Trade union Timeline of Events

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Trade union

A trade union, trades 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 contracts with employers...

Timeline of Events

1648

10.18.1648

Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.

1834

1.29.1834

US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

3.18.1834

Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.

1872

6.14.1872

Trade unions are legalised in Canada.

1892

11.8.1892

The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.

1925

5.1.1925

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.

1926

5.12.1926

UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends.

1931

5.14.1931

Ådalen shootings: five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.

1933

5.2.1933

''Gleichschaltung'': Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.

1936

6.7.1936

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a trade union, is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Philip Murray is elected its first president.

12.30.1936

The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.

1938

11.18.1938

Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1942

5.22.1942

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.

1982

10.8.1982

Poland bans Solidarity and all trade unions.

1988

12.22.1988

Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.