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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The One Big Union is an idea originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries amongst trade unionists to unite the interests of workers and offer solutions to all labour problems.

Unions initially organized as craft unions. Workers were organized by their skill: carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, each into their respective unions. Capitalists could often divide craft unionists along these lines in demarcation disputes. As capitalist enterprises and state bureaucracies became more centralized and larger, some workers felt that their institutions needed to become similarly large. A simultaneous disenchantment with the perceived weakness of craft unions caused many unions to organize along industrial lines. The idea of the "one big union" is championed by anarchist syndicalists to organize effectively.

As envisioned by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which for many years prior to 1919 had been associated with the concept, One Big Union was not just the idea that all workers should be organized into one big union. In the 1911 pamphlet One Big Union, IWW supporters Thomas J. Hagerty and William Trautmann enumerated two goals: One Big Union needed to "combine the wage-workers in such a way that it can most successfully fight the battles and protect the interests of the workers of today in their struggles for fewer hours of toil, more wages and better conditions," and it also "must offer a final solution of the labor problem – an emancipation from strikes, injunctions, bull-pens, and scabbing of one against the other." (Full article...)

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March in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

March 01 - Joseph Curran was born; the S.S. California strike began in 1936 in the U.S.; the South Korean railroad strike of 2006 began; the Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union was founded; Tinos Rusere died; Clinton Jencks was born
March 02 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signed a first contract with U.S. Steel; the Confederation of Labour of Kazakhstan was founded
March 03 - William Green was born; Frances Perkins became U.S. Labor Secretary and the first female member of the Cabinet; Joseph Yablonski was born
March 04 - Shannon J. Wall was born; the formation of SLOMR was announced in Romania; Sam Pollock died; Art Babbitt died; the South Korean railroad strike of 2006 ended; Joseph Ashby died
March 05 - The UK miners' strike of 1984–1985 began; Thomas Devin Reilly died
March 06 - The Sailors' Union of the Pacific was founded; Richard Frankensteen was born; James Thompson Bain was born; the 1912 Brisbane general strike ended in Australia
March 07 - The 2003 Broadway Musicians Strike began in the U.S.
March 08 - Buzz Hargrove was born; Rhoda Williams died
March 09 - Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–1911 began; Ernest Bevin was born; Amir Peretz was born; John Golding was born
March 10 - Morgan Tsvangirai was born
March 11 - Ron Todd was born; Jack Egerton was born
March 12 - Lane Kirkland was born; the first employer agreed to union demands, effectively ending the Lawrence textile strike in the U.S. in 1912; Edward Grayndler died; Andrew Furuseth was born
March 13 - Ami Chandra died; Irmã Dulce died; Paul Mattick was born
March 14 - The Asbestos Strike began in Canada in 1949; the film Salt of the Earth was released in 1953; Michael Foster was born
March 15 - A major insider-trading scandal was exposed at the Union Labor Life Insurance Company in the U.S.; William McFetridge died; William Broadhead died
March 16 - The Bydgoszcz events began in Poland in 1981; Lloyd McBride was born; James Petrillo was born; the United Federation of Teachers was founded; Samizu Matsuki was born
March 17 - Edward J. McElroy was born; P. H. McCarthy was born; Edward William O'Sullivan was born
March 18 - The U.S. postal strike of 1970 began Seymour Martin Lipset was born
March 19 - The Bituminous Coal Strike of 1977-1978 ended in the U.S.
March 20 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Teamsters v. Terry; the General Union of Moroccan Workers was founded; the Structural Building Trades Alliance was founded
March 21 - The Australian Industrial Relations Commission decided the Three certified agreements case in 2005; the U.S. Supreme Court decided National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab; Alice Henry was born
March 22 - Ron Carey was born; Matthew Guinan died; Roy Lee Williams was born; Thomas Helliker died
March 23 - Coalition of Labor Union Women was founded; Christiane Brunner was born; Kate Bronfenbrenner was born; Edward Lamb died; Will H. Daly died; the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions was founded; Lou Cunningham died; Basawon Singh (Sinha) was born; Sigurd Lucassen died
March 25 - The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire occurred; the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation was founded; Paul Mackney was born
March 26 - Hugh Mulzac was born; the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees was founded; James Callaghan died
March 27 - James Callaghan was born; WorkChoices entered into force in Australia in 2006
March 29 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish; John Ducker was born
March 30 - The New York State United Teachers is founded
March 31 - César Chávez was born; GMB was founded; MEA-MFT was founded; Mei Li Vos was born

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the murder of Luisa Lallana sparked a general strike in Rosario, Argentina?
... that when journalist and trade unionist Nisn Pups was released from jail, the Communist Party of Lithuania instructed him to change his name?
... that Italian anarchists founded the first trade union for bakers in Argentina?
... that members of the Trade Union Opposition Federation stormed the Copenhagen Stock Exchange?
... that John Sterling, Anthony Harrison and Chuck Compton were all signed by the Green Bay Packers as replacement players because of a players' strike during the 1987 NFL season?
... 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?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

Nothing moves in the city, without our say-so. Let the bosses curse, let the papers cry. This morning I saw it happen with these ancient eyes of mine. Without our say-so nothing moves but the tide!"

— Rob Rosenthal, written during the Seattle General Strike of 1919.

Did you know

...that lobbying by the International Seamen's Union led to the abolition of the practice of imprisoning seamen who deserted their ship in the United States in 1915?
...that in 1922, the Chicago Police Department attempted to frame local labor leader Fred Mader for murder?
... that Barack Obama nominated former United Mine Workers official Joe Main to serve as the head of Mine Safety and Health Administration?

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