Page:William Z. Foster, James P. Cannon and Earl Browder - Trade Unions in America.djvu/8

 local unions as men in the same trades. In the A. F. of L. all the unions which contain considerable numbers of women are affiliated to the Women's Trade Union League This national body is typically conservative. Its alleged aim is to organize and educate women workers generally.

The American Federation of Labor is the principal trade union center for the United States and Canada. It is a very loose federation of 111 national and jnternational unions and 523 directly affiliated local unions. It is administered by an executive council of 11 members. elected at the yearly general conventions. These conventions are composed almost solely of the higher officials. With the exception of one year, Samuel Gompers was president of the A. F. of L. continuously since 1886, until his death in December, 1924. The organization was founded in 1881.

The A. F. of L. is divided into four departments building, railroad, metal and union label. The function of these departments is to secure cooperation among their affiliated unions. They were formed a few years ago to forestall a strong movement for industrial unionism. Strong resistance is made by the Gompers' clique against forming departments in other industries and those that exist have very little power. At best they are only very weak federations. Only one, being peculiar, merits description. This is the union label department. In the A. F. of L. there are 61 national organizations using different labels, stamps, and cards, which serve to indicate that their products are made by union workers. All these union label organizations are combined in the union label department. They keep up a constant campaign to induce the workers to use nothing but union made goods. The scheme, being in essence an attempt to control the purchasing power of the workers, is a sort of substitute for the co-operative and boycott movement proper. Great abuses attach to this union label agitation, which serve to