The literature dealing with trade union democracy often concentrates on the representation of members by the leadership. Yet relatively little attention is given to the situation which can arise if members' interests become increasingly heterogeneous and/or are formulated contradictorily or even antagonistically by union spokesmen. The debate taking up 'new' social cleavages indicates that there may be a new kind of social conflict between those preferring an increased material standard and those giving environmental issues higher priority. As regards the case of the debate on nuclear energy in Swedish and German unions I wish to demonstrate how this conflict appears in trade unions and affects trade union government. This article compares the impact of the nuclear energy issue on the Swedish and German trade unions.
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