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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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The Italian Labour Union (Italian: Unione Italiana del Lavoro, pronounced [uˈnjoːne itaˈljaːna del laˈvoːro]; UIL [uˈil, wil]) is a national trade union centre in Italy. It was founded in 1950 as a socialist, social democratic, republican, and laic split from the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL). It represents almost 2.2 million workers.

The UIL is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). (Full article...)

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April in Labor History

Significant dates in labour history.

April 01 - Burston Strike School began in 1914 the U.K.; the 1972 Major League Baseball strike began in the U.S. and Canada; the 1980 New York City transit strike began; the U.S. Supreme Court decided NLRB v. Truck Drivers Local 449; the Federation of Unions of South Africa was founded; the Allied Pilots Association was founded; the Loray Mill strike began in the U.S. in 1929; Sol Chick Chaikin died
April 02 - Weldon Mathis was born; Eugene Hanley was born; the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike ended in 1995
April 03 - Percy Wells died
April 04 - The On-to-Ottawa Trek began in Canada in 1935; William Quesse was born; the 2006 Minor League Baseball umpire strike began in the U.S.
April 06 - Rose Schneiderman was born; the 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike began as the Teamsters engaged in a sympathy strike; B. T. Ranadive died
April 07 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Lochner v. New York; Basawon Singh (Sinha) died
April 08 - The 1998 Australian waterfront dispute began
April 09 - John H. Dent died; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Adkins v. Children's Hospital and Bunting v. Oregon; Chris Watson was born; President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in anticipation of the 1952 steel strike; Natascha Engel was born; Thomas Jackson was born
April 10 - Harold J. Gibbons was born; Dolores Huerta was born; Joseph Diescho was born; George Lippard was born; Edward J. Carlough was born; Lee Batchelor was born; Anna Walentynowicz died
April 11 - The 1980 New York City transit strike ended
April 12 - Tom Addison was born; the U.S. Supreme Court decided NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.; the Auto-Lite strike began in 1934 in the U.S.; the Union Label Department, AFL–CIO was founded; the Memphis sanitation strike ended; the Queensland Council of Unions was founded; the Sons of Vulcan was founded
April 13 - Henk Sneevliet died; the Laborers' International Union of North America was founded
April 14 - Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca was born; Marvin Miller was born; Ernest Bevin died
April 15 - A. Philip Randolph was born; Pablo Manlapit died; the American Federation of Teachers was founded; "Black Friday" occurred in 1921 in the U.K.; Aleksei Gastev died; the Trade Unions Forum was founded; Margaretta Scott was born
April 16 - Joseph Havelock Wilson died
April 17 - Manwel Dimech died
April 18 - Joseph Labadie was born; R. J. Thomas died
April 20 - Gro Harlem Brundtland was born; The Ludlow Massacre occurred in 1914 in the U.S.; the International Harvester strike of 1979–80 ended
April 21 - The Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894 began in the U.S.; the First Employment Contract is repealed in France in 2006
April 22 - Frederick Nicholas Zihlman died
April 23 - Russell Crowell was born; the Canadian Labour Congress was formed; Cesar Chavez died; the Hock Lee bus riots occurred in 1955 in Singapore; Edward Lamb was born
April 25 - Arnold Miller was born
April 26 - United Trade Union Centre (Lanin Sarani) was founded
April 28 - Workers' Memorial Day; Roy Lee Williams died; Bob White was born; Greg Combet was born; Jerry Horan died; Joseph Glimco died
April 29 - The Coeur d'Alene miners' dispute of 1899 occurred in the U.S.

Jan•Feb•Mar•Apr•May•Jun•Jul•Aug•Sep•Oct•Nov•Dec

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the 2016 Jim Beam strike was the first labor strike in the company's history?
... 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 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 1969, the first women's strike for equal pay in the Netherlands was called in a cigar factory in Nieuwe Pekela?
... 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 Italian anarchists founded the first trade union for bakers in Argentina?

Related Portals

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

Selected Quote

"When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I did not speak out; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out."

— Martin Niemoeller.

Did you know

...that partly because of issues highlighed by the London matchgirls strike of 1888, the Salvation Army opened up its own match factory in Bow, London in 1891, which used harmless red phosphorus and paid better wages?
...that in three days of nearly non-stop negotiations, Nathan Feinsinger mediated an end to a 1947 pineapple workers' strike which threatened the entire Hawaiian economy?
...that Jens Jensen initiated the establishment in 1901 of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres?

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