Portal:Organized Labour
Introduction
- 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 and Slavic 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
International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, or the first Monday in May.
Traditionally, 1 May is the date of the European spring festival of May Day. The International Workers Congress held in Paris in 1889 established the Second International for labor, socialist, and Marxist parties. It adopted a resolution for a "great international demonstration" in support of working-class demands for the eight-hour day. The 1 May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1 May 1886 and culminated in the Haymarket affair four days later. The demonstration subsequently became a yearly event. The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace".
The 1st of May, or first Monday in May, is a national public holiday in many countries, in most cases known as "International Workers' Day" or a similar name. Some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States and Canada, which celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September. In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated 1 May to "Saint Joseph the Worker". Saint Joseph is the patron saint of workers and craftsmen, among others. (Full article...)
October in Labor History
Significant dates in labour history.
- October 01 - The McNamara Brothers bombed the Los Angeles Times in 1910; Israel Kugler died
- October 02 - Peter J. Brennan died
- October 03 - J. H. Thomas was born; Clarence Gillis was born
- October 05 - The Hollywood Black Friday riot occurred during a set decorators' strike in 1945; the Winter of Discontent began in the United Kingdom in 1978; Tony Mazzocchi died
- October 06 - American Dream, a film about the 1985-86 strike at Hormel, debuted; the British Seafarers' Union was founded; the South African Democratic Teachers Union was founded
- October 07 - Joe Hill was born; the Structural Building Trades Alliance was formed; Joseph Labadie died
- October 08 - James Kirby died; Lee Batchelor died
- October 09 - The Taft–Hartley Act was invoked for the first time in U.S. history during the Steel strike of 1959; John McBride died; James J. Reynolds died
- October 10 - A series of general strikes began in 1995 in France
- October 11 - Joe Morris died; Joseph Lanza died
- October 12 - The German Confederation of Trade Unions was founded in Munich in 1949; the general strike began in the Nigerian Oil Crisis in 2004; Edward Grayndler was born
- October 13 - Sandra Feldman was born
- October 14 - Matthew Guinan was born; NASCAR union leader Curtis Turner died; Marcus Thrane was born
- October 15 - The International Seamen's Union was chartered by the AFL as the Seafarers International Union; the Confédération Française de l'Encadrement - Confédération Générale des Cadres was founded
- October 16 - I. C. Frimu was born
- October 17 - Giovanni Gronchi died
- October 18 - Pablo Iglesias was born
- October 19 - William Coaker was born; Bill Morris was born
- October 20 - George Becker was born; William Hutcheson died; Eugene V. Debs died; Weldon Mathis died
- October 21 - Gary Chaison is born
- October 22 - The Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions was founded; Jean-Pierre Timbaud died
- October 23 - The Coal strike of 1902 ended in the U.S.; James Petrillo died; Robert Courtleigh was born; Arthur Creech Jones died
- October 25 - John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL–CIO; Catherine J. Bell was born; John F. Henning was born
- October 27 - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil
- October 28 - The Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling in Newfoundland (Treasury Board) v. N.A.P.E.; Charlie Gordon was born
- October 29 - The International Labour Organization met for the first time; the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers merged with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association in 1957; Kevin Barron was born; James Orange was born
- October 31 - 1923 Victorian police strike began in Australia; Maine AFL–CIO was founded; William O'Brien died; Mikhail Tomsky was born; Antonio Davis was born; Cecil Roberts was born
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- ... 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 the Russian airstrike on Kyiv TV Tower (video featured) killed Yevhenii Sakun, one of at least 14 civilian journalists killed in the line of duty during the Russo-Ukrainian War?
- ... that Italian anarchists founded the first trade union for bakers in Argentina?
- ... that Ana Sigüenza was the first woman to be the general secretary of a national trade union center in Spain?
- ... that Sting wrote "We Work the Black Seam" because he felt that "the case for coal was never put to the nation" during the 1984–85 British miners' strike, which began 40 years ago today?
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Selected Quote
- "Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their men there would have been no unions."
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— Stanley Baldwin |
Did you know
- ...that the AFL–CIO Organizing Institute has trained over 10,000 trade union organizers since its 1989 founding?
- ...that Richard Nixon credited Tony Mazzocchi with being the primary force behind enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970?
- ...that the three-day S.S. California strike in 1936 triggered a wave of strikes by merchant seamen and led to the founding of the National Maritime Union?
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