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 delegate staff of the trade union representation in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members in 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...)

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The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action such as strikes. Central to the act was a ban on company unions. The act was written by Senator Robert F. Wagner, passed by the 74th United States Congress, and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The National Labor Relations Act seeks to correct the "inequality of bargaining power" between employers and employees by promoting collective bargaining between trade unions and employers. The law established the National Labor Relations Board to prosecute violations of labor law and to oversee the process by which employees decide whether to be represented by a labor organization. It also established various rules concerning collective bargaining and defined a series of banned unfair labor practices, including interference with the formation or organization of labor unions by employers. The act does not apply to certain workers, including supervisors, agricultural employees, domestic workers, government employees, and independent contractors.

The NLRA was strongly opposed by conservatives and members of the Republican Party, but it was upheld in the Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. The 1947 Taft–Hartley Act amended the NLRA, establishing a series of labor practices for unions and granting states the power to pass right-to-work laws. (Full article...)

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February in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

February 01 – The Paterson silk strike of 1913 began in the U.S.; the San Diego free speech fight began in the U.S. in 1912
February 02 – Shannon J. Wall died
February 03 – George Becker died; José Vitoriano died
February 04 – Bill Haywood was born; John Mitchell was born; Benyoucef Benkhedda died
February 05 – Neil Aggett died; Ludvik Buland died
February 06 – The Seattle General Strike of 1919 began in the U.S.; Elba Esther Gordillo was born; William Hutcheson was born
February 07 – The Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 began in the U.S.; the 2006 labour protests in France began; Paul Mattick died
February 08 – Ong Teng Cheong died; Jakob Kaiser was born
February 09 – George Lippard died; the Supreme Court of Canada issued its reasoning in Ontario Human Rights Commission v. Etobicoke
February 10 – 11 strikers were killed during the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963 in Canada; Peter Smith died; the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO was founded; the film Blue Collar was released
February 11 – The Oxnard strike of 1903 began in the U.S.; the UAW won a first contract at GM, ending the Flint sit-down strike; Nellie Quander was born; Mark Hewitson died; Clyde Cameron was born; the Memphis sanitation strike began
February 12 – John L. Lewis was born
February 13 – The Sons of Vulcan win the first contract in the U.S. iron and steel industry and the first union contract of any kind in American history; Margaretta Scott was born; Dennis McDermott died; John Healey was born
February 14 – The Asbestos Strike began in 1949 in Australia; the Winter of Discontent ended in the U.K. in 1979; Jimmy Hoffa was born; Michael Sacco was born; the Confederation of State and Municipal Employees of Iceland was founded; Mary Lee was born
February 15 – The 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute began; Baldemar Velasquez was born; Alice Henry died
February 16 – The Griviţa Strike of 1933 began in Romania in 1933; William Quesse died; the National Hockey League cancelled its season in the middle of the 2004-05 NHL lockout; James Orange died;
February 17 – Harry Van Arsdale, Jr. died
February 18 – Peter J. McGuire died; George Campbell was born
February 19 – The U.S. Supreme Court decided Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority and NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc.; I. C. Frimu died
February 20 – Chittabrata Majumdar died
February 21 – Patrick J. Campbell died; Phil Hare was born; Felix Aylmer was born
February 22 – Albert Shanker died; David Dubinsky was born; the Democratic Organization of African Workers' Trade Union was founded; Poncke Princen died
February 23 – Douglas Fraser died; Graduate Employees Together – University of Pennsylvania was formed; John Holman died; Kate Barnard died; Benyoucef Benkhedda was born; the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association was founded
February 24 – The General Union of Algerian Workers was founded; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Muller v. Oregon; John P. Frey was born; Marshall W. Mason was born
February 25 – Edgar Nixon died; Las Aguas Bajan Turbias, an Argentine film about workers forming a trade union, debuted in the U.S.
February 26 – John Holman was born; the Southern California supermarket strike of 2003–04 ended in the U.S.; Frederick Hayday died
February 27 – The Labour Party was founded in the U.K. in 1909; Mark Hewitson died; the first Spanish Trade Union Organisation congress was held; the European Court of Human Rights decided ASLEF v. United Kingdom; Tom Williamson, Baron Williamson died
February 28 – The University of Miami 2006 custodial workers' strike began in the U.S.; John White was born; Hal C. Banks was born; Lim Chin Siong was born; John La Rose died; Tommy Lewis died; Ted Theodore died; Arthur Hayday died
February 29 – A. L. Lloyd was born

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that in the 1951 court case Kuzych v White, on appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal, five law lords of the British Judicial Committee ruled in favour of a Communist-led trade union?
... that Surinamese trade unionist Louis Doedel was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital by the governor-general for 43 years?
... that the day after returning to Atlanta following his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. joined picketers who were on strike against Scripto?
... that a 1994 lightning strike in Egypt led to 469 deaths after oil tanks were ignited and flooded the village of Dronka with burning fuel?
... that the Danish Trade Union Confederation, the country's largest trade union centre, promotes a model in which pay and working conditions are negotiated without state involvement?
... 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?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

"Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts."

— Molly Ivins.

Did you know

...that the free trade union SLOMR, established in opposition to the communist Romanian government, was suppressed one year before the creation of Solidarity, its more successful Polish counterpart?
...that the anarcho-syndicalist Argentine Workers' Federation was the country's first national labor confederation?
...that the Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers is a union that represents pizza-delivery drivers, and is one of the first unions in the United States to operate entirely over the Internet?

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