Unions may organise a particular section of skilled workers (craft unionism), a cross-section of workers from various trades (general unionism), or attempt to organise all workers within a particular industry (industrial unionism).
From the beginning unions could be viewed as a reflection of the racial disunity of the country, with the earliest unions being predominantly for white workers.
The legal status of trade unions in the United Kingdom was established by a Royal Commission in 1867, which agreed that the establishment of the organizations was to the advantage of both employers and employees.
Although those acts were repealed (1824), little progress was made in union growth until the organization of miners and textile workers in the 1860s, after which the struggle for legal recognition was waged with vigor.
After the Civil War, in 1866, the National Labor Union was formed; it had such objectives as the abolition of convict labor, the establishment of the eight-hour workday, and the restriction of immigration, but it collapsed with its entry into politics in 1872.
Many union movements in the underdeveloped countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, rising on the wave of nationalism, have led anticolonial movements toward political independence; the leaders of many newly independent nations have owed their rise largely to the support of workers they have organized.
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