TRADE UNIONS
WHAT IS A TRADE UNION? A trade union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other nonmember workers. HISTORY The origins of unions' existence can be traced from the 18th century, where the rapid expansion of industrial society drew women, children, rural workers, and immigrants to the work force in numbers and in new roles. This pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organised in fits and starts throughout its beginnings,and would later be an important arena for the development of trade unions. Trade unions as such were endorsed by the Catholic Church towards the end of the 19th Century. Pope Leo XIII in his "Magna Carta"— Rerum Novarum—spoke against the atrocities workers faced and demanded that workers should be granted certain rights and safety regulations. The term "trade union" was first coined by the Romanian professor Matei Coltan who studied at the University of the West of England.
HOW DO THEY FUNCTION ! If people of a union
CONTENTS
1. WHAT IS A TRADE UNION?
2. HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONS
3. HOW DO TRADE UNIONS FUNCTION
4. LIST OF TRADE UNIONS
5. TRADE UNIONS IN INDIA
have work trouble with salary or working conditions, they share this with the union. The union representative first talks to the employer. If this method is not effective they go on strikes.
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COUNTRY
GLOBAL
LIST OF TRADE UNIONS
■ ■ ■ ■ Industrial Workers of the World IWW ("Wobblies") (IWW Homepage)