                                                                 1                                    Trade unions can be defined as: the various labor organizations in the United
States, each of which serves to consolidate, represent, and protect the rights of workers in
a specific occupation or trade. They can be dated back to as early as the twelfth century
when craft guilds were formed. These craft guilds only included in their membership
those who practiced a particular craft, so there were many guilds at this time. Labor
unions stayed this way for the next few centuries, until the Civil War in the United States
brought attention to workers and their families. Towards the latter part of the eighteenth
century, unions of carpenters and shoemakers began forming in Philadelphia, while
tailors in Baltimore, Maryland and printers in New York City also started unions. The
main actions of these unions were to band the workers together to get a strike started and
then they were almost immediately dissolved. These strikes were few because the strike
leaders were often imprisoned and fined on charges of "conspiracy to raise wages." 
     The first union in the United States to include members of different trades was the
Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations, which was started in 1827. This organization's 
main emphasis was to raise wages and improve working conditions, this union also
championed social reforms, such as free public education, eradication of imprisonment
for debt, and the adoption of universal manhood suffrage. The National Trade Union,
which was founded in 1834, was the first nationwide federation. Despite wide attempts to
ally over the next few years, the economic crisis of 1837 and a depression following
unfortunately halted the membership, and led to a sharp decline in the organization's
current membership, which finally suspended the movement temporarily. 
     Trade unions began to grow in membership after businesses began a revival in the
late 1840's and early 1850's. A Massachusetts court also helped with union membership
when it made a landmark decision that stated that labor unions had the right to strike
because strikes were lawful and not criminal conspiracies (Commonwealth v. Hunt,
1842). This lead to a nationwide growth in trade unions. Unlike the first growth this
second growth concentrated on making many unions consisting of workers of only one
trade. The continued growth of the unions was subsequently stopped in 1857 because of
another economic crisis that dissolved the base of many of the new trade unions. 
     In 1881, numerous trade unions combined to form the Federation of Organized
Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. This union was short lived,
and by 1886 it was in decline. By December of 1886 though, members of affiliates from
this union and another prominent union on the decline met in Columbus, Ohio to start a
new trade union that would meet the needs of the American worker like no other union
did to that date. Their solution was the American Federation of Labor (AFL). It elected
Samuel Gompers, who was president of the Cigarmakers International Union and the
Federation of Oraganized Trades and Labor Unions, as its first president. The
membership was estimated at about 316,000 workers grouped in twenty-five national
unions. Although the AFL was a broad group of individuals, it allowed it's different
unions to deal with the workers and the employers in their own field. Instead of
campaigning for sweeping reforms like many unions did before them, the AFL wanted the
unalienable rights and attainable goals of higher wages and shorter working hours for all
employees. It also cut all ties with any political organization for the purpose of voting for
candidates who were considered to be friendly to labor, regardless of their party
affiliation, and vote against those regarded as hostile to the labor movement. During the
1890's, some of the AFL unions such as the printers and the building trade workers
acheived their long sought goal of an eight-hour day. 
     By 1935 some of the union leaders within the AFL wanted a revision of craft
union principles to assist organization of workers in the mass production industries. With
the support of eight of the leaders of the AFL unions the president of the United Mine
Workers of America, John L. Lewis, the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)
was begun to help the unionization campaign in the mass production industries.
Subsequently, the CIO unions were suspended from the AFL in August 1936 and finally
expelled in May 1938. Then, a few months later the CIO changed its initials to mean the
Congress of Industrial Organizations in order to become a permanent fixture in American
labor union history. After a twenty year hiatus, the AFL and the CIO joined forces so that
they could combat the new problems facing labor unions in the 1950's. The main
problems faced by the AFL-CIO was the elimination of racketeers from trade unions.
Then, in 1967 Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers, resigned as
vice-president of the AFL-CIO, declaring that it was "the comfortable, complacent
custodian of the status quo." Then the UAW stopped paying its dues and was kicked out
of the AFL-CIO.     debt, and the adoption of universal manhood suffrage. The National Trade Union,
which was founded in 1834, was the first n to a nationwide growth in trade unions. Unlike the first growth this
second growth concentrated on making many un