Concept in Definition ABC

The guild concept is undoubtedly one of the most important in social history since it represents to all those forms of union between workers, from its most primitive stages to the present. The union is the union of workers in a specific field with the aim of defending each other against possible abuses as well as defending the activity, concentrating and transferring knowledge, developing improvements labor, etc.

Historically, the guild arises in the Middle Ages at times when artisans from different fields were grouped according to the activity they carried out in order to be better organized. As at that time the notion of owner vs. workers, if not that it was the same artisan workers who owned the workshop, the union had no functions of confrontation with business interests if not rather of internal organization and help to craftsmen. Thus, the rights and duties of the members were established and it was possible to escalate from being an apprentice to a teacher.

At present, and after very important social and economic phenomena such as the Industrial Revolution, the role of the union changed and took on a much more confrontational function, since from the 18th century the division between workers and capitalists began to be more and more evident. The modern union then served to group workers (also by category) in order to confront the economic power, the one who possessed the means of production and what could I do with it employee whatever you want due to the great offer of workforce.

Since then, the union has been a very important type of organization at a social level since it is the one that allows workers and employees to defend each other and accompany each other in case of abuse of inequality or injustices. Thanks to the work and the constant struggle of the unions, the workers have obtained throughout the 19th and 20th centuries great improvements in their working conditions that were previously not taken into account, for example vacations, licenses for disease, death of a family member, pregnancy, social rights such as social work, health insurance Health, retirement, etc.