Different between Trade Union and Union?

[Bright Banana Beard]

I was wondering what is the different between them.

[New Tet]

Sorry no one bothered to address your question and sorry that this is the first time I properly notice this post.

The question is defective. A trades' union is just that, a union. What is the difference between, say, a trades union and an industrial union would be a more appropriate way to pose it.

I fact, what is the difference between an industrial union and a socialist industrial union (http://www.slp.org/pdf/de_leon/ddlother/burn_ques.pdf) could very well be an even more relevant and timely question.

[Bright Banana Beard]

So why they were called trade union instead of just union?

[Forward Union]

So why they were called trade union instead of just union?

A Trade Union refers to a union for workers of a specific trade, so if a Carpenters Union or a Nurses Union for example. People of other trades are not represented by these unions, and It may fight to lower other workers wages by increasing it's own members' wages.

This is different to an Industrial Union, which fights for workers as a class.

The confusion is that now, people basically call all unions trade unions, and trade unions "craft" unions.

To complicate things more, there are also political unions, such as Anarcho-Syndicalist unions, which not only organise workers on an industrial basis for higher wages, better conditions etc, but have the political agenda of using the union to achieve (for example) Anarchism.