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
Industrial unionism is a labour union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. Advocates of industrial unionism value its contributions to building unity and solidarity, many suggesting the slogans, "an injury to one is an injury to all" and "the longer the picket line, the shorter the strike."
Industrial unionism contrasts with craft unionism, which organizes workers along lines of their specific trades, i.e., workers using the same kind of tools, or doing the same kind of work with approximately the same level of skill, even if this leads to multiple union locals (with different contracts, and different expiration dates) in the same workplace. Read more...
July in Labor History
Significant dates in labour history.
- July 01 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 began in the U.S.; the Regina Riot occurred during the On-to-Ottawa Trek in Canada in 1935; Lee Pressman was born; P. H. McCarthy died; the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia was founded; the Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–11 ended in the U.S.
- July 02 - William J. McCarthy was born; Edward Ikem Okeke died; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees
- July 03 - The United States Army began suppression of the American Railway Union during the Pullman Strike in 1894
- July 04 - The Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention came into force
- July 05 - "Bloody Thursday" occurred during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike in the U.S.
- July 06 - Peter J. McGuire was born; the Homestead Strike culminated with a battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers
- July 07 - Eugene V. Debs was arrested during the Pullman Strike in 1894; the 1998 Puerto Rican general strike began
- July 08 - Jesse Simons died
- July 09 - Jackie Presser died; the Transport Workers Union of America won the "Squeegee Strike" at the IRT in 1935
- July 10 - Sidney Hillman died; George W. Taylor was born; Donald Richberg was born
- July 11 - Frank Duffy died; Sigurd Lucassen was born
- July 12 - The British Columbia Teachers' Federation was founded; Arnold Miller died; Clara Lemlich died; Edgar Nixon was born; the Bisbee Deportation occurred in the U.S. in 1917
- July 13 - The U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 began
- July 14 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in the U.S.
- July 15 - The Steel strike of 1959 began in the U.S.; Set Persson died; Michael Costa was born; the Vancouver Police Union was founded
- July 16 - Frank Rudolph Crosswaith was born
- July 17 - The Cape Breton coal strike of 1981 began in Canada
- July 18 - William J. McCarthy defeated Weldon Mathis as Teamsters president in 1988; Robert Georgine was born; the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, one of the two primary labour conventions of the ILO, came into force
- July 19 - The Hatch Act of 1939 was extended to cover state and local government workers in the U.S.; Benjamin Gitlow died; Rhoda Williams died
- July 20 - The Newsboys' strike of 1899 began
- July 22 - Patrick J. Campbell was born; the 2004–05 NHL lockout ended in the U.S. and Canada
- July 23 - Emma Tenayuca died
- July 24 - The 1952 steel strike ended in the U.S.; Ben Gold died; the Alliance for Labor Action is formed
- July 25 - Farrell Dobbs was born; the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters announced their intention to leave the AFL–CIO; labor attorney Arthur Goldberg resigned as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
- July 26 - Elias Motsoaledi was born; William Trenwith died; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, banning workplace discrimination based on disability, became law
- July 27 - The Polish film Man of Iron was released in 1981
- July 28 - Harry Bridges was born; the 1913 Paterson silk strike ended in the U.S.; Florence Cohen was born
- July 29 - The Sailors' Union of the Pacific was formed; the United Food and Commercial Workers disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO
- July 30 - Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in 1975; the Arizona copper mine strike of 1983 began in the U.S.
- July 31 - Edward T. Hanley resigned as president of HERE after a corruption scandal
Selected Quote
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"To a right-winger, unions are awful. Why do right-wingers hate unions? Because collective bargaining is the power that a worker has against the corporation. Right-wingers hate that." | 
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— Janeane Garofalo |
Did you know...
- ... 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 a Let's Save Togo protest rally in August 2012 called for a week-long sex strike by women to encourage men to oppose Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé?
- ... that 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden has inspired 20,000 students around the world to strike for climate change activism?
- ... that Women Wage Peace held a 50-day hunger strike outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's formal residence in 2015?
- ... that Irish suffragette Cissie Cahalan argued against gender-segregated trade unions?
- ... that Kevin Rashid Johnson was charged with inciting a riot for organizing a prison strike that may or may not have happened?
Selected image
Exaggerated 19th century engraving showing flames and smoke following the Haymarket riot.
Union members picketing recent NLRB rulings outside the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters in November 2007.
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.
The front page of the Union Record on the Seattle General Strike of 1919.
Wilma B. Liebman, chair, NLRB.
The Ludlow massacre monument located in Ludlow, Colorado, United States.
Strike leaders at the Paterson silk strike of 1913. From left, Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood.
Knights of Labor Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly.
Protesters barricade the street on June 22 during the 2006 Oaxaca protests.
Barges set ablaze by steelworkers during the Homestead strike in 1892.
- UMWA Former HQ 2008.jpg
Former headquarters of the United Mine Workers of America and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 900 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C., in 200.
William Green, president of the AFL–CIO from 1924 to 1952.
Empty Gare du Nord train station during the November 2007 strikes in France.
Detail of monument to the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963.
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.
Breaker boys, child laborers, working in a U.S. coal mine in 1911.
J. Warren Madden, the first Chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
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.
- Nyctransitstrikesign.jpg
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) notice of subway closure during the 2005 New York City transit strike.
Cripple Creek, Colo., under martial law, during the 1894 strike.
Public and Commercial Services Union members on strike in Manchester 2006.
Registered nurses on strike in 2006 outside Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
- 8marchrallydhaka (55).jpg
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.
Memorial marker for the Bay View Tragedy.
Striking workers march moments before the Swedish military opened fire, killing five workers during the Ådalen shootings.
Striking I.W.W. members confront Massachusetts National Guard troops in Boston, during the Lawrence textile strike in 1912.
Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg general strike, June 21, 1919.
Mounted police chase demonstrators through Vancouver's East End during the Battle of Ballantyne Pier in 1935.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Albert Shanker.
Big Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Strike sign used by the German Train Drivers' Union in the German national rail strike of 2007.
Picket signs at the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
Shields used by striking workers at the Carnegie Steel Works during the Homestead Strike in 1892.
United Mine Workers of America poster circa 1902.
Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois National Guard troops in Chicago, Illinois, during the Pullman Strike in 1894.
- Guatepepsi0885.jpg
Camp put up by striking Pepsi-Cola workers, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, 2008.
During World War II, a female aircraft worker checks electrical assemblies at the Vega Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California.
Political cartoon about the Coal Strike of 1902 from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Illustration from the Brisbane Worker newspaper condemning the brutality of the Queensland Police on Black Friday during the 1912 Brisbane General Strike.
George Meany, former leader of the AFL–CIO.
Union elections with an illegal firing, 1951 to 2007.
- 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.
Armed vigilantes deport striking copper miners during the Bisbee Deportation in Bisbee, Arizona, July 12, 1917.
National Federation of Federal Employees officials sign a collective bargaining agreement with the U.S. 8th Army in October 2002.
- Marcha-obrera-Argentina-2005.jpg
Union members march in Argentina on Human Rights Day in December 2005. The signs read "Worker rights are human rights..
AFL–CIO unions protest outside Verizon headquarters in Philadelphia using a giant inflatable rat.
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.
Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, and his wife, circa 1908.
Striking teamsters armed with pipes battle police in the streets during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934.
- Western Federation of Miners-Is Colorado in America.jpg
The Western Federation of Miners' famous flyer entitled "Is Colorado in America?".
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