labor, in economics

labor, term used both for the effort of performing a task and for the workers engaged in the activity. In ancient times much of the work was done by slaves (see slavery slavery, institution based on a relationship of dominance and submission, whereby one person owns another and can exact from that person labor or other services.
..... Click the link for more information. ). In the feudal period agricultural labor was in the main performed by the serf serf, under feudalism , peasant laborer who can be generally characterized as hereditarily attached to the manor in a state of semibondage, performing the servile duties of the lord (see also manorial system ).
..... Click the link for more information. . In medieval towns, however, the skilled artisans of the craft guilds guilds or gilds, economic and social associations of persons engaging in the same business or craft, typical of Western Europe in the Middle Ages.
..... Click the link for more information. became influential citizens. Many manual labor jobs were eliminated with the introduction of machinery (mid-18th cent.), thus creating a labor surplus (see Industrial Revolution Industrial Revolution, term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on complex machinery rather than tools.
..... Click the link for more information. ). With increased competition for jobs and consequent decreasing wages, a form of labor contract came into use in Great Britain and its colonies, called indenture, by which people could hire themselves out for a certain number of years either for a lump sum of money or to pay off a debt. This practice disappeared by the end of the 19th cent. From the last quarter of the 19th cent. the condition of most manual labor has improved slowly in industrial countries through organization (see union, labor union, labor, association of workers for the purpose of improving their economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Historically there have been two chief types of unions: the horizontal, or craft, union, in which all the
..... Click the link for more information. ), permitting collective bargaining with employers and successful pressure on governments for protective legislation. In fact, the term labor is today most frequently used to signify organized labor. For labor disputes, see strike strike, concentrated work stoppage by a group of employees, the chief weapon of organized labor. A suspension of work on the employer's part is called a lockout .
..... Click the link for more information. . See also child labor child labor, use of the young as workers in factories, farms, and mines. Child labor was first recognized as a social problem with the introduction of the factory system in late 18th-century Great Britain.
..... Click the link for more information. ; migrant labor migrant labor, term applied in the United States to laborers who travel from place to place harvesting crops that must be picked as soon as they ripen. Although migrant labor patterns exist in other parts of the world (e.g.
..... Click the link for more information. ; peonage peonage (pē`ənĭj), system of involuntary servitude based on the indebtedness of the laborer (the peon) to his creditor.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See J. R. Commons et al., History of Labour in the United States (4 vol., 1918–35, repr. 1966); G. D. H. Cole, A Short History of the British Working-Class Movement (new ed. 1960); N. J. Ware, Labor in Modern Industrial Society (1935, repr. 1968); A. Kuhn, Labor: Institutions and Economics (rev. ed. 1967); A. A. Paradis, The Labor Reference Book (1972); R. Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, and Contemporary American Workers (1989).

labor, in physiology

labor: see birth birth or labor, delivery of the fetus by the viviparous mammal. Birth is also known as parturition. Human birth normally occurs about 280 days after onset of the last menstrual period before conception.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Labor

A.F.L.-C.I.O.

(American Federation of Labor—Congress of Industrial Organizations) federation of autonomous labor unions in North America. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 84]

Gompers, Samuel

(1850–1924) labor leader; organizer of American Federation of Labor. [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 203]

I.W.W.

Industrial Workers of the World [Am. Hist.: Hart, 400]

International Labor Organization

(I.L.O.) agency of the United Nations; aim is to improve labor and living conditions. [World Hist.: EB, V: 389–390]

Meany, George (1894–1980)

former president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1733]

Marx, Karl (1818–1883)

chief theorist of modem socialism stimulated working class’s consciousness. [Ger. Hist.: NCE, 1708]

National Labor Relations Board

independent agency of U.S. government, supporting labor’s right to organize. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1887]

Solidarity

(Solidarnosc) Polish labor union movement of the 1980s. [Pol. Hist.: WB, P:541]

Teamsters

large, powerful union of U. S. truckers. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2703]

U.A.W.

large American auto workers union. [Am. Hist.: WB, U:21]

Wobblies

nickname for I.W.W. members. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 400]

Labor (redirected from working class)

labor, in economics

Bibliography

labor, in physiology

Labor
(redirected from working class)