American Federation of Labor Timeline

The A.F. of L. hired Mary Kenney O'Sullivan as its first female organizer in 1892. It released her after five months and did not replace her or hire another woman national organizer until 1908.

Image source: Mary Kenney O'Sullivan

In 1901, the A.F. of L. lobbied Congress to reauthorize the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and issued a pamphlet titled “Some reasons for Chinese Exclusion.”

The A.F. of L. assisted the Canadian Trades and Labour Congress with money and organizers. By 1902, it had come to dominate the Canadian union movement.

The National Child Labor Committee emerged as a major national organization in 1904, during an era when labor organizations were pursuing reform legislation and public campaigns.

Image source: National Child Labor Committee

The A.F. of L. intensified its opposition to immigration after 1906 and helped pass and enforce restriction measures from the 1890s through the 1920s, including the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924.

After 1908, the organization's relationship with the Democratic Party grew increasingly strong.

In San Francisco, the local Building Trades Council led by Carpenters official P. H. McCarthy dominated the local labor council and helped elect McCarthy mayor in 1909.

Image source: P. H. McCarthy

Although A.F. of L. membership was surging in 1910, only 1.5 percent of working women were organized into unions, down from 3.3 percent in 1900. Female-dominated unions, including the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, began emerging during the period.

Image source: Labor history of the United States

The A.F. of L. believed the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 achieved its goal of limiting the use of injunctions against labor. Samuel Gompers called the measure “Labor's Magna Carta.”

Image source: Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914

The federation often printed pro-suffrage articles in its periodical and in 1918 supported the National Union of Women's Suffrage.

Image source: National American Woman Suffrage Association

The year 1919 was decisive in the federation's relationship with the growing population of Black industrial workers produced by the Great Migration.

Image source: Great Migration (African American)

The organization endorsed pro-labor Progressive candidate Robert M. La Follette in the 1924 presidential election.

Image source: 1924 United States presidential election

Herbert Hoover won the votes of many Protestant A.F. of L. members in the 1928 presidential election.

Image source: 1928 United States presidential election

Despite close connections to many members of Congress, the A.F. of L. was unable to block the Taft–Hartley Act in 1947. The law stirred political activity within the labor movement.

Image source: Taft–Hartley Act

A.F. of L. membership rose to 2.4 million in 1917 and reached 4.1 million at the end of 1919.

To keep factories operating smoothly during World War I, President Wilson established the National War Labor Board in 1918. The board forced management to negotiate with existing unions.

Although 1919 was the first year of peace after World War I, it was a year of intense turmoil in the American labor movement, including the Seattle General Strike and widespread organizing activity.

Image source: United States strike wave of 1919

Samuel Gompers attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as an official adviser on labor issues.

Image source: Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)

In 1920, the A.F. of L. petitioned Washington for the release of prisoners convicted under wartime emergency laws.

In 1947, the union supported the strike efforts of thousands of switchboard operators by donating thousands of dollars.

Beginning as early as 1923, the A.F. of L. chartered federal labor unions, including six news writer locals formerly associated with the International Typographical Union. In 1933 it received 1,205 charter applications and granted 1,006; by 1934 it had organized 32,500 autoworkers through the model.

At the 1933 A.F. of L. convention, John Frey of the Molders and Metal Trades advocated craft-union jurisdictional supremacy over federal labor unions. The Carpenters and IBEW likewise pushed between 1933 and 1935 for federal unions to transfer members to craft internationals.

As the national economy began recovering in 1933, union membership also recovered. The National Industrial Recovery Act helped create the conditions for an enormous later increase in union membership.

In 1933, A.F. of L. president William Green sent William Collins to Detroit to organize automobile workers into a federal labor union.

Image source: United Auto Workers

In 1934, 100 federal labor unions met separately and demanded that the A.F. of L. continue issuing charters to unions organizing on an industrial basis independently of existing craft union internationals.

In 1935, federal labor unions representing autoworkers and rubber workers held conventions independent of the craft union internationals.

At the 1935 A.F. of L. convention, William Green and traditional craft-union advocates faced growing dissent led by John L. Lewis, Sidney Hillman, David Dubinsky, Charles Howard, Thomas McMahon, Max Zaritsky, and members of the federal labor unions.

Image source: Congress of Industrial Organizations

In 1935, John L. Lewis led dissenting unions in forming a new Congress for Industrial Organization within the A.F. of L. The A.F. of L. expelled the CIO in 1936, after which the CIO undertook a major organizing effort.

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, commonly called the Wagner Act, was a major labor law associated with the enormous growth in union membership during the New Deal era.

The A.F. of L. remained the largest union grouping even after the CIO was created by unions expelled by the federation in 1935. The two organizations ultimately merged in 1955.

In 1955, the A.F. of L. and the CIO merged to form the AFL-CIO, headed by George Meany. The merger created the longest-lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States to that point and into the present.

Image source: AFL-CIO