Unions

Unions, often known as trade unions or labor unions, are organizations of workers who join together in an effort to promote their common interests related to employment. Unions typically occur between workers who share similar employment conditions, such as working for a common employer or sharing a common task in occupation, and come together to engage in collective bargaining. Women have had significant impact on both the history and the contemporary functioning of unions in the United States and other countries, and their history includes both women's organizations and female leadership in general trade unions.

The first trade unions were developed simultaneously with the Industrial Revolution in European countries. Although unions of laborers were illegal in most of Europe from the 14th to the mid-18th centuries, ...