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- Alberta Labour History Institute
- Archive of Social Democracy (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung)
- Archives of Political History and the Trade Unions
- La Asociación Mexicana de Estudios del Trabajo, A.C. (AMET)
- Association of Indian Labour Historians
- Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB)
- BC General Employees Union (BCGEU)
- Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU-K)
- Centre of Cooperation - RUB/IGM
- General Agricultural Workers Union of Ghana (GAWU-TUC)
- Hans-Böckler Foundation
- International Association of Labour History Institutions
- Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University, Bochum
- Laboratório de Estudos de História dos Mundos do Trabalho (LEHMT)
- Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF)
- Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition
- Simon Fraser University (SFU)
- UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
- Union of Professional Health and Care Sector Workers in Nepal (UNIPHIN)
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Prominent Trade Unionists
Khurshid Ahmad
Khurshid Ahmad is a veteran Pakistani trade union activist who has been working in the trade union movement for past half a century. He has been associated with the founders of labour movement in Bashir Ahmad Bakhtiar and Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim. He has been an elected member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) governing body representing the International Workers' Group since 1972. He was also elected as Vice President of the Annual International Tripartite Labour Conference (held at Geneva in 1986) and Vice Chairman of Asia Pacific Regional Conference (held in Korea in 2006). The Lahore-born labour leader has also represented workers at various national tripartite such as the Pakistan Labour Commission, the Pakistan Manpower Commission and the National Tripartite Standing Labour Advisory Committee to highlight workers' problems and emphasize the need for raising their socioeconomic status.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was India’s foremost civil rights leader, anti-caste icon, crusader against untouchability, and champion of the rights of labour and socially marginalised groups.
Walter Arendt
Walter Arendt was the son of a miner, born on January 17, 1925 in Hesse, Germany. After attending primary school, Arendt worked as a miner from 1939 to 1947, with interruptions for labour service, military service and imprisonment. In 1946, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and soon after the IG Bergbau. Walter Arendt was regarded as a consistent defender of the miners' interests and a committed but pragmatic social politician. He repeatedly campaigned for the expansion and safeguarding of the welfare state. Walter Arendt died near Bonn on March 7, 2005.
Anne Baranyk-Broad
Anne Baranyk-Broad was an activist in the garment industry in Alberta, Canada starting in 1954.
Anton Benya
Anton Benya was born on October 8, 1912, into a Viennese working-class family. The family of five lived in a small apartment where water was only available in the hallway and money was always tight. Benya learned how to survive in the alley, learned what solidarity meant at school, and experienced union cohesion as an apprentice electrician in a 100%-unionized company.
Hans Böckler
Hans Böckler (born February 26, 1875) was the first chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation, which was founded as a unified trade union after the Second World War in 1949. Böckler had been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and a member of the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV) since 1894. During National Socialism, he was arrested several times for short periods. Because of his contacts with resistance groups, especially Wilhelm Leuschner, he went into hiding after the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 until the end of the war. After the war, he worked to rebuild the trade union movement. He campaigned for all employees to be united in a single, non-party-political trade union, the German Trade Union Confederation. He died on February 16, 1951. Today, the Hans Böckler Foundation of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) is named after him. There are also various streets and squares in Germany that bear his name. In Berlin, a bust commemorates him today.
Otto Brenner
Otto Brenner was born into a working-class family in Hanover, Germany, on 8 November 1907. He did not have the opportunity to complete an apprenticeship. Nevertheless, he managed to work his way up from a labourer to a factory electrician and electrical fitter. In 1931 he co-founded the Socialist Labour Party of Germany (SAPD). During the Nazi era, Brenner was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and sentenced to two years in prison. After his release, he was under police surveillance until the end of the war, eking out a living as a construction worker and newspaper deliverer. After the war he was chairman of IG Metall for many years. He distinguished himself as a consistent representative of the interests of the metalworkers in the area of wage and working time policy. He died on 15 April 1972, and today the Otto Brenner Foundation, an IG Metall foundation for the promotion of science and research, and the Otto Brenner Prize, an annual award for critical journalism, are named after him.
Valentín Campa
This historical Mexican communist actively participated in the organization of the Mexican workers' movement during the first half of the 20th century, with an especially outstanding participation in the railroad movement of the 1950s.
ES: Comunista histórico de México tuvo una activa participación en la organización del movimiento obrero durante la primera mitad del siglo XX. Participación destacada en el movimiento ferrocarrilero de la década de los 1950.
Franz Gustav Duncker
Franz Gustav Duncker (*June 4, 1822) founded the Hirsch-Dunckersche Gewerkvereine, Germany's first national-liberal trade union organisation, together with Max Hirsch in 1868. It set itself apart from the free and Christian trade unions and existed until it was forcibly dissolved by the National Socialists in 1933.
Further source: Jürgen Frölich, Franz Duncker (1822-1888). Berliner Großbürger, preußischer Demokrat und liberaler Gewerkschaftsgründer, in: liberal Bd. 30, 1988, H. 2, S. 77-85.
Slim Evans
Arthur "Slim" Evans was a Canadian union activist and leader of in the One Big Union and International Workers of the World, best known for his role in spearheading the 1935 On to Ottawa Trek.
Rafael Galván
Rafael Galván was one of the main defenders of workers' rights in Mexico from 1940 to 1970. He was the founder of the Tendencia Democrática Electricista y dirigente del Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Electricistas de la República Mexicana (SUTERM). He headed a great union democratization movement in the 1970s.
ES: Fue uno de los principales defensores de los derechos de los trabajadores durante el periodo que media entre los años de 1940 y 1970 del siglo XX. Fundador de la Tendencia Democrática Electricista y dirigente del Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Electricistas de la República Mexicana (SUTERM). Encabezó un gran movimiento democratizador sindical en la década de los 1970.
Ginger Godwin
Ginger Godwin was a miner, strike leader, and war resistor in British Columbia, Canada. His shooting at the hands of Dominion police prompted the Vancouver General Strike, a key event leading to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. This was one of the foremost events in Canada's labour history.
Max Hirsch
Max Hirsch (born December 30, 1832 in Germany) studied economics after leaving school. After graduating, he worked as a merchant in Magdeburg, where he began his political and journalistic activities for the liberal Progressive Party and the liberal workers' educational associations. In 1868, he travelled to England and Scotland to study the cooperative system, which he supported. There, he became acquainted with politically neutral trade unions, the principles of which he wanted to transfer to Germany. Together with Franz Gustav Duncker, he founded the Hirsch-Dunckersche Gewerkvereine, the first national liberal trade union organisation. It was distinct from the free and Christian trade unions and existed until it was forcibly dissolved by the National Socialists in 1933. Hirsch saw the trade union organisations as corrective bodies within capitalism and saw their task as improving the economic and social situation of the workers not by overcoming the capitalist order but functioning within it. He died in Bad Homburg on June 26, 1905.
Further source: Helga Grebing, Max Hirsch, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 9, S. 205f.
Heinrich Imbusch
Heinrich Imbusch was born in Oberhausen on September 1, 1878. After attending primary school, he worked as a miner. In 1897, he joined the Christian Miners' Union and in 1905 became editor of the union's magazine, Der Bergknappe. From 1919 to 1933, he was the first chairman of the Christian Miners' Trade Union and from 1929 to 1933 the chairman of the Christian National German Trade Union Federation. During the Nazi era, he fled to Belgium and returned to Germany in 1942, where he went into hiding. A few months before the end of the war, Heinrich Imbusch died of pneumonia in Essen, Germany on January 16, 1945. Today, a "stumbling block" on the ground outside his former home in Essen commemorates him.
Further source: Michael Schäfer: Heinrich Imbusch. Christlicher Gewerkschaftsführer und Widerstandskämpfer, München 1990.
(Qaid-i-Azam) Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Qaid-i-Azam (Arabic: "Great Leader") Mohammad Ali Jannah was the founder and first governor general (1948) of Pakistan, and is also known as the Father of Pakistan. He was also a labour leader and supporter of the Pakistani workers' cause. In 1952, he was elected the President of the All India Postal Staff Union.
Jakob Kaiser
Jakob Kaiser (in photograph; right) was born on February 8, 1888 in Germany. He was the son of a master bookbinder. He completed an apprenticeship in his father's business and joined the Catholic Kolping Society and the People's Association for Catholic Germany as a journeyman. During the first months of the Nazi dictatorship, he maintained intensive contacts with the leadership of the other aligned trade unions. Together with Wilhelm Leuschner of the Free Trade Unions, Ernst Lemmer of the Hirsch-Dunckersche Gewerkvereine and Max Habermann of the Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband, he tried to ensure the organisational survival of the trade unions during the Nazi period. Like Wilhelm Leuschner, he was involved in the preparations for the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. After the failed assassination attempt, Kaiser was able to go into hiding until the end of the war. After the war he became politically active in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He died in Berlin on May 7, 1961.
Further sources: Werner Conze, Elfriede Nebgen u. Erich Kosthorst: Jakob Kaiser, Stuttgart 1967.
Günter Buchstab: Widerstand um Jakob Kaiser, in: Günter Buchstab u.a. (Hrsg.): Verfolgung und Wiederstand 1933-1945. Christliche Demokraten gegen Hitler, Düsseldorf 1986, S. 180-190.
Girija Prasad Koirala
Girija Prasad Koirala was the former Prime Minister of Nepal. He was the founder chairman of the Nepal Trade Union Congress, had organized workers in the Biratnagar Mills Area, and established the Nepal Mazdoor Sangh on March 4, 1947 to raise awareness for the rights to organize, increase wages, improve working conditions, and provide suitable housing for workers (this movement is recognized as the first labour movement Nepal). The Nepal Mazdoor Sangh holds a significant place in the Nepali democratic movement as well, as it brought awareness among the general workers and was instrumental to the success of the working class and, in turn, the democratic movement of 1951.
Carl Legien
Born in Marienburg (Germany) in 1861, the woodturner Carl Legien joined the Hamburg Woodturner's Association in 1886 and, as its chairman, founded the German Woodturner's Association a year later. In 1889, he took part in the founding of the Socialist International at the International Socialist Congress in Paris, and in 1890 he became chairman of the General Commission of German Trade Unions, in 1913 chairman of the International Trade Union Confederation and in 1919 chairman of the General German Trade Union Confederation.
During the First World War, he played a key role in integrating the trade unions into the national 'armistice' by renouncing strikes, and even after the war he was a staunch supporter of the parliamentary republican form of government, opposing plans to establish a Soviet republic. In the Stinnes-Legien Agreement of November 1918, he won the first recognition of the trade unions as representatives of the interests of the working class and the legal enforcement of the eight-hour day. In 1920, Legien organised the successful general strike against the Kapp putsch and became vice-chairman of the Provisional Reich Economic Council. He refused an offer from President Friedrich Ebert to form a government and died in the same year.
Further source: Karl Christian Führer: Carl Legien 1861-1920. Ein Gewerkschafter im Kampf um ein „möglichst gutes Leben“ für alle Arbeiter, Essen 2009.
Wilhelm Leuschner
Wilhelm Leuschner was a German trade unionist and social democratic politician who fought to preserve free trade unions in the resistance against National Socialism. Leuschner was born on June 15, 1980. He learnt the trade of wood sculptor and worked in the furniture industry until 1916 and then served as a soldier in the war until the end of the First World War. He joined the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1908. In January 1933, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB).
During the Nazi era, Wilhelm Leuschner set up the last trade union resistance group in Germany to function until the end of the war. All other resistance groups had been broken up by the Gestapo, with shop stewards murdered, sent to concentration camps or exiled. Leuschner was also repeatedly arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps. He was involved in the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, and was executed by the Nazis in Berlin on September 29, 1944 for "preparation of high treason". His much-quoted legacy for the creation of a new trade union movement was: "Create unity!"
There is a memorial to him in Berlin today (featured photo).
Narayan Meghaji Lokhande
Narayan Meghaji Lokhande founded the first labour organisation in India, “Mill Hands Association” in 1884.
Ricardo Flores Magón
Ricardo Flores Magón was an organizer and intellectual of the Mexican working class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He promoted anarchism in the Mexican working class with his brothers Jesús and Enrique.
ES: Organizador e intelectual de la clase obrera de finales de siglo XIX y principios del XX. Impulsó junto a sus hermanos, Jesús y Enrique, el anarquismo en la clase obrera mexicana.
Antonio García Moreno
Antonio García Moreno was a Mexican mining leader in the 1950s. He led one of the epic mining mobilizations of the 20th century, denoucning the poor working conditions and wages of coal miners in northeastern Mexico.
ES: Dirigente minero de la década de los 1950. Encabezó uno de las movilizaciones mineras épicas del siglo XX denunciando las malas condiciones de trabajo y salariales de los mineros del carbón en el noreste de México.
Doug O'Halloran
Doug O'Halloran was an organizer in Alberta, Canada's meatpacking and grocery sectors from 1973 until 2019.
Neil Reimer
Neil Reimer was a union activist in Alberta, Canada's energy sector and served as the first leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party from 1963 to 1968.
Arun Kumar Roy
Arun Kumar Roy was one of the founders of the social movement for trade unionism in India in the late 1960s.
Toni Sender
Sidonie Zippora (Toni/Tony) Sender was born in Biebrich, Germany (Wiesbaden) on November 29,1888 and grew up in a wealthy Orthodox Jewish family. After attending a commercial college in Frankfurt, she went to Paris to work for a Frankfurt metal company, but had to return to Germany at the start of the First World War. She co-founded the Independent Socialist Party of Germany (USPD) in 1917 and was a Social Democratic member of the Reichstag until 1933. From 1919 to 1933, she worked as a trade unionist on the editorial board of the works council newspaper of the metalworkers' union. In 1927, she also became the editor of the Social Democratic magazine Frauenwelt, in which she published more than 400 of her own articles.
In 1933, she emigrated via Czechoslovakia to the United States, where she resisted National Socialism through critical publications. From 1947, she worked as an assistant to the representatives of the American Federation of Labour (AFL) at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. In her work, she campaigned not only for key trade union demands such as shorter working hours and full employment, but also for the international outlawing of forced labour. Toni Sender died in New York on June 26, 1964.
Vicente Lombardo Toledano
Vicente Lombardo Toledano was a builder of Mexican working class institutions in the first half of the 20th century, highlighting the formation of the General Confederation of Mexican Workers and Peasants (CGOCM) in 1933 and the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM) in 1936.
ES: Constructor de instituciones de la clase obrera en la primera mitad del siglo XX, destacando la formación en 1933 de la Confederación General de Obreros y Campesinos Mexicanos (CGOCM)y la Confederación de Trabajadores de México(CTM) en 1936.
Demetrio Vallejo
Demetrio Vallejo was a dissident Mexican railroad leader in the second half of the 20th century. His labour militancy led to a crisis in Mexican corporate unionism. In the 1950s, he led one of the main labour movements that demanded union democratization.
ES: Dirigente Ferrocarrilero disidente de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Su militancia obrera llevo a una crisis al sindicalismo corporativo mexicano. En la década de los 1950 encabezó uno de los principales movimientos obreros que demandaba la democratización sindical.
Muhammad Yaseen
Ch. Muhammad Yaseen, Sitting General Secretary of the Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF), plays a vital role in the trade union history of Pakistan. He joined a trade union in 1969 and was elected General Secretary of the Capital Development Authority Workers Union. He fought for workers' rights and achieved many demands from the government. He was arrested several times while protesting for the workers' cause, but continues to fight for the betterment of workers in Pakistan. He is famous as a Law Minister of workers amongst labour leaders and workers of Pakistan. He was elected as the undefeated General Secretary of the PWF and is still working to improve workers' rights.