noun

die Gewerkschaft, -en

labor union · trade union · union

Eine Gruppe von Arbeitnehmern, die sich zusammenschließt, um gemeinsam für bessere Arbeitsbedingungen und faire Löhne einzutreten.

Definition & meaning

A Gewerkschaft is a voluntary association of employees, typically within a specific industry or trade, formed to represent their interests. The primary goal of a labor union is to negotiate with employers (or employer associations) regarding wages, working hours, safety conditions, and other employment benefits through collective bargaining.

In a broader sense, it can sometimes refer to historical mining associations, though this is rare in modern language.

Grammar & Word origin

The word is a feminine noun (die Gewerkschaft, plural: die Gewerkschaften).

It is a compound word formed from two parts:

Gewerke: Historically, this term referred to members of a craft or the trade itself (from gewerken, to work or to be engaged in a trade).
-schaft: A common German suffix used to form collective nouns, denoting a group or state of being.

Etymologically, it evolved from the late Middle Ages, where it initially referred to a community of owners or participants in a mining enterprise (Gewerken), before shifting in the 19th century to its modern meaning of a labor union.