trade union
- noun
- /treɪd ˈjuːnɪən/
- The workers formed a trade union to negotiate better salaries and benefits.
- trade unions and political parties
- trade union organizations
- trade union representatives
The factory workers in Vietnam who seek our help in starting independent trade unions.
- The factory workers in Vietnam who seek our help in starting independent trade unions.
- I mean, judges are prohibited from being members of political parties and belonging to trade unions.
- I remember some trade union leaders who clearly, as we've learnt, were acting on orders from Moscow.
- But well, this doesn't refer to anyone specific publisher or even publishers within this trade union, so I don't see how antitrust laws matter.
- My father was a trade union activist, a shop steward, a branch official in the EEU, as it was known then, the Amalgamated Engineering Union.
- Sadly, sadly, the left and the trade unions shut it down.
- Organized trade union support are the backing of businessmen.
- There there's a, there is, you know, there is a, a relationship between the strength of trade unions and inequality.
- Sharecropping, no, we're traditional because you should go into, into plantation, into trade union, et cetera, et cetera.
- My mom was a staunch Thatcherite and my dad was a trade union Labour right, so I grew up with these two opposing views in the house.
Examples
-
The parties met with an HR adviser and trade union representative to discuss their concerns and clarify the job description.
Academic text (2015) -
American workers owe a great debt to the trade unions of this country.
Blog text (33) -
But we have to think about the trade union struggle as a whole.
-
The relationship between a member and their trade union is different from that which exists between the same member and their manager.
Academic text (2011) -
The idea for workplace trade union involvement in the education and training of members is not a new one.
Academic text (2011) -
Working conditions have declined for most Latin American workers in the 1990s, as has trade union membership.
Academic text (1999) -
And I would say the trade unions are more respected in Sweden broadly than in other places.
-
The primary constituency of the ALP is the trade union membership.
Academic text (1991) -
Seva is a trade union of poor women engaged in countless different trades.
-
My father was a trade union activist, a shop steward, a branch official in the EEU, as it was known then, the Amalgamated Engineering Union.
Synonyms
A group of workers who act together to protect pay and rights
A group of workers that negotiates for better pay and working conditions
An organized group of workers that negotiates with employers for better pay and working conditions
A group of workers in one industry who join to talk with employers about pay and conditions for every worker
A group of workers who join together to protect their pay and rights by talking with employers
A group of workers that includes everyone in one industry no matter their job
A group of workers in the same skilled trade who join together to protect their rights
A union only for workers in one company that is often run by the employer
How Organized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'union' already denotes a workers' organization, and 'trade' functions as a modifier indicating the particular industry or occupation involved, so the combined meaning 'an organized group of workers in a trade' is directly inferable from the parts. Although 'trade' can also mean buying and selling, in this collocation the occupational sense is common and cross-linguistically similar, so a B1 learner who knows both words will generally understand the MWE.
Etymology
Trade union comes from a simple idea: workers in the same trade joined as a union to stand together. They did this to protect their rights and to 'bargain' with employers, so today the term means a group of workers who organize to improve pay and working conditions.