Introduction
- 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 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 American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 60 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers. The AFL-CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of progressive and pro-labor policies.
The AFL-CIO was formed in 1955 when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged after a long estrangement. Union membership in the US peaked in 1979, when the AFL-CIO's affiliated unions had nearly twenty million members. From 1955 until 2005, the AFL-CIO's member unions represented nearly all unionized workers in the United States. Several large unions split away from AFL-CIO and formed the rival Change to Win Federation in 2005, although a number of those unions have since re-affiliated, and many locals of Change to Win are either part of or work with their local central labor councils. The largest unions currently in the AFL-CIO are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) with approximately 1.7 million members, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with approximately 1.4 million members, and United Food and Commercial Workers with 1.2 million members. (Full article...)
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
More Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that after being arrested for organizing a general strike in 1920, S. Girinis was sent to the Soviet Union following a Soviet-Lithuanian exchange of political prisoners?
- ... 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 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 56-foot-tall (17 m) monument to the theologian Samuel Rutherford near his parish church in Anwoth was badly damaged by a lightning strike five years after its construction?
- ... that the 2016 Jim Beam strike was the first labor strike in the company's history?
- ... that the Russian airstrike on Kyiv TV Tower (video featured) killed Yevhenii Sakun, one of at least 14 civilian journalists killed in the line of duty during the Russo-Ukrainian War?
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- Our main duty is to consider the needs of others. If we become alive to this duty, there will be no unjustly treated people in our midst, and we, in turn, shall not be treated unjustly. Our day-to-day motto should be: "Your problems are also my problems." We must extend our friendship and strengthen our solidarity.
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— Anna Walentynowicz. |
Did you know
- ...that on April 29, 1899, trade unionists in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho killed two men by steering an explosives-laden train to the site of a mill, in order to protest the firing of fellow union members?
- ...that during the 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike, 21 people were killed and the strike ended only after union leaders were accused of taking bribes?
- ... that Mieczysław Jagielski negotiated the agreement which recognized Solidarity as the first independent trade union within the Eastern Bloc?
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