American Federation Of Labor Essay

The American Federation of Labor is a labor union founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886, and quickly became one of the most valuable labor unions in the 19th and 20th century labor movement in America. The American Federation of Labor has been one of the most beneficial organizations for laborers because they helped improve the lives of workers through collective bargaining, advocacy of workers rights, and the promotion of safer working conditions. Since the American Federation of Labor worked so hard and fought to better the lives of the working people, it in turn helped to improve the quality of life for their families as well.

Collective bargaining is a process by which a group of workers, who are most often represented by a type of labor organization,

The rights of workers had long been ignored by employers because big corporations were more concerned with large profits that lined the pockets of company executives rather than paying their workers better wages to allow them to have a decent quality of life. With the American Federation of Labor advocating for workers’ rights for better pay, safer working conditions, and other benefits in the work environment of the common working class allowed for a better quality of life for employees and their families. There are several rights that the American Federation of Labor strongly advocates for; advocacy for the eight-hour workday, workplace safety regulations, and fostering racial and gender equality in the workplace. Advocacy for the eight-hour workday started in the federal government when the “National House of Representatives adopted an eight-hour law for all employees” (Hillquit 15), “Several states pas[s]ed laws limiting the hours of labor of women and children and those of men in particularly dangerous or unhealthful callings, others adopted laws fixing a minimum wage for certain workmen employed on state or municipal work” (Hillquit 15). Another commonly advocated right is workplace safety, workplace safety includes breaks to prevent from exhaustion and can allow for workers to avoid making small but catastrophic mistakes, primary and secondary emergency exits along with notifying employees of them, and clean work environments which can include air filters, face masks, or other workplace quality improvements. One more strongly advocated right