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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Hoffa in 1965

James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971.

From an early age, Hoffa was a union activist, and 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 was its general president. He 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 in 1975. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud in 1964 in two separate trials. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years. In mid-1971, he resigned as president of the union as part of a commutation agreement with U.S. president Richard Nixon and was released later that year, but he was barred from union activities until 1980. Hoping to regain support and to return to IBT leadership, he unsuccessfully tried to overturn the order. (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 when journalist and trade unionist Nisn Pups was released from jail, the Communist Party of Lithuania instructed him to change his name?
... that during the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003, all but one of Venezuelan chocolatier María Fernanda Di Giacobbe's ten businesses went bankrupt?
... that the opening day of a California TV station was affected by a strike when workers refused to cross a two-man picket line?
... that after Kellogg's announced plans to replace striking workers in 2021, members of r/antiwork organized to submit fake applications to the company's hiring system?
... that a 1994 lightning strike in Egypt led to 469 deaths after oil tanks were ignited and flooded the village of Dronka with burning fuel?
... 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?

Related Portals

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

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 Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before the Romanian Revolution of 1989?
...that the West End Street Railway fired Cyrus S. Ching in 1901 after he was nearly electrocuted on the job, only to appoint him manager two months later?
...that the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect in the United States on April 28, 1971, the same day as Workers' Memorial Day?

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