AFL-CIO

American Federation of Labor History
In 1881 representatives of workers' organizations, meeting in Pittsburgh, formed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States and Canada. In 1886 at another conference in Columbus, Ohio, this group reorganized as the American Federation of Labor. Opposed to the socialistic and political ideals of the [|Knights of Labor], the AFL was, instead, a decentralized organization recognizing the autonomy of each of its member national craft unions. Individual workers were not members of the AFL but only of the affiliated local or national union. From its inception the AFL emphasized organization of skilled workers into craft unions (composed of a single occupation such as painters or electricians), as opposed to industrial unions (where all the workers in the automobile or steel industry would belong to one union). Opposed to the idea of a labor party, the AFL was a relatively conservative political force within the labor movement of the late 19th and early 20th cent. But the union did help secure for its members higher wages, shorter hours, workmen's compensation, laws against child labor, an 8-hr day for government employees, and the exemption of labor from antitrust legislation. Under the leadership of [|Samuel Gompers], [|William Green], and then [|George Meany], the AFL became the largest labor federation in the United States, with a membership of over 10 million at the time of its merger with the CIO in 1955.

Congress of Industrial Organizations
Within the AFL in the early 1930s a strong minority faction evolved, advocating the organization of workers in the basic mass-production industries (such as steel, auto, and rubber) on an industry-wide basis. [|John L. Lewis] of the United Mine Workers of America led this faction in forming a Committee for Industrial Organization in 1935. This group (changing its name in 1938 to Congress of Industrial Organizations) immediately launched organizing drives in the basic industries. The spectacular success of those drives, particularly in the automobile and steel industries, enhanced the CIO's prestige to the point where it seriously challenged the AFL's hegemony within U.S. organized labor. After fruitless negotiation the parent body revoked the charters of the 10 dissident international unions. The CIO, under the presidency of[| Lewis] until 1940 and then of [|Philip Murray] until his death in 1952, followed more militant policies than the AFL. The CIO's Political Action Committee, headed by [|Sidney Hillman] of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, played an active role in the CIO's attempt to urge its membership into more active political participation. The CIO grew rapidly until its affiliated international unions numbered 32 at the time of the 1955 merger, with an estimated membership of five million. Its growth, however, was marked by internal dissension; the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) withdrew in 1938 and the UMW in 1942. While the AFL was grappling with the problem of gangster-dominated affiliates, the CIO decided in 1948 to bar Communists from holding office in the organization, and in 1949-50 it expelled 11 of its affiliated unions, which were said to be Communist-dominated.

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This is an interesting link that talks about some history of the AFL-CIO.

Samuel Gompers Born in London in 1850, Gompers emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1863. He worked as a cigar maker and in 1864 joined the local union, serving as its president from 1874 to 1881, during which he helped create the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. It was reorganized in 1886 and became the [|American Federation of Labor], of which Gompers was first president, and except for one year, served as president until his death. He directed the successful battle with the [|Knights of Labor] for supremacy, kept the union free from political entanglements in the early days, and refused to entertain various cooperative business plans, socialistic ideas, and radical programs, maintaining that more wages, shorter hours, and greater freedom were the just aims of labor. He came to be recognized as the leading spokesman for the labor movement, and his pronouncements carried much weight. During World War I, he organized and headed the War Committee on Labor; and as a member of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense, he helped to hold organized labor loyal to the government program.



First President of the American Federation of Labor, 1886-1924
This is an interesting website about the biography of Samuel Gompers.[]

[] This is a website that talks about the AFL.





Information about the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization [] A. Philip Randolph. media type="youtube" key="kQ9tqqSDoqw" height="344" width="425"

[|Wikipedia entry on A. Philip Randolph]

Here is a link to information and a photo of Farrell Dobbs, the Trotskyist noted on pg 106 of the text. At the top of the page is a photo of him. There is also a gathering of other links regarding labor unions, mostly European. []

This one lists Dobbs as a "militant American Unionist" []

If you are interested in Dobbs, he wrote as well. Here is a link to one of his books regarding the teamsters. If you click on "look inside this book" you can read a few pages. []#

I came across some AFL items on this link. It appears to be a collection of AFL, and someone named Gompers history items. There are links to several items of interest like "Knights of Labor". On the Knights of Labor link, an interesting part of the description is: "the KOL excluded only "parasites" like stockbrokers, gamblers, lawyers, bankers, and liquor dealers." Interesting how bankers, lawyers and stockbrokers seem to make the list. [] Under the Documents section are scanned in documents giving background information: []

It is interesting that the following link is regarding Dan Tobin (mentioned on 107) and has insight about Roosevelt attempting to help him. Interesting how "red" and "marxist" labels are tied to the word Union. []

Here is a New York Times article published 10/5/1919 about the AFL activity.

Snapshot images of the partnership between the union movement and the civil rights movement. Above, President John F. Kennedy poses Aug. 28, 1963, at the White House with a group of leaders of the March on Washington, including Martin Luther King Jr. and union leaders A. Philip Randolph, an AFL-CIO vice president and principal organizer of the March on Washington, and Walter P. Reuther, then-president of the UAW.

America's Union Movements. "JOIN THE AFL-CIO" http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/jointheaflcio/nea.cfm



=On Page 127 of "The Unfinished Struggle" there is a reference to the CIO PAC. Looking this up, I discovered a web page that has remarks by Harry S. Truman regarding the CIO-PAC rally.= []

=Link to AFL-CIO page regarding Sidney Hillman (1887 - 1946)= []

Here is an atricle describing the PATCO strike and the connection it had to the demise of modern labor unions. The AFL-CIO refused to participate in this strike greatley weakening PATCO's stance. President Regan fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers for striking and barred them from ever working in avaition again. []