labor union

Organization of employed workers that exists to promote and defend the interests of its members, to achieve improved working conditions, and to undertake collective bargaining with employers (negotiating on the behalf of its members, the employees). Attitudes of government to unions and of unions to management vary greatly from country to country. Probably the most effective labor-union system is that of Sweden, and the most internationally known is the Polish Solidarity. The largest union is ‘Verdi’, in Germany, which has 3 million members.

history Craft-based labor unions were first formed in the 1790s, by tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, and printers, in northeastern cities, including Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. The first labor union to combine workers in different crafts was the Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations, formed in 1827 in Philadelphia. Early US unions sought to improve working conditions and wages and supported social and political reforms, including establishing free public education and voting rights for men. Union development was assisted by the Massachusetts court judgement, in Commonwealth v. Hunt, that it was lawful to strike in order to improve working conditions. During the 1850s and 1860s craft-based national unions were formed, which, during the 1870s economic depression, engaged in strikes against wage cuts and mechanization. The 1877 railroad workers' strike required the intervention of federal troops. In 1869 a new form of union was formed, the Knights of Labor. It included workers from all trades, but was in decline by the mid-1880s.

In December 1886, in Columbus, Ohio, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a loose confederation of 140,000 workers from 25 national unions, was formed under the leadership of Samuel Gompers. Dominated by skilled workers, it campaigned for higher wages and shorter working hours; an eight-hour day was achieved by building trade workers and printers in the 1890s. By 1904, 85% of the two million US workers who were members of labor unions were affiliated to the AFL.

US employers have always been more resistant to unionization than those in Europe. During the 1890s they fought back against strike action by issuing injunctions (court orders to stop an action) and using private detectives and armed guards to harass picket lines and protect those workers who did not wish to strike (such tactics were used by Carnegie Steel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1892). Consequently, sometimes strikes became bitter and violent. The unsuccessful strike in 1919 of 370,000 iron and steel workers marked a turning of the balance of power back away from the unions. It was followed by a steep decline in union membership (from 5 million in 1920 to 3 million in 1932), which was made worse by economic depression in 1929. In the new employer-dominated climate, some employees were required to sign ‘yellow-dog contracts’, in which they undertook to join employee associations which were controlled by the company, rather than labor unions.

The decline in unionism was arrested by the Democrat New Deal administration of President F D Roosevelt. The 1935 the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed, outlawing a number of employers' tactics to hinder unions. The National Labor Relations Board was created, and the right of workers to organize freely and bargain collectively was reaffirmed. In the same year, mineworkers, leading a breakaway from the AFL, formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), to recruit unskilled and semi-skilled workers from mass production industries, such as automobile, electrical, and radio.

From the late 1930s, union membership grew rapidly, reaching 15 million by 1947. With their increased strength, labor union-led strikes became more frequent during the post-war period, and were largely successful in achieving higher wage rates for unionized workers. However, the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), which outlawed the closed shop (an agreement between employer and union that only the union's members could be employed), and the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959), which outlawed secondary picketing (the picketing of a related firm's premises), reduced union effectiveness. In December 1955, when the AFL and CIO merged, the unionization level in the USA had reached 34%. However, the new organization was forced to devote early attention to investigating and driving out corruption and racketeering within the movement. This led to expulsion of the large Teamsters Union of transport workers, of which two union presidents were imprisoned.

During the 1960s, the right to collective bargaining, but not the right to strike, was extended to workers in the public service. However, unions generally found themselves faced with less buoyant economic conditions from the mid-1970s, particularly in the older industries of the northeast and Midwest. At the same time there was factory relocation to the ‘Sunbelt’ states in the south and west, where the attitude of managers to unions was often unfriendly. There was also a shift in the balance of the economy away from manufacturing, towards service occupations, where unionization rates were historically low. Consequently, the USA has experienced progressive ‘deunionization’. In 1980 the AFL-CIO had 18 million members, equivalent to 20% of the workforce, but by 1999, only 14% of US workers were union members, with AFL-CIO affiliation standing at 13 million. In an effort to attract new members, particularly from the service sector, unions have been forced to place increased emphasis on special benefits they are able to offer members, for example, low-cost credit cards, legal aid, travel discounts, and health- and child-care benefits.