muncitorii

Muncitorii is the Romanian plural noun that means “the workers.” The term derives from muncă, meaning work, with agentive endings that designate people who perform work, typically manual or skilled labor. The singular form is muncitor, and the collective plural muncitorii refers to a group of workers.

Historically, the expression has appeared in discussions of Romania’s industrialization, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when factory and railway labor gave rise to organized labor and political movements. In academic and political writing, muncitorii has been used to denote the working class as a social category and to discuss issues such as wages, working conditions, and collective action. During the socialist era in Romania, the term often appeared in official discourse to describe the supposed leading role of the working class, alongside broader notions of the clasa muncitoare (working class) and the labor movement.

In contemporary usage, muncitorii remains common in formal and journalistic language but is sometimes replaced by more specific terms in everyday speech, such as muncitori, angajați, or salariați. The phrase is frequently qualified by sector or status, for example muncitorii din industrie or muncitorii din construcții, or by context such as muncitorii din sectorul public. Overall, muncitorii remains a general designation for wage earners who perform manual or skilled labor and who are referenced in discussions of labor markets, unions, and labor rights.