The Upholsterers International Union of North America (called the UIU or UIUNA) was a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

labor 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 ( ...

of upholsterers. It was founded in 1892 when eight small met at a conference in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and agreed to combine. It affiliated with 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 ...

in 1900. In 1929, a convention voted to change the name to Upholsterers, Carpet and Linoleum Mechanics' International Union of North America but the other name remained in common use. Their official organ was the ''Upholsters' Journal''; as of 1936, it was estimated that they had 11,500 members. By 1977, the union (headquartered in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

) had a membership of 55,000, and was pursuing a policy of aggressively organizing in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

(where most

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

jobs had gone), in cooperation with other unions such as the

United Furniture Workers of America The United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA) was a 20th-century American labor union, founded as a breakaway from the Upholsterers International Union of North America by a group of labor activists, who included Emil Costello (a Wisconsin st ...

and the

International Woodworkers of America International Woodworkers of America (IWA) was an industrial union of lumbermen, sawmill workers, timber transportation workers and others formed in 1937. History The IWA was formed when members of the Sawmill and Timber Workers’ Union divis ...

. In October 1985, the union voted to merge with the

United Steelworkers The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquar ...

."Union Merger Final" ''Dubuque

Telegraph Herald The ''Telegraph Herald'', locally referred to as the ''TH'', is a daily newspaper published in Dubuque, Iowa, for the population of Dubuque and surrounding areas in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The newspaper is the result of a 1901 merger of th ...

'' October 13, 1985; p. 36, col. 1

References

Defunct trade unions in the United States Furniture industry trade unions 1892 establishments in Illinois Organizations based in Philadelphia 1985 disestablishments in the United States Trade unions established in 1892 Trade unions disestablished in 1985 {{trade-union-stub