The School of Labor Union is a specialized school for cultivating trade union talents, researching trade union theories, and building trade union disciplines, which serves as an important base for the CULR to focus on its main responsibilities, build a "characteristic first-class university," and better serve China's industrial and trade union work.

The predecessor of the school is the Trade Union Construction Teaching and Research Office, established in 1949, which has played a foundational role in training key teachers in trade union studies and compiling textbooks for the trade unions of the People's Republic of China. In September 1985, the CULR established the Department of Trade Union Studies, with the major, trade union studies, included in the national adult higher education enrollment plan, enrolling students nationwide within the trade union system. Trade Union Studies, the first textbook of its kind, was officially published at that time. On December 11, 1991, the State Education Commission approved the CULR's establishment of a "Trade Union Studies" major for labor model undergraduates. The Department of Trade Union Studies specifically undertook the training and management of labor model undergraduates. In June 2011, the Department of Trade Union Studies was renamed the School of Labor Union. In 2012, it undertook the training of master's students in Public Administration (with a focus on trade union work), marking the first MPA program in the trade union system focused on trade union work, symbolizing a new stage of development in the talent cultivation system of the School of Labor Union.

In 2020, the School of Labor Union, in collaboration with the School of Trade Union Cadres Training , further strengthened the role of trade union theory research in promoting cadre training. In 2023, the School of Labor Union, in collaboration with the School of Marxism, further clarified that the discipline of trade union studies belongs to the first-level discipline of Marxist theory. In April 2023, the school added an undergraduate major in trade union studies, and in September, the first cohort of undergraduate students in trade union studies was enrolled.