History of Trade Unions in the United States

Trade unions in the United States are best treated from the broad standpoint of labour organizations generally, i.e. associations of wage-earners having for their general purpose the improvement of their members, either through a lessened working day, increased wages, or more satisfactory rules and conditions of employment. They may or may not admit employers, but as a rule they do not admit them. Sometimes they are formed for a specific purpose, like the Eight-Hours League, but generally they have platforms comprehending all the demands which labour Labour Organization. usually makes. Labour organizations in the United States cannot be given a definite birthday. Prior to 1825 there were very few of them. In colonial days we have hints of their existence, but their purpose was partly political, and their membership often consisted of politicians. The purpose of the Caulkers’ Club, in the early days of Massachusetts, was “to lay plans for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power.” Tradition has it that the word “caucus” was derived from this club. It is also said that Samuel Adams’s father, as early as 1724, was active in the club’s work. There was probably a union of journeymen bakers in the city of New York in 1741 and of shoemakers in Philadelphia in 1792. The shipwrights of New York City were incorporated on the 3rd of April 1803, and the tailors and carpenters of that city were organized in 1806. The New York Typographical Society was in existence in 1817, and was probably organized in the early years of the 19th century. Peter Force was its president for a time, and Thurlow Weed was a member. A strike occurred in Mr Weed’s office in 1821 on account of the employment of a non-union man, who was then designated a “rat.” In 1823 was organized the Columbian Charitable Society of Shipwrights and Caulkers of Boston and Charlestown.

Formative Period

The period from 1825 to 1860 may be called the formative period. About 1825, and for some years afterwards, there was a Formative Period. general discussion of socialistic theories, growing out Robert Owen’s experiments at New Lanark, in Scotland, and out of his communistic attempt at New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825. The wave of philosophic transcendentalism also, which swept over the country between 1825 and 1840, affected not only social but industrial life. Labour papers began to be established. The Working Man’s Advocate, published in New York City in 1825, was probably the very first American labour journal. Soon afterwards there appeared the Daily Sentinel and Young America, projected by two Englishmen, George Henry Evans and Frederick W. Evans. The chief demands advocated by these journals were the freedom of public lands, the breaking up of monopolies, the adoption of a general bankruptcy law, a lien for the labourer upon his work for his wages, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, equal rights for women with men, and the abolition of chattel and wage slavery. These demands were endorsed by over 600 newspapers. In 1830 a Working-man’s Convention was held in Syracuse, New York, the outcome of which was the nomination of Ezekiel Williams for governor. In 1832 a delegated convention which met in the state house at Boston initiated the 10-hours movement. The Tribune (New York), under the leadership of Horace Greeley, was opened to the advocacy of Fourierism, and so on all hands the movement towards organization was helped. In 1845 the New England Working Man’s Association was organized, and such men as Charles A. Dana, George Ripley, Albert Brisbane, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Parker, and others participated in its meetings. The first industrial congress of the United States was convened in the city of New York on the 12th of October 1845, but little came of it. Other and more important labour congresses were held in that city and in Chicago in 1847 and 1850 respectively. During the latter part of the formative period, that is, from 1825 to 1860, most of the great national trade unions that are now influential were projected and organized, though their great and rapid growth has been since the Civil War. The National Typographical Union was organized in 1852, its name being changed to International in 1862 in order to admit Canadian members; the National Union of Hat Finishers in 1854; the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America on the 5th of July 1859; and in the same year the Machinists’ and Blacksmiths’ Union of North America. By 1860 the national unions already formed numbered 26.

Railway Brotherhoods

During the next few years, among other important organizations, were instituted what are known as the group of railway Railway Brotherhoods. brotherhoods, the oldest and largest of which is the International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. The grand division was founded at Detroit, Michigan, on the 17th of August 1863, under the name of the Brotherhood of the Footboard. The society was reorganized under its present title at Indianapolis, Ind., on the 17th of August 1864. The second national association of railway employés that was organized was the Conductors’ Brotherhood, formed at Mendota, Illinois, on the 6th of July 1868, by the conductors from various railways in the United States. This brotherhood was recognized, and a general governing board established, on the 15th of December of the same year. Ten years later the name of the organization was changed from the Conductors’ Brotherhood to the Order of Railroad Conductors of America. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was organized at Port Jervis, N.Y., on the 1st of December 1873. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen was organized at Oneonta, N.Y., on the 23rd of September 1883. It was called the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen until the 1st of January 1890, when the present name was adopted. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trackmen is one of the younger and smaller organizations. The first efforts to found it were made in the spring of 1887, but its permanent organization took place a year later. The Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen of America was founded on the 9th of September 1890, by the consolidation of the Carmen’s Mutual Aid Association, the Brotherhood of Railroad Car Repairers, the Car Inspectors, Repairers and Oilers’ Protective Association and the Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen of Canada. The Switchmen’s Union of North America is the outgrowth of the Switchmen’s Mutual Aid Association, the present organization dating from 1897. Several of these railway brotherhoods suffered materially in their membership and influence through the organization of the American Railway Union in 1893.

National Unions

The Cigar-Makers’ National Union dates from 1864, the Bricklayers’ and Masons’ International Union from the 17th of October 1865, the United States Wool Hat Finishers’ Association from 1869 and the National Union of Horseshoers of the United States from 1875. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers resulted, as its name signifies, from the consolidation of various other orders and societies, the present order being organized at Pittsburg in August 1876. The consolidated National Unions. societies were known previously to the new order of things as the United Sons of Vulcan, the Associated Brotherhood of Iron and Steel Heaters, Rollers and Roughers of the United States, and the Iron and Steel Roll Hands’ Union. The oldest was the United Sons of Vulcan, originating in Pittsburg on the 17th of April 1858, and afterwards called the Iron City Forge. The organization is now known as the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. The Granite Cutters’ National Union was organized in 1877, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in 1881 and the Journeymen Bakers’ National Union in 1886.

The International

There have also been attempts to organize labour on a general or universal plan. The first of these was the International Association of Working-men, known as the “International,” which was organized in London in the autumn of 1864. This society sought to associate working-men wherever manufacturing has been extended. The International grew for a while, but never at any time had a membership exceeding 100,000 and probably never over 50,000. It did not extend to the United States with much force; certainly no large number of the working-men of the country were involved in it, and branches were not organized in the union until 1870 or 1871.

Knights of Labour

The second attempt was the Noble Order of Knights of Labour of America, which was founded in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving Knights of Labour. Day 1869, through the efforts of Uriah S. Stephens and six associates, all garment-cutters. For several years the garment-cutters of Philadelphia had been organized as a trade union, but failed to maintain satisfactory rates of wages. Dissatisfaction prevailed, and resulted in the autumn of 1869 in the disbandment of the union. Stephens, who was a far-seeing man, and anticipated the disruption of his union, had prepared the outlines of a plan for an organization embracing, as he said, “all branches of honourable toil.” He advocated education, co-operation and an intelligent use of the ballot as the proper means for gradually abolishing the present wage-system. The order had a varied career. Mr Stephens, himself a Mason, brought into the ritual of the new order many of the features of speculative Masonry. The obligations were in the nature of oaths, taken with much solemnity upon the Bible, and the members were sworn to the strictest secrecy. The order was known for a long time as “Five Stars,” that designation being used in printing and writing. Many expressions taken from Greek literature were introduced into the ceremonies. The instructions given to every person admitted into the order are perhaps the best exponent of the nature of the ritual:—

Labour is noble and holy. To defend it from degradation; to divest it of the evils to body, mind and estate which ignorance and greed have imposed ; to rescue the toiler from the grasp of the selfish — is a work worthy of the noblest and best of our race. In all the multifarious branches of trade capital has its combinations; and, whether intended or not, they crush the manly hopes of labour and trample poor humanity in the dust. We mean no conflict with legitimate enterprise, no antagonism to necessary capital, but men, in their haste and greed, blinded by self-interests, overlook the interests of others and sometimes violate the rights of those they deem helpless. We mean to uphold the dignity of labour, to affirm the nobility of all who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. We mean to create a healthy public opinion on the subject of labour (the only creator of values), and the justice of its receiving a full, just share of the values or capital it has created. We shall, with all our strength, support laws made to harmonize the interests of labour and capital, and also those laws which tend to lighten the exhaustiveness of toil. To pause in his toil, to devote to his own interests [sic], to gather a knowledge of the world’s commerce, to unite, combine and co-operate in the great army of peace and industry, to nourish and cherish, build and develop, the temple he lives in, is the highest and noblest duty of man to himself, to his fellow men and to his Creator.

The ritual was neither printed nor written, and in all probability there is not now in existence a copy of it. So long as the utmost secrecy was retained the order did not grow rapidly; gradually it lost its secrecy and worked on more general plans. From the best evidence that can be secured it is probable that the first local assembly of the Knights of Labour was organized as early as 1873 in Philadelphia. Attempts at outside organization had been unsuccessful. The second assembly consisted of ship carpenters and caulkers employed in Cramp’s shipyard. After this the order spread quite rapidly, 20 assemblies being organized in Philadelphia during 1873. A district assembly, consisting of delegates from local assemblies in Philadelphia, met in that city on Christmas Day 1873 and organized District Assembly No. 1. The order increased during the years following this action, and in 1877 delegates were chosen to organize a general assembly. These delegates met at Reading, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of January 1878, and organized the first general assembly, Mr Stephens, the founder, presiding as temporary chairman. Seven states were represented. General assemblies have been held each year since that time, and changes in the constitution or work of the order have been the subject of warm discussion. At the meeting of the first general assembly the membership must have been small, probably only a few thousand. It did not reach 50,000 till five years later. The general assembly of 1880, at Pittsburg, denounced strikes as injurious and not worthy of support except in extreme cases. At the fifth session, at Detroit, in 1881, the most important actions in the history of the order were taken, and from this session the rapid growth of the order may be dated. The assembly then declared that on and after the 1st of January 1882 the name and objects of the order should be made public. It also declared that women should be admitted upon an equal footing with men, and a strong committee was appointed to revise the constitution and the ritual. At the next general assembly, September 1882, in New York, the revised constitution was adopted, as well as laws and regulations for supporting strikes. After this the order began to grow rapidly. It antagonized the trade unions, the contention being that the order embraced higher and grander principles than those underlying the organization of the former. The trade unions in existence at that time struggled to preserve their organizations against what they considered the encroachment of the Knights of Labour. The high-water mark of the order was probably during 1883, 1884, 1885 and 1886, when, according to the very best information, it numbered not less than 1,000,000 members. In 1900 its membership was estimated at about 130,000.

The order of the Knights of Labour is based on the federal plan, and has a hierarchy of assemblies — the local assembly, the district Organization. assembly, the state and the general assembly. The officers of the local assembly consist of a master workman, worthy foreman, venerable sage, recording secretary, financial secretary, treasurer, worthy inspector, almoner, statistician and some minor officers. These are elected semi-annually by ballot or by acclamation. The district assembly is composed of duly accredited delegates from at least five local assemblies, and is the highest tribunal of the Knights of Labour within its jurisdiction under the general laws of the order. It has the power to levy assessments for its maintenance upon all locals, and has also the power to establish locals in the territory governed by it. The officers and their duties are similar to those of the local assembly, except that the master workman is called the district master workman. The constitution of the general assembly is a very imposing document, containing twenty articles. The assembly consists of representatives chosen by the district assemblies, and has full and final jurisdiction, being the highest tribunal of the order. It alone possesses the power and authority to make, amend or repeal the fundamental and general laws of the order, to decide finally all controversies arising, and to issue charters to state, district and local assemblies. The officers are elected at each annual session, and their titles correspond almost completely with those of the local and district assemblies, with the exception that the word “general” takes the place of “district,” as “general master workman,” &c. The general master workmen have been Uriah S. Stephens (the founder of the order), Terence V. Powderly, James R. Sovereign, John N. Parsons and Henry A. Hicks. The order has a publication known as the Journal of the Knights of Labour, published at Washington, D.C.

American Railway Union

The third attempt to bring into one order men employed in different vocations was the American Railway Union, American Railway Union. organized in Chicago on the 20th of June 1893. It included all railway employés born of white parents. It was organized for the protection of members in all matters relating to wages and their rights as employés, and affirmed that such employés were entitled to a voice in fixing wages and in determining conditions of employment. The union won a great victory on the North-Western railway in April 1894, but its action in the great strikes in Chicago in 1894 cost it its life. Its membership reached at one time 150,000.

Federations of Labour

The separate unions found that the co-operation of other unions was needed to perfect and extend their work, and Federations of Labour. attempts were made from time to time to organize a federated body. The initial steps were taken in 1866, when the trades assemblies of New York City and Baltimore called a national labour congress, the 100 delegates sent by 60 secret and open organizations from different trade unions meeting on the 20th of August. In 1867 a second convention was called to meet in Chicago, the aim being to form a Trades Union Congress like that existing in Great Britain. The National Labour Union held two conventions in 1868, the first in May and the other in September; it met again in Chicago in 1869, in Boston in 1870, in Philadelphia in 1871 and in Columbus, Ohio, in 1872. This closed the experience of the National Labour Union. During 1873, owing to the industrial depression, many of the trade unions were suspended. An industrial congress met in Rochester, N.Y., in April 1874, consisting of some of the leading trade unionists of the United States, and on the 14th of that month a convention was held representing the Sovereigns of Industry. The expectation was that the old National Labour Union should be taken up. The Industrial Brotherhood of the United States, another secret order, partaking largely of the character of the Knights of Labour, was represented in that convention. As might have been expected, the two ideas — that on which the Knights of Labour was organized and the trade union idea — immediately became antagonistic, yet a platform containing most of the principles of the Knights of Labour was adopted. The movement ended with the Rochester meeting. The years 1875 and 1876 saw other attempts; but they were chiefly political in their character and the temporary orders then organized were disbanded. Between 1876 and 1881 other attempts were made at federation. A call issued jointly by the Knights of Industry and a body known as the Amalgamated Labour Union, consisting of some dissatisfied members of the Knights of Labour, resulted in a convention held at Terre Haute, Ind., on the 2nd of August 1881. The chief purpose was to supplant the Knights of Labour by the creation of a new secret order. The membership of the convention, however, had trade union proclivities and did not believe in multiplying labour societies. The secret organization was not effected. Another convention was held in Pittsburg, on the 19th of November 1881, as the result of the following statement:—

We have numberless trades unions, trades assemblies or councils, Knights of Labour, and various other local, national and international labour unions, all engaged in the noble task of elevating and improving the condition of the working classes. But great as has been the work done by these bodies, there is vastly more that can be done by a combination of all these organizations in a federation of trades and labour unions.

It is claimed that the 107 delegates represented 262,000 workmen. Their deliberations resulted in the Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions of the United States and Canada. Its platform differed but very little from that of the Knights of Labour, although it was in some respects more comprehensive. It demanded eight hours as a day’s work; called for national and state incorporation of trade unions; favoured obligatory education of all children, and the prohibition of their employment under the age of fourteen; favoured the enactment of uniform apprentice laws; opposed bitterly all contract convict labour and the truck system for payment of wages; demanded laws giving to working men a first lien on property upon which their labour had been expended; insisted upon the abrogation of all so-called conspiracy laws; advocated the establishment of a national bureau of labour statistics; urged the prohibition of the importation of foreign labour; opposed government contracts on public work; favoured the adoption by states of an employers’ liability act; and urged all other labour bodies to vote only for labour legislators. The second convention was held at Cleveland, O., on the 21st of November 1882.

The American Federation of Labour is the largest labour organization in the United States. It was organized at Columbus, O., on the 8th of December 1886, under the name it now bears. In 1888 it was declared that it owed its existence to the Federation of Organized Trades. &c., founded in 1881 at Pittsburg, and that the American Federation meetings or conventions should date from that year; hence it is generally stated that the Federation was founded in 1881. From the start in 1881 the Federation had a constitution, but it revised it at the convention held in Baltimore on the 16th of December 1887, under the name of the American Federation of Labour. The order is not secret, nor do individual members, through local trades unions or otherwise, owe any allegiance to it. Its object is the encouragement and formation of local trades and labour unions and the closer federation of such societies through the organization of central trades and labour unions in every state, and the combination of such bodies into state, territorial or provincial organizations for the purpose of securing general harmony not only in the interests of the working masses, but of legislation. While it is a federation, it cannot be called a federal body, like the Knights of Labour, although there are local trade unions, trade assemblies in cities and state federations; nevertheless, there is not the hierarchical character of the other body. Most of the trade unions in the United States are affiliated with the American Federation. The great railway brotherhoods are not so affiliated, except the Amalgamated Association of Railroad Employés of America, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trackmen.

The federation has affiliated with it 117 international unions, 37 state federations, 574 city central bodies and 661 local trade and federal labour unions. The international unions are made up of approximately 28,500 local unions. The average membership on which dues have been paid was 264,825 in 1897, and ten years later the number was 1,538,970.

The chief officers of the federation are a president, first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth vice-presidents, treasurer and secretary. Samuel Gompers of New York was the first president, holding that position till 1894, when he was defeated through the endeavours of the Socialist Labour Party, and John M‘Bride elected. At the next session, however, he was re-elected. The numerical strength of the American Federation of Labour is probably not far from 1,600,000. It maintains a journal called the American Federationist, published at Washington, D.C. The doctrine of the federation relative to strikes is that each affiliated society has its own government, distinct from the government of the national convention, which has no power to order strikes, such matters being left to the affiliated societies, but is advisory and not conclusive in its action.

Unions are often organized for temporary purposes, their existence ceasing as soon as the purposes succeed or fail. The Estimated Strength. total number of members of all kinds of labour organizations cannot be stated. There are many local societies and associations other than those belonging to the Knights of Labour or those affiliated with the American Federation of Labour, but which are distinctly labour bodies. According to the best possible classification there are 20,000,000 wage-earners in the United States, including men, women and children. The most liberal estimate of the membership of all labour organizations places the total at 2,000,000. This would be about 10% of the whole body of wage-workers; but in some occupations, like that of the printing trade, the organization probably includes from 75 to 90%.

The law relating to trade unions varies somewhat in the different states. Both the federal legislature and several of the states (Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Kansas and Louisiana) have passed laws permitting the incorporation of unions. Michigan, Wyoming and Nebraska have specially provided for incorporating assemblies of the Knights of Labour. Hardly any advantage, however, has been taken of these statutes. Some states have passed laws excepting trade unions from restrictions on combinations and conspiracies imposed by other statutes or the common law (e.g. New York), and especially from the operation of anti-trust laws (Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Montana, North Carolina and Texas). The Texas law, however, has been held unconstitutional. A number of states have passed laws, some of doubtful validity, prohibiting employers from making it a condition of employment that labourers should not belong to a union. Most states have adopted statutes legalizing union labels to indicate the products of members of trade unions.

By act of Congress, associations of the nature of labour organizations, having branches in several states or territories, may, on filing articles of association for record in Washington, become corporations. American legislation generally is friendly to trade unions. Their purposes are regarded as lawful by the courts, but if they use unlawful means for their accomplishments, a remedy will be applied. Injury to property, intimidation by threats, personal violence, or boycotts enforced by terrorism, are such unlawful means. The liberty of action thus secured to organizations of labour is equally the right of the employer. Therefore, a statute making it an offence for one to require those whom he employs to withdraw from a trade union is unconstitutional and void (see Reports of American Bar Association, xxi. 367, 372). The courts recognize that membership in trade unions is a species of property, of which no one can be deprived except through a formal procedure in conformity with the rules of the organization. Some of the States, notably New York, have a statute prohibiting trade unions from making any discrimination in connexion with their admission requirements on account of membership in the state militia or national guard.

Further Reading

Ely, The Labour Movement in America (New York, N.Y., 1886); M‘Neill, The Labour Movement (Boston, Mass., 1887); Powderly, Thirty Years of Labour (Columbus, O., 1889); Simonds, The Story of Manual Labour in all Lands and Ages (Chicago, 1886); Bliss, The New Encyclopaedia of Social Reform (New York, 1908); Aldrich, “The American Federation of Labour,” Economic Studies (August 1898); Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United States (Meadville, Pa., 1895); “Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labour,” Quart. Journ. of Economics (January 1887); “The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers,” Quart. Journ. of Economics (July 1893 and November 1901); J. R. Commons, Trade Unionism and Labor Problems; Hollander and Barnett, Studies in American Trade Unionism; Barnett, A Trial Bibliography of American Trade Union Publications