!!!Gewerkschaften

Trade Unions (labor unions; German: Gewerkschaften): Predecessors were 
journeymen's associations and brotherhoods such as were first 
documented in the 15%%sup th/%  century. After an uprising of 
shoemakers' journeymen in 1722 all brotherhoods and journeymen's 
associations were disbanded, and unions of craftsmen's journeymen were 
made subject to punishment by the Penal Code of 1803. Nevertheless, 
some sickness and burial funds were founded in the Vormaerz, the 
period preceding the March Revolution of 1848. The Fundamental Laws of 
1867 and the Coalition Act of 1870 enabled workingmen to form 
associations and press for better working conditions by strikes. 
Accordingly, workers' associations were founded in the years that 
followed. By 1873 there were 150 associations with approximately 
52,000 members on the territory of present-day Austria, with 70 % 
of membership in Vienna. At that time, there were already links with 
the  Workers' Movement; at the meeting at Hainfeld in 1888/89 a 
recommendation was passed to found crafts associations 
("Fachvereine").

\\
In 1892, 194 crafts associations, including 69 in Vienna, formed the 
"Provisional Commission of Austrian Trade Unions" ("Provisorische 
Kommission der Gewerkschaften Oesterreichs"), which held its 
first union rally in 1893. In 1897 a Czech Commission separated from 
it. By 1909, the Czech commission had grown to 40,000 members united 
in autonomous associations, as against a total membership of 415,000 
in the Austrian groups. Christian journeymen's associations were 
formed from approximately 1890 onwards and established a central 
commission in 1906. German-Nationalist associations, which were formed 
after 1900, held a congress in 1906. The individual crafts and trades 
were organised in varying degrees, with printers, lithographers and 
construction workers in the lead.

\\
After 1900 the unions organised major strikes calling for shorter 
working hours and increasingly succeeded in concluding collective 
agreements (at that time without a legal basis), but their influence 
on economic policy remained insignificant. Their activities were 
impeded by the state of emergency during the First World War (War 
Service Act).

\\
After 1918 the groups that were members of the Union Commission joined 
the Social Democrats as  freie Gewerkschaften and successfully worked 
to improve social policies (F.  Hanusch, F.  Domes); they cooperated 
with the  chambers of labour founded in 1920, established apprentices' 
sections, and had grown to 1,079,777 members by the end of 1921. By 
1932, however, their number had declined to 520,000. From 1928 onwards 
the Commission called itself Federation of Free Trade Unions (Bund 
freier Gewerkschaften). On account of its links with the Social 
Democrats it was dissolved in February 1934. Membership in the 
Christian Trade Unions, which were supported by the government of the 
day, rose from 65,000 in 1920 to 130,000 in 1932. In 1928 an 
independent union was formed (  Labour Unions, "Yellow" ). The German 
Nationalist Unions had about 50,000 members in 1931. In March 1934 the 
"Federation of Trade Unions of Austrian Blue and White Collar Workers" 
("Gewerkschafts-Bund der oesterreichischen Arbeiter und 
Angestellten") was founded as a public-law institution. It did 
not include civil servants and agricultural and forestry workers and 
was endowed with the assets of the free Trade Unions; although it was 
given a voice in labour exchange operations, it enjoyed only limited 
autonomy (Membership at the end of 1936: 368,000; 1937: 400,000).

\\
The Federation was dissolved in 1938 and workers became members of the 
Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front, DAF), an organisation 
uniting employers and employees. On April 15, 1945 the Austrian  
Federation of Trade Unions was founded in Vienna.

!Literature
F. Klenner, Geschichte der oesterreichischen 
Gewerkschaften, 3 vols., 1951-1979; idem, 100 Jahre 
oesterreichische Gewerkschaften, 1981.


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