The Labor Forward movement was an

organizing Organizing or organized may refer to: * Organizing (management), a process of coordinating task goals and activities to resources * Community organizing, in which communities come together to act in their shared self-interest * Professional org ...

program 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 mutu ...

from roughly 1910 to 1920. The program, which took place in approximately 150 cities across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, was designed to convince workers of the labor movement's commitment to

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

ideals and labor–management cooperation. Although initial reports were that the program had generated large crowds and warm responses from employers, large numbers of new

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 ( ...

members never appeared and the program was shut down. In some respects, the program is similar to the "Labor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar" program co-sponsored by the

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...

and Interfaith Worker Justice in the 2000s.

References

*Fones-Wolf, Elizabeth and Fones-Wolf, Kenneth. "Trade-Union Evangelism: Religion and the AFL in the Labor Forward Movement". ''Working-Class America: Essays on Labor, Community, and American Society''. Michael H. Frisch and Daniel J. Walkowitz, eds. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1983. . *''The Samuel Gompers Papers. Vol. 9: The American Federation of Labor at the Height of Progressivism''. Peter J. Albert and Grace Palladino, eds. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2003. . 1910s in the United States American Federation of Labor {{US-trade-union-stub