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Glite Dictionary
🗂️ Not arranged 👷 Not in a union
unorganized

unorganized

1 3.7
A worker who is not a member of a trade union
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌnˈɔrɡəˌnaɪzd/
  • US
translation icon : no sindicalizado
  • As long as the public remains unorganized and tolerant of the status quo, the military-corporate alliance will dictate a level of military spending that keeps its coffers filled to overflowing.
  • unorganized militia

Examples

  • The seminar focused on issues faced by unorganized workers who lack representation.

  • After all, without a substantial following among the unorganized poor, no candidate can win a presidential election in contemporary Brazil.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Meanwhile, the unorganized sector, which provides employment to 90 percent of workers, has seen its share in the national income decline from 70 percent in 1981 to 63 percent in 1991.

    Academic text (1997)

  • They hope that the event will spur more organizing and engagement with the union, both among PFT members and unorganized charter school teachers.

    Blog text (2)

  • These firms employ mainly women—many of them so-called home workers—who are underpaid and unorganized.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Without a strong union, unorganized employees often struggle to negotiate better wages.

  • Many unorganized individuals in the workforce do not have access to essential benefits.

Synonyms

unaffiliated
vsunorganized
15 6.6

Not officially connected to any group or organization

refers specifically to workers lacking trade union representation rather than any group
nonunionized
vsunorganized
1 7.5

People or workplaces not represented by a group that speaks for workers

has identical meaning but is an alternative term in the same context

Antonyms

organized
  • US
34 3.8

A worker or workplace that belongs to a union

Surface Forms

unorganized positive
unorganised positive

Morphology

unorganized = organized (semi-transparent) = un + organize + ed

Morphologically transparent as 'un-' + 'organized', but the specific sense 'not unionized' is a specialized extension of 'organized' that may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Unorganized also combines un- 'not' with organized, which can mean 'joined together' as when people 'organize' to form a union. So unorganized workers are 'not joined' to a union and do not have a group to speak for them.