Portal:Organized Labour

Introduction

Image created by Walter Crane to celebrate International Workers' Day (May Day, 1 May), 1889. The image depicts workers from the five populated continents (Africa, Asia, Americas, Australia and Europe) in unity underneath an angel representing freedom, fraternity and equality.

A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve common goals, such as protecting the integrity of their trade, improving safety standards, and attaining better wages, benefits (such as vacation, health care, and retirement), and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by solidarity among workers. Trade unions typically fund the formal organization, head office, and legal team functions of the trade union through regular fees or union dues. The delegate staff of the trade union representation in the workforce are made up of workplace volunteers who are appointed by members in democratic elections.

The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, occupational health and safety standards, complaint procedures, rules governing status of employees including promotions, just cause conditions for termination, and employment benefits.

Unions may organize a particular section of skilled workers (craft unionism), a cross-section of workers from various trades (general unionism), or attempt to organize all workers within a particular industry (industrial unionism). The agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers. Trade unions traditionally have a constitution which details the governance of their bargaining unit and also have governance at various levels of government depending on the industry that binds them legally to their negotiations and functioning.

Originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, students, apprentices or the unemployed. Trade union density, or the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union, is highest in the Nordic countries. (Full article...)

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A trade union rally in Sydney, 2018

Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage, caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. In most countries, strike actions were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more power than workers. Most Western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilize the rule of a particular political party or ruler; in such cases, strikes are often part of a broader social movement taking the form of a campaign of civil resistance. Notable examples are the 1980 Gdańsk Shipyard, and the 1981 Warning Strike, led by Lech Wałęsa. These strikes were significant in the long campaign of civil resistance for political change in Poland, and were an important mobilizing effort that contributed to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of communist party rule in eastern Europe. (Full article...)

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March in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

March 01 - Joseph Curran was born; the S.S. California strike began in 1936 in the U.S.; the South Korean railroad strike of 2006 began; the Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union was founded; Tinos Rusere died; Clinton Jencks was born
March 02 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signed a first contract with U.S. Steel; the Confederation of Labour of Kazakhstan was founded
March 03 - William Green was born; Frances Perkins became U.S. Labor Secretary and the first female member of the Cabinet; Joseph Yablonski was born
March 04 - Shannon J. Wall was born; the formation of SLOMR was announced in Romania; Sam Pollock died; Art Babbitt died; the South Korean railroad strike of 2006 ended; Joseph Ashby died
March 05 - The UK miners' strike of 1984–1985 began; Thomas Devin Reilly died
March 06 - The Sailors' Union of the Pacific was founded; Richard Frankensteen was born; James Thompson Bain was born; the 1912 Brisbane general strike ended in Australia
March 07 - The 2003 Broadway Musicians Strike began in the U.S.
March 08 - Buzz Hargrove was born; Rhoda Williams died
March 09 - Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–1911 began; Ernest Bevin was born; Amir Peretz was born; John Golding was born
March 10 - Morgan Tsvangirai was born
March 11 - Ron Todd was born; Jack Egerton was born
March 12 - Lane Kirkland was born; the first employer agreed to union demands, effectively ending the Lawrence textile strike in the U.S. in 1912; Edward Grayndler died; Andrew Furuseth was born
March 13 - Ami Chandra died; Irmã Dulce died; Paul Mattick was born
March 14 - The Asbestos Strike began in Canada in 1949; the film Salt of the Earth was released in 1953; Michael Foster was born
March 15 - A major insider-trading scandal was exposed at the Union Labor Life Insurance Company in the U.S.; William McFetridge died; William Broadhead died
March 16 - The Bydgoszcz events began in Poland in 1981; Lloyd McBride was born; James Petrillo was born; the United Federation of Teachers was founded; Samizu Matsuki was born
March 17 - Edward J. McElroy was born; P. H. McCarthy was born; Edward William O'Sullivan was born
March 18 - The U.S. postal strike of 1970 began Seymour Martin Lipset was born
March 19 - The Bituminous Coal Strike of 1977-1978 ended in the U.S.
March 20 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Teamsters v. Terry; the General Union of Moroccan Workers was founded; the Structural Building Trades Alliance was founded
March 21 - The Australian Industrial Relations Commission decided the Three certified agreements case in 2005; the U.S. Supreme Court decided National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab; Alice Henry was born
March 22 - Ron Carey was born; Matthew Guinan died; Roy Lee Williams was born; Thomas Helliker died
March 23 - Coalition of Labor Union Women was founded; Christiane Brunner was born; Kate Bronfenbrenner was born; Edward Lamb died; Will H. Daly died; the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions was founded; Lou Cunningham died; Basawon Singh (Sinha) was born; Sigurd Lucassen died
March 25 - The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire occurred; the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation was founded; Paul Mackney was born
March 26 - Hugh Mulzac was born; the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees was founded; James Callaghan died
March 27 - James Callaghan was born; WorkChoices entered into force in Australia in 2006
March 29 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish; John Ducker was born
March 30 - The New York State United Teachers is founded
March 31 - César Chávez was born; GMB was founded; MEA-MFT was founded; Mei Li Vos was born

Jan•Feb•Mar•Apr•May•Jun•Jul•Aug•Sep•Oct•Nov•Dec

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the owner of Hawaii television station KHBC-TV compared an effort to unionize the station to "socialism"?
... that after Kellogg's announced plans to replace striking workers in 2021, members of r/antiwork organized to submit fake applications to the company's hiring system?
... that the 1943 Rolls-Royce strike at the Merlin engine plant in Hillington, Scotland, was the only major strike for equal pay in the United Kingdom during the Second World War?
... that Louie Cullen, known as "the last of the suffragettes", started a prison hunger strike after her arrest for a 1908 attempt to rush into the House of Commons to promote women's right to vote in the UK?
... that during the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003, all but one of Venezuelan chocolatier María Fernanda Di Giacobbe's ten businesses went bankrupt?
... that Jennifer Bates led thousands of Amazon warehouse workers to petition a vote for a union in Bessemer, Alabama?

Related Portals

Selected image

Image 1The Ludlow massacre monument located in Ludlow, Colorado, United States.
Image 2Striking teamsters armed with pipes battle police in the streets during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934.
Image 3Lewis Hine's 1920 image "Power house mechanic working on steam pump," which shows a working class young American man with wrench in hand, hunched over, surrounded by the machinery that defines his work.
Image 4Striking I.W.W. members confront Massachusetts National Guard troops in Boston, during the Lawrence textile strike in 1912.
Image 5Shields used by striking workers at the Carnegie Steel Works during the Homestead Strike in 1892.
Image 6United Mine Workers of America poster circa 1902.
Image 7Members of the United Steelworkers in Ohio phone bank other union members to educate them about critical issues in the 2008 election in the U.S.
Image 8May Day Rally in Mumbai, India, 2004.
Image 9Australian industrial relations legislation national day of protest, 2005.
Image 10Public and Commercial Services Union members on strike in Manchester 2006.
Image 11Mary Harris "Mother" Jones.
Image 12The Western Federation of Miners' famous flyer entitled "Is Colorado in America?".
Image 13Registered nurses on strike in 2006 outside Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Image 14Big Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Image 15AFL–CIO unions protest outside Verizon headquarters in Philadelphia using a giant inflatable rat.
Image 16Detail of monument to the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963.
Image 17Political cartoon about the Coal Strike of 1902 from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Image 18The front page of the Union Record on the Seattle General Strike of 1919.
Image 19Breaker boys, child laborers, working in a U.S. coal mine in 1911.
Image 20Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Image 21George Meany, former leader of the AFL–CIO.
Image 22Armed vigilantes deport striking copper miners during the Bisbee Deportation in Bisbee, Arizona, July 12, 1917.
Image 23Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg general strike, June 21, 1919.
Image 24Samuel Gompers.
Image 25Joe Hill.
Image 26Picket signs at the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
Image 27Striking workers march moments before the Swedish military opened fire, killing five workers during the Ådalen shootings.
Image 28American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Albert Shanker.
Image 29Mounted police chase demonstrators through Vancouver's East End during the Battle of Ballantyne Pier in 1935.
Image 30Illustration from the Brisbane Worker newspaper condemning the brutality of the Queensland Police on Black Friday during the 1912 Brisbane General Strike.
Image 31An AFL–CIO protest of Rite Aid, with Rev. Mark Reisinger (Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania), Bill George, and Richard Bloomingdale.
Image 32William Green, president of the AFL–CIO from 1924 to 1952.
Image 33During World War II, a female aircraft worker checks electrical assemblies at the Vega Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California.
Image 34Memorial marker for the Bay View Tragedy.
Image 35Richard Trumka.
Image 36The Place de la Sorbonne in Paris is closed by police during the 2006 labour protests in France.
Image 37National Federation of Federal Employees officials sign a collective bargaining agreement with the U.S. 8th Army in October 2002.
Image 38Camp put up by striking Pepsi-Cola workers, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, 2008.
Image 39Wilma B. Liebman, chair, NLRB.
Image 40Rally in Dhaka, organized by Jatiyo Nari Shramik Trade Union Kendra (National Women Workers Trade Union Centre), an organization affiliated with the Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra.
Image 41Barges set ablaze by steelworkers during the Homestead strike in 1892.
Image 42Union elections with an illegal firing, 1951 to 2007.
Image 43Exaggerated 19th century engraving showing flames and smoke following the Haymarket riot.
Image 44Protesters barricade the street on June 22 during the 2006 Oaxaca protests.
Image 45A. Philip Randolph.
Image 46Strike leaders at the Paterson silk strike of 1913. From left, Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood.
Image 47Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois National Guard troops in Chicago, Illinois, during the Pullman Strike in 1894.
Image 48Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, and his wife, circa 1908.
Image 49J. Warren Madden, the first Chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
Image 50Knights of Labor Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly.
Image 51John L. Lewis (right, President of the United Mine Workers, confers with Thomas Kennedy (left), UMW Secretary-Treasurer of the UMW, and a UMW official at the War Labor Board in 1943 about a coal miners' strike.
Image 52Cripple Creek, Colo., under martial law, during the 1894 strike.
Image 53Union members picketing recent NLRB rulings outside the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters in November 2007.
Image 54Former headquarters of the United Mine Workers of America and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 900 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C., in 200.
Image 55Strike sign used by the German Train Drivers' Union in the German national rail strike of 2007.
Image 56Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) notice of subway closure during the 2005 New York City transit strike.
Image 57Union members march in Argentina on Human Rights Day in December 2005. The signs read "Worker rights are human rights..
Image 58Empty Gare du Nord train station during the November 2007 strikes in France.

Selected Quote

The hospital strikers have demonstrated that you don't get a job done unless you show the Man you're not afraid...If you're not willing to pay that price, then you don't deserve the rewards or benefits that go along with it."

— Malcolm X.

Did you know

...that partly because of issues highlighed by the London matchgirls strike of 1888, the Salvation Army opened up its own match factory in Bow, London in 1891, which used harmless red phosphorus and paid better wages?
...that the Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 is the only time in American history when a governor used the state militia to support rather than suppress a strike?
... that after the Avondale Mine disaster, legislation was passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that made Pennsylvania the first U.S. state to have laws regarding mine safety?

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