Portal:Organized Labour
Introduction
Today, unions are usually formed for the purpose of securing improvement in pay, benefits, working conditions, or social and political status through collective bargaining by the increased bargaining power wielded by the banding of the workers. 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, 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.
Selected article
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social justice and promote decent work by setting international labour standards. It was the first specialised agency of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states: 186 of the 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands are members of the ILO. The tripartite structure is unique to the ILO where representatives from the government, employers and employees openly debate and create labour standards.
The International Labour Office is the permanent secretariat of the International Labour Organization. It is the focal point for International Labour Organization's overall activities, which it prepares under the scrutiny of the Governing Body and under the leadership of the Director-General.
The ILO employs some 2,700 officials from over 150 nations at its headquarters in Geneva, and in around 40 field offices around the world. Among these officials, 900 work in technical cooperation programmes and projects. Read more...
September in Labor History
Significant dates in labour history.
- September 01 - Walter Reuther was born; William Z. Foster died; International Brotherhood of Boilermakers was formed; Working America was founded
- September 02 - Federal troops intervened in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 in the U.S.; Franz Leopold Neumann died; the Rock Springs massacre occurred in 1885 in the U.S.
- September 04 - The Textile workers strike of 1934 began in the U.S.; former unionist Francisco Largo Caballero became prime minister of Spain; Thomas R. Donahue was born
- September 05 - Victor Gotbaum was born; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn died
- September 06 - Johan Nygaardsvold was born
- September 07 - Southampton Dock strike of 1890 began in the U.K.; Ela Bhatt was born; Cornelius Shea was born
- September 08 - The Delano grape strike began in 1965 in the U.S.; Kenneth Yablonski died; Ben Gold was born
- September 09 - John Mitchell died; the Hanapepe massacre occurred in 1924 in the Hawaii
- September 10 - Lattimer massacre occurred in the U.S.
- September 11 - Russell Crowell died
- September 12 - Tom Mooney was born; George L. Berry was born
- September 13 - Amado V. Hernández was born; Carlos Bulosan died; George Hardy died
- September 14 - Albert Shanker was born; the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act became law in the U.S.; the U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 ended in the U.S.; Leon J. Davis died; the German Trade Union of the Police was founded in 1950; James Duncan died
- September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny occurred in 1931 in the U.K.; the Free Workers' Union of Germany was founded in 1919
- September 16 - The 2004–05 NHL lockout began in the U.S. and Canada; the Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed a first contract with the Mt. Olive Pickle Company in the U.S.
- September 17 - Miguel Contreras was born; David Dubinsky died; the National Federation of Federal Employees was formed
- September 18 - Sandra Feldman died; James Scullin was born; Teamsters for a Democratic Union was founded; Thomas E. Scanlon was born; Mary Lee died
- September 19 - Joe Glazer died; the National Football League Players Association struck in 1982 in the U.S.
- September 20 - Lewis B. Schwellenbach was born; Sam Church was born; Nathan Feinsinger was born; the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union was founded
- September 21 - John White died; Arlene Holt Baker became the first African-American officer of the AFL–CIO in 2007
- September 22 - Steel strike of 1919 began in the U.S.; the Winter of Discontent began in the U.K. as workers struck Ford
- September 23 - The Sydney Twelve were arrested in 1916 in Australia
- September 24 - The Workers Trade Union Law is passed in Bahrain
- September 25 - The Atomic Trades and Labor Council was founded; the Health Professionals and Allied Employees conducted its first strike in 1979 in the U.S.
- September 26 - The Temple University Graduate Students Association was founded
- September 27 - The Santa Barbara News-Press unionization effort began in the U.S.; the Change to Win Federation was formed
- September 28 - Alice Mahon was born
- September 29 - The Liverpool dockers' strike began in 1995 in the UK.
- September 30 - Ignatius Wolfington died; the first legal version of Solidarity was formed in 1985 in Poland
Selected Quote
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What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures." | 
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— Samuel Gompers. |
Did you know...
- ... that when Sisir Roy died in 1960, his sister Sudha Roy took over his post as general secretary of the United Trade Union Congress?
- ... that Women Wage Peace held a 50-day hunger strike outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's formal residence in 2015?
- ... that Kevin Rashid Johnson was charged with inciting a riot for organizing a prison strike that may or may not have happened?
- ... that the lack of breakfast pushed Mab Copland Lineman to fight against a labor union?
- ... that American trade unionist George Baldanzi worked out of Greensboro, North Carolina, as part of Operation Dixie because it was close to many textile plants?
- ... that the Guatemalan labor organization Committee for Peasant Unity once led a strike that forced a minimum wage increase of nearly 200%?
Selected image
Political cartoon about the Coal Strike of 1902 from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Memorial marker for the Bay View Tragedy.
J. Warren Madden, the first Chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
George Meany, former leader of the AFL–CIO.
United Mine Workers of America poster circa 1902.
Union elections with an illegal firing, 1951 to 2007.
Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg general strike, June 21, 1919.
Barges set ablaze by steelworkers during the Homestead strike in 1892.
Mounted police chase demonstrators through Vancouver's East End during the Battle of Ballantyne Pier in 1935.
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Rally 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.
John 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.
AFL–CIO unions protest outside Verizon headquarters in Philadelphia using a giant inflatable rat.
Exaggerated 19th century engraving showing flames and smoke following the Haymarket riot.
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Camp put up by striking Pepsi-Cola workers, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, 2008.
Empty Gare du Nord train station during the November 2007 strikes in France.
Protesters barricade the street on June 22 during the 2006 Oaxaca protests.
Strike sign used by the German Train Drivers' Union in the German national rail strike of 2007.
Wilma B. Liebman, chair, NLRB.
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Former headquarters of the United Mine Workers of America and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 900 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C., in 200.
Breaker boys, child laborers, working in a U.S. coal mine in 1911.
Strike leaders at the Paterson silk strike of 1913. From left, Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood.
Members 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.
Big Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Cripple Creek, Colo., under martial law, during the 1894 strike.
Striking teamsters armed with pipes battle police in the streets during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934.
Knights of Labor Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly.
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Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) notice of subway closure during the 2005 New York City transit strike.
- Abgesprerrter Place de la Sorbonne 18 Maerz 2006.jpg
The Place de la Sorbonne in Paris is closed by police during the 2006 labour protests in France.
Public and Commercial Services Union members on strike in Manchester 2006.
An AFL–CIO protest of Rite Aid, with Rev. Mark Reisinger (Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania), Bill George, and Richard Bloomingdale.
During World War II, a female aircraft worker checks electrical assemblies at the Vega Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California.
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The Western Federation of Miners' famous flyer entitled "Is Colorado in America?".
Union members picketing recent NLRB rulings outside the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters in November 2007.
Lewis 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.
Striking workers march moments before the Swedish military opened fire, killing five workers during the Ådalen shootings.
National Federation of Federal Employees officials sign a collective bargaining agreement with the U.S. 8th Army in October 2002.
Striking I.W.W. members confront Massachusetts National Guard troops in Boston, during the Lawrence textile strike in 1912.
William Green, president of the AFL–CIO from 1924 to 1952.
Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, and his wife, circa 1908.
The Ludlow massacre monument located in Ludlow, Colorado, United States.
Shields used by striking workers at the Carnegie Steel Works during the Homestead Strike in 1892.
Armed vigilantes deport striking copper miners during the Bisbee Deportation in Bisbee, Arizona, July 12, 1917.
The front page of the Union Record on the Seattle General Strike of 1919.
Registered nurses on strike in 2006 outside Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Detail of monument to the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Albert Shanker.
Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois National Guard troops in Chicago, Illinois, during the Pullman Strike in 1894.
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Union members march in Argentina on Human Rights Day in December 2005. The signs read "Worker rights are human rights..
Illustration from the Brisbane Worker newspaper condemning the brutality of the Queensland Police on Black Friday during the 1912 Brisbane General Strike.
Picket signs at the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
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