United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) U.S. labour union. Founded in 1890, the UMWA grew rapidly under the leadership of John Mitchell (president 1898-1908) despite determined opposition from coal¬ mine operators. By 1920, when John L. Lewis took over, the union had half a million members. Lewis capitalized on the pro-labour climate of the New Deal and led numerous strikes to win fair pay, safe working condi¬ tions, and benefits. The UMWA was a mainstay of the Congress of Indus¬ trial Organizations (see AFL-CIO) in its early years, but Lewis withdrew the union from the CIO in 1942. Unaffiliated for decades, the UMWA finally joined the AFL-CIO in 1989. The UMWA’s importance declined
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
United Nations ► United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs I 1967
in the later 20th century with the waning of the labour movement and the rise of alternative sources of fuel, and by the 1990s it had fewer than 200,000 members.
United Nations (UN) International organization founded (1945) at the end of World War II to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations on equal terms, and encourage interna¬ tional cooperation in solving intractable human problems. A number of its agencies have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, and the UN was the corecipient, with Kofi Annan, of the prize in 2001. The term originally referred to the countries that opposed the Axis powers. An
U.N. Member States
1945 Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Haiti, Iran, Lebanon, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation 3 , Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Yugoslavia, Greece, India, Peru, Australia, Costa Rica, Liberia, Colombia, Mexico, S. Africa, Canada, Ethiopia, Panama, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Norway, Netherlands, Honduras, Uruguay, Ecuador, Iraq, Belgium
1946 Afghanistan, Iceland, Sweden, Thailand
1947 Pakistan, Yemen 6
1948 Burma (Myanmar)
1949 Israel
1950 Indonesia
1955 Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka
1956 Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Japan
1957 Ghana, Malaysia
1958 Guinea
1960 Benin, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Cyprus, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria
1961 Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Mongolia, Tanzania 5
1962 Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda, Trinidad and Tobago, Algeria, Uganda
1963 Kuwait, Kenya
1964 Malawi, Malta, Zambia
1965 Gambia, Maldives, Singapore
1966 Guyana, Botswana, Lesotho, Barbados 1968 Mauritius, Swaziland, Equatorial Guinea
1970 Fiji
1971 Bahrain, Bhutan, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates
1973 Bahamas, Germany 2
1974 Bangladesh, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau
1975 Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Papua New Guinea, Comoros, Suriname
1976 Seychelles, Angola, Samoa
1977 Djibouti, Vietnam
1978 Solomon Islands, Dominica
1979 Saint Lucia
1980 Zimbabwe, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
1981 Vanuatu, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda
1983 Saint Kitts and Nevis
1984 Brunei Darussalam
1990 Namibia, Liechtenstein
1991 Estonia, N. Korea, S. Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Marshall Islands, Micronesia
1992 Armenia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Georgia
1993 Czech Republic 1 , Slovakia 1 , Macedonia 4 , Eritrea, Monaco, Andorra
1994 Palau
1999 Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga
2000 Tuvalu
2002 East Timor (Timor-Leste), Switzerland
’Czechoslovakia was an original member from 1945. The Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic obtained separate memberships in 1992.
2 E. Germany and W. Germany were admitted as separate members in 1973; the two countries reunified in 1990.
3 The seat held by the Soviet Union, a member from 1945, was assumed by Russia in 1991.
4 Macedonia is referred to in the U.N. as 'The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" pending settlement of a dispute over its name.
Tanganyika, a member from 1961, merged in 1964 with Zanzibar, a member from 1963, to form the new country of Tanzania.
6 N. Yemen, a member from 1947, merged in 1990 with S. Yemen, a mem¬ ber from 1967.
international organization was discussed at the Yalta Conference in Feb¬ ruary 1945, and the UN charter was drawn up two months later at the UN Conference on International Organization. The UN has six principal organs: the Economic and Social Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, the United Nations Security Council, and the United Nations Trusteeship Council. It also has 14 specialized agencies—some inherited from its predecessor, the League of Nations (e.g., the International Labour Organization) —and a number of special offices (e.g., the Office of the United Nations High Com¬ missioner for Refugees), programs, and funds (e.g., UNICEF). The UN is involved in economic, cultural, and humanitarian activities and the coor¬ dination or regulation of international postal services, civil aviation, meteorological research, telecommunications, international shipping, and intellectual property. Its peacekeeping troops have been deployed in sev¬ eral areas of the world, sometimes for lengthy periods (e.g., they have been in Cyprus since 1964). The UN’s world headquarters are in New York City; its European headquarters are in Geneva. In 2005 the UN had 191 member countries. The principal administrative officer of the UN is the secretary-general, who is elected to a five-year renewable term by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. The secretaries-general of the UN have been Trygve Lie (1946-53), Dag Ham- marskjold (1953-61), U Thant (1961-71), Kurt Waldheim (1972-81), Jav¬ ier Perez de Cueliar (1982-91), Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-96), and Kofi Annan (from 1997).
United Nations Children's Fund See UNICEF
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Organ of the United Nations General Assembly, created in 1964 to promote international trade. Its highest policy-making body, the Conference, meets every four years; when the Conference is not in ses¬ sion, the organization is run by its executive body, the Trade and Devel¬ opment Board. UNCTAD’s principal functions include the promotion of trade between countries in different stages of development and with dif¬ ferent economic systems, initiation of negotiations for trade agreements, and the formulation of international trade policies. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, UNCTAD’s efforts were directed toward the prob¬ lems created in developing countries by economic globalization, and spe¬ cial attention was given to measures to help the poorest and least- developed countries become integrated into the world economy.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) UN orga¬ nization formed in 1965 to promote environmentally sustainable human development in low-income countries. Based in New York City, the UNDP is headed by an administrator who oversees a 36-member Execu¬ tive Board representing both developing and developed countries. Recent programs have focused on reducing poverty, developing strategies to treat and combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting environmentally sound energy and economic policies, and expanding communications and tech¬ nology infrastructure. UNDP resident representatives in more than 125 developing countries help to coordinate the local activities of other UN agencies and programs, as well as those of nongovernmental organiza¬ tions.