A trade union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting the integrity of their trade through the increased bargaining power wielded by solidarity among workers.
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, or uncomfortably/dangerously high or low temperatures. The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging or underpaid. Workers in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated. Women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers and would be forced by employers to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing health benefits. The Fair Labor Association's "2006 Annual Public Report" inspected factories for FLA compliance in 18 countries including Bangladesh, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, China, India, Vietnam, Honduras, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and the US. The U.S. Department of Labor's "2015 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor" found that "18 countries did not meet the International Labour Organization's recommendation for an adequate number of inspectors."
The Labor Right, also known as Labor Unity, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that tends to be more socially conservative and economically liberal. The Labor Right is a broad alliance of various state factions and competes with the Labor Left faction.
Socialist Alliance is a socialist political party and activist organisation in Australia. The party was founded in 2001 as an alliance of various socialist organisations and activists. Engaging in a combination of grassroots activism and electoral politics, Socialist Alliance currently has three elected officeholders across Australia, all of whom serve on the local government level. They are councillors Sue Bolton, Sam Wainwright and Rob Pyne.
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU) is a trade union in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1847 in Manchester, it represents workers in the food industry.
UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by the merger of Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE).
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) is the largest private sector trade union in Australia, with 216,728 members as at 31 December 2021. It has branches in every state and territory representing retail, fast-food and warehousing workers.
Australian industrial relations law maintains a system of compulsory arbitration in the settlement of industrial disputes between employers, employees, and their respective registered industrial associations. Associations of employers or employees must be registered by the relevant Industrial Relations Commission in order to have disputes heard before that commission. However, in the Fair Work Commission individuals may appoint an unregistered/deregistered industrial organisation to represent them in any disputes.
The Australian labour movement began in the early 19th century and since the late 19th century has included industrial and political wings. Trade unions in Australia may be organised on the basis of craft unionism, general unionism, or industrial unionism. Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), many of which have undergone a significant process of amalgamations, especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The leadership and membership of unions hold and have at other times held a wide range of political views, including communist, socialist and right-wing views.
Matthew McCarten is a New Zealand political organiser and trade unionist, of Ngāpuhi descent. McCarten was active with several trade unions including the Hotel and Hospital Workers' Union, the Unite Union, and the One Union; the latter two of which he founded. He has also been involved with several leftist or centre-left political parties including the Labour, NewLabour, Alliance, and Mana parties.
The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exercised an outsized influence on the Australian trade union movement and on the Australian Labor Party throughout its history.
The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) is a representative, an advocacy group, or peak body, of Queensland trade union organisations, also known as a labour council, in the Queensland, Australia. As of 2020, 26 unions and 13 regional branches were affiliated with the QCU. The QCU represents unions covering around 350,000 Queensland workers. It is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Its offices are located in the suburb of South Brisbane, Queensland. As a peak body for the Queensland trade unions, the objective of the QCU is to achieve industrial, social and political justice for Queensland workers. The management structure of the QCU is made up of a committee of management and an executive of representatives comprised from affiliated unions.
The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes.
Harris Scarfe is an Australian retailer that sells bed linen, kitchenware, homewares, electrical appliances and apparel. It has a e-commerce retail presence in Australia and is considered a multi-channel lifestyle and homewares store.
Unite Union (Unite) is a trade union in New Zealand. It represents a number of workers across various industries, and was the sponsor of the Supersizemypay.com campaign directed towards improving working conditions for fast food workers in the country, in addition to representing other hospitality and retail workers. Unite is affiliated with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.
The Mudginberri abattoir was the focus of a major industrial relations dispute from 1983 to 1985 in Australia's Northern Territory which was notable for being the first successful use of legal sanctions against a union since the gaoling of Victorian Tramways union leader Clarrie O'Shea in 1969. The successful prosecution of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) under section 45D of the Trade Practices Act was seen by the National Farmers Federation and the developing New Right in and outside the Liberal Party of Australia as a breakthrough in a campaign to break the power of the unions and introduce contract employment.
The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist political party in England and Wales. Founded in 1997, it had formerly been Militant, an entryist group in the Labour Party from 1964 to 1991, which became Militant Labour from 1991 until 1997.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union Victorian branch or RTBU Victoria is the state branch of the RTBU in Victoria. Originally formed in 1993 as the Victorian branch of the Public Transport Union and renamed the RTBU in 1998, the RTBU Victoria today represents nearly 8000 members across Rail Operations, Tramways, Locomotive, Infrastructure and Administrative areas of Victoria's public transport industry.
The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement or labor union movement on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union is an Australian trade union for workers in the retail and fast food industries.
