Locals

The purpose of the union local is to insure workplace democracy.

The basic membership unit of the labor movement is the union local. There are, literally, thousands of local unions, and each is generally affiliated with a national, or international, union.

 

The purpose of the union local is to insure workplace democracy. Locals help create an organization close enough to the members so that all who wish can participate in deciding contract priorities, deliberating on important issues and electing officers.

Originally, locals were based in one factory. Some of those like the Ford River Rouge
automobile plant employed as many as 120,000 workers, but most were more modest in size.


Other locals were citywide in scope. Originally, all the union carpenters in Chicago, for instance, might belong to one local. If it got too big or unwieldy, or if there were a political conflict, it might split into two or more locals. Today, in Chicago, there are 21 carpenter union locals, united in a district council. Other big cities are similar.


As transportation and communications improved, though, local unions came to cover much larger territory. In public worker unions, for example, all the employees of one, or several, government agencies might belong to one local - even though they might be hundreds of miles apart. The Pennsylvania Social Services Union is Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Its jurisdiction includes state welfare social workers throughout Pennsylvania, who are covered by a single contract.

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