Portal:Organized Labour

Introduction

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 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, safe working conditions 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 in some cases common ownership. (Full article...)

Selected article

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action such as strikes. Central to the act was a ban on company unions. The act was written by Senator Robert F. Wagner, passed by the 74th United States Congress, and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The National Labor Relations Act seeks to correct the "inequality of bargaining power" between employers and employees by promoting collective bargaining between trade unions and employers. The law established the National Labor Relations Board to prosecute violations of labor law and to oversee the process by which employees decide whether to be represented by a labor organization. It also established various rules concerning collective bargaining and defined a series of banned unfair labor practices, including interference with the formation or organization of labor unions by employers. The act does not apply to certain workers, including supervisors, agricultural employees, domestic workers, government employees, and independent contractors.

The NLRA was strongly opposed by conservatives and members of the Republican Party, but it was upheld in the Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., decided April 12, 1937. The 1947 Taft–Hartley Act amended the NLRA, establishing a series of labor practices for unions and granting states the power to pass right-to-work laws. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

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

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Warren Kilbourne led a strike against a professional football team because he was not paid for participation in a charity game?
... that a lightning strike on the St. George Utah Temple was interpreted by Latter-day Saint officials as a beyond-the-grave request from a former church leader to change the design?
... that Russian pianist Pavel Kushnir died on a hunger strike after his arrest for anti-war videos posted on a YouTube channel with five subscribers?
... that the execution of Burkinabé trade union leader Soumane Touré was prevented by the intervention of his childhood friend, then-president Thomas Sankara?
... that members of the Sole Front for Women's Rights staged a hunger strike outside the Mexican president's official residence?
... that Thames lightermen would pull their barges up to the Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe to collect their wages?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor."

— A. Philip Randolph.

Did you know

...that Linda Chavez-Thompson was the first woman, colored person, and Hispanic elected an officer of the AFL–CIO?
...that the 1998 Puerto Rican general strike paralyzed the island for two days, when 500,000 people took to the streets to protest against privatizing the Puerto Rico Telephone Company?
...that the first company union in the United States was created by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in response to the bad publicity generated by the Ludlow Massacre?

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