Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations

Examples of Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations in the following topics:

• The Beginnings of the Labor Movement

  • To improve these conditions, workers' organizations and trade unions fought for reforms during the early days of the labor movement in the United States.
  • The first local trade unions in the United States formed in the late eighteenth century.
  • In 1827, The Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations formed as a proxy of the united crafts in Philadelphia, with the primary goal of reducing the 12-hour work day.
  • Unfortunately, soon after the 10-hour workday legislation, the nation experienced the Panic of 1837, and the subsequent rise in unemployment crippled the Mechanics' Union.
  • This promotional tract issued by the Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations condemns working conditions in Philadelphia.

• The Common Market of the Southern Cone (MERCOSUR)

  • The purpose of Mercosur is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency.
  • Mercosur acts as a full customs union and works toward a continuing process of South American integration into the Union of South American Nations.
  • Trade within Mercosur amounted to only 16% of the four countries' total merchandise trade in 2010, and trade with the European Union (20%), China (14%), and the United States (11%) was of comparable importance.
  • It is the fourth-largest trading bloc after the European Union.
  • Mercosur has 5 full member countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela), and 2 Associate members (Bolivia, Chile).

• Industrial Conflict

  • Braverman demonstrated several mechanisms of control in both the factory blue collar and clerical white collar labor force.
  • A labor or trade union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as higher pay, increasing the number employees an employer hires, and better working conditions.
  • Trade union organizations may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, students, apprentices and/or the unemployed .
  • Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations.
  • In contrast, craft unionism organizes workers along lines of their specific trades (i.e., workers using the same kind of tools, or doing the same kind of work with approximately the same level of skill), even if this leads to multiple union locals with different contracts in the same workplace.

• A Brief Definition

  • Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights identifies the ability to organize trade unions as a fundamental human right.
  • 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 so-called monopoly union model (Dunlop, 1944) states that the monopoly union has the power to maximize the wage rate; the firm then chooses the level of employment.
  • Define the monopoly union model, the right-to-manage model, and the efficient bargaining model as theories of collective bargaining

• Collective Bargaining

  • At a workplace where a majority of workers have voted for union representation, a committee of employees and union representatives negotiate a contract with the management regarding wages, hours, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment, such as protection from termination of employment without just cause.
  • Sometimes there are disputes over the union contract; this often occurs in cases of workers being fired without just cause in a union workplace.
  • Collective bargaining consists of the process of negotiation between representatives of a union and employers (generally represented by management) in respect to the terms and conditions of employment, such as wages, hours of work, working conditions, grievance procedures, and the rights and responsibilities of trade unions.
  • This act makes it illegal for employers to discriminate, spy on, harass, or terminate the employment of workers because of their union membership.
  • It is also illegal to require any employee to join a union as a condition of employment.

• Professional Interest Groups

  • While trade unions represent skilled and industrial labor, professional organizations represent skilled workers such as doctors, engineers, and lawyers.
  • An example of a professional interest group is the American Medical Association (AMA), which represents doctors and medical students throughout the United States.
  • The AMA conducts significant amounts of member and public education work, including publishing the Journal of the America Medical Association .
  • Its broad mission is to promote the art and science of medicine for the betterment of the public health.
  • The first edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

• Political and Regulatory Environment

  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an example of a regional trading block.
  • Such agreements are designed to facilitate trade through the establishment of a free trade area, customs union or customs market.
  • Free trade areas and customs unions eliminate trade barriers between member countries while maintaining trade barriers with non-member countries.
  • A common market provides for harmonious fiscal and monetary policies while free trade areas and customs unions do not.
  • The most common form of restriction of trade is the tariff, which is a tax placed on imported goods.

• Common Markets

  • A common market is the first stage towards a single market and may be limited initially to a free trade area.
  • The European Economic Community was the first example of a both common and single market, but it was an economic union since it had additionally a customs union.
  • A common market is a first stage towards a single market and may be limited initially to a free trade area with relatively free movement of capital and of services, but not so advanced in reduction of the rest of the trade barriers.
  • The establishment of a customs union with a common external tariff
  • The six states that founded the EEC and the other two communities were known as the "inner six" (the "outer seven" were those countries who formed the European Free Trade Association).

• Progressives and the Working Class

  • In 1901, Jane Addams founded the Juvenile Protective Association, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting children from abuse.
  • In 1903, Mary Harris Jones organized the Children's Crusade, a march of child workers from Kensington, Pennsylvania, to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay, New York, bringing national attention to the issue of child labor.
  • The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago in 1905, at a convention of anarchist and socialist union members who were opposed to the policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
  • Unlike the AFL, which was a group composed of separate unions for each different trade (craft unionism), the IWW supported the concept of industrial unionism, in which all workers in a given industry are organized in a single union regardless of each worker's particular trade.
  • They promoted the idea of "One Big Union" in the hopes that one large, centralized body would be better equipped to deal with similarly large capitalist enterprises.

• The Rise of Unions

  • The first local trade unions of men in the United States formed in the late 18th century, and women began organizing in the 1820s.
  • By 1920, Gompers had largely marginalized their role to a few unions, notably coal miners and the needle trades.
  • Through the efforts of middle class reformers and activists, often of the Women's Trade Union League, these unions joined the AFL.
  • At the time, however, fears about the Molly Maguires enabled mine owners to destroy the miners' union, the Workingman's Benevolent Association.
  • Carnegie's steel works in Homestead, Pennsylvania hired a group of three hundred Pinkerton detectives to break a bitter strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.