Samuel Gompers was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's president from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted thorough organization and collective bargaining in order to secure shorter hours and higher wages, which he considered the essential first steps to emancipating labor.
Gompers c. 1902
Gompers as he appeared in 1894
Shortly before his death, Gompers (right) sat down with 1924 independent presidential hopeful, Robert M. La Follette
Gompers poses with American officers for a photograph in front of an Italian villa, 1918
Labor history of the United States
The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.
The Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 was a trade union strike involving more than 200,000 workers.
The American Federation of Labor union label, c. 1900
Samuel Gompers in 1894; he was the AFL leader 1886–1924.
New York City shirtwaist workers on strike, taking a lunch break