| AFL-CIO |
abbreviation of "American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations." |
| Bureau of Labor Statistics |
a research agency of the U.S. Department of Labor that collects and compiles statistical information, providing such measures as Consumer Price Index, inflation rate, and unemployment rate. |
| closed shop |
a factory or business that agrees, through a contract with a labor union, to employ only members of that union. [1/2 definitions] |
| craft |
those collectively occupied in a trade, skilled labor, or profession; guild. [1/7 definitions] |
| craft union |
a labor union whose members are workers in the same craft or trade. |
| cramp1 |
(usu. pl.) severe abdominal pain, such as that caused by intestinal disorders or the uterine contractions occurring during labor and menstruation. [1/3 definitions] |
| diminishing returns |
a proposition in economics that when the amount of one factor of production, such as labor, is increased past a certain point while the amounts of other factors, such as land or capital, are held constant, additional output will increase only at a progressively lower and lower rate. |
| drudge |
to labor at a boring, repetitious, physically demanding, or menial job. [1/2 definitions] |
| ecbolic |
inducing labor or causing abortion by causing or accelerating uterine contractions. [1/2 definitions] |
| Fair Labor Standards Act |
law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1938 and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor to establish work standards, such as national minimum wage, overtime compensation for certain jobs, and restriction on the use of child labor. |
| farmworker |
a person who does physical labor on a farm for wages. |
| fatigue |
manual labor or other duties done by military personnel; fatigue duty. [1/8 definitions] |
| general strike |
a strike by the entire labor force of an industry, country, or the like. |
| giveback |
a reduction in workers' salaries, benefits, or rights agreed to by a union during labor negotiations in exchange for some other concession by management or in recognition of depressed economic conditions. |
| grievance committee |
a committee empowered to settle grievances, as between labor and management, according to formal procedures established by prior agreement. |
| gulag |
a Soviet forced labor camp, as for political prisoners. [1/2 definitions] |
| hard labor |
compulsory physical labor imposed as part of a prison sentence. |
| headwork |
work requiring mental effort; mental labor; serious thought. |
| industrial relations |
the dealings between industrial employers and their labor force and the public, esp. the methods and regulations thereof. |
| industrial revolution |
(often cap.) a complex of economic and social changes caused by the shift of production from hand or physical labor at home or in small workshops to mechanized systems in large factories, as in the weaving of textiles, esp. in England in the eighteenth century. |
| industrial union |
a labor union that represents the workers in an entire industry rather than only those engaged in one craft or a related group of crafts. |