Trade Union

The immediate objectives and activities of trade unions vary, but may include...

* Provision of benefits to members: Early trade unions, like Friendly Societies, often provided a range of benefits to insure members against unemployment, ill health, old age and funeral expenses. In many developed countries, these functions have been assumed by the state; however, the provision of professional training, legal advice, and representation for members is still an important benefit of trade union membership.

* Collective bargaining: Where trade unions are able to operate openly and are recognised by employers, they may negotiate with employers over wages and working conditions.

* Industrial action: Trade unions may organize strikes or resistance to lockouts in furtherance of particular goals.

* Political activity: Trade unions may promote legislation favourable to the interests of their members or workers as a whole. To this end they may pursue campaigns, undertake lobbying, or financially support individual candidates or parties (such as the Labour Party in Britain for public office.

Shop types

Companies that employ workers with a union generally operate on one of several models:

* A closed shop (US) employs only people who are already union members. The compulsory hiring hall is the most extreme example of a closed shop—in this case the employer must recruit directly from the union.

* A union shop (US) or a closed shop (UK) employs non-union workers as well, but sets a time limit within which new employees must join a union.

* An agency shop requires non-union workers to pay a fee to the union for its services in negotiating their contract. This is sometimes called the Rand formula. In certain situations involving state government employees in the United States, such as for example California, fair share laws make it easy to require these sorts of payments.

* An open shop does not discriminate based on union membership in employing or keeping workers. Where a union is active, the open shop allows workers to be employed who benefit from, but do not contribute to, a union or the collective bargaining process. In the United States, "Right To Work" laws mandate the open shop on the state level.

In Britain a series of laws were introduced during the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher's government to restrict closed and union shops. All agreements requiring a worker to join a union are now illegal. The Taft-Hartley Act outlawed the closed shop in the United States in 1947, but permits the union shop in most states.

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