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 in some cases common ownership. (Full article...)

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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...)

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September in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

September 01 - Walter Reuther was born; William Z. Foster died; International Brotherhood of Boilermakers was formed; Working America was founded
September 02 - Federal troops intervened in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 in the U.S.; Franz Leopold Neumann died; the Rock Springs massacre occurred in 1885 in the U.S.
September 04 - The Textile workers strike of 1934 began in the U.S.; former unionist Francisco Largo Caballero became prime minister of Spain; Thomas R. Donahue was born
September 05 - Victor Gotbaum was born; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn died
September 06 - Johan Nygaardsvold was born
September 07 - Southampton Dock strike of 1890 began in the U.K.; Ela Bhatt was born; Cornelius Shea was born
September 08 - The Delano grape strike began in 1965 in the U.S.; Kenneth Yablonski died; Ben Gold was born
September 09 - John Mitchell died; the Hanapepe massacre occurred in 1924 in the Hawaii
September 10 - Lattimer massacre occurred in the U.S.
September 11 - Russell Crowell died
September 12 - Tom Mooney was born; George L. Berry was born
September 13 - Amado V. Hernández was born; Carlos Bulosan died; George Hardy died
September 14 - Albert Shanker was born; the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act became law in the U.S.; the U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 ended in the U.S.; Leon J. Davis died; the German Trade Union of the Police was founded in 1950; James Duncan died
September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny occurred in 1931 in the U.K.; the Free Workers' Union of Germany was founded in 1919
September 16 - The 2004–05 NHL lockout began in the U.S. and Canada; the Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed a first contract with the Mt. Olive Pickle Company in the U.S.
September 17 - Miguel Contreras was born; David Dubinsky died; the National Federation of Federal Employees was formed
September 18 - Sandra Feldman died; James Scullin was born; Teamsters for a Democratic Union was founded; Thomas E. Scanlon was born; Mary Lee died
September 19 - Joe Glazer died; the National Football League Players Association struck in 1982 in the U.S.
September 20 - Lewis B. Schwellenbach was born; Sam Church was born; Nathan Feinsinger was born; the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union was founded
September 21 - John White died; Arlene Holt Baker became the first African-American officer of the AFL–CIO in 2007
September 22 - Steel strike of 1919 began in the U.S.; the Winter of Discontent began in the U.K. as workers struck Ford
September 23 - The Sydney Twelve were arrested in 1916 in Australia
September 24 - The Workers Trade Union Law is passed in Bahrain
September 25 - The Atomic Trades and Labor Council was founded; the Health Professionals and Allied Employees conducted its first strike in 1979 in the U.S.
September 26 - The Temple University Graduate Students Association was founded
September 27 - The Santa Barbara News-Press unionization effort began in the U.S.; the Change to Win Federation was formed
September 28 - Alice Mahon was born
September 29 - The Liverpool dockers' strike began in 1995 in the UK.
September 30 - Ignatius Wolfington died; the first legal version of Solidarity was formed in 1985 in Poland

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that shortly after a missile strike on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters, Oleksiy Danilov said that the fleet could be "sliced up like a salami" at a later date?
... that Guyanese trade unionist Philomena Sahoye-Shury was nicknamed "Fireball" due to her "outspoken and forthright stance on the workers' behalf"?
... that John P. Morris won a strike by hiding pigeons in fur coats?
... that on February 3, 1986, African Independence Party leaders Adama Touré and Adama Touré were released from detention?
... 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 the American Society of Marine Engineers was a company union established to supplant its labor union counterpart?

Related Portals

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

Selected Quote

"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."

— César Chavez.

Did you know

...that Indian trade unionist Dutta Samant led an estimated 200,000 workers on a year-long strike in 1982, causing the exodus of the textile mill industry from Mumbai?
...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 labor union activist Sam Pollock, who helped lead the Auto-Lite Strike, is the grandfather of noted experimental filmmaker Damon Packard?

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