The American Labor Union (ALU) was a radical labor organization launched as the Western Labor Union (WLU) in 1898. The organization was established by the

Western Federation of Miners The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into ...

(WFM) in an effort to build a

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

s in the aftermath of the failed Leadville Miners' Strike of 1896. The group changed its name from WLU to the more familiar ALU moniker in 1902 at its fifth annual convention. The group had a peak membership of about 43,000 — of which 27,000 were members of the WFM. The ALU was a precursor to the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...

(IWW), established in 1905, which effectively terminated it.

Organizational history

Forerunner

The Western Labor Union (WLU) was a labor federation created by the

(WFM) after the disastrous Leadville strike of 1896-97. The WLU was conceived in November, 1897 in a proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana, and gained support from the WFM's executive board in December 1897.

Establishment

The WLU was formed in 1898 at a convention in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, t ...

which was attended mostly by former members of the

Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...

. The new federation was formed as a response to the conservatism of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

. The hardrock miners of the WFM had become well-organized, but apart from the miners, mining territories were largely unorganized. Members of the WFM saw the WLU as an opportunity to meet the needs of these other workers, and also as a means to bolster solidarity when the need arose.

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...

assisted with the formation of the WLU. The federation initially comprised 14,000 miners and 400 individuals from other trades. Among the other trades were Colorado coal miners' locals, Colorado railway workers, western hotel and restaurant workers, carpenters, typographers, grocery clerks, laundry workers, cooks and waiters, hack drivers, and mattress makers.David Brundage, The Making of Western Labor Radicalism: Denver's Organized Workers, 1878-1905. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994; pg. 143.

After the transfer of the Western Federation of Miners headquarters to_Denver,_Colorado_.html" ;"title="Denver,_Colorado.html" ;"title="to Denver, Colorado">to Denver, Colorado ">Denver,_Colorado.html" ;"title="to Denver, Colorado">to Denver, Colorado in 1900, and especially after the opening of a WLU office there in May 1901, the WLU began a period of astonishing growth. Of the seventy-one new charters the WLU issued to unions between May 1901 and February 1902, seventeen were to organizations in Denver. The WLU's initial base in Denver lay with the eleven hundred workers at the Globe and Grant smelters ... [ but the WLU ] represented a diverse array of urban workers—many, though not all, of them unskilled—organized mainly in industrial organizations.

One Denver WLU affiliate was the powerful Butchers Protective Union, with nearly fifteen hundred members in 1902. It included skilled butchers and unskilled meatpackers.

Renamed organization

In 1902, as a response to a visit of a delegation from the

"to plead for a reunited labor movement," the WLU changed its name to the American Labor Union. While at one time the American Labor Union claimed 135,000 members, a more sanguine estimate pegs the group's membership strength at 43,000 in 1905, which included 27,000 members of the WFM. When the AFL excluded unskilled workers, the ALU accused that federation of exercising policies that divided the working class. However, the ALU favored Asian Exclusion. (A

Chinese exclusion act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...

had been passed in 1882, and wasn't repealed until 1943.) In the Cripple Creek district of Colorado where the ALU had a presence, many non-white nationalities were excluded or discriminated against. The Industrial Workers of the World, on the other hand, professed from its first conference in 1905 that there should be no discrimination against any worker. The American Labor Union endorsed the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

in 1902, as did "all the major Colorado labor organizations." The ALU moved its headquarters from Butte to Chicago. It was in decline and on the verge of dissolution when it found new life in merging with other organizations into the IWW. The American Labor Union employed the rhetoric of political socialism, although it focused primarily on economic action by workers. Such economic action would later be referred to as

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

by the Industrial Workers of the World.

Structure

The officers consisted of a President, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer, and an Executive Board of nine members, which included the President and Vice-president. The officers were elected biennially by a referendum vote of the general membership. The government was more centralized than the typical federation of trade unions of the time. For example, the executive board could depose any general officer, and affiliated organizations were not permitted to strike without the approval of the executive board. The official organ of the American Labor Union were the weekly ''American Labor Union Journal.'' Price of the publication was 50 cents per year.

Termination

Three years after its founding the ALU took part in the creation of the

(IWW).Jameson, ''All That Glitters,'' pg. 77.

Footnotes

{{reflist, 2

Official documents

American Labor Union

''Official Report of the Proceedings of the American Labor Union in its Fifth Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, 1902.''
Denver: Western Newspaper Union, Printers, 1902.
''Official Report of the Proceedings of the American Labor Union in its Sixth Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, 1903.''
Denver: Western Newspaper Union, Printers, 1903. —Includes constitution as appendix.

Western Federation of Miners

''Official Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention of the Western Federation of Miners of America: Held in Odd Fellows' Hall, Denver, Colorado, May 27 to June 6, 1901.''
Pueblo, CO: Pueblo Courier, 1901.
''Official Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention of the Western Federation of Miners of America: Held in Odd Fellows' Hall, Denver, Colorado, May 26 to June 7, 1902.''
Denver, CO: Colorado Chronicle, 1902.
''Official Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention, Western Federation of Miners of America: Held in Odd Fellows' Hall, Denver, Colorado, May 25 to June 10, 1903.''
Denver, CO: Western Newspaper Union, 1903.
''Official Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention, Western Federation of Miners of America: Held in Odd Fellows' Hall, Denver, Colorado, May 23 to June 8, 1904.''
Denver, CO: Western Newspaper Union, 1904.