labor union

American  

noun

labor unions plural

1. an organization of wage earners or salaried employees for mutual aid and protection and for dealing collectively with employers; trade union.

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labor union Cultural  

1. An organization of workers formed to promote collective bargaining with employers over wages, hours, fringe benefits, job security, and working conditions.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• labor unions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of labor union

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

labor union

A labor union spent $31 million gathering signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot in an effort to offset federal healthcare funding cuts that will affect millions of California’s most vulnerable residents.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

But my family’s health insurance, supplied by their labor union, wouldn’t cover care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where I had 33 radiation treatments.

From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026

Samsung and its labor union are holding post-mediation talks this week in a final effort to reach a settlement.

From Barron's ● May 11, 2026

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the labor union representing the federal workers, has tracked the number of controllers who die by suicide.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

But Dasch knew that any little slipup, such as revealing that he had been a member of a labor union, would mean "curtains."

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

Related Words

• trade union