American Federation of Labor

Examples of American Federation of Labor in the following topics:

• The Decline of Labor

  • Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor died in 1924 after serving as the organization's president for 37 years.
  • Observers said successor William Green, who was the secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers, "lacked the aggressiveness and the imagination of the AFL's first president. " The American Federation of Labor was down to less than 3 million members in 1925 after hitting a peak of 4 million members in 1920.
  • This heavily influenced the American Federation of Labor, which expounded upon anti-Filipino sentiment in equating Filipinos with the increase of "ethnic" labor, associated with declining field wages and increasing strikes.
  • Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor for 37 years, died in 1924.
  • Identify the tactics used by corporations and the federal government to discourage labor activity

• 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.
  • For example, the Chicago Federation of Labor spearheaded efforts to organize packinghouse and steel workers during and immediately after World War I.
  • American Federation of Labor head Samuel Gompers (right) endorsed the pro-labor independent Presidential candidate Robert M.

• 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.

• Labor and Domestic Tensions

  • During the Gilded Age, new labor unions, which used a wide variety of tactics, emerged.
  • Hayes used federal troops to quell the organized violence.
  • Starting in the mid 1880s as a new group, the Knights of Labor grew rapidly.
  • The strike was led by the upstart American Railway Union led by Eugene V.
  • The new American Federation of Labor, headed by Samuel Gompers, found the solution.

• Modern Labor Organizations

  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States.
  • It was founded in Columbus, Ohio in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association.
  • Together with its offspring, the AFL has comprised the longest lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States.
  • Today, most labor unions in the United States are members of one of two larger umbrella organizations:
  • No longer do a sizable percentage of American workers belong to unions or have family members who do.

• Labor Interest Groups

  • Labor interest groups are a type of economic interest group.
  • The National Labor Union (NLU) was the first American federation of unions formed in 1866.
  • One example was the American Federation of Labor, a large umbrella group made up primarily of locals involved in craft unionism.
  • While only 7% of workers in the private sectors belong to unions, 31% of federal workers, 35% of state workers, and 46% of local government employees belong to unions.
  • Explain the decline of labor interest groups and new kinds of organization

• Child Labor

  • The National Child Labor Committee , an organization dedicated to the abolition of all child labor, was formed in 1904.
  • It was the first federal child labor law.
  • Alongside the abolition of child labor, compulsory education laws also kept children out of abusive labor conditions.
  • Public schools were always under local control, with no federal role, and little state role.
  • As a result, by 1910, 72 percent of American children attended school.

• Empowering Labor

  • The New Deal succeeded in introducing a number of laws that empowered labor.
  • Unlike NIRA, which tied the same rights to industrial codes, NLRA guaranteed labor rights through the federal government.
  • NLRA, which remains the landmark legislation of federal labor law, does not apply to workers who are covered by the Railway Labor Act, agricultural laborers, domestic workers (employed in private homes), supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, independent contractors, and workers employed by a parent or spouse.
  • Historically, the exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers from the provisions of NLRA had a disproportionately negative impact on working African Americans,  a substantial number of whom fell into one of those two categories.
  • Although the initial draft was more ambitious than the document finally passed by Congress after a long legal battle, federal law that established minimum wages, maximum working hours, and ban on child labor set a standard for how U.S. labor would negotiate future working conditions.

• The Development of Holidays

  • Although federal holidays were at first applicable only to federal employees in the District of Columbia, Congress extended coverage in 1885 to all federal employees.
  • In 1888 and 1894, respectively, Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) and Labor Day were created.
  • The advent of American-specific holidays, however, such as Washington's birthday, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and the Eighth, reflected the formation of a national American identity during the nineteenth century.
  • Since 1970, the United American Indians of New England organization has accused the United States and European settlers of fabricating the Thanksgiving story and of whitewashing the genocide of and injustice against American Indians.
  • Discuss the rise of holidays and their role in the development of American culture

• Labor-Management Relations Act

  • The Labor-Management Relations Act (or the Taft-Hartley Act) is a U.S. federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions.
  • Enacted June 23, 1947, the Labor-Management Relations Act (informally the Taft-Hartley Act) is a United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions.
  • During the year after D-Day, more than five million American workers were involved in strikes, which lasted on average four times longer than those during the war.
  • The amendments enacted in the Labor Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley) added a list of prohibited actions, or unfair labor practices, on the part of unions to the NLRA, which had previously only prohibited unfair labor practices committed by employers.
  • Truman who failed in his attempted veto of the 1947 Labor-Management Relations Act.