International Typographical Union No. 15 (Rochester, NY) Records on Microfilm

The International Typographical Union (ITU) was an US trade union for the printing trade for newspapers and other media. It was founded on May 3rd, 1852 in the United States as the National Typographical Union, and changed its name to the International Typographical Union in 1869 after it began organizing members in Canada.

ITU President W.B. Prescott led the ITU in 1897 to win a 48-hour work week and a standard wage scale for all printers. During the Great Depression, the ITU introduced the 40-hour work week across the industry at no cost to employers as a way to share the fewer jobs available. That ITU initiative spread to other unions and has since been codified across the labor sector by federal legislation in the U.S. establishing the 40-hour work week.

As the work of typographers' declined with automation, computers and mechanization of the print media, the ITU was disbanded. In 1986, a majority of ITU mailers voted to merge with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the remaining typographers joined the Communications Workers of America. Before its dissolution, the ITU was the oldest union in the United States.