

The website gives its members the ability to draw the attention of their partners, their members, and the press to the news they produce and the campaigns they run.