A local union, often shortened to local, in North America, or a union branch (known as a lodge in some unions) in the United Kingdom and other countries is a locally-based trade union organization which forms part of a larger, usually national, union.
Local branches are organized to represent the union's members from a particular geographic area, company, or business sector. Locals have their own governing bodies which represent the interests of the national union while at the same time responding to the desires of their constituents, and organise regular meetings for members. Local branches may also affiliate to a local trades council.
In the United States and Canada, locals are usually numbered (e.g. CWA Local 2101 in Baltimore, Maryland or ILA Local 273 in Saint John, New Brunswick). In the United Kingdom, they are usually named by geographical location (e.g. Manchester Branch), but may also have a name and a number (e.g. Manchester No.2 Branch) or have a more specific name (e.g. Manchester Fitters Branch) if there is more than one branch in a town. Some unions (e.g. Transport and General Workers' Union) number their branches as well as naming them.
In the British printing industry, union branches are traditionally divided into sub-branches known as "chapels", led by the Father of the Chapel. Each chapel represents members in a single printing works or department of a larger works.
Famous quotes containing the words local and/or union:
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—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar)
“Maybe we were the blind mechanics of disaster, but you don’t pin the guilt on the scientists that easily. You might as well pin it on M motherhood.... Every man who ever worked on this thing told you what would happen. The scientists signed petition after petition, but nobody listened. There was a choice. It was build the bombs and use them, or risk that the United States and the Soviet Union and the rest of us would find some way to go on living.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)