Although union membership is not compulsory, about threefifths of employed persons belong to one of the fifteen major labor unions. These fifteen unions constitute the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund--ÖGB). The total membership was more than 1.6 million persons at the end of 1991.

The fifteen unions making up the federation represent four major groups: nine of the unions represent skilled and unskilled workers organized by industry, including farm and forestry workers four of the unions represent public employees, including transport and communications workers one of the unions serves the arts and professions and the last union, the second largest in membership, represents private white-collar salaried employees. Because the latter is the only union not organized on industry lines, all wage earners in an enterprise ordinarily belong to the same union. The smallest union, the Union of Arts, Journalism, and Professions, had 16,310 registered members in 1989. In the same year, the largest union, the Union of Commercial, Clerical, and Technical Employees, had 340,348 registered members.

Data as of December 1993