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.

The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considered an instance of class conflict.

In trade unions, workers campaign for higher wages, better working conditions and fair treatment from their employers, and through the implementation of labour laws, from their governments. They do this through collective bargaining, sectoral bargaining, and when needed, strike action. In some countries, co-determination gives representatives of workers seats on the board of directors of their employers.

Political parties representing the interests of workers campaign for labour rights, social security and the welfare state. They are usually called a labour party (in English-speaking countries), a social democratic party (in Germanic countries), a socialist party (in Romance countries), or sometimes a workers' party.
Though historically less prominent, the cooperative movement campaigns to replace capitalist ownership of the economy with worker cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, and other types of cooperative ownership. This is related to the concept of economic democracy.

The labour movement developed as a response to capitalism and the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, at about the same time as socialism. The early goals of the movement were the right to unionise, the right to vote, democracy and the 40-hour week. As these were achieved in many of the advanced economies of western Europe and north America in the early decades of the 20th century, the labour movement expanded to issues of welfare and social insurance, wealth distribution and income distribution, public services like health care and education, social housing and common ownership. (Full article...)

Selected article

The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers represents workers in Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of industries, including primary and fabricated metals, paper, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires, transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers, museums, and health care.

The United Steelworkers is currently affiliated with the AFL–CIO in the United States and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in Canada as well as several international union federations. On July 2, 2008, the United Steelworkers signed an agreement to merge with the United Kingdom and Ireland–based union Unite to form a new global union entity called Workers Uniting.

As of 2023, the International President of the United Steelworkers is David McCall, who was installed as President after the death of Tom Conway. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

April in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

April 01 - Burston Strike School began in 1914 the U.K.; the 1972 Major League Baseball strike began in the U.S. and Canada; the 1980 New York City transit strike began; the U.S. Supreme Court decided NLRB v. Truck Drivers Local 449; the Federation of Unions of South Africa was founded; the Allied Pilots Association was founded; the Loray Mill strike began in the U.S. in 1929; Sol Chick Chaikin died
April 02 - Weldon Mathis was born; Eugene Hanley was born; the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike ended in 1995
April 03 - Percy Wells died
April 04 - The On-to-Ottawa Trek began in Canada in 1935; William Quesse was born; the 2006 Minor League Baseball umpire strike began in the U.S.
April 06 - Rose Schneiderman was born; the 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike began as the Teamsters engaged in a sympathy strike; B. T. Ranadive died
April 07 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Lochner v. New York; Basawon Singh (Sinha) died
April 08 - The 1998 Australian waterfront dispute began
April 09 - John H. Dent died; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Adkins v. Children's Hospital and Bunting v. Oregon; Chris Watson was born; President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in anticipation of the 1952 steel strike; Natascha Engel was born; Thomas Jackson was born
April 10 - Harold J. Gibbons was born; Dolores Huerta was born; Joseph Diescho was born; George Lippard was born; Edward J. Carlough was born; Lee Batchelor was born; Anna Walentynowicz died
April 11 - The 1980 New York City transit strike ended
April 12 - Tom Addison was born; the U.S. Supreme Court decided NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.; the Auto-Lite strike began in 1934 in the U.S.; the Union Label Department, AFL–CIO was founded; the Memphis sanitation strike ended; the Queensland Council of Unions was founded; the Sons of Vulcan was founded
April 13 - Henk Sneevliet died; the Laborers' International Union of North America was founded
April 14 - Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca was born; Marvin Miller was born; Ernest Bevin died
April 15 - A. Philip Randolph was born; Pablo Manlapit died; the American Federation of Teachers was founded; "Black Friday" occurred in 1921 in the U.K.; Aleksei Gastev died; the Trade Unions Forum was founded; Margaretta Scott was born
April 16 - Joseph Havelock Wilson died
April 17 - Manwel Dimech died
April 18 - Joseph Labadie was born; R. J. Thomas died
April 20 - Gro Harlem Brundtland was born; The Ludlow Massacre occurred in 1914 in the U.S.; the International Harvester strike of 1979–80 ended
April 21 - The Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894 began in the U.S.; the First Employment Contract is repealed in France in 2006
April 22 - Frederick Nicholas Zihlman died
April 23 - Russell Crowell was born; the Canadian Labour Congress was formed; Cesar Chavez died; the Hock Lee bus riots occurred in 1955 in Singapore; Edward Lamb was born
April 25 - Arnold Miller was born
April 26 - United Trade Union Centre (Lanin Sarani) was founded
April 28 - Workers' Memorial Day; Roy Lee Williams died; Bob White was born; Greg Combet was born; Jerry Horan died; Joseph Glimco died
April 29 - The Coeur d'Alene miners' dispute of 1899 occurred in the U.S.

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Marco van Basten's strike in the UEFA Euro 1988 Final was described as "perhaps the most iconic goal in UEFA European Championship history"?
... that the murder of Luisa Lallana sparked a general strike in Rosario, Argentina?
... that up to 129,000 Canadian federal workers went on strike?
... that a strike by uranium miners in 1974 in Ontario led to the creation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act?
... that the British Tychon missile was developed from a Barnes Wallis concept to keep strike aircraft safe while dropping nuclear bombs?
... that when journalist and trade unionist Nisn Pups was released from jail, the Communist Party of Lithuania instructed him to change his name?

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living."

— Mary Harris Jones.

Did you know

...that firing of Anna Walentynowicz, a Polish free trade union activist, was one of the events that led to the giant wave of strikes in Poland and eventually the creation of Solidarity?
...that Pierre Monatte was one of the few French trade-unionists and members of the French Left to oppose the Union sacrée national bloc during World War I?
... that in 1960, top US labor mediator Joseph F. Finnegan said employers shouldn't be stuck with "antiquated rules" nor should workers hit by automation be handled as "a robot to be cast on a trash heap"?

More Did You Know?

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