The Free Luxembourger Workers' Union (, abbreviated 'FLA') was a

national trade union centre Organizers within trade unions have sought to increase the bargaining power of workers in regards to collective bargaining by acting in collaboration with other trade unions. Multi-union organizing can take place on an informal basis, or on a ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, active between 1945 and 1965.

Founding

FLA was founded in 1945, after a split in the

Luxembourg Workers' Union The Luxembourg Workers' Union (, LAV) was a general union in Luxembourg. The union was founded in 1920, as the Luxembourg Mining and Metalworkers' Union. This was a merger of the Luxembourg Miners' and Ironworkers' Union with the Luxembourg Metalw ...

(LAV). The founders of FLA revolted against the

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

stance of the LAV leadership.Campbell, Joan.
European Labor Unions
''

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...

: Greenwood Press, 1992. p. 284

Communist links

Several of the FLA leaders were also members of the Central Committee of the

Communist Party of Luxembourg The Communist Party of Luxembourg (; ; ; KPL or PCL) is a communist party in Luxembourg. is the current chairman of the party. History The KPL was founded on 2 January 1921, in the town of Niederkorn, making it one of the oldest parties ...

, including the FLA president Nic Momper and general secretary Jos Grandgenet. The opponents of FLA accused it of being a communist front. LAV charged that the founding of FLA had been an idea hatched by the communist leader

Dominique Urbany Dominique Urbany (29 March 1903 – 21 October 1986) was a Luxembourgish politician. He was the father of journalist and politician René Urbany. Urbany was one of the delegates at the Differdange socialist congress who voted for affiliation to ...

. FLA was affiliated to the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade union, trade unions established on October 3, 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the Int ...

.http://library.fes.de/library/netzquelle/english/eugew/history/pdf/buschak.pdf

Onset of the Cold War

At the time of its foundation FLA had around 10-11 000 members. As of 1946, FLA was the largest trade union centre amongst

blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, retail, warehousing, mining, carpentry, electrical work, custodia ...

workers. It was the majority union in metal industries and mines (with the exception of the mines at

Dudelange Dudelange (; ; ) is a commune with town status in southern Luxembourg. It is the fourth-most populous commune, with 22,043 inhabitants. Dudelange is situated close to the border with France. The commune also includes the smaller town of Bude ...

, were LAV retained their prominence). However, it began to decline with the onset of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. From 1949 onwards the influence of FLA declined. An important factor contributing to this development was the exclusion of FLA from collective bargaining negotiations, a policy upheld by both the Luxembourgish employers as well as the trade union competitors (LAV and the LCGB). FLA was however able to retain a foothold in industries in small and medium-sized companies in rural areas of the country for some time. In the 1950 elections to the Labour Chamber, FLA trailed behind both LAV and LCGB.

Later phase and dissolution

In 1958 FLA, along with three other WFTU-affiliated labour centres in Western Europe ( CGT,

CGIL The Italian General Confederation of Labour (, , CGIL ) is a national trade union centre in Italy. It was formed by an agreement between socialists, communists, and Christian democrats in the "Pact of Rome" of June 1944. In 1950, socialists and ...

, EVC) set up a Common Market Action Committee. In 1965 FLA was dissolved. At the time of its dissolution, it had around 1500 members. Most of them joined LAV unions.

References

{{Portal, Organized labour Trade unions in Luxembourg National federations of trade unions 1945 establishments in Luxembourg 1965 disestablishments in Luxembourg World Federation of Trade Unions Trade unions established in 1945 Trade unions disestablished in 1965