American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Examples of American Federation of Labor (AFL) in the following topics:

• The Diversity of Workers

  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) offered more support to white men than to women and non-whites.
  • Although the Federation preached a policy of egalitarianism with regard to African American workers, it actively discriminated against black workers.
  • The craft unions in this industry organized their own department within the AFL in 1908, despite the reservations of Gompers and other leaders about creation of a separate body within the AFL that might function as a federation within a federation.
  • The Knights were also responsible for race riots that resulted in the deaths of about 28 Chinese Americans in the Rock Springs massacre in Wyoming, and an estimated 50 African-American sugar-cane laborers in the 1887 Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana.
  • Examine the diversity of workers within the American Federation of Labor

• Modern Labor Organizations

  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States.
  • In 1955, the AFL merged with its longtime rival, the CIO, to form the AFL-CIO, a federation which remains in place to this day.
  • Together with its offspring, the AFL has comprised the longest lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States.
  • The Change to Win Federation, which split from the AFL-CIO in 2005-2006.
  • No longer do a sizable percentage of American workers belong to unions or have family members who do.

• The Great Steel Strike

  • Between September 1919 and January 1920, labor unions (such as the AA and AFL), organized a strike that would ultimately be unsuccessful.
  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing unskilled iron and steel workers into federal unions in 1901.
  • Many local federal unions became deeply entrenched in the workplace, and the AFL attempted to organize workers on the AA's behalf.
  • Second, the federation would create staff-driven unions run from national AFL headquarters.
  • Between 30,000 and 40,000 unskilled African-American and Mexican American workers were brought to work in the mills.

• Progressivism for Whites Only

  • Although racism manifested in many forms throughout the Progressive Era, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) mounted perhaps one of the most organized and concerted efforts of xenophobic legislation against non-white immigration during this period.
  • In its first years, the AFL admitted nearly every laboring group without discrimination.
  • Samuel Gompers, founder of the AFL, opened the Federation to radical and socialist workers and to some semiskilled and unskilled workers.
  • While the AFL preached a policy of egalitarianism in regard to African-American workers, by 1912, it was actively discriminating against them.
  • Such racist policies in the AFL did not only apply to African Americans.

• AFL and WWI

  • The American Federation of Labor sought to represent workers and increase production for the American war effort during World War I.
  • The AFL (American Federation of Labor) was at its most influential during Woodrow Wilson's administration.
  • Although the Federation preached a policy of egalitarianism in regard to African American workers, in reality, it actively discriminated against black workers.
  • The AFL also encouraged the formation of local labor bodies (known as central labor councils) in major metropolitan areas in which all of the affiliates could participate.
  • American Federation of Labor head Samuel Gompers (right) endorsed the pro-labor independent Presidential candidate Robert M.

• A New Direction for Unions

  • The New Deal and the economic growth during World War II greatly empowered American labor unions, which resulted in the dramatic increase of union membership.
  • NLRA remains the landmark legislation of federal labor law that established the increasingly powerful position of organized labor during Roosevelt's presidency.
  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL), the largest union grouping in the contemporary United States, was growing rapidly after 1933, reaching the membership of 3.4 million in 1936.
  • The AFL's long history of the exclusion of immigrant workers, women workers, and workers of color gradually made the AFL out of touch with the realities of the American industrial labor.
  • sentiments, its declared attitude toward African American workers was strikingly different from that of the AFL's.

• Labor and Domestic Tensions

  • During the Gilded Age, new labor unions, which used a wide variety of tactics, emerged.
  • Starting in the mid 1880s as a new group, the Knights of Labor grew rapidly.
  • The new American Federation of Labor, headed by Samuel Gompers, found the solution.
  • It was a coalition of unions, each based on strong local chapters; the AFL coordinated their work in cities and prevented jurisdictional battles.
  • The AFL worked to control the local labor market, thereby empowering its locals to obtain higher wages and more control over hiring.

• Gompers and the AFL

  • Samuel Gompers was a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history, founding the American Federation of Labor.
  • Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history.
  • Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881 as a coalition of like-minded unions.
  • In 1886, it was reorganized into the American Federation of Labor, with Gompers as its president.
  • Labor Historian Melvyn Dubofsky has written, "By 1896 Gompers and the AFL were moving to make their peace with Capitalism and the American system.

• Work in Industrial America

  • Early labor organizations supported white men over women, African-Americans, and Asians, viewing them as competition.
  • The Knights of Labor, lead by Terence V.
  • Powderley, was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s.
  • Although the Federation preached a policy of egalitarianism in regard to African American workers, it discriminated against black workers.
  • The craft unions in this industry organized their own department within the AFL in 1908, despite the reservations of Gompers and other leaders about creation of a separate body within the AFL that might function as a federation within a federation.

• Depression and Post-War Victories

  • The Great Depression of the 1930s changed Americans' view of unions.
  • The law also limited the power of federal courts to stop strikes and other job actions.
  • The CIO quickly established its own federation using a new name, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which became a full competitor with the AFL.
  • In light of this swing against labor, the AFL and CIO moved away from their feuding and finally merged in 1955, forming the AFL-CIO.
  • Chavez, a Mexican-American labor leader, for example, worked to organize farm laborers, many of them Mexican-Americans, in California, creating what is now the United Farm Workers of America.