Mike Grabhorn, age 10, of Louisville, Ky., for his question:
WHEN DID THE FIRST LABOR UNION START?
Labor movements in the United States are not like those in many foreign countries. Here workers express their political aims through established national political parties, while in other countries many labor unions have started their own political organizations. Also, the American labor movement seeks economic reforms within the existing free enterprise system.
More than 20.4 million people in the United States belong to labor unions today. This is about 26 percent of the non agricultural working force in the country. Strongest organizations are those involved in the construction, manufacturing, service and transportation industries. There are very few labor organizations in the white collar fields of finance, insurance and real estate.
There are two basic types of unions: craft and industrial.
Craft unions represent workers in many different industries. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians belong to separate unions. The trade union name once meant a group of workers in the same craft or trade, but today the term is often used to refer to any union.
An industrial union represents all workers in a certain field. Mine workers, steelworkers and automobile workers, for example, are grouped into unions although the members may have many different types of jobs. Actually, most industrial unions now represent workers in more than one industry. Automobile workers’ unions also represent those in ‘aircraft, agricultural implement and some metalworking industries.
Labor gained respect and dignity in the Middle Ages as slavery declined and Christianity spread. By 1200 A.D., craft guilds of silversmiths and weavers were organized.
The modern labor movement actually started in the 1700s and the 1800s as more factories in Europe were established that used machinery to produce goods.
First labor unions in the United States were organized at the time of the Revolutionary War. Shoemakers in Philadelphia started the first real local union in 1792.
The first national unions didn’t arrive until the 1850s. The International Typographical Union started in 1852, while the National Union of Iron Molders, now the Molders and Foundry Workers Union, was organized in 1859.
The major formation of national unions came after the Civil War.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was first organized in 1881 as the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, and then reorganized in 1886. The AFL became the first national organization of craft union people to represent the practical economic interests of its members. Its early leaders didn’t want the AFL to establish binding political ties.
The Canadian counterpart of the AFL, the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, was also founded in 1886.