The World Organization of Workers (WOW) is an international trade union federation of national trade unions protecting and promoting the interests of workers in:

• administration
• commercial and technical services
• metal and electro industries
• financial institutions
• ITC sectors
• retail sectors
• graphic industries
• security services
• media
• other business services
• the informal economy

WOW is the new name of the former World Federation of Clerical Workers (WFCW) founded in September 1921 in Luxemburg.

WOW was founded as a Social Christian trade union and finds inspiration in the spiritual believe that man and universe were created by God or by persuasions coinciding with that. The increase of intercultural contacts provided opportunities for the WOW to expand and broaden its view with visions of other religious backgrounds. WOW does so in a joint attempt to build a world community based on freedom, dignity, justice and solidarity.

Core principles in the WOW vision are that national and international politics should be based on democratic values and institutions, that economy should serve all man, that although labour and capital are social-economic opposing forces they need to be reconciled as much as possible to the benefit of the development of a society of solidarity, social justice and peace. Conflicts between workers, employers and/or governments should therefore be solved by way of social dialogue and negotiations. The basic instrument for social peace is the collective labour agreement.

On the basis of these principles, WOW tries to support the struggle for the improvement of the moral and material working conditions, and through that raise the economic and social position of workers in the service sector. For that WOW strongly believes that an international pluralistic trade union movement is the best guarantee for the protection and promotion of the workers interests on national and international level.