Samuel Gompers Project on Microfilm

Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850-December 13, 1924) an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader. In 1867 he married Sophia Julian. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as the organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until he died in 1924.

He encouraged organization and collective bargaining to gain shorter hours and higher wages, the first steps, he believed, to emancipating labor. He also encouraged the AFL to take political action to "elect their friends" and "defeat their enemies".

The Gompers family immigrated to the United States in 1863, where they settled in the Manhattan's Lower East Side in New York City. His father started making cigars in their home and for the first couple of years Samuel helped him. Samuel started a debate team with some friends from school and that's where he gained his experience with public speaking and parliamentary procedures. Through his debating he also met a young man named Peter J. McGuire, who later became a big influence in the AFL.

Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Cigarmakers' International Union Local 144 in 1875. The union nearly fell apart in 1877 due to financial problems, which was not uncommon at this time in history. Gompers and Adolph Strasser rebuilt the Cigarmakers' Union with Local 144, by implementing a new high dues structure and programs to pay out-of-work benefits, sick benefits and death benefits to union members in good standing.

He was elected second vice-president of the Cigarmakers' International Union in 1886, and first vice-president in 1896. Despite the commitment of time and energy entailed by his place as head of the American Federation of Labor, Gompers remained first vice-president of the Cigarmakers until his death in December 1924.

Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881 as a coalition of like-minded unions. In 1886 it was reorganized into the American Federation of Labor, with Gompers as its president. He would remain president, with the exception of one year, 1895, up until he died.

His distinct brand of unionism led to the development of procedures for collective bargaining and contracts between labor and management which are still in use today.