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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Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in the relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions. (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 Bal Krishna Kaul, who served as the first Home and Finance minister of Ajmer State, undertook a 22-day hunger strike in Ajmer Jail?
... that up to 129,000 Canadian federal workers went on strike?
... that Russian pianist Pavel Kushnir died on a hunger strike after his arrest for anti-war videos posted on a YouTube channel with five subscribers?
... 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 murder of Luisa Lallana sparked a general strike in Rosario, Argentina?
... that in 1977, Appalachian folk singer Phyllis Boyens performed at a Christmas benefit concert to support Kentucky coal miners who had been on strike for 17 months?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

One man quitting out of 50,000 is nothing or even ten men or one hundred men, but if they all quit, so they can do with the employer what the employer does with you, when he discharges you, then they can bargain and there is no other kind of bargaining but collective bargaining."

— Clarence Darrow.

Did you know

...that Teamsters president Dave Beck invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 117 times before a U.S. Senate investigating committee?
...that the Workers Committee for National Liberation, a communist labour group, was broken up by the Egyptian government in January 1946?
...that American trade union leader William McFetridge switched from Democrat to Republican in 1948 and supported Thomas E. Dewey for president even though Dewey had successfully prosecuted his predecessor for labor racketeering?

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