Effective trade union work helps strengthening state democracy; hence trade unions participate in forming a civil society. Trade union operations and development are important not only to trade union members but to the society in general. The aim of the research is to evaluate how sociopolitical factors affect Latvian trade union work, revealing the causes for the decreasing number of Latvian trade union members. The objectives of the research: to analyse scientific literature on the significance of the impact sociopolitical factors make on promoting trade union participation; to do an analysis of the empirical research results to come to conclusions about the effect of sociopolitical factors in regard to Latvian trade union work. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research has been made using scientific literature published in Latvia and other European Union countries as well as the United States of America. Research methods: theoretical methods: analysis of scientific literature and documents; empirical methods: media content analysis, and content analysis of interviews (year 2011) and express interviews (year 2015) with Latvian trade union chairpersons. It has been concluded in the research that there exist sociopolitical factors that restrict employees from participation in trade union activities: previous experience of social dialogue; over 20 years of neoliberal route of governmental policies; and frequent changes in the government, which promotes political instability in the country.