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Gompers, Samuel (1850–1924)

Leader in the early U.S. labor movement

The founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), Samuel Gompers changed the direction of the labor movement by abandoning efforts to organize employees across industries in favor of a craftbased unionism that focused only on skilled, white, male workers. While his policy of “business unionism” helped the labor movement grow, his reluctance to participate in the political process weakened the impact of organized labor in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Samuel Gompers in 1908.

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Bettmann/Corbis; used with permission.

Beginnings

Gompers was born in the working-class East End section of London to Dutch Jewish immigrants Solomon and Sarah Rood Gompers. The family's economic situation meant that as the oldest son Sam could only attend school for four years before being forced to enter the world of work. At the age of ten, he apprenticed as a shoemaker, but soon switched to his father's profession of cigarmaker. Unfortunately, the poor economic climate of the early 1860s led to little demand for luxury products like cigars. The Gompers family continued to struggle and, hopeful of better opportunities, immigrated to New York City on 29 July 1863 with financial aid from Solomon's union, the Cigarmakers' Society.

Gompers initially worked alongside his father rolling cigars in their tenement apartment on New York's Lower East Side. While others were working in factories, the Gompers were able to work out of their home because Solomon's skill at cigarmaking enabled them to produce cigars without the aid of a mold. By 1865 he had found work in a factory as a skilled cigar roller and he would remain in a succession of shops into the early 1880s. If Gompers had worked in a noisy factory, it is likely that he never would have had the chance to develop his own theories of labor. However, cigar rollers typically took advantage of their quiet work environment by hiring one of their fellows to read aloud the literature and periodicals of the day and by compensating him in cigars. In this manner, Gompers acquired an introduction to current political issues, the conditions of labor worldwide, and the work of such political economists as Karl Marx, Ferdinand Lassalle, Edward Kellogg, and Ira Steward.

Labor Activism

The cigar trade changed dramatically in the years after the American Civil War, reflecting the technological advances that would transform the relationship of labor to management. The cigar mold, introduced in 1869, reduced the amount of skill needed to produce cigars and permitted New York manufacturers to switch most production from factories to tenements. The workers typically leased apartments from the manufacturers, purchased supplies to carry home, rolled the cigars in the tenements, and then resold them for credit at the company store. Entire families had to work long hours every day to make ends meet. The Cigarmakers International Union (CMIU), dominated by members in Chicago and Detroit who did not work under the tenement system prevalent in New York, refused to permit the organization of the unskilled cigar makers. As a result, Gompers's local union chapter dropped from hundreds of members to fewer than fifty by 1872.

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