Industrial unionism - Definition and Overview

Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union -- regardless of skill or trade -- thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. Advocates of industrial unionism value its contributions to building unity and solidarity, suggesting the slogans, "an injury to one an injury to all" and "the longer the picket line, the shorter the strike."

Industrial unionism contrasts with craft unionism, which organizes workers along lines of their specific trades, even if leads to multiple union locals (with different contracts) in the same workplace.

In the United States, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) primarily practiced industrial unionism prior to its merger with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), made up mostly of craft unions.

The Industrial Workers of the World organized even more broadly, seeking to unite the entire working class into One Big Union which would struggle for improved working conditions and wages in the short term, while working to overthrow capitalism through a general strike, after which the union would manage production (see anarcho-syndicalism).