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 or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.

The trade union movement (trade unionism) consists of the collective organisation of working people developed to represent and campaign for better working conditions and treatment from their employers and, by the implementation of labour and employment laws, from their governments. The standard unit of organisation is the trade union.

The political labour movement in many countries includes a political party that represents the interests of employees, often known as a "labour party" or "workers' party". Many individuals and political groups otherwise considered to represent ruling classes may be part of, and active in, the labour movement.

The labour movement developed as a response to the industrial capitalism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, at about the same time as socialism. (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.

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

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October in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

October 01 - The McNamara Brothers bombed the Los Angeles Times in 1910; Israel Kugler died
October 02 - Peter J. Brennan died
October 03 - J. H. Thomas was born; Clarence Gillis was born
October 05 - The Hollywood Black Friday riot occurred during a set decorators' strike in 1945; the Winter of Discontent began in the United Kingdom in 1978; Tony Mazzocchi died
October 06 - American Dream, a film about the 1985-86 strike at Hormel, debuted; the British Seafarers' Union was founded; the South African Democratic Teachers Union was founded
October 07 - Joe Hill was born; the Structural Building Trades Alliance was formed; Joseph Labadie died
October 08 - James Kirby died; Lee Batchelor died
October 09 - The Taft–Hartley Act was invoked for the first time in U.S. history during the Steel strike of 1959; John McBride died; James J. Reynolds died
October 10 - A series of general strikes began in 1995 in France
October 11 - Joe Morris died; Joseph Lanza died
October 12 - The German Confederation of Trade Unions was founded in Munich in 1949; the general strike began in the Nigerian Oil Crisis in 2004; Edward Grayndler was born
October 13 - Sandra Feldman was born
October 14 - Matthew Guinan was born; NASCAR union leader Curtis Turner died; Marcus Thrane was born
October 15 - The International Seamen's Union was chartered by the AFL as the Seafarers International Union; the Confédération Française de l'Encadrement - Confédération Générale des Cadres was founded
October 16 - I. C. Frimu was born
October 17 - Giovanni Gronchi died
October 18 - Pablo Iglesias was born
October 19 - William Coaker was born; Bill Morris was born
October 20 - George Becker was born; William Hutcheson died; Eugene V. Debs died; Weldon Mathis died
October 21 - Gary Chaison is born
October 22 - The Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions was founded; Jean-Pierre Timbaud died
October 23 - The Coal strike of 1902 ended in the U.S.; James Petrillo died; Robert Courtleigh was born; Arthur Creech Jones died
October 25 - John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL–CIO; Catherine J. Bell was born; John F. Henning was born
October 27 - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil
October 28 - The Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling in Newfoundland (Treasury Board) v. N.A.P.E.; Charlie Gordon was born
October 29 - The International Labour Organization met for the first time; the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers merged with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association in 1957; Kevin Barron was born; James Orange was born
October 31 - 1923 Victorian police strike began in Australia; Maine AFL–CIO was founded; William O'Brien died; Mikhail Tomsky was born; Antonio Davis was born; Cecil Roberts was born

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that physicist Joseph Gelders was kidnapped and beaten, probably by members of the Ku Klux Klan, for his civil rights and labor organizing activities?
... that the Women's National Basketball Players Association was the first trade union for professional women athletes?
... 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 the 1937 Fleischer Studios strike in New York City was the first major labor strike in the animation industry?
... that up to 129,000 Canadian federal workers went on strike?
... that the 1985–86 Hormel meatpacking plant strike was the subject of both an Academy Award–winning film and a stage play by the Children's Theatre Company?

Related Portals

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

Selected Quote

"The first thing a dictator does is abolish the free press. Next he abolishes the right of labor to go on strike."

— George Seldes

Did you know

...that Arnold Miller defeated W. A. Boyle in 1972 for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America after Boyle murdered union reformer Joseph Yablonski?
...that the free trade union SLOMR, established in opposition to the communist Romanian government, was suppressed one year before the creation of Solidarity, its more successful Polish counterpart?
... that Harold I. Cammer represented his legal partner, Nathan Witt, before HUAC in 1950 when his former legal partner, Lee Pressman, accused Witt of being a communist?

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