American Federation of Labor

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 1886 by Samuel Gompers as a reorganization of its predecessor, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. Gompers was the president of the AFL until his death in 1924.

Political activities

While the organization was founded by socialists such as Gompers and Peter J. McGuire, it quickly became more conservative. The AFL adopted a philosophy of "business unionism" that sought to establish stable labor organizations, based on enduring craft distinctions, that would avoid the volatility of groups such as the Knights of Labor, whose membership and power rose and fell mightily with business downturns and political victories and defeats. This business unionist approach focused on skilled workers' immediate job-related interests, while ignoring larger political issues.

Related Topics:
Socialists - Peter J. McGuire

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The AFL showed no interest in supporting a labor party and found itself in conflict with the socialist organizations of the day. It resolved very early in its existence in 1894 not to affiliate itself with any political party ? a decision to distance itself from the Socialist Labor Party headed by Daniel De Leon.

Related Topics:
1894 - Socialist Labor Party - Daniel De Leon

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In some respects the AFL leadership took a pragmatic view toward politicians, following Gompers' slogan to "reward your friends and punish your enemies," without regard to party affiliation. Over time, after repeated disappointments with the failure of labor's legislative efforts to protect workers' rights, which the courts had struck down as unconstitutional, Gompers became almost anti-political, opposing some forms of protective legislation, such as limitations on working hours, because they would detract from the efforts of unions to obtain those same benefits through collective bargaining.

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The AFL concentrated its political efforts during the last decades of the Gompers administration instead on securing freedom from state control of unions ? in particular an end to the court's use of labor injunctions to block union's right to organize or strike, or what opponents termed "government by injunction", and the application of the anti-trust laws to criminalize labor's use of picketing, boycotts and strikes to support workers' demands. The AFL thought that it had achieved the latter result by the passage of the Clayton Act in 1914 ? which Gompers referred to as "Labor's Magna Carta" ? only to be disappointed again by the Supreme Court's narrow reading of the Act in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, {{ussc|254|443|1921}}, in which it ruled that the Act codified the federal courts' existing power to issue injunctions, rather than limiting it, and that it the phrase "between an employer and employees" contained in the first paragraph of the amendment only referred to cases involving an employer and its own employees, leaving the courts free to punish unions for striking in sympathy with the demands of another employer's employees or engaging in boycotts of secondary employers in order to win a strike against the primary employer.

Related Topics:
Clayton Act - 1914 - Magna Carta - Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering

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The AFL's pessimistic attitude towards politics did not, on the other hand, prevent affiliated unions from pursuing their own agendas. Construction unions supported legislation that governed entry of contractors into the industry and protected workers' rights to pay, railroad and mass production industries sought workplace safety legislation, and unions generally agitated for the passage of workers' compensation statutes.

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Unions, including the AFL itself, also welcomed governmental intervention in favor of collective bargaining during World War I, when unions in the packinghouse industry were able to form due to governmental pressure on the largest employers to recognize the unions rather than face a strike. That also marked the end of the AFL's policy of neutrality between political parties, as the Federation embraced the Democratic Party from that point forward, even though many of its leaders remained Republicans.

Related Topics:
World War I - Democratic Party - Republicans

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At the same time, some unions within the AFL had participated in the formation of the National Civic Federation, a group led by more forward-looking employers who sought to avoid the violent conflicts figured in the largest labor disputes of the turn of the century by fostering collective bargaining on the one hand and the promotion of "responsible" unionism on the other. Labor's participation in this federation, at first tentative, created a good deal of internal division within the AFL, as Socialist labor leaders denounced this sort of accommodation as the type of class collaboration that would ultimately defeat labor. The AFL nonetheless continued its association with it, even after the National Civic Federation took a sharp swing rightward after World War I and became as anti-union as other employer organizations. The AFL finally directed its affiliates to cut off any dealings with it in 1935, by a resolution sponsored by John L. Lewis widely seen as a slap against his enemy, Matthew Woll, the most conservative voice within the AFL at the time.

Related Topics:
National Civic Federation - 1935

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The AFL relaxed its rigid policy concerning labor protective legislation after the death of Gompers. Even so, it remained cautious: its proposals for unemployment benefits made in the late 1920s were too modest to have any practical value, as the Great Depression soon showed. The impetus for the major federal labor laws of the 1930s came from the mass strikes that the AFL itself had little to do with in or from left unions within the AFL, such as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The AFL was even more recalcitrant when it came to attempts to outlaw racial discrimination by federal contractors, since many of its own affiliates were complicit in those practices.

Related Topics:
1920s - Great Depression - 1930s - Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America

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