Abstract
True social progress demands structural transformation—shifting employment and production toward higher-productivity, decent-job sectors. This brief places trade unions at the centre of that transformation. It explains how unions can help ensure that productivity gains translate into better jobs, living wages, and formalization through collective bargaining, policy engagement, and social dialogue. The brief presents an integrated framework linking industrial and sectoral strategies, labour rights and institutions, and pro-employment macroeconomic policies. It positions trade unions as both torchbearers and sentinels of a just transformation—steering economies toward inclusion, equity, sustainability, and resilience, while upholding workers’ rights and advancing social justice.