Portal:Organized Labour

Introduction

Image created by Walter Crane to celebrate International Workers' Day (May Day, 1 May), 1889. The image depicts workers from the five populated continents (Africa, Asia, Americas, Australia and Europe) in unity underneath an angel representing freedom, fraternity and equality.

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 common ownership. (Full article...)

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Industrial unionism is a trade union organising 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. De Leon believed that militarized Industrial unions would be the vehicle of class struggle.

Industrial unionism contrasts with craft unionism, which organizes workers along lines of their specific trades. (Full article...)

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January in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

January 01 - The 1966 New York City transit strike began; the United Transportation Union was founded; the Swedish Trade Union Confederation was founded; Union Network International was founded; the Workplace Relations Act 1996 entered into force in Australia
January 02 - The Sago Mine disaster occurred in the 2006 in the U.S.
January 03 - The 1929 Australian timber workers' strike began; Guy Ryder was born
January 04 - The St. John's University strike of 1966–67 began in the U.S.; the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union merged in 1999 with the United Paperworkers International Union to form the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union
January 05 - The 1891 Australian shearers' strike began; the 1919 Spartacist uprising began in Berlin
January 07 - Edward T. Hanley died; A. P. T. James died
January 08 - SEIU Local 1.on was founded
January 09 - Maurice Hutcheson died; Sol Chick Chaikin was born
January 11 - The 1912 Lawrence textile strike began in the U.S.; Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union merged with the United Steelworkers; Bogdan Borusewicz was born
January 12 - Cornelius Shea died
January 14 - The Reesor Siding strike of 1963 began in Canada; Joseph Glimco was born
January 15 - Michael Sommer was born; the song "Solidarity Forever" is written; the Steel strike of 1959 ends in the U.S.
January 16 - Dutta Samant was murdered; Leonard Woodcock died; Daniel John O'Donoghue died
January 17 - Pablo Manlapit was born
January 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Moyer v. Peabody in 1909; Mary Kenney O'Sullivan died; the 1912 Brisbane general strike began in Australia; the Dublin Lock-out ended in 1914; Paul Keating was born; the Great Bombay textile strike began
January 19 - Thomas Kennedy died; Morris Kight died; Bill Andersen died; Annie Buller died
January 20 - The Tunisian General Labour Union was founded; trade unions launched the 2005 civil unrest in Belize; Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch was born; Bruce Nissen was born
January 21 - Edward T. Hanley was born; Bill Andersen was born; J. H. Thomas died; Nicholas Pollard Sr. died
January 22 - The United Mine Workers was founded; Terence V. Powderly was born; Andrew Furuseth died; Chea Vichea was murdered; Gyula Peidl died; Ong Teng Cheong died
January 23 - David Sullivan died; Nikolaus Gross died
January 24 - The Wapping dispute began in 1986 in the U.K.; Emil Rieve died; the 1977 Massacre of Atocha occurred in Spain; Henri Krasucki died; Herbert Hill was born; the Supreme Court of Canada issued its reasoning in R.W.D.S.U., Local 558 v. Pepsi-Cola Canada Beverages (West) Ltd.; the Alliance for Labor Action was dissolved
January 25 - The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association was founded; Matthew Woll was born; Chummy Fleming died
January 26 - Bernard Kleiman was born
January 27 - Samuel Gompers was born; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB; Ben Tillett died; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Adair v. United States; Frank Tudor was born
January 28 - Mike Quill died; Harry Lundeberg died; Mike Moore was born; James Scullin died
January 29 - The Timex strike began in 1993 in Scotland; Anna LoPizzo died; John M. Dunn died
January 30 - Edward Heitmann died
January 31 - The 1919 Battle of George Square occurred in Scotland; New Orleans fired all members of the United Teachers of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; Bob Semple died

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that members of the Trade Union Opposition Federation stormed the Copenhagen Stock Exchange?
... that M. Farooqui, who had been expelled from his studies for having organized a strike in 1940, received his Delhi University degree in a special convocation in 1989?
... that the opening day of a California TV station was affected by a strike when workers refused to cross a two-man picket line?
... that Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls was one of the leaders in the first successful effort to unionize Amazon warehouse workers in the United States?
... 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 on March 2, 2022, 86 percent of workers in New York City's REI store voted in favor of the outdoor recreation retailer's first ever trade union, REI Union SoHo?

Related Portals

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

Selected Quote

"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."

— Janeane Garofalo

Did you know

...that partly because of issues highlighed by the London matchgirls strike of 1888, the Salvation Army opened up its own match factory in Bow, London in 1891, which used harmless red phosphorus and paid better wages?
...that more than 200,000 railroad workers participated in the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886, and the strike's collapse directly led to the formation of the American Federation of Labor?
...that Irish American mob informant Danny Greene drove a green car, wore green jackets, and had his union office repainted and recarpeted in green?

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