Peter J. McGuire
| Peter J. McGuire | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 6, 1852 New York City |
| Died | February 18, 1906 (aged 53) |
| Occupation | Labor leader |
| Parent(s) | Peter McGuire (Killoe, Ireland, 1826–1917) |
Peter J. McGuire (July 6, 1852 – February 18, 1906) was an American labor leader of the nineteenth century. He co-founded the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America in 1881 along with Gustav Luebkert and became one of the leading figures in the first three decades of the American Federation of Labor. He is credited with first proposing the idea of Labor Day as a national holiday in 1882.
Born in New York City into a poor Irish Catholic family, he was a political activist before he became a trade unionist. He became a member in 1873 of a body known as the Committee for Public Safety, which was agitating for unemployment benefits. McGuire was arrested while occupying the office of the city's Police Commissioner, who had refused to grant them a parade permit. Shortly thereafter, he joined with Adolph Strasser, later president of the Cigar Makers' Union, to found the Social Democratic Workingmens Party of North America, a Lassallean socialist organization that proposed to achieve socialism through organization of a socialist party and the organization of trade unions. McGuire founded and edited a paper known as The Toiler, toured the United States lecturing for the party, and worked as a carpenter during the 1870s.
McGuire believed that political organizing held more promise for advancing workers' rights than unionism did during this decade. He became deeply involved in the campaign for the eight-hour day and a member of the Greenback Labor Party after moving in 1878 to St. Louis, Missouri, where he continued to work as a carpenter and joined the Knights of Labor. He led a successful strike of carpenters in St. Louis for the eight-hour day.
With the collapse of the Greenback Labor Party, he became more committed to unionism. As a member of the Knights of Labor who disagreed with some of the labor policies of the Knights of Labor, he supported the creation of a separate labor federation. He attended one of the preliminary meetings that led to the organization of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881. McGuire served as Vice-President of the Federation and its successor, the American Federation of Labor, for most of the following two decades.
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