Labor union worker
Samuel Gompers
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Samuel Gompers was the first and longest-serving president of the American Federation of Labor. He felt that the American labor movement owes its structure and characteristic strategies for building America. Under his leadership, the AFL became the largest and most important, powerful labor federation in the world. It grew from a small association of 50,000 in 1886 to an full organization of nearly 3 million in 1924, They had won a permanent place in American society. In a society known for its individualism and the power of its employer class, he forged a self-confident workers' organization dedicated to the principles of solidarity and mutual aid. It was a historic achievement.
As a local and national labor ruler, Gompers went out to build the labor movement into a force powerful enough to transform the economic, social and political status of American workers. To do that, he followed three principles. First, he believed in craft or trades unionism, which restricted union membership to wage earners and grouped workers into locals based on their trade or craft identification. Second, Gompers believed in a pure and simple unionism that focused firmly on economics rather than political reform. This was the best way of securing workers' rights and welfare. Third, when political action was necessary, as Gompers increasingly came to believe in his later years of his life, he urged labor to follow a course of "political nonpartisanship."
Of the labor movement, Gompers said,“Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people,” he said. “There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire ... there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.”
Cite: "Samuel Gompers." Samuel Gompers. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
Cite: "Samuel Gompers (American Labour Leader)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
Cite: "Samuel Gompers (1850 - 1924)." AFL-CIO. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
As a local and national labor ruler, Gompers went out to build the labor movement into a force powerful enough to transform the economic, social and political status of American workers. To do that, he followed three principles. First, he believed in craft or trades unionism, which restricted union membership to wage earners and grouped workers into locals based on their trade or craft identification. Second, Gompers believed in a pure and simple unionism that focused firmly on economics rather than political reform. This was the best way of securing workers' rights and welfare. Third, when political action was necessary, as Gompers increasingly came to believe in his later years of his life, he urged labor to follow a course of "political nonpartisanship."
Of the labor movement, Gompers said,“Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people,” he said. “There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire ... there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.”
Cite: "Samuel Gompers." Samuel Gompers. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
Cite: "Samuel Gompers (American Labour Leader)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
Cite: "Samuel Gompers (1850 - 1924)." AFL-CIO. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.