 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Costa Rica, Europe, and the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(August 2015) |
A public-sector trade union (or public-sector labor union) is a trade union which primarily represents the interests of employees within public sector or governmental organizations.
In the late 1800s, trade unions first appeared to support workers in a variety of urban and industrial jobs. [1] After facing violent repression, such as during the 1934 United Fruit Strike, unions gained more power following the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War, and public sector unions appeared. [1] Previous administrations and assesmblies paid very little attention to Costa Rica's trade unions;, [2] however when the Luis Guillermo Solís and the 2014 legislative assembly took office, Solís and eight members of the Citizens' Action Party and Broad Front promised to listen to unions. Libertarian Otto Guevara expressed concern. [2] Today, Costa Rican unions are strongest in the public sector, including the fields of education and medicine. [1] There is also a strong presence in agricultural sectors for unions. [1] In general, Costa Rican unions support government regulation of the banking, medical, and education fields, as well as improved wages and working conditions. [3]
One important issue for public sector unions is passage of the Código Procesal Laboral (Procedural Labor Law), which former president Laura Chinchilla vetoed. [4] If passed, Chinchilla said it would allow emergency service workers, such as police, medical service staff and doctors to strike. President Luis Guillermo Solís said that the issue of the Procedural Labor Law should be finalized within his first year in office. [5] Legislative Assembly president Henry Mora Jiménez, also supported the law, as do the public sector unions. [4]
There are public-sector trade unions in Europe that negotiate agreements between public employees and the institutions for which they work. In 2010, severe financial crises forced several governments to cut back on wages and benefits in austerity measures, leading to protests, most notably in Greece. In Greece, a one-day protest was held because of requirements placed by the EU on Greece's public spending. [6]
Labor unions generally bypassed government employees because they were controlled mostly by the patronage system used by the political parties before the arrival of civil service. Post Office workers did form unions. The National Association of Letter Carriers started in 1889 and grew quickly. By the mid-1960s it had 175,000 members in 6,400 local branches. [7]
Several competing organizations of postal clerks emerged starting in the 1890s. Merger discussions dragged on for years, until finally the NFPOC, UNMAPOC and others merged in 1961 as the United Federation of Postal Clerks. Another round of mergers in 1971 produced the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). In 2012 the APWU had 330,000 members. [8] The various postal unions did not engage in strikes.
Historian Joseph Slater, says, "Unfortunately for public sector unions, the most searing and enduring image of their history in the first half of the twentieth century was the Boston police strike. The strike was routinely cited by courts and officials through the end of the 1940s." [9] Governor Calvin Coolidge broke the strike and the legislature took control of the police away from city officials. [10]
The police strike chilled union interest in the public sector in the 1920s. The major exception was the emergence of unions of public school teachers in the largest cities; they formed the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), affiliated with the AFL. In suburbs and small cities, the National Education Association (NEA) became active, but it insisted it was not a labor union but a professional organization. [11]
In the mid 1930s efforts were made to unionize WPA workers, but were opposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. [12] Moe points out that Roosevelt, "an ardent supporter of collective bargaining in the private sector, was opposed to it in the public sector." [13] Roosevelt in 1937 told the nation what the position of his government was: "All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.... The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations. [14]
Change came in the 1950s. In 1958 New York mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. issued an executive order, called "the little Wagner Act," giving city employees certain bargaining rights, and gave their unions with exclusive representation (that is, the unions alone were legally authorized to speak for all city workers, regardless of whether or not some workers were members.) Management complained but the unions had power in city politics. [15]
By the 1960s and 1970s public-sector unions expanded rapidly to cover teachers, clerks, firemen, police, prison guards and others. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, upgrading the status of unions of federal workers. [16]
After 1960 public sector unions grew rapidly and secured good wages and high pensions for their members. While manufacturing and farming steadily declined, state- and local-government employment quadrupled from 4 million workers in 1950 to 12 million in 1976 and 16.6 million in 2009. [17]
In 2009 the U.S. membership of public sector unions surpassed membership of private sector unions for the first time, at 7.9m and 7.4m respectively. [18]
In 2011 states faced a growing fiscal crisis and the Republicans had made major gains in the 2010 elections. Public sector unions came under heavy attack especially in Wisconsin, as well as Indiana, New Jersey and Ohio from conservative Republican legislatures. [19] [20] 2012 update. [21] Conservative state legislatures tried to drastically reduce the abilities of unions to collectively bargain. Conservatives argued that public unions were too powerful since they helped elect their bosses, and that overly generous pension systems were too heavy a drain on state budgets. [22]
The politics of Costa Rica take place in a framework of a presidential, representative democratic republic, with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and their cabinet, and the President of Costa Rica is both the head of state and head of government. Legislative power is vested in the Legislative Assembly. The president and 57 Legislative Assembly deputies are elected for four-year terms. The judiciary operates independent of the executive and the legislature but remains involved in the political process. Costa Rica is a republic with a strong system of constitutional checks and balances. Voting is compulsory in Costa Rica but it is not enforced.
A trade union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve common goals, such as protecting the integrity of their trade, improving safety standards, and attaining better wages, benefits, and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by solidarity among workers. Trade unions typically fund the formal organization, head office, and legal team functions of the trade union through regular fees or union dues. The delegate staff of the trade union representation in the workforce are made up of workplace volunteers who are appointed by members in democratic elections.
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage, caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. In most countries, strike actions were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more power than workers. Most Western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
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 interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party. Some historians question why a Labor Party did not emerge in the United States, in contrast to Western Europe.
William Julian Usery Jr. was an American labor union activist and government appointee who served as United States secretary of labor in the Ford administration.
The Citizens' Action Party is a center-left political party in Costa Rica.
Unions have been compared across countries by growth and decline patterns, by violence levels, and by kinds of political activity.
The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) is a labor union in the United States. It represents over 200,000 employees and retirees of the United States Postal Service who belong to the Clerk, Maintenance, Motor Vehicle, and Support Services divisions. It also represents approximately 2,000 private-sector mail workers.
The U.S. postal strike of 1970 was an eight-day strike by federal postal workers in March 1970. The strike began in New York City and spread to some other cities in the following two weeks. This strike against the federal government, regarded as illegal, was the largest wildcat strike in U.S. history.
Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work – in its broadest sense – and how this connects to questions of social inequality. It explicitly encompasses unregulated, historical, and non-Western forms of labor. Here, labor relations define "for or with whom one works and under what rules. These rules determine the type of work, type and amount of remuneration, working hours, degrees of physical and psychological strain, as well as the degree of freedom and autonomy associated with the work."
José La Luz is a labor activist and intellectual who organizes, promotes and advocates for worker rights in Puerto Rico and the United States. He was the architect of the grassroots campaign that resulted in the 1998 passage of Puerto Rico's Law 45, which granted bargaining rights and allowed for the unionization of over 120,000 public employees. La Luz is currently the Associate Director of the Leadership Academy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera is a Costa Rican politician and educator who was the President of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018. He is a member of the center-left Citizens' Action Party (PAC). Solís led the field in the 2014 presidential election, and won the presidency in a landslide election, earning more votes than any presidential candidate in the history of the nation. Solís has a long academic and political career, culminating in his election as the first President of Costa Rica to be a member of the PAC.
Ruperto Marvin Atencio Delgado is a Costa Rican lawyer, health professional, and deputy.
Henry Mora Jiménez is a Costa Rican economist and political activist. Mora is a member of the 2014-2018 Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, serving with the Citizens' Action Party. He was the President of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2015.
Trade unions in Costa Rica advocate for the rights of workers in Costa Rica. Dating back to the late 1800s, labor unions in the country have been a political force. They remain active in political and social life for many Costa Ricans.
A public-sector trade union is a trade union which primarily represents the interests of employees within public sector or governmental organizations.
Carlos Andrés Alvarado Quesada is a Costa Rican politician, writer, journalist and political scientist, who is currently serving as the 48th President of Costa Rica. A member of the center-left Citizens' Action Party (PAC), Alvarado was previously Minister of Labor and Social Security during the Presidency of Luis Guillermo Solís.
Marvin Rafael de los Ángeles Rodríguez Cordero is a Costa Rican politician, teacher and labor union leader who has been the Second Vice President of Costa Rica since 8 May 2018.
This article discusses the history and present status of labor unions in Sudan.