scholarly journals Development of Relations Between Canadian and American National Trade Unions Centers – 1886-1925

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-371
Author(s):  
C. Brian Williams
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
French Canadian ◽  
Continuous Relation ◽  
National Trade ◽  
American Trade

In this paper, the author explains how the relationships between Canadian and American trade union centers have developed. Up to the year 1897, there was no continuous relation between union organizations of both countries. The new binational policy adopted by the majority of the TLC delegates at its 1902 convention brought-forth the split in the Canadian labor movement. The unions expelled from the TLC founded the NTLC which became the CFL in 1908. When the latter disappeared in 1927, the French Canadian labor movement was about the only one to maintain its opposition to the American influence.

White Workers and the American Civil War

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Zonderman
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Southern States ◽  
White Workers ◽  
Military Discipline ◽  
North And South ◽  
National Trade ◽  
Industry Associations

From the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861 until the Confederacy surrendered in the spring of 1865, workers—North and South—labored long hours under often trying conditions at wages that rarely kept pace with wartime inflation. Though many workers initially voiced skepticism of plans for sundering the nation, once Southern states seceded most workers rallied round their rival flags and pledged to support their respective war efforts. The growing demand for war material opened employment opportunities for women and men, girls and boys, across the Union and Confederacy. Yet workers were not always satisfied with a job and appeals to back the boys in blue and gray without question. They often resisted changes pressed on them in the workplace—new technology, military discipline, unskilled newcomers—as well as wages that always lagged behind rising prices. Protests and strikes began in 1861 and increased in number and intensity from 1863 to the war’s conclusion. Labor unions, in decline since the depression of 1857, sprung back to life, especially in the war’s later years. Employers sometimes countered their employees’ increasing organization and resistance with industry associations that tried to break strikes and blacklist those who walked off their jobs. While worker discontent and resentment of “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” were common across the sectional divide, Northern workers exercised greater coordination of their resistance through citywide trade assemblies, national trade unions, traveling organizers, and labor newspapers. Southern workers tended to fight their labor battles in isolation from shop to shop and town to town, so they rarely built a broader labor movement that could survive the hardships of the postwar era.

Palestinian Trade Unions

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Sovich
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Movement

In 1994, the Palestinian labor movement, crippled by years of factionalism and Israeli oppression, expected that the arrival of the Palestinian Authority would enable it to reorient its priorities from national politics to workers' rights. This article examines the trajectory of the trade union movement since Oslo and particularly the reasons for its ongoing factionalism and failure to meet its objectives.

scholarly journals The Issue of Representativeness in the Lights of the Amended Trade Unions Act

2021 ◽  
Vol 95 ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Iwona Sierocka
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Given ◽  
National Trade ◽  
Work Contract ◽  
Joint Representation

The subject of the deliberations are issues regarding the representativeness and size of workplace trade union organisations after the changes introduced in the Trade Unions Act in 2018. According to the obligatory provisions, the “representativeness” of a trade union organisation is traditionally conditional on its size, but not only the employees, but also other categories of the employed are taken into account. It is, inter alia, about persons providing work under a contract of mandate or a specific work contract and sole proprietors. By expanding the full rights of coalition onto persons performing work on the basis other than employment relationship, the legislator increased the percentage limits decisive in the matter of representativeness. At present, the representative trade union organisation above the workplace level is also an organisation uniting at least 15% of all people performing gainful work under the articles of association, not fewer, however, than 10,000 persons performing gainful work. It works similarly at the workplace level. With reference to workplace trade union organisations which belong to organisations above the workplace level which meet the criteria for representativeness as specified in the Social Dialogue Council Act, at least 8% of the staff of the given employer is required. In the case of workplace trade union organisations which do not participate in such structures, the representativeness is conditional on uniting of at least 15% of persons performing gainful work for the given employer (7% and 10%, respectively, were required earlier). Determining the number of the staff, the employees and persons providing gainful work under other bases being employed for at least 6 months before the commencement of negotiations or arrangements must be included. A significant novelty is the necessity to select a joint representation of the representative organisations at the workplace level that belong to the same Trade Union Federation or National Trade Union Confederation in matters regarding collective rights and interests of the persons performing gainful work.

scholarly journals Labor Education in the Caribbean: A Critical Evaluation of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 186-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Roberts ◽  
Lauren Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
The Caribbean

The achievements of the labor movement in the Caribbean are generally historicized without highlighting the contribution of labor colleges to the function and survivability of trade unions. For more than fifty years, labor colleges have played a critical role in developing the knowledge and skill sets of union members who had an interest in labor studies. Many will attribute the heydays of the Caribbean labor movement in the mid-1900s to the intellectual thrust given to the trade union movement by labor colleges. During this period, trade unions relied heavily on labor colleges for intellectual support and advice primarily on matters that required in-depth academic investigation. Support from the labor colleges enhanced the reputation of the labor movement by shifting popular notions that the trade union movement consisted only of the poor and illiterate working class. The effects of these parallel training activities have been positive for both the leadership of the trade union movement and the overall impact they have had on labor-management relationships. There has been a noted change in the pattern of trade union leadership where “the first generation leaders, considered by many as demagogic and messianic, have given way increasingly to a younger and more formally educated second and third generation leadership”.

scholarly journals Trade Union Responses to Transnational Labour Mobility in the Finnish-Estonian Context

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolle Alho
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Free Mobility ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Migration Strategies ◽  
National Trade

This article examines trade union strategies in relation to labor migration in Estonia and Finland, drawing on face-to-face interviews with trade unionists and official union statements. The study considers the national trade union strategies located in two separate but interconnected localities that represent different approaches to market economy. Previous research suggests that the national industrial relations system is a key factor in explaining unions’ labor migration strategies. Unions operating in liberal market economies are claimed to be more open toward immigration and more inclusive toward immigrants than unions in coordinated markets. This study analyzes the extent to which this theory holds in the context of Estonia and Finland—Finland representing a coordinated market economy and Estonia a liberal market economy. Furthermore, the analysis examines how the emergence of a translocal labor market, resulting from the geographical vicinity and linguistic affinity between Finland and Estonia as well as from free mobility within the EU, is reflected in trade union approaches to labor migration. The study finds that Finnish trade union strategies influence labor mobility, whereas Estonian trade unions remain bystanders in the issue.

Regional co-operation within the Nordic Council of Trade Unions and across the Baltic Sea

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Skulason ◽  
Markku Jääskelainen
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Nordic Council ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
National Trade

This article reviews the evolution of trade union co-operation within the Nordic Council of Trade Unions (NFS). The NFS was founded in 1972 with the aim of strengthening the already close ties between the Nordic national trade union movements in a context where several Nordic countries were making approaches to the EC and Nordic unions had been playing an active role in creating the ETUC. In recent years the work of the NFS has become more oriented, first, towards European issues and, second, towards co-operation with unions in the Baltic countries. The major changes on the geopolitical map of Europe have thus had a profound impact on the co-operation between Nordic unions, in many respects giving impetus to development of more structured and extended patterns of transnational union engagement.

Labor and Transnational Relations

1971 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 554-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Cox
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
World War ◽  
Soviet Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Trade ◽  
National Trade

Since World War II national trade union organizations have become involved in the internal political affairs of other countries, usually through the labor organizations in these countries. Soviet trade unions, a precursor and model in this respect, supported Soviet foreign policy through their international trade union contacts. United States unions played an important role in promoting the Marshall Plan, winning trade union support for it in Western Europe, and countering the opposition of communist-oriented trade unions in France and Italy. British and French unions were active in the colonial territories of their countries and often continued their influence after these territories achieved independence. United States unions have been active in Latin America and in the less developed areas of the Caribbean and Africa.

Immigration and trade unions in Belgium: historical trends and new challenges

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Martens ◽  
Valeria Pulignano
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Temporary Migration ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Integration Policies ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
National Trade

This article argues that, despite relatively good integration policies and stable, high and cross-sectoral national trade union membership, irregular immigration and irregular work in Belgium threaten workers' solidarity and trade union strength. The diffusion of ‘twilight’ workers in many companies and sectors has obliged the trade unions to call for regularisation to restore the workers' front and re-establish workers' cohesion. Although the trade unions have supported a number of actions in support of people without documents (such as hunger strikes in churches) it is not easy to convince unionised workers to accept the new ‘comrades’ and to fight racism in the workplace. Moreover, there are other difficulties, including the discussion among policy-makers of an EU ‘Blue Card’ for temporary migration for work. The latter in particular represents a new challenge for the Belgian trade unions, who traditionally have supported family reunification and long-term residence of migrants.

scholarly journals Developing the Politics of the Trade Union Movement: Popular Workers’ Education in South Yorkshire, UK, 1955 to 1985

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
John Grayson
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
New Left ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
Working Class Women ◽  
Movement Organizations

AbstractDrawing on evidence from research interviews, workers’ memoirs, oral histories, and a range of secondary sources, the development of popular workers’ education is traced over a thirty year period, 1955 to 1985, and is rooted in the proletarian culture of South Yorkshire, UK. The period is seen as an historical conjuncture of Left social movements (trade unions, the Communist and Labour parties, tenants’ movements, movements of working-class women, and emerging autonomous black movements) in a context of trade union militancy and New Left politics. The Sheffield University extramural department, the South Yorkshire Workers' Educational Association (WEA), and the public intellectuals they employ as tutors and organizers are embedded in the politics and actions of the labor movement in the region, some becoming Labour MPs. They develop distinctive programs of trade union day release courses and labor movement organizations (Institute for Workers' Control, Conference of Socialist Economists, Society for the Study of Labour History). Workers involved in the process of popular workers' education become organic intellectuals having key roles in local and national politics, in the steel and miners' strikes of the 1980s, and in the formation of Northern College. The article draws on the language and insights of Raymond Williams and Antonio Gramsci through the lens of social movement theory and the praxis of popular education.

Disability Management: A Longstanding Trade Union Mission with Some New Initiatives

1986 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila H. Akabas
Keyword(s):  
Return To Work ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Disability Management ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Current

Disability management, because it involves persons already in the workplace, may be the aspect of rehabilitation closest to the interests and concerns of the labor movement. Unions have a long history of involvement in rehabilitation and disability management. This article describes that history, and a current initiative, and concludes that for the 14% of the labor force belonging to trade unions, the union is an important actor, and may even hold the key, to return to work following the onset of disability.

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