Czechoslovak Trade Union Association (), abbreviated to OSÃÂ, was a national trade union center, founded in 1897 in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the break-up of the empire, the OSÃÂ emerged as the major trade union force in Czechoslovakia up to the Second World War.
Odborové sdruà ¾enàÃÂeskoslovanské ('Czechoslav Trade Union Association') was founded in Prague on January 31, 1897. The OSàrepresented a desire on the part of Czech trade unionists to build a Czech trade union movement separate from the Viennese Imperial Trade Union Commission (the 'Vienna Commission'), the culmination of two years of complaints by Czech trade unionists that the Vienna Commission was neglecting the Czech labour movement. The formation of OSàdid not, however, represent a total break with the Vienna Commission; several OSàunions retained affiliations with the Vienna Commission. The founding congress was attended by 108 delegates, representing 90 trade union organizations, who met in the metalworkers' assembly hall in KarlÃÂn. Fourteen trade union organizations not represented at the congress also supported the OSÃÂ's formation. Josef Rouà ¡ar was elected its secretary. The new organization was linked to the Czechoslav Social Democratic Workers Party.
The OSÃÂ and the Vienna Commission had a complicated and vacillating relationship for several years. In 1902, the OSÃÂ accepted that the Vienna Commission would be the sole representative of the trade union movement in the Austrian Empire to the international strike fund of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres. Aside from this concession, however, the OSÃÂ demanded autonomy for the ethnic Czech trade union movement. Yet over the next three years, several OSÃÂ member unions, including its strongest one, the Union of Metalworkers, joined the Vienna Commission.
In 1904 Rouà ¡ar was replaced as the secretary by . Under Steiner's leadership, relations with the Vienna Commission worsened. In advance of the 1905 Amsterdam congress of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres, the OSàsought recognition as a separate trade union centre. The congress allowed an OSàrepresentative was allowed to attend as a guest but rejected the OSÃÂ's bid for recognition.
The tensions between OSÃÂ and the Vienna Commission peaked in 1905 and 1906. The Vienna Commission argued that the Czech autonomism was a minority standpoint within the labour movement, while the OSÃÂ became more vocal. The OSÃÂ began a process of regaining some unions that had been lost to the Vienna Commission from 1902 to 1905. In early 1906 the Union of Shoemakers rejoined.
In 1909 the Union of Metalworkers rejoined OSÃÂ. The following year unions organizing chemical workers, leatherworkers, miners and tailors followed suit. In 1910 Rudolf Tayerlé succeeded Steiner. The Vienna Commission became increasingly frustrated as the OSàexpanded its sphere of influence. By 1911 the OSàhad established a considerable following in Moravia and Silesia. This development marked a definite break with the Vienna Commission. Nevertheless, the Vienna Commission unions continued to encompass the majority of ethnic Czech workers in those regions.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 was a heavy blow to the organizational growth of the OSÃÂ. Many union activists were drafted and sent to the battlefields. Prices of essential commodities rose, making the bargaining position of workers weaker. By the end of the year the OSÃÂ had lost almost half of its membership. Several local structures were closed down and several OSÃÂ publications were discontinued. Repressive measures were enacted by the government in order to forestall strikes in the strategically important mining and industrial sectors. Strikers or protesters could be punished with jail or being sent to the front.
By 1917 the tide turned. Inequalities in wage increases between ethnic German and ethnic Czech workers angered the Czech working class. In the scope of a year, the OSÃÂ membership tripled, although membership levels still lagged behind the prewar level. Recruitment was particularly strong in heavy industries. The influx posed some organizational challenges for OSÃÂ and coincided with a shift from craft unionism to mass industrial unionism.
Between April and October 1918, OSànegotiated a possible merger with the National Socialist ÃÂeskoslovenská obec dÃÂlnická (ÃÂOD). The negotiations ended unsuccessfully because the ÃÂOD insisted that unions should subordinate themselves to political parties.
In October 1918 the OSàchanged its name to Odborové sdruà ¾enàÃÂeskoslovenské ('Czechoslovak Trade Union Association'). Discussions between OSàand Slovak Social Democratic trade unions began in December 1918. On February 2, 1919, a Regional Trade Union Council of OSàwas formed in Slovakia, with a secretariat in Ruà ¾omberok. Later a secretariat was set ut in Bratislava. In March 1919 OSàstarted a Slovak-language publication, Priekopnik ('Pioneer'). By this time OSàhad a membership of 30 000 workers in Slovakia.
Also, by February 1919, the Vienna Commission union organization that were now within the boundaries of the independent Czechoslovak Republic merged into OSÃÂ. Likewise OSÃÂ branches in areas that were now parts of Austria had already joined Austrian unions.