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Labor Unions: Past and Present
United Mine Workers of
America
The United Mine Workers of America is a growing union with a
diverse membership that includes coal miners, clean coal technicians,
health care workers, truck drivers, and school board employees. UMWA
members live and work throughout the United States and Canada.
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and
Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) is one of the largest and
most diverse unions in North America, with members in virtually
every sector of the economy.
UE – The USA’s
Independent, Rank and File Union
UE" is the abbreviation for United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America, a democratic national union representing some
35,000 workers in a wide variety of manufacturing, public sector and
private non-profit sector jobs. UE is an independent union (not affiliated
with the AFL-CIO) proud of its democratic structure and progressive
policies.
International
Longshore and Warehouse Union
The history page of the unofficial website for Longshore Union,
which is a union of dock workers.
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers, for whom Gompers Park on Chicago's Northwest Side
was named, was one of the founders of the American Federation of Labor in
1886. He was elected president, a position he held, except for one year,
until his death 38 years later.
John Mitchell,
President of the United Mine Workers of America
John Mitchell rose from boy laborer in the mines to become the
president of the United Mine Workers of America.
The Industrial Workers of the World
The IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to
organizing on the job, in our industries and in our communities both to
win better conditions today and to build a world without bosses, a world
in which production and distribution are organized by workers ourselves to
meet the needs of the entire population, not merely a handful of
exploiters. Members of this union are also known as the Wobblies.
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO) is the voluntary federation of America's unions,
representing more than 13 million working women and men nationwide in 66
unions.
Terence
Powderly
Terence Victor Powderly was the first internationally famous
leader to head an American labor federation (the Knights of Labor).
Although he’s not that well known today, by the 1880s most Americans
knew his name and his reputation dwarfed that of other labor leaders.
Knights of
Labor
The story of Labor Day would be incomplete without an introduction
to the Knights of Labor. Not only did they initiate Labor Day as a
civic event, it had proved itself to be the first labor association strong
enough to challenge industry on its own ground. It was with them the
future of American labor in the 1880s appeared to lie. |
