labor movement

/ˌleɪbər ˌmuvmənt/

Other forms: labor movements

When workers team up to change things like salary, working hours, and workers' safety, you can describe their group action as a labor movement. We have two-day weekends thanks to labor movements.

If you belong to a union, participate in strikes, or advocate for raising the minimum wage, you're involved in a labor movement. Political or social action with the goal of giving more rights and power to workers is what labor movements are all about. It took hard work on the part of labor movements to end child labor in the U.S., to establish a minimum wage, and to make an eight-hour work day standard for most jobs.

Definitions of labor movement

1. noun

   an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement
   synonyms: labor, trade union movement

   types:

   I.W.W., IWW, Industrial Workers of the World

   a former international labor union and radical labor movement in the United States; founded in Chicago in 1905 and dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism; its membership declined after World War I

   trade unionism, unionism

   the system or principles and theory of labor unions

   type of:

   reform movement

   a movement intended to bring about social and humanitarian reforms