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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Soldiers on the Brandenburg Gate during the Spartacist uprising

The Spartacist uprising (German: Spartakusaufstand), also known as the January uprising (Januaraufstand) or, more rarely, Bloody Week, was an armed uprising that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the German revolution that broke out just before the end of World War I. The uprising was primarily a power struggle between the supporters of the provisional government led by Friedrich Ebert of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), which favored a social democracy, and those who backed the position of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, which wanted to set up a council republic similar to the one established by the Bolsheviks in Russia. The government's forces were victorious in the fighting.

The uprising began with mass demonstrations and strikes called by the parties of the radical left to protest the dismissal of Berlin's chief of police. Taken by surprise at the size of the turnout and the protestors' spontaneous occupation of newspaper buildings and printing companies, the leaders of the left were unable to agree on how to proceed. As a result, the uprising remained largely without direction. The government responded with military force, including several paramilitary Freikorps units, retook the buildings that had been occupied and violently suppressed the uprising.

The death toll was roughly 150–200, mostly among the insurgents. The most prominent deaths were those of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who were executed extrajudicially on 15 January, almost certainly with the at least tacit approval of the MSPD-led government. The party's involvement hampered its position throughout the life of the Weimar Republic, although quashing the uprising allowed elections for the National Assembly to take place as scheduled on 19 January 1919. The Assembly went on to write the Weimar Constitution that created the first national German democracy. (Full article...)

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March in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

March 01 - Joseph Curran was born; the S.S. California strike began in 1936 in the U.S.; the South Korean railroad strike of 2006 began; the Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union was founded; Tinos Rusere died; Clinton Jencks was born
March 02 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signed a first contract with U.S. Steel; the Confederation of Labour of Kazakhstan was founded
March 03 - William Green was born; Frances Perkins became U.S. Labor Secretary and the first female member of the Cabinet; Joseph Yablonski was born
March 04 - Shannon J. Wall was born; the formation of SLOMR was announced in Romania; Sam Pollock died; Art Babbitt died; the South Korean railroad strike of 2006 ended; Joseph Ashby died
March 05 - The UK miners' strike of 1984–1985 began; Thomas Devin Reilly died
March 06 - The Sailors' Union of the Pacific was founded; Richard Frankensteen was born; James Thompson Bain was born; the 1912 Brisbane general strike ended in Australia
March 07 - The 2003 Broadway Musicians Strike began in the U.S.
March 08 - Buzz Hargrove was born; Rhoda Williams died
March 09 - Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–1911 began; Ernest Bevin was born; Amir Peretz was born; John Golding was born
March 10 - Morgan Tsvangirai was born
March 11 - Ron Todd was born; Jack Egerton was born
March 12 - Lane Kirkland was born; the first employer agreed to union demands, effectively ending the Lawrence textile strike in the U.S. in 1912; Edward Grayndler died; Andrew Furuseth was born
March 13 - Ami Chandra died; Irmã Dulce died; Paul Mattick was born
March 14 - The Asbestos Strike began in Canada in 1949; the film Salt of the Earth was released in 1953; Michael Foster was born
March 15 - A major insider-trading scandal was exposed at the Union Labor Life Insurance Company in the U.S.; William McFetridge died; William Broadhead died
March 16 - The Bydgoszcz events began in Poland in 1981; Lloyd McBride was born; James Petrillo was born; the United Federation of Teachers was founded; Samizu Matsuki was born
March 17 - Edward J. McElroy was born; P. H. McCarthy was born; Edward William O'Sullivan was born
March 18 - The U.S. postal strike of 1970 began Seymour Martin Lipset was born
March 19 - The Bituminous Coal Strike of 1977-1978 ended in the U.S.
March 20 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Teamsters v. Terry; the General Union of Moroccan Workers was founded; the Structural Building Trades Alliance was founded
March 21 - The Australian Industrial Relations Commission decided the Three certified agreements case in 2005; the U.S. Supreme Court decided National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab; Alice Henry was born
March 22 - Ron Carey was born; Matthew Guinan died; Roy Lee Williams was born; Thomas Helliker died
March 23 - Coalition of Labor Union Women was founded; Christiane Brunner was born; Kate Bronfenbrenner was born; Edward Lamb died; Will H. Daly died; the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions was founded; Lou Cunningham died; Basawon Singh (Sinha) was born; Sigurd Lucassen died
March 25 - The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire occurred; the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation was founded; Paul Mackney was born
March 26 - Hugh Mulzac was born; the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees was founded; James Callaghan died
March 27 - James Callaghan was born; WorkChoices entered into force in Australia in 2006
March 29 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish; John Ducker was born
March 30 - The New York State United Teachers is founded
March 31 - César Chávez was born; GMB was founded; MEA-MFT was founded; Mei Li Vos was born

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

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... 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 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?
... 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 Ana Sigüenza was the first woman to be the general secretary of a national trade union center in Spain?
... that members of the Trade Union Opposition Federation stormed the Copenhagen Stock Exchange?
... 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?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun."

— Eugene V. Debs.

Did you know

...that the 1975 U.S. Supreme Court case NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc. allowed all workers in unionized workplaces to have a union representative present during management inquiries that might result in discipline?
...that the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union called off a merger with the United Mine Workers just two hours before the unions planned to announce the agreement?
...that firing of Anna Walentynowicz, a Polish free trade union activist, was one of the events that led to the giant wave of strikes in Poland and eventually the creation of Solidarity?

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