II.

History

Trade unions constitute the organized response of workers to the impact of industrialization. The first unions arose in Western Europe and the United States at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century as a reaction to the development of capitalism. As the factory system developed, great numbers of people left their rural homes to compete for the relatively few jobs available in urban centres. This labour surplus made the working classes increasingly dependent on their employers. To offset this dependency and to help workers gain a measure of control over their economic lives, the earliest unions were formed among skilled artisans. These groups encountered great opposition from employers and government and were considered illegal associations or conspiracies in the restraint of trade. During the 19th century many of these legal barriers to trade unionism were eliminated as a result of court decisions and favourable legislative action, but the early unions failed to survive the economic depressions of the first half of the 19th century.

In both democratic and non-democratic European countries, workers’ movements rejected the capitalist system during the 19th century and advocated various substitutes such as socialism, anarchism, syndicalism, and, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, communism. Ideologically motivated trade unions in the United States also formed in the 19th century, usually under the influence of European immigrants. These organizations, however, failed to take permanent root, largely because of the more open political system and the existence of the frontier as an alternative attraction for surplus labour. During the early 20th century, unionism extended to numerous semi-skilled and unskilled workers in coal mines, on the docks, in the transport industry, and in the factories.

For further information on the history of trade unions see Trade Union Movement in Britain.