Unions IIHistory
Beginning in the eighteenth century, much of Western society (with most changes occurring earliest in Britain) witnessed a transformation from an agrarian culture with craft-based production to a culture shaped by the first
industrial revolution. Some of the changes brought on by this new order, such as new work methods and downward pressure on traditional wage structures,
[2] sparked rising alarm in the
crafts and
guilds of the time, who feared encroachment on their established jobs.
Additionally, the rapid expansion of the industrial society was to draw women, children, rural workers, and immigrants to the work force in larger numbers and in new roles. This pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organised in fits and starts throughout its beginnings,
[1] and would later be an important arena for the development of trade unions.
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[edit] Origins and early history
Trade unions have sometimes been seen as successors to the
guilds of Medieval Europe, though the relationship between the two is disputed.
[3] Medieval guilds existed to protect and enhance their members' livelihoods through controlling the
instructional capital of
artisanship and the progression of members from
apprentice to
craftsman,
journeyman, and eventually to master and
grandmaster of their craft. They also facilitated mobility by providing accommodation for guild members travelling in search of work. Guilds exhibited some aspects of the modern trade union, but also some aspects of
professional associations and modern corporations.
Additionally, guilds, like some craft unions today, were highly restrictive in their membership and only included artisans who practiced a specific trade. Many modern labour unions tend to be expansionistic, and frequently seek to incorporate widely disparate kinds of workers to increase the leverage of the union as a whole. A labour union in 2006 might include workers from only one trade or craft, or might combine several or all the workers in one company or industry.
Since the publication of the
History of Trade Unionism (
1894) by
Sidney and
Beatrice Webb, the predominant historical view is that a trade union "is a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment."
[1] A modern definition by the Australian Bureau of Statistics states that a trade union is "an organisation consisting predominantly of employees, the principal activities of which include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members."
[4]
Yet historian R.A. Leeson, in
United we Stand (1971), said:
"Two conflicting views of the trade-union movement strove for ascendancy in the nineteenth century: one the defensive-restrictive guild-craft tradition passed down through journeymen's clubs and
friendly societies,...the other the aggressive-expansionist drive to unite all 'labouring men and women' for a 'different order of things'..." Recent historical research by Dr
Bob James in
Craft, Trade or Mystery (2001) puts forward that trade unions are part of a broader movement of
benefit societies, which includes medieval
guilds,
Freemasons,
Oddfellows,
friendly societies and other
Fraternal organisations.
The
18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners (or
"masters"). In
The Wealth of Nations,
Book I, chapter 8, Smith wrote:
We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate... [When workers combine,] masters... never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combinations of servants, labourers, and journeymen. As indicated in the preceding quotation, unions were illegal for many years in most countries. There were severe penalties for attempting to organise unions, up to and including execution. Despite this, unions were formed and began to acquire political power, eventually resulting in a body of labour law which not only legalised organising efforts, but codified the relationship between employers and those employees organised into unions. Even after the legitimisation of trade unions there was opposition, as the case of the
Tolpuddle Martyrs shows.
Many consider it an issue of fairness that workers be allowed to pool their resources in a special legal entity in a similar way to the pooling of capital resources in the form of
corporations.
The right to join a trade union is mentioned in article 23, subsection 4 of the
UDHR, which also states in article 20, subsection 2. that
"No one may be compelled to belong to an association". Prohibiting a person from joining or forming a union, as well as forcing a person to do the same (e.g. "closed shops" or "union shops", see below), whether by a government or by a business, is generally considered a
human rights abuse. Similar allegations can be levelled if an employer
discriminates based on trade union membership. Attempts by an employer, often with the help of outside agencies, to prevent union membership amongst their staff is known as
union busting.
[edit] 19th Century Unionism
In
France,
Germany and other European countries, socialist parties and anarchists played a prominent role in forming and building up trade unions, especially from the 1870s onwards. This stood in contrast to the British experience, where moderate
New Model Unions dominated the union movement from the mid-nineteenth century and where trade unionism was stronger than the political labour movement until the formation and growth of the
Labour Party in the early years of the twentieth century.