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A union organizer (or union organiser in
Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers.
In some unions, the organizer's role is to recruit groups of workers under the
organizing model
The organizing model, as the term refers to trade unions (and sometimes other social-movement organizations), is a broad conception of how those organizations should recruit, operate, and advance the interests of their members, though the specific ...
. In other unions, the organizer's role is largely that of servicing members and enforcing work rules, similar to the role of a
shop steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...
. In some unions, organizers may also take on industrial/legal roles such as making representations before
Fair Work Australia
The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the ''Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Australi ...
, tribunals, or
court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
s.
In
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, a union organizer is a union representative who "organizes" or unionizes non-union
companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
or worksites. Organizers primarily exist to assist non-union workers in forming chapters of locals, usually by leading them in their efforts.
Methodology
![May Day IMG 5066 (14087178084)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/May_Day_IMG_5066_%2814087178084%29.jpg)
Organizers employ various methods to secure recognition by the employer as being a legitimate union, the ultimate goal being a
collective bargaining agreement
A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
. The methods can be classified as being either top-down organizing or bottom-up organizing.
Top-down organizing focuses on persuading
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
through salesmanship or pressure tactics. The salesmanship may include offering access to resources such as to a well-trained and skilled supply of labor or access to union
cartels
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
. Pressure tactics may include
picketing with the intention of embarrassing management or disrupting business, as well as assisting the government in investigating
employment law
Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...
and
labor law
Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...
violations. A strict enforcement of these laws might result in fines and might serve to hurt the violator's chances in a competitive
bidding
Bidding is an offer (often competitive) to set a price tag by an individual or business for a product or service ''or'' a demand that something be done. Bidding is used to determine the cost or value of something.
Bidding can be performed ...
process. Top-down organizing is generally considered easier than bottom-up and is practiced more in the
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...
industry.
Bottom-up organizing focuses on the workers and usually involves a certification process, normally overseen by a labor relations board such as the
NLRB
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...
in the U.S. The process entails either a secret ballot election or, in some cases, a card-signing effort (called card check). In either case, should a majority of the employees agree to union representation, the results bind the company to recognize and negotiate with the union. Normally, both sides are given a chance to campaign for or against unionization, though management has a decided advantage due to their greater access to the employees, as well as management's inherent ability to discipline or terminate employees. It is in this electioneering model where the organizer really organizes: arranging meetings, devising strategy, and developing an internal structure known as an organizing
committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. It is from the pool of
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
s recruited to the organizing committee that the union typically later draws its shop stewards. Though some mistake organizing as strictly being a recruitment effort, numerous obstacles emerge which require more than simple enlistment and promotion of the union. During organizing, management has greater means to reward or punish workers, far overshadowing methods available to the union.
[Diamond and Sneiderman, ''Organizing Guide for Local Unions,'' 1992, p. 52.][La Botz, ''A Troublemaker's Handbook,'' 1991, p. 8; Kelber, ''My 70 Years in the Labor Movement,'' 2006, p. 29-30; Murolo and Chitty, ''From The Folks Who Brought You The Weekend,'' 2001, p. 176.] For this reason, in most countries, laws such as the U.S.
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and ...
, guarantee the rights of workers to seek union membership and forbid management's use of undue influence such as bribes or threats. Nonetheless, such charges are hard to prove and the labor movement believes the entire process to be slanted against them in enforcement and interpretation of labor laws.
Sometimes, organizing involves legal wrangling over issues such as voter eligibility. In such cases, issues are often settled by appeal to the Labor Board who serves, essentially, as a referee during the process. Intrigue during heated campaigns is not uncommon. In various cases, one or both sides have used spying and information-gathering techniques tantamount to
industrial espionage.
Personality
Organizers must be determined,
charisma
Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects.
Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "ch ...
tic, and persuasive individuals able to sway groups to action under trying circumstances when jobs are on the line. Organizers must be strong enough to stand up to constant confrontation and must be willing to take big risks. Since failure rates of organizing campaigns are high, "burn-out" among organizers is prevalent. Organizers frequently work under the constraints of limited resources (see sections on organizing as cause and controversies).
Cause within a cause
Within the labor movement, organizing is the cause within the cause. In most industrialized nations, there has been a steady decline in union membership and in the influence of organized labor since the 1950s. A response to this decline has been a renewed organizing effort. The heads of unions are well aware of the problem. In the U.S., many labor activists have blamed
John Sweeney, the former (1995–2009) President of the
AFL–CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...
, for not doing enough to organize. In fact, this has been cited as the genesis of the split within the American labor movement that led to the formation of the
Change to Win Federation
The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), formerly known as the Change to Win Federation (CtW) is a coalition of North American labor unions originally formed in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL–CIO. The coalition is associated with strong advoca ...
(a rival
umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...
of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n unions set up as an alternative to the AFL–CIO in 2005), by Change to Win advocates at least. Many unions see organizing as a way to ensure the future of their organization. Unions who emphasize organizing and are
expansionist
Expansionism refers to states obtaining greater territory through military empire-building or colonialism.
In the classical age of conquest moral justification for territorial expansion at the direct expense of another established polity (who of ...
are said to have the "organizing model." By contrast, other unions are said to have the "
servicing model," spending most of their resources on providing services to the existing membership (i.e., non-expansionist).
Controversies
Within the labor movement, there is some resistance to organizing, though more in deed than in word. Organizing can be seen as a drain on scarce resources with insignificant returns and with results tenuous. Most unions in the U.S. adopt a service model and eschew organizing. In
transient industries such as construction, an increase in the supply of labor from newly organized shops may cause the supply of jobs to dwindle below what an increased membership can absorb.
Most disputes between unions are
jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
Jur ...
al (territorial). Union jurisdiction is based on
geographic
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
scope,
craft
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...
,
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
, historical claim, and compromise. Unions have overlapping jurisdictions. Critics within the labor movement have blamed the movement itself for the fractious effects of union-on-union
competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...
and perceived issues of
raiding
Raiding may refer to:
* The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings
* Raid (military)
* Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces
* Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria
* Par ...
. Expansionism and the scramble for members in organizing programs bring to light these border issues.
Opponents of organizing, mainly in
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
and business, argue that unionization divides employees against their employer and results in increased costs. Such accusations are not entirely without foundation: Indeed, a successful organizing campaign usually demonstrably benefits the labor at the expense of management. Critics will often circulate horror stories about plant closures and retaliatory firings to discourage union activity and uptake among the workers. Real or imagined, such horror stories are taken as warnings and have a chilling effect on voting. Though illegal, retaliatory terminations remain a problem for organizers to overcome. Fear is the leading obstacle to organizing.
Counter organizing
In bottom-up organizing, management and labor are pitted against each other and management often schedules retaliatory, aggressive tactics in an effort to break the chapter, called "
union-busting
Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or prevent the formation of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace.
Union busting tactics can refer to both legal and illegal activities, and can range ...
." The intention of such union-busting may be to "nip it in the bud" before getting locked into a costly collective bargaining agreement. Management may feel that the organizing campaign encourages and capitalizes upon worker disobedience and perceived disloyalty. For this reason, management may hire anti-union consultants or
lawyers
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, ...
known as "union-busters" or "union avoidance consultants." With the goal of thwarting organizing, union-busters typically have a two-pronged approach: firstly, management will cut deals with individual workers to betray the union and secondly, to exploit loopholes in labor law in an effort to derail or sandbag the election process. The emergence of union-busting as an industry is a relatively new phenomenon and is described in Martin Levitt's book ''Confessions of A Union Buster.'' Prior to the emergence of the union-avoidance industry, practitioners were mainly "
goon squads" also used for strike-breaking. In the U.S., the largest and most well-known "goon squad" for hire was the
Pinkerton Detective Agency
Pinkerton is a private security guard and detective agency established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born cooper Allan Pinkerton and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton ...
, still active today, though in a different capacity. William W. Delaney's "My Father Was Killed By Pinkerton Men" is a song about the violence that often surrounded early American labor strife.
Organizing in popular culture
The most famous movie about organizing is the 1979 factually based film ''
Norma Rae
''Norma Rae'' is a 1979 American drama film directed by Martin Ritt from a screenplay written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton— which was told in the 1975 book ''Crystal Lee, a W ...
'', the story of a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
organizer from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
who came to the
American South
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
to organize a
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
*
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Textile mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...
. He recruits Norma Rae, played by
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film F ...
. Norma becomes a key union
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
who defies management at great personal risk.
The 1987 production of ''
Matewan
''Matewan'' () is a 1987 American drama film written and directed by John Sayles, and starring Chris Cooper (in his film debut), James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell and Will Oldham, with David Strathairn, Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp in suppor ...
'' is another factually based story of an organizer who visits a small mining town in
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
and who is able to unite rival
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
groups against a common enemy: the company.
Both of these stories feature outsiders entering
rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
company towns
A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...
and stirring workers up against exploitative management. This is a common theme in organizing. The workers are cast as simple
commoners
A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...
being
oppressed
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination w ...
by powerful managers cast in the role of
villain
A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...
s. The organizer is portrayed as a liberator. There is some truth in these stories since companies did, in fact, historically hire armed thugs to break up organizing drives through unethical and oppressive means.
Modern unions work within the existing system, rather than against it, through sophisticated
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
action programs. Most unions have reinvented themselves as streamlined, professional machines.
[Bai, "The New Boss," ''New York Times Magazine,'' January 30, 2005, p. 41, 42; Breslin, ''Organize or Die,'' 2003, p. 9.]
''10,000 Black Men Named George'', released in 2002, is a movie based on the true story of
A. Philip Randolph, the famous
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
organizer who organized the railroad company's largely black
Pullman Porters
Pullman porters were men hired to work for the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Their job was to carry passengers’ bagg ...
.
The film ''
Bread and Roses
"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by American women's suffrage activist Helen Todd; a line in that speech about "bread for all, and roses too" inspired ...
'' (2001) depicts the
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members ...
's "
Justice for Janitors
Justice for Janitors (JfJ) is a social movement organization that fights for the rights of janitors (caretakers and cleaners) across the US and Canada. It was started on June 15, 1990, in response to the low wages and minimal health-care coverage ...
" campaign to organize cleaners. The story is also a love story between an
idealistic
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality ...
young organizer and a female Hispanic
immigrant
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
among those he is organizing.
Both of these stories incorporate pro-union messages with ethnic determination. In the case of the Pullman Porters, Randolph is remembered as a
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...
. The Justice for Janitors campaign is about immigrants' rights, as many of the organized janitors are from
Spanish speaking or
Slavic countries. The status of the characters as
minorities paints a picture of them as being outside of, or on the margins of, the
American Dream, thus further casting workers and activists as underdogs. The underdog theme is an inspirational
archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...
in
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
.
In the 2005 action movie ''
Four Brothers'', one of the characters is a former union activist who turns the bad guy's henchmen against him by informally organizing them against their boss based on the common organizing themes of a greater share in the
profits and respect on the job.
In the 1997 action movie ''
Grosse Pointe Blank
''Grosse Pointe Blank'' is a 1997 American black comedy action film directed by George Armitage from a screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz, D. V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink and John Cusack. It stars Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd and ...
'',
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...
's villainous character pursues fellow
assassin
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or VIP, important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not ha ...
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...
in order to include him in a ridiculous assassins' union.
These latter two movies use organizing as a plot device, though they involve
black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
businesses and are far-fetched for this reason. Nonetheless, they demonstrate how, absent a union's presence, the same issues arise in any
vocation
A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. People can be given information about a new occupation through student orientation. Though now often used in non-religious co ...
. Also, both of the movies take place in the
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
area, a city which has produced some great organizers.
The 1992 production ''
Hoffa'', starring Jack Nicholson as famed labor leader
Jimmy Hoffa of the
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the ...
, begins the story where Hoffa's career began: organizing truck drivers and warehouse workers in and around Detroit. Jimmy Hoffa went on to become one of the most powerful labor leaders in U.S. history.
The 1978 movie ''
F.I.S.T'', tells the same story of Hoffa's beginnings as an organizer and of his rise to power, albeit with more liberties taken.
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...
plays Hoffa as a man with good intentions, dogged on both sides, by both sides of the law.
Both Hoffa stories feature Hoffa as a tough "man of the people" and chronicle how his organizing swelled the ranks of the Teamsters. Hoffa was notorious for taking an "ends justifies the means" approach to organizing. Hoffa's legacy remains: his son,
James P. Hoffa
James Phillip Hoffa (born May 19, 1941) is an American labor leader and attorney who was the tenth General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He is the son of Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was first elected in 1998, and subsequently r ...
, is the current general president of the Teamsters.
In an episode of the popular American
sit-com
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series of ...
'', the characters hold an organizing meeting that ends with a manager threatening to fire everyone involved. The character played by
comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing
Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...
Patrice O'Neal
Patrice Lumumba Malcolm O'Neal (December 7, 1969 – November 29, 2011) was an American comedian and actor. He was known for his stand-up comedy career and his regular guest appearances on the talk show ''Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'' and the ...
tells the boss, "This isn't over."
The
Fred Savage
Frederick Aaron Savage (born July 9, 1976) is an American actor and director. He is known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series ''The Wonder Years'' (1988 to 1993). He has earned several awards and nominations, such as ...
sitcom ''Working'' had an episode where the main character organizes his fellow workers into a union and tells management it is because he really cares about the well-being of his coworkers, exhibiting solidarity.
The song "
Solidarity Forever
"Solidarity Forever", written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, is a popular trade union anthem. It is sung to the tune of " John Brown's Body" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". Although it was written as a song for the Industrial Workers of the W ...
" by
Ralph Chaplin has become the anthem of large parts of the labor movement such as those in North America.
See also
*
Battle of the Overpass
*
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
*
Employee Free Choice Act
The Employee Free Choice Act is the name for several legislative bills on US labor law (, , , , , , , , .) which have been proposed and sometimes introduced into one or both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
The bill's purpose, as taken from the 200 ...
*
Labor history
Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other fac ...
*
Labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...
*
Labor spies
Labor spying in the United States had involved people recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, in the context of an employer/labor organization ...
*
Labor Unions in the United States
*
NLRB election procedures
The National Labor Relations Board, an agency within the United States government, was created in 1935 as part of the National Labor Relations Act. Among the NLRB's chief responsibilities is the holding of elections to permit employees to vote whe ...
*
Newsies
*
Right to assemble
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
*
Strike action
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
*
Union violence Union violence is violence committed by unions or union members during labor disputes. When union violence has occurred, it has frequently been in the context of industrial unrest. Violence has ranged from isolated acts by individuals to wider campa ...
*
Union violence in the United States When union violence has occurred, it has frequently been in the context of industrial unrest. Violence has ranged from isolated acts by individuals to wider campaigns of organised violence aimed at furthering union goals within an industrial dispute ...
People
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Luigi Antonini
Luigi Antonini (September 11, 1883 – December 30, 1968) was an Italian-American trade union leader and anti-fascist organizer. He was the first Vice President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and organizer of the Italian-Americ ...
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Harry Van Arsdale, Jr.
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Leon E. Bates
Leon E. Bates Sr. (December 3, 1899 – July 25, 1972) was an American labor union leader with the United Auto Workers union (UAW) from 1937 to 1964 when he retired as an "International Representative" of the UAW. He was one of the first African-A ...
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John Brophy
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Cesar Chavez
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Patrick Crowley
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Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 13, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's ...
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Joe Hill
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Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor' ...
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James Hoffa
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Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
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John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...
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A. Philip Randolph
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Walter P. Reuther
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Fannie Sellins
Fannie Sellins (1872 – August 26, 1919) was an American union organizer.
Born Fanny Mooney in New Orleans, Louisiana, she married Charles Sellins in St. Louis, Missouri. After his death she worked in a garment factory to support her four c ...
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Crystal Lee Sutton
Crystal Lee Sutton (née Pulley; December 31, 1940 – September 11, 2009) was an American union organizer and advocate who gained fame in 1979 when the film ''Norma Rae'' was released, based on events related to her being fired from her job at t ...
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Norma Rae
''Norma Rae'' is a 1979 American drama film directed by Martin Ritt from a screenplay written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton— which was told in the 1975 book ''Crystal Lee, a W ...
")
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R. J. Thomas
Roland Jay Thomas (June 9, 1900 – April 18, 1967), also known as R. J. Thomas, was a left-wing leader of the American automobile workers union in the 1930s and 1940s. He grew up in eastern Ohio and attended the College of Wooster for t ...
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Lucille Thornburgh
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Leonard Woodcock
Leonard Freel Woodcock (February 15, 1911 – January 16, 2001) was President of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the first US ambassador to China after being the last Chief of the US Liaison Office in Beijing.
Early life
Woodcock was born in ...
Notes
References
*Bai, Matt. "The New Boss." ''New York Times Magazine.'' January 30, 2005.
*Breslin, Mark. ''Organize or Die: Marketing and Communications Strategies for Labor Leaders, Agents and Organizers.'' Castro Valley, Calif.: McAlly International Press, 2003.
*DeFreitas, Gregory. "Anxious Anniversary: Is Recession Stalking the 5-Year-Old Recovery?" ''Regional Labor Review.'' Fall 2006.
*DeFreitas, Gregory. "Can Construction Unions Organize New Immigrants? A Conversation with the Carpenters' Tony Martinez." ''Regional Labor Review.'' 9 (Fall 2006).
*Diamond, Virginia R. ''Labor Law Handbook for Organizing Unions Under the National Labor Relations Act.'' Silver Spring, Mary.: George Meany Center for Labor Studies, 1991.
*Diamond, Virginia R. and Sneiderman, Marilyn, eds. ''Organizing Guide for Local Unions.'' Silver Spring, Mary.: George Meany Center for Labor Studies, 1992.
*Kelber, Harry. ''My 70 Years in the Labor Movement.'' New York: Labor Educator, 2006.
*La Botz, Dan. ''A Troublemaker's Handbook.'' New York: Labor Notes, 1991.
*Levitt, Martin J. and Toczynski, Terry C. ''Confessions of A Union Buster.'' New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1993.
*Murolo, Priscilla and Chitty, A.B. ''From The Folks Who Brought You The Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of the United States.'' Paperback ed. New York: The New Press, 2006.
*Office of General Counsel. National Labor Relations Board. ''A Guide to Basic Labor Law and Procedures Under the National Labor Relations Act.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2007.
*Pleasure, Robert J. and Cohen, David. ''Construction Organizing: An Organizing and Contract Enforcement Guide.'' Silver Spring, Mary.: Labor's Heritage Press, 1997.
*Rundle, Michael. "Starbucks Union Battle Goes Before Labor Board." ''Metro New York.'' July 10, 2007.
*Von Drehle, David. ''Triangle: The Fire That Changed America'' New York: Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 2003.
*Fitch, Robert. ''Solidarity for Sale'' New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. ,
*United States. Congress. House of Representative
The Future of Union Organizing: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, Hearing held in Washington, DC, September 19, 2013.Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 2014.
External links
National Labor Relations BoardAFL-CIO OrganizingNational Labor CollegeWhat is the Employee Free Choice Act?
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