Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-304) and index.

The historical experiences of workers organizing in Europe and the United States figure among many other forms of workers' resistance resulting from the variety of labour relations in the global past. They cannot and will not be uniformly duplicated or copied from their present form in the global transformations of labour and workers' movements that we are witnessing today. Nevertheless, in the twentieth century trade unionism as a form of collective agency among workers became a global phenomenon, be it in very different national and political contexts. With growing numbers of workers being exposed to wage labour and therefore to labour markets, the cases of workers organizing in the original heartlands of trade unionism in Europe and the United States can provide a historical background for future prospects and transformations. Based on comparisons of long-term developments and focusing on transnational connections, this book shows that historically there have been many varieties of trade unionism, emerging independently or crucially transforming older ones, and that these varieties and transformations can be explained by specific and changing labour regimes. The case studies all start from Dutch examples, or incorporate a Dutch element, but the comparative and transnational approach connects these histories to general developments in Europe and United States from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first.

Print version record.

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of figures, tables and appendices -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. An international of insolence -- 2. Transnational cigar-makers -- 3. From artisanal associations to collective bargaining agents -- 4. Trade unions and workplace organization -- 5. From placement control to control of the unemployed -- 6. The transnational origins of Dutch miners' unionism -- 7. Justice for Janitors goes Dutch -- Conclusion: Past and future transformations -- Bibliography -- Index

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