工会(labor union)
某一特定行业、工业或工厂的工人联合会，成立的宗旨是通过集体行动为工人争取更多的报酬、利益及更好的工作条件。18世纪英国出现第一个博爱互助工会，而现代劳工组织始於19世纪的英国、欧洲和美国。但工会运动遭到雇主及政府的反对，工会组织者经常遭到迫害。1871年英国通过的劳工法确立了英国劳工运动的合法地位。而美国则更为滞後，在法院取消一系列不利於劳工组织的禁令和法律之後，工会运动的合法地位才得以确立。1886年成立的美国劳工联合会标志着轰轰烈烈的工会运动的开始。美国劳工联合会把手工艺工会联合起来。这些手工艺工会由掌握某一特定技能的工人所组成。有少数工会组织者希望组织行业工会，即代表所有工人（不管是否是熟练工）的单一行业工会。产业工会联合会由受美国劳工联合会排挤的工会所组成，主要是把非熟练工人组织起来。到1941年时，产业工会联合会通过组织钢铁和汽车行业工会，使工会运动得以成功地开展（参阅AFL-CIO）。尽管每个国家的工会组织各不相同，但所有非共产主义工业国家都是通过集体谈判解决工资、工作条件和劳资纠纷。英国的劳工组织积极地参与政治活动，於1906年成立了工党。法国的劳工组织也高度政治化，1895年成立的法国总工会曾和共产党有过多年的联合，而法国工人民主联合会在政治上则较为中庸一些。日本的企业工会组织是企业的工会运动，它由一个工厂或多工厂企业工人而不是同行业工人组成。
English version：
labor union
Association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or plant, formed to obtain improvements in pay, benefits, and working conditions through collective action. The first fraternal and self-help associations of laborers appeared in Britain in the 18th century, and the era of modern labor unions began in Britain, Europe, and the U.S. in the 19th century. The movement met with hostility from employers and governments, and union organizers were regularly prosecuted. British unionism received its legal foundation in the Trade-Union Act of 1871. In the U.S. the same effect was achieved more slowly through a series of court decisions that whittled away at the use of injunctions and conspiracy laws against unions. The founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886 marked the beginning of a successful, large-scale labor movement in the U.S. The unions brought together in the AFL were craft unions, which represented workers skilled in a particular craft or trade. Only a few early labor organizers argued in favor of industrial unions, which would represent all workers, skilled or unskilled, in a single industry. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded by unions expelled from the AFL for attempting to organize unskilled workers, and by 1941 it had assured the success of industrial unionism by organizing the steel and automobile industries (see AFL-CIO). The use of collective bargaining to settle wages, working conditions, and disputes is standard in all noncommunist industrial countries, though union organization varies from country to country. In Britain, labor unions displayed a strong inclination to political activity that culminated in the formation of the Labour Party in 1906. In France, too, the major unions are highly politicized; the Confédération Générale du Travail (formed in 1895) was allied with the Communist Party for many years, while the Confédération Fran?aise Démocratique du Travail is more moderate politically. Japan developed a form of union organization known as enterprise unionism, which represents workers in a single plant or multiplant enterprise rather than within a craft or industry.
