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A trade union (British EnglishAustralian EnglishNew Zealand EnglishSouth African English / Caribbean English; also trades union), labour union (Canadian English), or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve common goals such as protecting the integrity of its trade, improving safety standards, achieving higher pay and benefits such as health care and retirement, increasing the number of employees an employer assigns to complete the work, and better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment".〔 ch. I〕 This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. Unions may organise a particular section of skilled workers (craft unionism),〔Poole, M., 1986. Industrial Relations: Origins and Patterns of National Diversity. London UK: Routledge.〕 a cross-section of workers from various trades (general unionism), or attempt to organize all workers within a particular industry (industrial unionism). The agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers. Trade unions traditionally have a constitution which details the governance of their bargaining unit and also have governance at various levels of government depending on the industry that binds them legally to their negotiations and functioning. Originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, students, apprentices and/or the unemployed. == Definition == Since the publication of the ''History of Trade Unionism'' (1894) by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the predominant historical view is that a trade union "is a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment."〔 Karl Marx described trade unions thus; - “...the value of labour-power constitutes the conscious and explicit foundation of the trade unions, whose importance for the () working class can scarcely be overestimated. The trade unions aim at nothing less than to prevent the reduction of wages below the level that is traditionally maintained in the various branches of industry. That is to say, they wish to prevent the price of labour-power from falling below its value” (Capital V1, 1867, p. 1069). A modern definition by the Australian Bureau of Statistics states that a trade union is "an organization consisting predominantly of employees, the principal activities of which include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members."〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=Australian Bureau of Statistics )〕 Yet historian R.A. Leeson, in ''United we Stand'' (1971), said: Recent historical research by Bob James in ''Craft, Trade or Mystery'' (2001) puts forward the view that trade unions are part of a broader movement of benefit societies, which includes medieval guilds, Freemasons, Oddfellows, friendly societies, and other fraternal organizations. The 18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners (or "masters"). In ''The Wealth of Nations'', Book I, chapter 8, Smith wrote: As Smith noted, unions were illegal for many years in most countries, although Smith argued that it should remain illegal to fix wages or prices by employees or employers. There were severe penalties for attempting to organize unions, up to and including execution. Despite this, unions were formed and began to acquire political power, eventually resulting in a body of labour law that not only legalized organizing efforts, but codified the relationship between employers and those employees organized into unions. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Trade union」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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