Portal:Organized Labour
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Introduction
- 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...)
Selected article
The 1985–1987 Watsonville Cannery strike was a labor strike that involved over 1,000 workers at two food processing facilities in Watsonville, California, United States. The facilities were owned by Watsonville Canning and Richard A. Shaw Inc., two of the largest frozen food processors in the United States, while the workers were all union members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 912. The strike began on September 9, 1985, and completely ended about 18 months later, on March 11, 1987.
The city of Watsonville has historically been a center for the food processing industry in California, and by the mid-1900s, it had branded itself as the "frozen food capital of the world", with eight frozen food processing plants in the city. These plants were in an industry-wide labor contract with IBT Local 912, who represented several thousand employees in the city. By the 1980s, due to an increase in migration from Mexico, a large number of these food processing workers were Latinos. Around that same time, changes in the food processing industry caused the Watsonville plants to become less profitable, and in 1982, Watsonville Canning (the single-largest frozen food processor in the United States) negotiated an hourly wage decrease for their union employees from $7.06 to $6.66. In 1985, their labor contract had expired, and Watsonville Canning began pushing for further wage and employee benefits reductions. Richard A. Shaw Inc., another major food processing company in the city, similarly began requesting wage and benefits reductions, which were opposed by the local union. On September 9, union members from both companies began a strike, with picketing commencing shortly thereafter.
The strike received significant support from the local Latino community, with support coming from Chicano and Hispanic organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Mexican American Political Association. Additionally, civil rights leaders Cesar Chavez and Jesse Jackson were supportive of the strikers, viewing the labor dispute as part of a larger struggle for civil rights for Latinos in the United States. Additional support came from organized labor activists in both northern California and nationwide, and the strike was characterized by its militancy and rank-and-file leadership. The strikers elected their own Strike Committee that managed the overall daily operations of the strike, and the Teamsters for a Democratic Union also contributed to organizing the strike. On February 14, 1986, Shaw and Local 912 agreed to an hourly wage of $5.85, which soon became the industry standard. However, the strike continued against Watsonville Canning through 1986. In August, the company tried to decertify the union in an election, but failed, and subsequently the company (which had taken on a large debt during this time) declared bankruptcy, with the plant being sold. A tentative contract was reached with the new owners in March 1987 that set wages to the industry standard but contained cuts to medical benefits. While the IBT declared the strike over, several workers continued the dispute as a wildcat strike that lasted for about a week before the company agreed to include medical benefits, with the strike finally coming to an end on March 11. (Full article...)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
More Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that the 56-foot-tall (17 m) monument to the theologian Samuel Rutherford near his parish church in Anwoth was badly damaged by a lightning strike five years after its construction?
- ... that Surinamese trade unionist Louis Doedel was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital by the governor-general for 43 years?
- ... that Marco van Basten's strike in the UEFA Euro 1988 Final was described as "perhaps the most iconic goal in UEFA European Championship history"?
- ... 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 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 1937 Fleischer Studios strike in New York City was the first major labor strike in the animation industry?
Related Portals
Selected image
- Image 1An 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 7The front page of the Union Record on the Seattle General Strike of 1919.
- Image 10The Place de la Sorbonne in Paris is closed by police during the 2006 labour protests in France.
- Image 11Protesters barricade the street on June 22 during the 2006 Oaxaca protests.
- Image 12Joe Hill.
- Image 13Mounted police chase demonstrators through Vancouver's East End during the Battle of Ballantyne Pier in 1935.
- Image 14John 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 15Lewis 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 17Union elections with an illegal firing, 1951 to 2007.
- Image 18National Federation of Federal Employees officials sign a collective bargaining agreement with the U.S. 8th Army in October 2002.
- Image 19Mary Harris "Mother" Jones.
- Image 20During World War II, a female aircraft worker checks electrical assemblies at the Vega Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California.
- Image 21Striking workers march moments before the Swedish military opened fire, killing five workers during the Ådalen shootings.
- Image 22Union members march in Argentina on Human Rights Day in December 2005. The signs read "Worker rights are human rights..
- Image 24Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) notice of subway closure during the 2005 New York City transit strike.
- Image 28Political cartoon about the Coal Strike of 1902 from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
- Image 29Picket signs at the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
- Image 30Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg general strike, June 21, 1919.
- Image 31The Western Federation of Miners' famous flyer entitled "Is Colorado in America?".
- Image 32Striking teamsters armed with pipes battle police in the streets during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934.
- Image 33Exaggerated 19th century engraving showing flames and smoke following the Haymarket riot.
- Image 35Breaker boys, child laborers, working in a U.S. coal mine in 1911.
- Image 36Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois National Guard troops in Chicago, Illinois, during the Pullman Strike in 1894.
- Image 37Shields used by striking workers at the Carnegie Steel Works during the Homestead Strike in 1892.
- Image 38Union members picketing recent NLRB rulings outside the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters in November 2007.
- Image 39Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
- Image 41Richard Trumka.
- Image 42United Mine Workers of America poster circa 1902.
- Image 43Members 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 44Strike leaders at the Paterson silk strike of 1913. From left, Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood.
- Image 45Samuel Gompers.
- Image 46Former headquarters of the United Mine Workers of America and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 900 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C., in 200.
- Image 47Detail of monument to the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963.
- Image 48Memorial marker for the Bay View Tragedy.
- Image 49Cripple Creek, Colo., under martial law, during the 1894 strike.
- Image 50AFL–CIO unions protest outside Verizon headquarters in Philadelphia using a giant inflatable rat.
- Image 51A. Philip Randolph.
- Image 53Armed vigilantes deport striking copper miners during the Bisbee Deportation in Bisbee, Arizona, July 12, 1917.
- Image 54Strike sign used by the German Train Drivers' Union in the German national rail strike of 2007.
- Image 56Striking I.W.W. members confront Massachusetts National Guard troops in Boston, during the Lawrence textile strike in 1912.
- Image 57Illustration from the Brisbane Worker newspaper condemning the brutality of the Queensland Police on Black Friday during the 1912 Brisbane General Strike.
- Image 58Rally 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.
Selected Quote
- Our main duty is to consider the needs of others. If we become alive to this duty, there will be no unjustly treated people in our midst, and we, in turn, shall not be treated unjustly. Our day-to-day motto should be: "Your problems are also my problems." We must extend our friendship and strengthen our solidarity. |
— Anna Walentynowicz. |
Did you know
- ...that Canada's syndicalist One Big Union kept itself alive for some time by running an illegal lottery in its weekly bulletin?
- ...that the "Mohawk Valley formula," a strikebreaking plan devised during the Remington Rand strike of 1936–37, was declared by the National Labor Relations Board to be "a battle plan for industrial war"?
- ...that labor leader Victor Kamber created playing cards with public figures in 1968 and the "Rappin' Ronnie" music video depicting a rapping Ronald Reagan in 1984?
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Portal:Organized labour