The American Federation of Labor (AFL) grew out of a conflict between trade unions and the Knights of Labor (Knights). In 1885 the Knights raided the territory of Local 144 of the Cigarmakers International in New York. Outraged, the president of Local 144, Samuel Gompers, called a conference with other trade unionists to discuss options. The conference demanded, among other things, that the Knights cease recruiting members from established trade unions and stop issuing their own union labels. Knowing that the Knights would not accede to these demands, the group called for another, larger conference. Responding to the call, delegates from 25 labor unions met in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 and created the AFL.
An executive council, elected by an annual convention controlled by the national trade unions (each national received one vote for every 100 members), was the AFL’s primary policy-enforcing body. The council was responsible for adjudicating jurisdictional disputes among member unions, helping form new national trade unions, and judging the merits of proposed boycotts. It also established state federations and, in some cases, local central bodies to coordinate union activities at those levels. A per capita tax levied on its affiliates provided most of the organization’s income.
Since each affiliate retained its autonomy, the AFL had little real power. It tended to determine jurisdictional disputes, for example, in favor of the stronger contender rather than upon the merits of the case. But the best illustration of its weakness was its inability to enforce its constitutional prohibition against discrimination. Although it denied affiliation to the boilermakers union because its constitution contained a “white only” clause, it was powerless against members practicing de facto exclusion. At the turn of the century only one, of its more than 50 affiliates, the United Mine Workers of America, had a sizable African-American membership.
The exclusionary policy of AFL member unions extended to women and the unskilled. By 1895 less than 6 percent of all union members were women. Formed to protect their skilled members from the encroachment of machines, craft unions spurned industrial workers. Moreover, they feared that if industrial workers were permitted membership, the more numerous unskilled laborers would force their skilled brethren into hopeless strikes.
AFL unions believed that collective bargaining, supported by strikes and boycotts, was the best means to improve economic conditions for their members. A series of disastrous strikes such as the Homestead Strike generated questions about the effectiveness of wage-conscious unionism. Led by socialists, those favoring a more political tack attempted to have the 1892 convention convert itself into an independent political party. Gompers, however, defeated the movement. The following year the political actionists defeated Gompers’s bid for reelection, but their victory was fleeting, as Gompers was elected president again in 1895. Under his leadership the AFL remained committed to pursuing economic goals while rewarding its friends and punishing its enemies in elections, regardless of party affiliation. Over the years the policy proved effective. The exclusionary practices of most AFL unions, however, limited the beneficiaries of these gains to skilled white males, creating, in a sense, an aristocracy of labor.
Further reading: Stuart B. Kaufman, Samuel Gompers and the Origins of the American Federation of Labor, 1848-1896 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1973).
—Harold W. Aurand
World History
