Trade union

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

A trade union is an organisation or group of workers who join together to get better pay, hours, benefits, and working conditions.

Contents 1 Activities 2 Strikes 3 History 4 Criticism 5 References

[change] Activities

Unions do many things for their members. This includes:

• Collective Bargaining: The leaders of a union work with management (the people who run the business) in order to get a contract that gives workers what they want. This is because union leaders can threaten to strike.
• Benefits: Early unions would give their members unemployment pay in case they were hurt on the job, unfairly fired, or sick. This is usually done by the government today. Unions may also give their members a lawyer to represent them if they are ever sued in court or charged with a crime.
• Politics: Unions often work to get laws passed which help their cause. Some raise money for politicians who are friendly to unions. They also lobby for laws which help out unions. Some political parties are very close to unions, like the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.

[change] Strikes

If collective bargaining does not work, unions often use strikes to get their demands. However, the threat of a strike is usually enough: over 98% of union contracts are renewed without a strike.^[1]

[change] History

Trade unions are close to trade guilds in Medieval times. These guilds were made up of independent skilled workers (or artisans) who joined together.

[change] Criticism

Unions have been criticized for increasing the cost of workers. Because of this, it is said that less people will be hired.

[change] References