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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The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the first and oldest specialized agencies of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states: 186 out of 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with around 40 field offices around the world, and employs some 3,381 staff across 107 nations, of whom 1,698 work in technical cooperation programmes and projects.

The ILO's standards are aimed at ensuring accessible, productive, and sustainable work worldwide in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity. They are set forth in 189 conventions and treaties, of which eight are classified as fundamental according to the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; together they protect freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced or compulsory labour, the abolition of child labour, and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. The ILO is a major contributor to international labour law.

Within the UN system the organization has a unique tripartite structure: all standards, policies, and programmes require discussion and approval from the representatives of governments, employers, and workers. This framework is maintained in the ILO's three main bodies: The International Labour Conference, which meets annually to formulate international labour standards; the Governing Body, which serves as the executive council and decides the agency's policy and budget; and the International Labour Office, the permanent secretariat that administers the organization and implements activities. The secretariat is led by the Director-General, Gilbert Houngbo of Togo, who was elected by the Governing Body in 2022. (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 on February 3, 1986, African Independence Party leaders Adama Touré and Adama Touré were released from detention?
... 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 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 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 the day after returning to Atlanta following his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. joined picketers who were on strike against Scripto?
... that the murder of Luisa Lallana sparked a general strike in Rosario, Argentina?

Related Portals

Selected image

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

Selected Quote

"When people ask me, 'Why can't labor organize the way it did in the thirties?' the answer is simple: everything we did then is now illegal."

— Thomas Geoghegan

Did you know

...that South African trade union legislation uses the term "conscientious objector" to refer to workers who do not want to join unions on the basis of personal beliefs?
...that the anarcho-syndicalist Argentine Workers' Federation was the country's first national labor confederation?
...that in 1918, the National Federation of Federal Employees became the first labor union in the United States to win the legal right to represent federal employees?

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