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
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...)
December in Labor History
Significant dates in labour history.
- December 01 - W. A. Boyle was born; the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union was dissolved
- December 02 - The Professional Footballers' Association was founded
- December 03 - Tom Mooney died
- December 04 - The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations were dissolved; George L. Berry died; the 2007 South Africa miners' strike occurred
- December 05 - The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL–CIO
- December 06 - Santa Marta massacre occurred in Colombia in 1928; the Bituminous coal strike of 1977–78 began in the U.S.; the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance was founded
- December 07 - The International Union of Operating Engineers was founded; the Fiji Teachers Union was founded; Vere Bird was born
- December 08 - Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions disbanded to from the American Federation of Labor; Anil Moonesinghe died; Bernice Fisher was born
- December 09 - Thomas Hepburn died; the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers was dissolved; Bob Hawke was born; Selig Perlman was born; Pablo Iglesias died
- December 10 - Jean Maitron is born; the American Federation of Teachers won its first collective bargaining election
- December 11 - The Union of Democratic Mineworkers was founded
- December 12 - Ron Carey died; Michael Ratchford died; Anthony Provenzano died; Charles Ballam died; Tommy Lewis was born
- December 13 - Samuel Gompers died; Bernard Kleiman died; William Spence died; the U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. Wheeler
- December 15 - George Hardy was born; George W. Taylor died; Chico Mendes was born; Mark Hewitson was born; Clinton Jencks died
- December 16 - The Rothbury riot occurred in 1929 in Australia
- December 17 - Clarence Gillis died; Mustafa al-Hallaj died
- December 18 - The Transport and General Workers' Union and Amicus voted to merge into a new union, Unite, in 2006; the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers was formed; the Supreme Court of Canada issued its landmark ruling in RWDSU v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd.; Douglas Fraser was born; Randi Weingarten was born
- December 19 - Frank Keys Foster was born; the Ford Strike of 1945 in Canada ended; B. T. Ranadive was born
- December 20 - The 2005 New York City transit strike began; two of the Sydney Twelve were executed in Australia in 1916; the Supreme Court of Canada issued its landmark ruling in Dunmore v. Ontario (Attorney General); the Occupational Safety and Health Act became law in the U.S. in 1970; Richard Cordtz was born
- December 21 - William Usery Jr. was born
- December 22 - Chico Mendes died; the 2005 New York City transit strike ended
- December 23 - 1929 Australian timber workers' strike began; Gunnar Sträng was born; Derek Simpson was born; Ella Vogelaar was born
- December 24 - Ed Boyce died; the Electrical Trades Union of Australia was formed; Italian Hall Disaster in 1913
- December 25 - Ed Hochuli was born; Bartholomew Ulufa'alu was born; Philip Vera Cruz was born
- December 26 - A series of general strikes began in 1996 in South Korea; Dave Beck died
- December 27 - Cyrus S. Ching died; Free Workers' Union of Germany was founded; William Konyha died; John La Rose was born; Makhan Singh was born
- December 28 - Agnes Nestor died
- December 29 - Flint sit-down strike began in 1936; the Indian Labour Organization was founded; Ted Theodore was born
- December 30 - Bill Tytla died
- December 31 - The International Typographical Union was dissolved; Joseph Yablonski was murdered on the orders of United Mine Workers president W. A. Boyle; John Garden died
More Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that up to 129,000 Canadian federal workers went on strike?
- ... that in 1977, Appalachian folk singer Phyllis Boyens performed at a Christmas benefit concert to support Kentucky coal miners who had been on strike for 17 months?
- ... that members of the Trade Union Opposition Federation stormed the Copenhagen Stock Exchange?
- ... that following the ban of its labour unions in 1934, the Romanian United Socialist Party would rely on its youth and women's wings for political action?
- ... that during World War I the organ of evacuated Polish railway workers in Moscow denounced the trade unions of the Warsaw–Vienna railway as "separatists"?
- ... that labor lawyer Dick Moss argued the 1975 case which resulted in the establishment of free agency in Major League Baseball?
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"Walter Reuther is the most dangerous man in Detroit because no one is more skillful in bringing about the revolution without seeming to disturb the existing forms of society."
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— George W. Romney |
Did you know
- ...that the Free Association of German Trade Unions was the only trade union in Germany to reject the Burgfrieden, a civil truce between the socialist movement and the German state during World War I?
- ...that the Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before the Romanian Revolution of 1989?
- ... 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"?
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