LABRST 2C03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Samuel Gompers, Canadian Labour Congress, Class Conflict

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Labour Studies
• Course: LABRST 2C03
• Professor: David Goutor

Document Summary

Samuel gompers, born in england in 1850. He was not an intellectual or a philosopher. He was a labour leader, which is where he draws most of his influence from he was a highly skilled trades worker, involved in cigar making. He inherited the trade from his father. Immigrated to the unite states as a teenager to new york city. He was engaged in socialism as a teenage, however moved away from that. At 25 he became president of his trade local and worked his way up through the ci- gar makers union and the american federation of labour (afl) Becomes influential because he built the afl into the large organization it is today. He also moulds the canadian labour congress to operate under his principles. Had a very clear position on union philosophy. Unions were not to be driven by philosophical theories. The philosophy of unions should be to represent the interests of workers.