Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850-December 13, 1924) was an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (the AF of L), and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AF of L, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted "thorough" organization and collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages, the first essential steps, he believed, to emancipating labor. He also encouraged the AF of L to take political action to "elect their friends" and "defeat their enemies." During World War I, Gompers and the AF of L worked with the government to avoid strikes and boost morale, while raising wage rates and expanding membership.

Cigar makers' international union career

Gompers was elected president of cigar makers' international union local 144 in 1875.

As was the case with other unions of the day, the cigar maker's union nearly collapsed in the financial crisis of 1877, in which unemployment skyrocketed and ready availability of desperate workers willing to labor for subsistence wages put pressure upon the gains in wages and shortening of hours achieved in union shops. Gompers and his friend Adolph Strasser used local 144 as a base to rebuild the cigar makers' union, introducing a high dues structure and implementing programs to pay out-of-work benefits, sick benefits, and death benefits for union members in good standing.

Gompers told the workers they needed to organize because wage reductions were almost a daily occurrence. The capitalists were only interested in profits, "and the time has come when we must assert our rights as workingmen. Every one present has the sad experience, that we are powerless in an isolated condition, while the capitalists are united; therefore it is the duty of every cigar maker to join the organization. ... one of the main objects of the organization," he concluded, "is the elevation of the lowest paid worker to the standard of the highest, and in time we may secure for every person in the trade an existence worthy of human beings."

He was elected second vice-president of the cigar makers' international union in 1886, and first vice-president in 1896. Despite the commitment of time and energy entailed by his place as head of the American federation of labor, Gompers remained first Vice President of the cigar makers until his death in December 1924.