trade union

English

Alternative forms

• (dated, rare) trades union (UK)

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

trade union (plural trade unions or trades unions)

1. An organization whose members belong to the same trade and that acts collectively to address common issues.
   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     When the first wave of postwar immigrants arrived in Britain in the 1950s and ’60s, it was a period of rising wages, full employment, an expanding welfare state and strong trade unions. Today, Britain’s manufacturing base has all but disappeared, working-class communities have disintegrated, unions have been neutered and the welfare state has begun to crumble.

   Synonym: union, labour union (Canada), labor union (Canada, US)

Usage notes

Some authorities, chiefly in the UK, suggest that the plural of trade union is trade unions when the relevant unions all represent the same trade (for example, "The train drivers were divided between two trade unions."), but trades unions when they represent different trades (for example, "There are hundreds of trades unions in England."). However, trade unions is commonly used for both cases.

Derived terms

• trade unionism

 

Translations

organization

• Afrikaans: vakbond, unie (af)
• Albanian: sindikatë (sq) f, bashkim (sq) m, bashkim profesional m
• Arabic: نَقَابَة f (naqāba), نَقَابَة عُمَّال f (naqābat ʕummāl), اِتِّحَاد نَقَابَة عُمَّال m (ittiḥād naqābat ʕummāl), نَقَابَة عُمَّالِيَّة f (naqāba ʕummāliyya)

  Gulf Arabic: نقابة f (niqāba, naqāba)

• Armenian: արհեստակցական միություն (hy) (arhestakcʿakan miutʿyun), արհմիություն (hy) (arhmiutʿyun)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܬܲܚܒܲܪܬܵܐ f (taḥbartā)
• Azerbaijani: həmkarlar ittifaqı
• Basque: sindikatu (eu)
• Belarusian: прафсаю́з m (prafsajúz), прафесі́йны саю́з m (prafjesíjny sajúz)
• Bulgarian: професиона́лен съю́з m (profesionálen sǎjúz), профсъю́з (bg) m (profsǎjúz)
• Burmese: ကုန်သွယ်ရေးသမဂ္ဂ (kunswaire:sa.magga.)
• Catalan: sindicat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 工會／工会 (gung¹ wui^6-2)

  Dungan: гунхуэй (gunhuey)

  Hokkien: 工會／工会 (zh-min-nan) (kang-hōe)

  Mandarin: 工會／工会 (zh) (gōnghuì)

  Wu: 工會／工会 (¹kon-hhue)

• Czech: odbory m pl
• Danish: fagforening (da) c
• Dutch: vakbond (nl) m
• Esperanto: sindikato
• Estonian: ametiühing
• Faroese: arbeiðsmannafelag (fo) n
• Finnish: ammattiyhdistys (fi) (local), ammattiliitto (fi) (national)
• French: syndicat (fr) m; (as opposed to an enterprise union) syndicat de métier m, syndicat professionnel (fr) m
• Georgian: პროფკავშირი (ṗropḳavširi)
• German: Gewerkschaft (de) f
• Greek: συνδικάτο (el) n (syndikáto)
• Hebrew: איגוד מקצועי / אִגוּד מִקְצוֹעִי m (igúd miktso'í)
• Hindi: श्रमिक संघ m (śramik saṅgh), ट्रेड यूनियन m (ṭreḍ yūniyan)
• Hungarian: szakszervezet (hu)
• Icelandic: stéttarfélag n
• Indonesian: serikat buruh (id)
• Irish: ceardchumann m
• Italian: sindacato (it) m
• Japanese: 労働組合 (ja) (ろうどうくみあい, rōdō kumiai), 労組 (ja) (ろうそ, ろうくみ, rōso / rōkumi) (abbreviation)
• Javanese: sarékat dagang
• Kazakh: кәсіподақ (käsıpodaq), кәсіпшілер одағы (käsıpşıler odağy)
• Khmer: សហជីព (saʼhaʼciip)
• Korean: 노동조합(勞動組合) (ko) (nodongjohap), 로동조합(勞動組合) (rodongjohap) (North Korea), 노조(勞組) (nojo) (abbreviation, South Korea), 로조(勞組) (rojo) (abbreviation, North Korea)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sendîka (ku)

• Kyrgyz: профсоюз (profsoyuz)
• Lao: ກຳມະບານ (lo) (kam ma bān), ສະຫະພາບແຮງງານ (sa ha phāp hǣng ngān)
• Latvian: arodbiedrība f
• Lithuanian: profesinė sąjunga f, profsąjunga f
• Macedonian: синдика́т m (sindikát)
• Malay: kesatuan sekerja
• Malayalam: തൊഴിലാളി സംഘടന (toḻilāḷi saṅghaṭana)
• Manx: sheshaght cheirdee f, keird-chummyn m, keird-heshaght f
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: үйлдвэрчний эвлэл (üjldverčnii evlel)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fagforening (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: fagforeining f

• Pashto: اتحاديه (ps) f (etehādiya), سنديکا f (sandikā)
• Persian: سِنْدیکا (fa) (sendikâ), اِتِّحادِیِهٔ صِنْفی (ettehâdiye-ye senfi), اِتِّحادِیِه (fa) (ettehâdiye), یونْیون (yunyon)
• Polish: związek zawodowy (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: sindicato (pt) m
• Romanian: sindicat comercial n, sindicat (ro) n
• Russian: профсою́з (ru) m (profsojúz), профессиона́льный сою́з m (professionálʹnyj sojúz), тред-юнио́н (ru) m (trɛd-junión) (rare, foreign context)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: синдѝка̄т m

  Roman: sindìkāt (sh) m

• Slovak: odbory m pl
• Slovene: sindikat (sl) m
• Spanish: sindicato (es) m
• Swedish: fackförening (sv) c, fack (sv) n (informal)
• Tagalog: unyon, unyong manggagawa, samahang manggagawa, kaisahan
• Tajik: иттифоқи касаба (ittifoqi kasaba)
• Thai: สหภาพแรงงาน (sà-hà-pâap-rɛɛng-ngaan)
• Turkish: sendika (tr)
• Turkmen: profsoýuz
• Ukrainian: профспі́лка f (profspílka), професі́йна спі́лка f (profesíjna spílka)
• Urdu: اِتِّحادِ صَنْعَتی m (ittihād-i san'atī), ٹْریڈ یُونِیَن m (ṭreḍ yūniyan)
• Uyghur: ئىشچىلار ئۇيۇشمىسى (ishchilar uyushmisi)
• Uzbek: profsoyuz, kasaba soyuzi
• Vietnamese: công đoàn (vi)
• Yiddish: פֿאַרבאַנד m (farband), פֿאַראיין m (fareyn), יוניאָן f (yunyon) (American)

See also

• enterprise union

Anagrams

• enduration, unordinate, unrationed