American Labor Movement: Knights of Labor to the AFL (1869–1924)
Uriah Smith Stephens and a small group of Philadelphia tailors founded the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, which soon became the first major national U.S. labor organization.
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began after a wage cut on the B&O Railroad and spread across multiple states—an early nationwide test of industrial conflict and state/federal suppression of strikes.
Craft-union leaders founded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU), an important predecessor to the AFL that promoted coordination among trade unions.
Under Terence V. Powderly, the Knights expanded rapidly; by 1886 it reached roughly 700,000+ members, becoming the largest labor organization in the U.S. before its decline later in the decade.
A large multi-state railroad strike led by the Knights of Labor began against railroads associated with Jay Gould; its defeat contributed to the Knights’ weakening and the growing appeal of craft unionism.
A labor rally supporting the eight-hour day ended in violence after a bomb was thrown at police, intensifying repression and public backlash and accelerating shifts in U.S. labor organizing.
FOTLU reorganized as the American Federation of Labor (AFL), consolidating craft unions; Samuel Gompers emerged as its leading figure and long-serving president.
A major steel dispute at Homestead, Pennsylvania, escalated into violence and ended in a decisive defeat for organized labor in steel, demonstrating the power of employers, private security, and state forces.
Pullman workers struck after wage cuts; the dispute widened through the American Railway Union boycott and was broken by federal injunctions and troops, marking a turning point in federal intervention in labor conflicts.
President William McKinley signed the Erdman Arbitration Act, authorizing federal mediation/arbitration mechanisms for labor disputes involving interstate rail carriers.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s maximum-hours law for bakers, reinforcing “freedom of contract” jurisprudence that constrained many protective labor regulations in the early 20th century.
A deadly New York City garment-factory fire spurred major workplace safety and labor-law reforms, including the creation of New York’s Factory Investigating Commission and numerous new health-and-safety statutes.
The Clayton Antitrust Act included provisions (notably Section 6) widely interpreted as limiting antitrust attacks on unions and recognizing that “the labor of a human being is not a commodity.”
The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a state ban on anti-union employment agreements, allowing employers to require workers to forswear union membership as a condition of employment.
Congress passed and President Woodrow Wilson signed the first major federal law restricting child labor via interstate commerce controls (later struck down by the Supreme Court).
The Adamson Act set an eight-hour workday (with overtime pay) for interstate railroad workers, a major federal intervention to avert a national rail strike and advance hours reform.
The Transportation Act of 1920 reorganized rail regulation after wartime control and established the Railroad Labor Board to address wage disputes, shaping federal labor relations in rail through the 1920s.
AFL president Samuel Gompers died in 1924 after decades of leadership that emphasized craft unionism and collective bargaining focused on wages, hours, and working conditions.
