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 (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organisation of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees (rules governing promotions, just-cause conditions for termination) and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.

Trade unions typically fund their head office and legal team functions through regularly imposed fees called union dues. The union representatives in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members through internal democratic elections. The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, bargains with the employer on behalf of its members, known as the rank-and-file, and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining agreements) with employers.

Unions may organize a particular section of skilled or unskilled workers (craft unionism), a cross-section of workers from various trades (general unionism), or an 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...)

Selected article

The General Confederation of Labour (French: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.

It is the largest in terms of votes (32.1% at the 2002 professional election, 34.0% in the 2008 election), and second largest in terms of membership numbers.

Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995–96 (it had more than doubled when François Mitterrand was elected president in 1981), before increasing today to between 700,000 and 720,000 members, slightly fewer than the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT). (Full article...)

List of selected articles

May in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

May 01 - In 1884 Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States. Two years later, in 1886, the general strike which eventually won the eight-hour workday in the United States, began. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries; Thomas Lewis died; the 1946 Pilbara strike occurred in Australia; International Woodworkers of America merged with the International Association of Machinists; Mike Watson was born; the Taksim Square massacre occurred in Turkey in 1977
May 02 - Nazi Germany outlawed free trade unions and established the German Labour Front; Bernice Fisher died
May 03 - The International Typographical Union was founded; the Bay View Tragedy occurred in 1886 in the U.S.
May 04 - Haymarket Riot occurred in 1886 in the U.S.
May 05 - John Sweeney was born; Jackie Presser stepped down as Teamsters president due to cancer; James Duncan was born
May 06 - Miguel Contreras died; Frank Fitzsimmons died; Ludvik Buland was born
May 07 - Miguel Contreras was born; Maurice Hutcheson was born; David Sullivan was born
May 08 - Jerome Wurf was born; the Hard Hat riot occurred in the U.S. in 1970
May 09 - Elias Motsoaledi died; 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike began in the U.S.
May 10 - Isaac Theophilus Akunna Wallace-Johnson died; Walter Philip Reuther died; the 2008 Skorpion Zinc Strike began in Namibia
May 11 - William Konyha was born; Pullman Strike began in 1894 in the U.S.
May 12 - Coal Strike of 1902 began in the U.S.; the American Maritime Officers was founded
May 13 - Henk Sneevliet was born
May 14 - Arthur Moore (labor leader) was born; the Ådalen shootings occurred in Sweden in 1931
May 15 - Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum; Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 began; George Mock stepped down as president of the Teamsters after eight days; the Ulster Workers' Council Strike began in 1974 in Northern Ireland; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co.; Arthur Creech Jones was born
May 16 - The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 began in the U.S.; the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions was founded; the U.S. Supreme Court decided NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co.; A. Philip Randolph died
May 17 - The first Starbucks Workers Union was organized; former trade union leader Francisco Largo Caballero was deposed as prime minister of Spain
May 18 - Bill Haywood died; the Atlanta transit strike of 1950 began in the U.S.
May 19 - James P. Hoffa was born; the Battle of Matewan began in 1920 in the U.S.
May 21 - Cyrus S. Ching was born
May 22 - Agustín Tosco was born; the Steel Workers Organizing Committee was disbanded in 1942; the United Steel Workers of America was founded in 1942
May 23 - The "Battle of Toledo" occurred during the Auto-Lite Strike in 1934 in the U.S.
May 24 - The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals was founded; Peter J. Brennan was born
May 25 - Philip Murray was born; the Remington Rand strike of 1936–1937 began in the U.S.; Basdeo Panday was born; Will H. Daly was born
May 26 - Actors' Equity Association was founded; the Ohio Federation of Teachers was founded
May 27 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided In re Debs
May 29 - The Disney animators' strike began in 1941 in the U.S.; the Cordobazo uprising began in 1969 in Argentina; the 2006 TTC wildcat strike began in Canada
May 30 - William Sidell was born; the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 occurred in the U.S.; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association
May 31 - W. A. Boyle died

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... 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 "The Strike" (1954), about an American officer's turmoil in ordering an air strike on his own men, was rated as Rod Serling's best script he had written to date?
... that following the ban of its labour unions in 1934, the Romanian United Socialist Party would rely on its youth and women's wings for political action?
... that on March 2, 2022, 86 percent of workers in New York City's REI store voted in favor of the outdoor recreation retailer's first ever trade union, REI Union SoHo?
... that the 1985–86 Hormel meatpacking plant strike was the subject of both an Academy Award–winning film and a stage play by the Children's Theatre Company?
... that the 2016 Jim Beam strike was the first labor strike in the company's history?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth."

— Wendell Phillips.

Did you know

...that scandal erupted after the Department of Justice initiated prosecution of Jackie Presser only to abruptly end it once the press revealed Presser had been an informant for the FBI for over 10 years?
...that Douglas Fraser's lobbying and member mobilization were critical in convincing the U.S. Congress to provide $1.2 billion in loans to a near-bankrupt Chrysler in 1979?
...that the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan organised India's first May Day celebrations in 1923?

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