Labor unions have long been a powerful force shaping the American workforce and economy. Despite declining union membership in recent decades, their influence remains significant. The 2024 Gallup poll showed that 70% of Americans approve of labor unions, despite the fact that a small fraction of respondents were union members themselves.
Central Ohio has an of labor movement activity including the founding of one of the nation's largest union organizations. That history led one reader to ask 星空无限传媒鈥檚 Curious Cbus the question, 鈥淲hat led to the founding of the American Federation of Labor in Columbus?鈥�
The Rise of Organized Labor in Post-Civil War America
The late 19th century was a time of great labor unrest in the country. Organized labor was actually illegal in the United States until 1842. After the Civil War, labor unions began increasing their efforts and advocating for better conditions for workers.
Historian Raymond Irwin teaches labor history at Ohio State University. He said that the 1870s were a period of great labor unrest.
鈥淵ou have, for example, very violent coal actions in eastern Pennsylvania. And starting in 1873, the Molly Maguires, the Irish miners who were accused of blowing up mines and assaulting managers. And you have the 鈥楲ong Strike鈥� in 1875, which ran half the year. There's a major railroad strike in 1877, where (President) Rutherford B. Hayes has a role in calling out federal troops to stop the interstate action,鈥� Irwin said. 鈥淏asically, this is all a result of the Panic of 1873, a deep depression that set the conditions for labor negatively through most of the 1870s.鈥�
An organization called the Knights of Labor came to prominence in that decade. Founded in 1869, the Knights started as more of a fraternal lodge similar to the Free Masons. By the end of the 1870s however, the group became a much more public force under the leadership of attorney Terence Powderly.
The Knights of Labor was the first successful national labor organization. In general, it was an inclusive group that welcomed skilled and unskilled workers, allowed women to become members, and tolerated some degree of racial and ethnic diversity. It championed the idea of one big union for all. Irwin said they were also interested in social welfare.
鈥淭he Knights of Labor were concerned about respectability in the late 19th century, which meant being for temperance. It meant being moral influencers in their communities,鈥� Irwin said.
Some in the labor movement disagreed with the Knights of Labor鈥檚 tactics and ideology and formed their own competing organizations.
Samuel Gompers and Trade Unionism
The founding of the American Federation of Labor, its success, and its longevity can be traced to one man, Samuel Gompers.
Born in 1850, Gompers was the son of Dutch Jews who had immigrated to London, England. His father was a cigar maker and Gompers started the same work at age 10. After the family moved to the United States in 1863, he continued in that industry, joining the Cigar Makers Union and becoming president of the local chapter at age 25. A decade later he was in a leadership role with the national organization.
In contrast to the Knights of Labor, Gompers and other like-minded factions of the labor movement wanted to focus on so-called trade unionism, believing that skilled labor should be organized by trade such as carpenters, iron workers and coal miners. Instead of the larger social concerns, they wanted to limit their work to economics including workers' pay, work conditions, an eight-hour workday and other benefits.
鈥淕ompers was a big believer that if you included the unskilled and, say, immigrants, for example, in the labor pool that you were undercutting workers wages and job opportunities,鈥� Irwin said.
A call went out in 1881 to form a new national labor organization. At a conference held in Pittsburgh, delegates from across the country, including Gompers, formed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU).
Irwin said that Gompers helped influence the organizational structure of the new group.
鈥淭hat's kind of the first shot at stripping away skilled trades and organizing differently so that you have a model that he implemented in the Cigar Makers Union of high dues鈥� but also high services,鈥� Irwin said. 鈥淪o, there are wraparound services for medical, bereavement, loss of job, strike funds, stuff like that.鈥�
The Haymarket Affair
The FOTLU had limited success over the next several years while membership in the Knights of Labor grew substantially.
One big turning point was the Haymarket Affair of 1886. During a labor protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square, an unknown individual threw a bomb at police. Violence erupted leading to seven police deaths and four civilian deaths. One result was that public opinion shifted and a negative anti-union sentiment took hold, likely setting back labor progress for years.
鈥淚 try to get my students to understand the true impact of Haymarket on the American psyche. It was just a traumatic event,鈥� Irwin said.
Terrence Powderly tried to distance the Knights of Labor from the bloody event, but as the largest national labor organization at the time, its reputation was tarnished.
Meeting in Columbus
In December of that year, a conference of labor organizations 鈥� including dissatisfied factions of the Knights of Labor 鈥� were set to convene in Columbus, Ohio. Gompers and the FOTLU decided to hold a meeting there as well.
The meetings were held in the Druid鈥檚 Hall, a common meeting place for labor groups on South 4th Street.
The reason Columbus was chosen was likely geography. Columbus was easy to get to by train and was also home to an influential typographers union.
鈥淭hey were trying to basically scoop up other interested parties,鈥� Irwin said. 鈥淎nd so Columbus, as a central location just made a lot of sense.鈥�
In his autobiography, Gompers stated that when the FOTLU convened in Columbus they knew that change was required. The organization had been focused on passing legislation, but it was clear that they needed to prioritize ground-level economic work as well.
鈥淎ll were convinced that the old Federation could not do the work required,鈥� Gompers wrote. 鈥淲e needed a consolidation organization for the promotion of trade unionism鈥︹��
Over several days of committee meetings and negotiations, it was eventually decided that the FOTLU would disband and its funds would be transferred to a new organization. On Friday, Dec. 10, 1886, The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on the event stating, 鈥淭he trades and labor organizations which have been at work in this city all week, succeeded in perfecting a plan for harmonizing all interests and merging both into one new body鈥︹��
Gompers was nominated to be president of the AFL, which he declined at first, but relented after being nominated a second time. He served as president from 1886 to his death in 1924, except for one year when the socialist wing of the group kicked him out.
When asked about the successes of the AFL, Irwin said that the big success is that the organization has endured.
鈥淵ou have basically this junkyard of former labor organizations all the way up to that time. And the fact that it still exists, you know, nearly 140 years later is a real testament,鈥� he said.
In 1955, the AFL merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations becoming the AFL-CIO we know today.
It should be noted that the AFL-CIO officially traces its origin to the 1881 founding of the FOTLU in Pittsburgh. But here in central Ohio, residents can make an honest claim to being the home of a true landmark in labor history.
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