The system or principles and theory of labor unions(noun)
WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.
Use "trade unionism" in a sentence
"Most of the works on foreign trade and currency disappeared from the shelves -- their author, the People's Commissar for Finance, had just been arrested; also nearly all old Party Congress reports treating the same subject; most books and reference-books on the history of antecedents of the Revolution; most works by living authors of jurisprudence and philosophy; all pamphlets dealing with the problems of birth control; the manuals on the structure of the People's Army; treatises on trade unionism and the right to strike in the People's state; practically every study of the problems of political constitution more than two years old, and, finally, even the volumes of the ~Encyclopaedia~ published by the Academy -- a new revised edition being promised shortly."
"There are three million unemployed, the government’s threatening legislation that will be the effective end of trade unionism in this country, and my union’s got its knickers in a twist because someone is getting their kicks from taking the mickey."