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Alabour council,trades council orindustrial council is an association oflabour unions orunion branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or state level. They may also be based on a particular industry rather than geographical area, as for example, in the Maritime Council of Australia which co-ordinated the waterfront and maritime unions involved in the1890 Australian Maritime Dispute.
Affiliates of labour councils aretrade union branches or locals, and occasionally otherlabour movement organisations. Citywide or provincial councils may have district or regional labour council affiliates as well as trade unions. Some labour councils restrict their membership to organisations which are affiliated with a particular nationaltrade union federation, such as many state-level labour councils in theUnited States, which are chartered from theAFL–CIO national confederation.
Finances are usually obtained through an affiliation fee, often based on a per capita levy on the membership of affiliates. In Australia, trades and labour councils often have their own hall and offices known as atrades hall, with the term trades hall often used as a colloquial expression for the labour council or trades hall council.
Labour councils are a widespread phenomenon, but are given different names in different English-speaking areas. Labour council is most common in Canada and Australia, labor council is used in the (USA) and trades council, trades union council or trades and labour council in the United Kingdom (and until recently was widespread in Australia) and some other countries. Another term sometimes used is industrial council, as in for example, theBarrier Industrial Council ofBroken Hill in Australia.
National associations of trade unions, such as BritishTrade Union Congress may also be considered a labour council, though the term often implies a primarily local organisation.
Labour councils were formed to meet a need to co-ordinate trade union activity in a geographical region. The earliest examples of this form of organisation can be found in the medieval craftguilds and craft halls that developed in European cities. An example of this is the historicGlasgow Trades Hall wherein the 14 incorporated trades of Glasgow each year elected members of the Trades House, headed by the Deacon Convener of the Trades[1]
The trade union activity of the late 19th century in particular spurred the establishment of labour councils and trades councils across North America, Australia and Britain.
Some notable events in the history of labour councils include:
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