Labor Unions

A detailed Summary of Labor Unions


During the late nineteenth century there were several attempts at organizing a national labor union. They included the National Labor Union, the Knight's of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor. All three of these unions fought for similar goals, but only the American Federation of Labor was able to survive the ninetieth century.

The National Labor Union was the first attempt to organize workers throughout the country. It was founded in 1866, as a federation of national and local unions as well as city federations. It grew quickly, within two years it had close to two thirds of a million members. The NLU attempted to organize all workers, they included skilled as well as unskilled laborers, and these laborers consisted of both agricultural and industrial workers. They sought higher wages and an eight hour workday. The NLU also championed several issues of social reform. The NLU worked for rights of women and blacks, worker cooperatives, and monetary reforms. The leadership of t


The first two unions failed because they wanted to work with a too large group of people, this led to failures within the group that destroyed the unions. Even though the American Federation of Labor represented a much larger number of people, these people were mostly in the same industry which made it easier to organize them and to negotiate with their employers. That AF of L stayed out of the political scene as well, this prevented their members from disagreeing with leadership. The Knights of Labor and the NLU on other hand were involved in politics and this lead to their untimely endings.

A second attempt at a national labor union was the Knights of Labor. They originated in 1869 as a secret society in order to avoid detection by employers. It was founded by Uriah Stephens in Philadelphia. But it was under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly that the Knights of Labor moved from a secret fraternal society to a public labor union in 1891. It was open to all workers with the excepti

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Approximate Word count = 669
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics

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