GMP International Union
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| Founded | 1842 |
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| Members | 27,864 (2013) |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO and CLC |
| Key people | Bruce R. Smith, International President |
| Office location | Media, Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States & Canada |
| Website | www |
The Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union is a labor union which represents about 28,000 craft and industrial workers primarily in the ceramics, china, craft metals, fiberglass, glass, insulation, and pottery industries. It is one of the oldest unions in the United States, with its first locals formed in 1842.
In 1842, craftsmen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed a glass blowers' union that represented workers throughout the region. John Samuels was elected the first president. Several other local glass blowers' unions joined the nascent national union, which adopted the name Glass Blowers' League. The union represented workers who made soda-lime glass (or "green glass"). The new national union slowly disintegrated over the following quarter century, but glass blowers met again in 1866 and affirmed their affiliation to the Glass Blowers' League and its 1842 constitution. The reinvigorated union also changed its name to the Druggists' Ware Glass Blowers' League. Membership was largely centered in the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, then the center of the glass industry in the U.S.
The glass blowers faced a major challenge in the 1880s from a new union, the American Flint Glass Workers' Union of North America (AFGWU). Flint glass, commonly known as "crystal", was made in closed pots to protect the glass from impurities (unlike green glass), and generally the flint glass workforce was more highly skilled. The AFGWU formed in Pittsburgh in 1878, and within four short years had locals throughout West Virginia and Ohio and was spreading east. Feeling threatened by the new union, the Glass Blowers waged several bitter jurisdictional strikes against the AFGWU in the 1880s and 1890s. The union's jurisdictional fight was an important one. Highly skilled workers like glass blowers made up 15 percent of the entire workforce. While 45 percent of American workers made just enough money in the 1880s to be at or above the poverty line ($500 a year), another 30 percent made less than that. A shocking 10 percent of all full-time workers made so little money they were considered absolutely destitute. Glass blowers, however, made 60 to 100 percent more than the average worker, and were considered the "cream" of the working class.
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