Dranish Federation of Labour

The Dranish Federation of Labour (DFL) is the largest federation of trade unions in Dranland and boasts of being "the voice of Dranish labour". It counts 354 trade unions as affiliates and represents over 8 million members - which is more than half of the country's unionised workforce. Annual conferences elect a General Secretary and a 12-member Executive Committee. As of June 3410, the current General Secretary is Valerie Mercado.

DFL has a reputation for being more militant and politically radical than its' rival trade union federation, the Dranish Congress of Union Labour (DCUL). It also has a reputation for in-fighting, especially when it comes to demarcation disputes where rival affiliated unions both assert the right to represent a certain group of workers. Most notorious in this regard was the long-running squabble between the Dranish Engineers' Union (DEU) and the Union of Dranish Engineers (UDE) over which of the organisation should represent engineers employed by the Dranmobile car factory in eastern Loren. There have also been fierce clashes between the Dranish Electrician's Union (DEU) and the Dranish Union of Office Workers (DUOW) over whether DUOW members should be able to change light bulbs or whether such a task should be strictly reserved for members of the DEW.

DFL members are concentrated in the public sector and in the more traditional industries, such as transport, coal, steel and manufacturing. With the advent of public sector cuts and the decline of traditional industries, the strength of DFL and its affiliated unions has somewhat declined over recent centuries - as has its political power. In response to this, the DFL has encouraged smaller unions to increase their clout and trim their running costs by merging with other unions to form larger unions. This has generally worked well, although some of the mergers and attempted mergers have been acrimonious. Nevertheless, the trend towards "super-unions" seems likely to continue.

More vigorous efforts have been made in recent decades to unionise workers in the less traditionally unionised sectors of the economy, especially amongst shop workers, but progress has been slow. As part of its modernising agenda, DFL has also attempted to offer its workers a range of financail services, including unemployment insurance, health insurance, legal insurance and cheap loans.

Politically the DFL prizes its independence from political parties and declares its willingness to work with governments of any political colour. Inevitably, however, it tends to form better relationships with sympathetic left-wing parties and governments than less sympathetic right-wing ones. The DFL contributes funds to political campaign groups, but scrupulously avoids directly funding political parties. It is no secret, however, that most of the unions affiliated to DFL donate generous sums of money to the Democratic Socialist Party, Green Solidarity and Partido Accion Ciudadana. In fact, many trade unionists active in the DFL and its affiliated unions have gone on to enjoy political careers in left-wing politics.