A national trade union center is a federation or confederationof trade unions in a single country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. When there is more than one national center, it is often because of ideological differences—in some cases long-standing historic differences. Some countries, such as the Scandinavian, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland have different centers for blue collar workers and professionals.
Among the larger national centers in the world are the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Change to Win Federation in the USA; the Canadian Labour Congress; the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Britain; the Irish Congress of Trade Unions; the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU); the Congress of South African Trade Unions; the Dutch FNV; the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish LO; the German DGB; the French CGT and CFDT; the Italian CISL, CGIL and UIL; the Japan Trade Union Confederation RENGO; the Argentinian CGT and CTA; the Brazilian CUT, and so on.
Many national trade union centers are now members of the International Trade Union Confederation though some belong to the World Federation of Trade Unions.
Famous quotes containing the words national, trade, union and/or center:
“The religion of England is part of good-breeding. When you see on the continent the well-dressed Englishman come into his ambassador’s chapel and put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, you cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Teaching your child a trade is better than giving him a thousand ounces of gold.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics and trade, inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the Union staunch, whose days already seem numbered by the mere inconvenience of transporting representatives, judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)