American Federation of Labor Founded on Craft Union Model Excluding Unskilled Workers

Forty-two delegates representing 13 national unions and various local labor organizations convene in Columbus, Ohio, to establish the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as the successor to the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (founded 1881). The convention elects Samuel Gompers, an English immigrant who organized cigar makers, as the AFL’s first president—a position he holds for nearly 40 years (1886-1924, except 1895). The AFL emerges after craft union leaders conclude that no accommodation with the Knights of Labor leadership is possible, particularly after the Knights reject a proposal reaffirming the historic separation of trade-union and labor-reform functions.

The AFL is structured as a loose federation of autonomous craft unions—including masons, hatmakers, and cigar makers—deliberately restricting membership to skilled workers while excluding the unskilled, semiskilled, and industrial workers who comprise the majority of the American workforce. Gompers promotes “pure and simple” unionism concentrating on immediate economic objectives such as higher wages, shorter hours, and improved working conditions through collective bargaining, while explicitly rejecting engagement with broader ideological movements like socialism or revolutionary politics. This pragmatic but exclusionary approach contrasts sharply with the Knights of Labor’s inclusive model that organized across skill levels, races, and genders.

Under Gompers’ leadership, the AFL grows from approximately 140,000 members in 1886 to nearly 3 million by 1924, becoming the largest and most influential labor federation in the world. However, the craft union structure creates jurisdictional battles, leaves millions of unskilled and industrial workers unorganized, and contributes to racial and gender exclusion in American labor organizing. The AFL’s conservative business unionism and resistance to organizing industrial workers eventually leads to internal conflict: the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) is formed in 1938 after unions pursuing industrial organizing are expelled from the AFL. The CIO successfully organizes the steel and automobile industries before the AFL and CIO merge in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO. The AFL’s founding establishes the dominant but limited model of American labor organizing that persists for seven decades, privileging skilled White male workers while marginalizing the majority of the working class.