Portal:Organized Labour

Introduction

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 in some cases common ownership. (Full article...)

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Hoffa in 1965

James Riddle Hoffa (February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 to 1971. He was alleged to have ties to organized crime, and disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1975.

From an early age, Hoffa was a union activist; he became an important regional figure with the IBT by his mid-20s. By 1952, he was the national vice-president of the IBT and between 1957 and 1971, he served as its general president. Hoffa secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964 with the National Master Freight Agreement. He played a major role in the growth and the development of the union, which eventually became the largest by membership in the United States, with over 2.3 million members at its peak, during his terms as its leader.

Hoffa became involved with organized crime from the early years of his Teamsters work, a connection that continued until his disappearance. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, and conspiracy, along with mail and wire fraud in 1964 in two separate trials. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years. (Full article...)

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August in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

August 01 - The Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 began in Romania; the 1942–44 musicians' strike began in the U.S.; Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born; the United Firefighters Union of Australia was founded
August 02 - Robert Zieger was born; the Contrat nouvelle embauche entered into force in France in 2005
August 03 - The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization strike began in the U.S.
August 04 - Joseph Paul-Boncour was born; the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers was formed
August 05 - The Lupeni Strike of 1929 occurred in Romania; the National Labor Board was created; Devan Nair was born
August 06 - Jackie Presser was born
August 07 - Frank Fitzsimmons was born
August 08 - David McDonald died; the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America was formed; Arthur Goldberg was born
August 09 - The California School Employees Association was founded; Raymond McKay died; Harry Davenport died; Thomas E. Scanlon died; the 1981 Major League Baseball strike ended in the U.S. and Canada; John Willcock was born
August 10 - The U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 began; Iorwith Wilbur Abel died; Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca was born
August 11 - The International Longshore and Warehouse Union was founded; Iorwith Wilbur Abel was born; Rose Schneiderman died; Edwin D. Hill was born
August 12 - The Buffalo switchmen's strike of 1892 began; the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike began in the U.S. and Canada; the National War Labor Board was abolished in 1919; the Chorus Equity Association was founded; the Unión General de Trabajadores was founded
August 13 - Carlos Ortega escaped from prison in Venezuela and disappeared
August 14 - Solidarity struck for the first time; Joseph Curran died; Lane Kirkland died; Selig Perlman died; N. M. Perera died
August 15 - The 1890 Australian maritime dispute began; Herbert Hill died; lockout of the Canadian Media Guild began in 2005 in Canada; Anna Walentynowicz was born
August 16 - George Meany was born; Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca died
August 18 - The 1989 Australian pilots' strike began; the American Federation of Government Employees was founded; Alberto Hurtado died
August 19 - The Maritime Trades Department of the AFL–CIO was founded; Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association launched a strike against Northwest Airlines
August 22 - The United Farm Workers was founded; the Association of Flight Attendants was founded
August 23 - The Gurindji strike began in 1966 in Australia; the Salad Bowl strike began in the U.S.
August 24 - Ray Stevenson died
August 25 - The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was founded; the Battle of Blair Mountain began in 1921 in the U.S.; the 2006 Progressive Enterprises dispute began in New Zealand; the Buffalo switchmen's strike ended in the U.S.; Charles Millard was born; Miron Cozma was born
August 26 - The Dublin Lock-out began in 1913
August 27 - Juan Lechín Oquendo died
August 28 - The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurred; the film Matewan was released; the Central Única dos Trabalhadores was founded
August 29 - The British police strikes in 1918 and 1919 began; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled picketing is not a breach of the peace in Cox v. Louisiana; Emmanuel Christopher Loblack was born
August 31 - The Gdańsk Agreement was signed, ending the first wave of strikes by Solidarity

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 Sting wrote "We Work the Black Seam" because he felt that "the case for coal was never put to the nation" during the 1984–85 British miners' strike, which began 40 years ago today?
... that the American Society of Marine Engineers was a company union established to supplant its labor union counterpart?
... that Tan Boon Chiang awarded four cases of PepsiCo soft drinks to each worker in Singapore after rejecting their claim for higher wages?
... that the execution of Burkinabé trade union leader Soumane Touré was prevented by the intervention of his childhood friend, then-president Thomas Sankara?
... that after a tornado strike at a St. Louis–area Amazon warehouse killed six workers, the rebuilt warehouse still had no proper storm shelter?

Related Portals

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

Selected Quote

"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."

— César Chavez.

Did you know

...that the first company union in the United States was created by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in response to the bad publicity generated by the Ludlow Massacre?
...that while the majority of Benin's formal workforce are represented by trade unions, nationwide use of child labour and forced labour continues?
... that although the U.S. Supreme Court denied Clyde Summers the right to practice law in Illinois in 1945 in In re Summers, Summers later was a highly influential scholar in the field of labor law?

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