National Labor Reform Party

THE NATIONAL LABOR Reform Party was a shortlived social and political action movement in the years after the American Civil War. Beginning as a labor federation, it eventually turned to electoral politics. Its goal was to improve working conditions through legislation and employer-employee arbitration, rather than strikes and collective bargaining.

The National Labor Union (NLU) was founded in 1866, at a convention of 77 delegates held in Baltimore, Maryland. This was the first attempt to form a national labor federation in the United States. The National Labor Union brought together labor unions, farmers, and “eight hour leaguers” to pressure Congress to pass a law mandating an eight-hour workday and help create new labor unions around the country. The group also called for excluding Chinese workers from the United States and for the abolition of convict labor. The NLU believed that owners and workers had common interests, and that arbitration was more effective than strikes. The NLU also called for the creation of a “labor party” as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties.

During its existence as a labor federation, the NLU membership may have reached as many as 650,000 in construction unions, unions of other skilled employees, and groups of farmers and unskilled workers. William Sylvis, a founder of the Iron Molder's International Union, became its first president. Sylvis also edited and wrote many articles for the Workingman's Advocate, the newspaper of the NLU.

In 1868, Congress approved a law limiting the workday for federal government employees to eight hours, providing the NLU with what appeared to be a major legislative victory. However, many federal agencies reduced employees' wages to reflect the shortened workday. Following Sylvis's death in July 1869, a conflict developed between unionists who supported the NLU remaining a labor federation and those who wished to see it become a national political party.

In 1871, the National Labor Union decided to shift its emphasis to electoral politics and organize a National Labor Reform Party. In February 1872, the party opened its convention in Columbus, Ohio. In its platform, the Party declared, “ft is the duty of the Government to establish a just distribution of capital and labor by providing a purely national circulating medium based on the faith and resources of the nation.” The platform also called for the free distribution of government lands to landless settlers; that the eight-hour day be extended to employees of federal government contractors; for the introduction of the merit system in federal government employment; and for limiting the president to one four-year term.

The convention nominated David Davis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice from Illinois, as its presidential candidate. Joel Parker, the Democratic Governor of New Jersey, was nominated for vice president. However, Davis withdrew as the party's candidate when he did not receive the nomination of the Liberal Republican Party, leaving the party without a presidential candidate. After holding a final convention in 1873, the National Labor Union and the Labor Reform Party collapsed. Many of its members moved to the Knights of Labor, which had been formed in Philadelphia in 1869.

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