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             Labor Unions































































             Officials from the National Labor Relations Board watch as workers at the Jones and Laughlin steel mill vote whether the Steel
             Workers Organizing Committee will be their sole bargaining agency May 20, 1937. © BETTMANN/CORBIS




             national federation both craft unions and reform groups.  This second group merged with a group of individual
             The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, founded in  craft unions in 1886 to become the American Federation
             1869, sought to unite all workers, both skilled and  of Labor (AFL). This was the beginning of modern union
             unskilled. In 1886, when its membership had reached  structure.  The AFL’s first president, Samuel Gompers
             more than 700,000, it split into two groups. The revolu-  (1850–1924), kept the improvement of wages, hours, and
             tionary socialist group wanted the government to take  working conditions as the objectives of the union. AFL
             over production; the traditional group wanted to remain  membership grew rapidly until the 1920s, when there
             focused on the economic well-being of its members.  were few skilled craftworkers yet to be organized. By that


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