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1886 - American Federation of Labor (AFL)

By 1905, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had 118 internatioanl unions having complete jurisdiction over their own trads, with a membership of approximately 2,000,000. The underlying principle of individual associations like trades unions is that men who think alike should act together; so a trades union, primarily, is an organization which takes an active and earnest interest in the welfare of its own individual members, and secondarily, of the members of all unions of persons of like occupation, a trades union being composed of the members of a single trade, like the hatters or glass-blowers. Such unions do not, as a rule, undertake to extend their influence to all classes of workers.

Impatient with the visionary quality of the Knights' endeavors, the skilled craft workers who founded the American Federation of Labor redefined the relationship between collective and individual interests. For them, the restoration of social harmony would come when workers aggregated sufficient power to hold dominant industrialism in check. That could only be achieved by a tightly knit organization. So the American Federation of Labor adopted a class-based definition of community and set itself to secure "more, more now" in the cacaphonous phrase of the day. Within this form of unionism, sometimes called market unionism, dignity was defined not as participation in the polity, but as the reward of work. Progress was measured by the "economic betterment" of individual members.

The American Federation of Labor, as now known, was organized Dec. 8, 1886, at Columbus, Ohio, but it dates its birth from the convention at Pittsburg in November, 1881. At that convention the demand was made for eight hours as a day's work and for the national and state incorporation of trades unions, and the convention favored obligatory education of all children and the prohibition of their employment under the age of 14. It also favored the enactment of uniform apprentice laws, and opposed bitterly all contract convict labor and the truck system for payment of wages. It asked that laws giving to workingmen a first lien on property upon which their labor had been expended be enacted; it insisted upon the abrogation of all so-called conspiracy laws; urged the establishment of a national bureau of labor statistics and the prohibition of the importation of foreign labor; opposed government contracts on public work; and favored the adoption by states of an employers' liability act.

Among the most noted trades unions now in existence is the International Typographical Union, representing nearly every state and territory, and tracing its origin to 1850. This is the oldest existing American trades union. The hatters were organized in 1854, under the name of the National Trade Association of Hat Finishers of the United States of America. Out of this grew, in 1868, another order, which took the name of the Silk and Fur Hat Finishers' Trade Association of the United States of America. The Iron Molders' Union of North America was founded in 1859. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers dates from 1863, the Cigarmakers' National Union from 1864, the Bricklayers and Masons' International Union from 1865, the Order of Railway Conductors from 1868, the United States Wool Hat Finishers' Association from 1869, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen from the same year, the National Union of Horseshoersof the United States from 1875, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers from 1876, the Granite Cutters' National Union of the United States from 1877, tne Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners from 1881, the Railroad Brakemen from 1884, the Journeymen Bakers' National Union from 1886.

In response to a call sent out in 1881, delegates from various trade and labor organizations met in Pittsburg 15 November 1881 and formed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, with John Jarrett, president of the Amalgamated Iron and SteeL workers, as temporary chairman. The platform of the federation set forth the objects of the organization as: The passage of laws in state legislatures and in Congress for the incorporation of trade unions and similar organua1ons; the prohibition of children from working under the age of fourteen; uniform apprentice lawa; an effective national eight-hour law; repeal of all conspiracy laws against organized labor; a bureau of labor statistics; protection to American industry; a law to prevent the importatron of foreign laborers under contract; and proper representation of all trades and labor organizations in law-making bodies.

For several years after 1881 the history of the general federation movement in the United States centers largely in the struggle between the Knights of Labor and the trade and labor unions turning mainly on the question of the autonomy of each trade. Keen rivalry developed. The most prominent leaders of the two parties were Mr. Powderly, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, and Mr. George E. McNeill.

That a feeling of antagonism was present from the beginning is suggested by a communication issued by the federation to the trade-unions. In this address the federation declared: "Open trade-unions, national and international, can and ought to work side by side with the Knights of Labor, and this would be the case were it not for men either overzealous or ambitious who busy themselves in attempting the destruction of existing unions to serve their own whims."

The "Cigar Makers' Journal" referred to the federation movement of 1881-82 as in “a chaotic state pulled and dragged in all directions. Some advise us to adopt new systems of organizations defying practical experience and common sense. If the representatives of the bona-fide trade-unions, not of so-called labor clubs, are true to their mission, they will make a bold stand against all inferior systems of organization."

The year 1886 marks an important period in the history of labor federation. Not only did the Knights of Labor in that year reach their greatest numerical strength, but at the same time the movement toward the national federation of trades gained new vigor in the transition of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions into the American Federation of Labor.

The Federation of Trades and Labor Unions as then constituted did not satisfy the more energetic and ambitious among the labor leaders of the time, who were desirous of reaching some agreement with the Knights of Labor whereby the friction between that organization and the trade unions should cease. In response to a call issued by P.J. McGuire (general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners), A, Strasser (president of the Cigar Makers’ Union), P.J. Fitzpatrick (president of the Iron Molders' International Union). Josiah Deyer (secretary of the Granite Cutters’ International Union), and W.H. Foster (secretary of the Federation of Trades and Labor Unions), a trade-unions‘ conference met in Philadelphia on May 17. 1886, and agreed upon certain proposals to be submitted to the special session of the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor soon to be held at Cleveland, 0H. Contrary to the wishes of the trade-unionists. no definite action on “the treaty" was taken at the meeting of the General Assembly, and a further effort to arrive at a permanent understanding with the Knights of Labor was made later in the year.

When the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor assembled at Richmond in October, 1886, the trade-union officials offered a further protest against the attitude of the Knights toward the unions, and asked for some assurance that the trade-unions thereafter would not be interfered with by the organizers of the order. The response of the General Assembly was to adopt a resolution compelling all employees in the cigar trade, who were members of both the Knights of Labor and the Cigar Makers’ International Union, to withdraw from the union or leave the order, and adjourned without making further advances toward a peaceful settlement of the difficulties. Throughout this controvers between the Knights and the trade-unions, the Federation of Trades had exerted its influence steadily in favor of the latter. Accordingly, when the representatives of various trade-unions arranged to meet in Columbus, 0H, the first week in December, 1886, the legislative committee of the federation decided to hold its annual convention at the same time and place for the purpose of coordinating with the conference of the trade-union officials.

The two conventions met on Dec. 7th and 8th. respectively and the members of the Federation of Trades and Labor Unions attended the sessions of the trade-union conference in a body. On the third day of the conference, the committee of the whole reported to the federation that its committee had attended the conference and that all the delegates had been admitted as members thereof. The legislative committee also reported that the trade-union conference had formed a new organization known as the American Federation of Labor, with a constitution designed to protect the interests of trade-unions. It was agreed that all moneys, papers and effects of the old federation should be turned over to the officers of the new organization, and that all per capita tax due the old federation should be collected by the new federation.

From this time the Knights of Labor steadily declined in membership and power while the American Federation advanced with rapid strides. By 1895, the larger trade-unions, some of which were in affiliation with the American Federation of Labor, were the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, 60,000 ; Association of Iron and Steel Workers, 40,000 ; International Typographical Union, 40,000 ; Bricklayers and Stone Masons Union, 35,000 ; Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 32,000: Cigarmakers' International Union, 30,000; Iron Moulders' Union of North America, 30,000 ; Brotherhood of Locomotive Trainmen, 25,000; Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, 22,000 ; International Association of Machinists, 20,000 ; United Mine Workers of America, 20,000 ; Journeymen Tailors’ Union of America, 20,000.

According to the census of 1890, 22,735,661 people were engaged in gainful occupations, but of these 3,914,711 were women, two or three millions more were children or youths; some thousands were of the employing class. The 1,000,000 members of labor organizations represent, therefore, a lar e proportion of the working men.

By 1905, the Knights played an inconsiderable part in the labor movement, while the American Federation was steadily gaining in influence. The conventions of 1886, 1887, and 1888 were called respectively the first, second, and third convention of the American Federation; but by order of the convention of 1889 the origin of the federation in all official documents is dated from 1881.

The American Federation of Labor, upholdin the principle of trade autonomy, favored the loca trade-union composed of members following a single vocation, and attached to a national tradeunion. Where the local union was not afiiliated with a national organization, it received a charter directly from the American Federation and became known, for instance, as “Ship Carpenters‘ Union, No. 6,976." On the other hand, the organizers of the federation often found it necessary to form into one local union workers of miscelaneous crafts. Hence federal labor-unions existed in those localities where separate trade-unions were impracticable. As soon as a suflicient number of a craft was admitted, a new local tradeunion, recruited from the membershi of the mixed union, was formed. This trade “local" in turn joined the national union of its craft wherever possible. According to the report for November 1906. there were 27,500 local unions and 75 local trade- and federal labor-unions directly affiliated with the national federation.

Local federations, commonly known as central labor unions, aimed to embrace all local unions in a given area, and at the same time to maintain the strict autonomy of each trade or industry, Although in general, representation, membership, etc., were left by the American Federation to local regulation, the national constitution provided that "no central body affiliated with the American Federation shall reject credentials presented by a duly elected or appointed delegation of a local union, chartered by a national or international union having affiliation with the American Federation."

Next in gradation to the local federation was the state federation of representatives from the various labor organizations in the state. State branches met annually to exercise functions analogous to those carried on by the national federation in its larger field of activity.