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Top 10 Facts about Samuel Gompers.

Samuel Gompers was born on January 27 1850, to a Jewish family in England.  He quit school at age of 10 to apprentice as a shoemaker then as a cigar maker.

He was the most important figure in the American labour movement.  Gompers joined his first labour organization at 14 after the family had immigrated to America.

Gompers was the first and longest-serving president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL); it is to him, as much as to anyone else, that the American labour movement owes its structure and characteristic strategies.

Under his leadership, the AFL became the largest and most influential labour federation in the world.

It grew from a marginal association of 50,000 in 1886 to an established organization of nearly 3 million in 1924 and became a permanent feature in American life.

His is a story of the American dream: from an immigrant to a labour supremo consulted by presidents.

Let’s take a look at 10 facts about Samuel Gompers.

Fact 1: Samuel Gompers Joined his First Labour Union at 14 Years.

Photo by Library of Congress –

In 1864, Samuel Gompers joined Cigar Makers Local Union No.15. It was an English speaking union of cigar makers in New York City.

He quickly rose to its leadership and help reorganized operations.

He introduced higher subscriptions but it was leveraged by the creation of strikes and pension funds. Further, they united different affiliations into one union.

Fact 2:  Samuel Gompers was a Champion of Labor.

Photo by Paul Thomson –

Samuel Gompers had an overbearing influence in American labour circles. He founded the American Federation of Labour (AFL) and served as president for 38 years.

Gompers was a firm advocate for workers and had a puritanical work ethic. His focus was on the improvement of workers’ wages, working hour’s safety at work.

Furthermore, he encouraged different labour associations to work together. Though apolitical he argued unions to push for the election of union-friendly legislators.

He was the first union leader to use worker strikes as a tool for negotiation. His able stewardship of AFL ensured it grew in membership thus influence.

He was not shy to edge out competing unions like Knights of Labour which was America’s first Union. Lastly, he pushed for unions rewarding workers and punishing opponents.

Fact 3: Samuel Gompers Abhorred Socialists.

Samuel Gompers held the view that labour matters were at variance with all political agendas.

In addition, he believed socialists were out to infiltrate the labour union movement for political mobilization and manoeuvres.

Due to his dim view of socialism, he perpetuated a rivalry with Eugene W Debs a labour leader and member of the Socialist Party of America that lasted close to 40 years.

Lastly, Gompers was an unapologetic democrat with no. Finally, he hated socialists because they campaigned for his removal from the AFL and they were able to kick him out for a year.

Fact 4: Samuel Gompers Suffered Poor Health but Still Worked Hard.

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In the 1920s Gompers health declined. He was diagnosed with diabetes which has no cure, it can only be managed.

Between 1923 and 1924 he was admitted to the hospital for influenza and heart failure taking him out of action for several months.

Notwithstanding the fact disease had ravaged his body that he had to be assisted to walk, he still travelled abroad for union meetings.

His last international assignment was at the Pan-American Federation of Labour meeting (1924) in Mexico.

He collapsed in the assembly hall and after a grim medical prognosis insisted to be returned home to die on American soil.

Fact 5: Samuel Gompers Opposed Welfare Programme.

As stated earlier in fact 3 President Gompers viewed politicians with suspicion.  Consequently, he did not entertain government activism in workers’ issues. 

He opined government had no business doing for workers what they can do for themselves. Gompers regarded worker-target proposals by the government as blatant meddling in labour affairs.

President Gompers ferociously opposed suggestions of welfare initiatives, 8 hour working days, state health and insurance and minimum wage. 

Gompers likened the proposals to dangerous experiments on workers. He lobbied Congress to oppose the changes as they were an attack on the American worker. Gompers argued welfare programmes could not end poverty.

The biggest turn off for Gompers was the knowledge that state funding comes with regulatory powers, thus the government would control workers directly weakening unions.

Fact 6: Samuel Gompers was an Immigrant who Opposed Immigration.

Photo by Harris & Ewing –

President Gompers was an immigrant thus it goes against the grain that he opposed immigrant entry to the US.

Nevertheless, his decision was informed by all labour leaders’ resolve to protect American workers.

Immigrant workers accepted lower wages and were not unionized. With a hint of racism, he claimed persons from Asia had an inferior culture that could hamper their assimilation.

He led the labour unions in sponsoring the passing of exclusionary acts of law to shut out immigrants. Further, he banned union membership for migrants.

Fact 7: Samuel Gompers was a Freemason

Masonic symbols Photo by V Suslov –

Samuel Gompers joined freemasonry for the freedom of conscience, thought and expression.

He was a member of the Dawson lodge No.16 Washington DC. 

He was a leader of the brotherhood having attained a 32-degree level. As a result, he visited many states and countries abroad missions to the lodges.

Fact 8: Samuel Gompers led the Development of Labour Procedures.

Photo by Library of Congress –

President Gompers on ascending to the top of labour activism ensured the development of procedures and instruments to protect workers.

He introduced the collective bargaining agreement an instrument that negotiated for several workers as a single unit.

The demands of workers would be collated and prioritized for negotiation. 

He also advocated for contracts for each worker in written form. Equally important, he pioneered organized strikes a labour unions tool of negotiation.

Fact 9: Gompers was a Presidential Advisor.

Photo by James E Purdy –

Labour unions leaders were regarded as confrontational and radical, Gompers kept it good with several US presidents.

When it came to matters of national importance Gompers was known to collaborate with the government. For instance, during the 1^st World War, he halted industrial actions to allow the production of war materials besides publicly denouncing socialists and pacifists.

As a result, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him as an advisor.  He also served in the advisory council of various international labour organizations.

Fact 10: Samuel Gompers was a Good Debater.

Gompers childhood was hard. He helped out his poor family by working in his father’s cigar-making business. As a teenager, he formed a neighbourhood debate club with his friends.

They held lively arguments in their free time. He was born with the gift of garb and debating sharpened his public speaking and parliamentary procedure.

The debate club provided a training ground for the role he would come to hold in the labour union. In the debating activity, he met other young men who rose with him into union leadership.

Gompers also was crucial in convincing Wilson to craft a wartime labor policy that for the first time in U.S. history explicitly articulated government support for independent trade unions and collective bargaining.

Labor union membership soared by the end of the war, reaching into the millions.

At the war’s end, Wilson appointed Gompers to the Commission on International Labor Legislation at the Â鶹APP Peace Conference where Gompers helped create what would become the International Labor Organization (ILO).