{ "model": { "rank": 2779, "code": "thing-q178790", "model_id": "vr.tr.labor-union", "name": "labor union", "purpose": "Let an agent explain trade unions and their functions, help workers understand membership, rights and collective bargaining in general terms, describe union history and debates neutrally, and separate students unions.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q178790/", "tier": 2, "score": 97, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Collective contract shopping", "public-sector trade union", "students' union", "Workers' Education Society", "trade union federation", "Students' union", "AStA", "student association", "Student bar association", "student government in the United States", "tech union", "Unionization in the nonprofit sector", "education trade union", "employees' trade union", "Tür-Köy-Sen", "tobacco industry union", "automobile industry union", "local union", "trade union", "company cell (Communist Party)", "arodbiedrība", "Fachgewerkschaft", "company union", "Free Trade Union", "Gewerkschaftliche Bildungsarbeit", "Unión Nacional de Educadores", "enterprise union", "labor unions in Japan", "localism", "police union", "Camera del Lavoro", "Labour Party (UK) affiliated trade union", "General union", "graduate student unionization", "Patrolmen's Benevolent Association", "sports unions", "trade unions in Albania", "maritime union", "guild", "police unionization in France" ], "aliasCount": 40, "merged": 42, "knownIn": 97, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q178790", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q178790", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T20:18:40Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q178790", "registryId": "vr.tr.labor-union", "name": "labor union", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q178790/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.labor-union", "name": "labor union", "purpose": "Let an agent explain trade unions and their functions, help workers understand membership, rights and collective bargaining in general terms, describe union history and debates neutrally, and separate students unions.", "definition": "An organisation of workers formed to protect and advance their interests through collective bargaining, representation and action, including craft, industrial, public-sector and general unions, federations and confederations, and related bodies such as students unions; unions are regulated by labour law and recognised in international standards on freedom of association.", "what_it_is_for": "Collective representation of workers.", "affordances": [ "explain what unions do and how they work", "explain membership and worker rights in general terms", "find unions and federations", "describe history and debates neutrally" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Worker-led", "Collective bargaining", "Legally recognised", "Federated structures" ], "appearance": "Not physical; organisations, agreements and actions.", "visual_identification": [ "Worker membership organisations", "Collective bargaining and representation", "Professional associations regulate a profession rather than bargain" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "industrial and craft unions", "public-sector unions", "general unions", "federations and confederations", "students unions (related)" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "syndicate", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "business and professional associations, unions", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "collects", "target": "due", "why": "membership dues" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "cooperative", "why": "other member organisation" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining", "National labour and trade union law", "Rules on industrial action" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Partisan framing of unions", "Agents giving employment law advice", "Retaliation against organising" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What unions do.", "rationale": "Functions.", "layers": [ { "id": "functions", "name": "Functions", "description": "Union functions.", "findings": [ { "id": "functions-finding", "name": "Functions", "description": "Functions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do unions do, from collective bargaining to representation and services?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How are they structured and governed?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Legal framework.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Legal framework.", "questions": [ { "text": "What rights do workers have to join unions and bargain collectively here, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which rules govern strikes and industrial action?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "member", "name": "Member", "description": "Joining and rights.", "rationale": "General information.", "layers": [ { "id": "join", "name": "Join", "description": "Joining a union.", "findings": [ { "id": "join-finding", "name": "Join", "description": "Joining.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which unions represent workers in this sector, and how can someone join?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What do dues cost and cover?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "help", "name": "Help", "description": "Getting support.", "findings": [ { "id": "help-finding", "name": "Help", "description": "Support.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a union member get representation for a workplace issue?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for legal advice on their own case?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "Unions in history.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "development", "name": "Development", "description": "Historical development.", "findings": [ { "id": "development-finding", "name": "Development", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did trade unions develop in this country, according to historians?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which achievements and conflicts are notable?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debates", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates on unions.", "findings": [ { "id": "debates-finding", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "questions": [ { "text": "What positions exist on union power and labour law reform, attributed to their proponents?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the description balanced?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "related", "name": "Related", "description": "Related organisations.", "rationale": "Similar bodies.", "layers": [ { "id": "students", "name": "Students", "description": "Students unions.", "findings": [ { "id": "students-finding", "name": "Students", "description": "Students unions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a students union meant, and how does it differ from a trade union?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "international", "name": "International", "description": "Global unions.", "findings": [ { "id": "international-finding", "name": "International", "description": "Global unions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which international union federations exist, and what do they do?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How do they engage with the ILO?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each union type be a separate entry?", "How should union directories be linked?", "How should labour law be localised?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a labor union, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain trade unions and their functions, help workers understand membership, rights and collective bargaining in general terms, describe union history and debates neutrally, and separate students unions.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Collective contract shopping, public-sector trade union, students' union, Workers' Education Society, trade union federation, Students' union, AStA, student association, Student bar association, student government in the United States, tech union, Unionization in the nonprofit sector.", "42 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 97 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a labor union, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Collective contract shopping", "public-sector trade union", "students' union", "Workers' Education Society", "trade union federation", "Students' union", "AStA", "student association", "Student bar association", "student government in the United States", "tech union", "Unionization in the nonprofit sector" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 97 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 42 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one labor union from another, and a labor union from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a labor union sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a labor union from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a labor union passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a labor union between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a labor union, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a labor union is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a labor union.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a labor union and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a labor union, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a labor union and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a labor union sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What labor union is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does labor union take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of labor union, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in labor union and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of labor union may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does labor union have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a labor union came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a labor union and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a labor union is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a labor union, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a labor union, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a labor union is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }