USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Samuel Gompers (1850 –1924) founded the American Federation of Labor and served as its president for nearly forty years, between 1886 and 1924, and the nation’s leading trade unionist and labor spokesman.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1886 Gompers fostered the separation of the cigar makers and other craft unions from the Knights of Labor to form the AFL, of which he was president from 1886 to 1924 (except for one year, 1895). He distrusted intellectual reformers, fearing their influence would divert labour’s efforts away from economic goals.

Detailed explanation-3: -He was a diehard capitalist and saw no need for a radical restructuring of America. Gompers quickly learned that the issues that workers cared about most deeply were personal. They wanted higher wages and better working conditions. These “bread and butter” issues would always unite the labor class.

Detailed explanation-4: -Gompers served as the AFL’s first president. He remained the organization’s president, other than for one year, until his death in 1924. Under Gompers’s leadership, the AFL became the largest labor union organization in the United States.