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 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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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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May in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

May 01 - In 1884 Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States. Two years later, in 1886, the general strike which eventually won the eight-hour workday in the United States, began. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries; Thomas Lewis died; the 1946 Pilbara strike occurred in Australia; International Woodworkers of America merged with the International Association of Machinists; Mike Watson was born; the Taksim Square massacre occurred in Turkey in 1977
May 02 - Nazi Germany outlawed free trade unions and established the German Labour Front; Bernice Fisher died
May 03 - The International Typographical Union was founded; the Bay View Tragedy occurred in 1886 in the U.S.
May 04 - Haymarket Riot occurred in 1886 in the U.S.
May 05 - John Sweeney was born; Jackie Presser stepped down as Teamsters president due to cancer; James Duncan was born
May 06 - Miguel Contreras died; Frank Fitzsimmons died; Ludvik Buland was born
May 07 - Miguel Contreras was born; Maurice Hutcheson was born; David Sullivan was born
May 08 - Jerome Wurf was born; the Hard Hat riot occurred in the U.S. in 1970
May 09 - Elias Motsoaledi died; 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike began in the U.S.
May 10 - Isaac Theophilus Akunna Wallace-Johnson died; Walter Philip Reuther died; the 2008 Skorpion Zinc Strike began in Namibia
May 11 - William Konyha was born; Pullman Strike began in 1894 in the U.S.
May 12 - Coal Strike of 1902 began in the U.S.; the American Maritime Officers was founded
May 13 - Henk Sneevliet was born
May 14 - Arthur Moore (labor leader) was born; the Ådalen shootings occurred in Sweden in 1931
May 15 - Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum; Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 began; George Mock stepped down as president of the Teamsters after eight days; the Ulster Workers' Council Strike began in 1974 in Northern Ireland; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co.; Arthur Creech Jones was born
May 16 - The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 began in the U.S.; the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions was founded; the U.S. Supreme Court decided NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co.; A. Philip Randolph died
May 17 - The first Starbucks Workers Union was organized; former trade union leader Francisco Largo Caballero was deposed as prime minister of Spain
May 18 - Bill Haywood died; the Atlanta transit strike of 1950 began in the U.S.
May 19 - James P. Hoffa was born; the Battle of Matewan began in 1920 in the U.S.
May 21 - Cyrus S. Ching was born
May 22 - Agustín Tosco was born; the Steel Workers Organizing Committee was disbanded in 1942; the United Steel Workers of America was founded in 1942
May 23 - The "Battle of Toledo" occurred during the Auto-Lite Strike in 1934 in the U.S.
May 24 - The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals was founded; Peter J. Brennan was born
May 25 - Philip Murray was born; the Remington Rand strike of 1936–1937 began in the U.S.; Basdeo Panday was born; Will H. Daly was born
May 26 - Actors' Equity Association was founded; the Ohio Federation of Teachers was founded
May 27 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided In re Debs
May 29 - The Disney animators' strike began in 1941 in the U.S.; the Cordobazo uprising began in 1969 in Argentina; the 2006 TTC wildcat strike began in Canada
May 30 - William Sidell was born; the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 occurred in the U.S.; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association
May 31 - W. A. Boyle died

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 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 "The Strike" (1954), about an American officer's turmoil in ordering an air strike on his own men, was rated as Rod Serling's best script he had written to date?
... 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 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 the 1951 court case Kuzych v White, on appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal, five law lords of the British Judicial Committee ruled in favour of a Communist-led trade union?

Related Portals

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

Selected Quote

What labor everywhere wants, what it ought to have, and will someday demand and receive, is an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. As the laborer becomes more intelligent he will develop what capital he already possesses—that is the power to organize and combine for its own protection."

— Frederick Douglass.

Did you know

...that labor union activist Sam Pollock, who helped lead the Auto-Lite Strike, is the grandfather of noted experimental filmmaker Damon Packard?
...that when 400 RNs unionized with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals on July 19, 2007, it was the largest successful organizing effort among nurses in the state since 2000?
... that the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization in 1989 sought to end the assimilationist approach of the governments in dealing with indigenous peoples?

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