American Federation of Labor
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| Full name | American Federation of Labor |
|---|---|
| Founded | December 8, 1886 |
| Predecessor | Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions |
| Date dissolved | December 4, 1955 |
| Merged into | AFL–CIO |
| Key people |
Samuel Gompers John McBride William Green George Meany |
| Office location | New York City; later Washington, D.C. |
| Country | United States |
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers' International Union was elected president of the Federation at its founding convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. The AFL was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the 20th century, even after the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that were expelled by the AFL in 1935 over its opposition to industrial unionism. While the Federation was founded and dominated by craft unions throughout the first fifty years of its existence, many of its craft union affiliates turned to organizing on an industrial union basis to meet the challenge from the CIO in the 1940s.
In 1955 the American Federation of Labor merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to create the AFL-CIO which has comprised the longest lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States and can still be found to this day.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) organized as an association of trade unions in 1886. The organization emerged from a dispute with the Knights of Labor (K of L) organization, in which the leadership of that organization solicited locals of various craft unions to withdraw from their International organizations and to affiliate with the K of L directly, an action which would have taken funds from the various unions and enriched the K of L's coffers. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions also merged into what would become the American Federation of Labor.
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