CH 18 Organizing Workers

Starting the eighteen century and on workers had organized trade unions to fight for wage reductions and provide benefits for their members in times of illness or accidents.  In 1866 Philadelphia labor leader William H. Sylvis called a convention in Baltimore to form a new organization.  The new organization was called National Labor Union.  They endorsed an eight hour day movement.  The eight hours was based on work, sleep and personal affairs.   The NLU supported the case of working women and urged black workers to organize as well but in racially separate unions.  In 1869 the Knight of Labor was an organization that took up where the NLU left off.  The Knight Labor demanded equal wages for woman and and to end child labor.  In 1886 more than seven hundred thousand workers were organized in nearly six thousand locals.  A more tightly focused union movement prospered by concentrating on wage issues under the American Federation of Labor who was led by Samuel Gompers.