Today in History—August 20: The First National Labor Union Forms
Throughout the 1800s, employees worked anywhere from 10 to 16 hours, six days a week, depending on the industry. Working conditions were often unsafe, and regulations governing these things were few and far between. Employee welfare and work-life balance weren’t exactly top-of-mind concerns. Yet.
Are you working eight hours in the United States today? If so, thank the (now-defunct) National Labor Union (NLU), founded on this day in Baltimore, Maryland, when the heads of the Coachmakers, Machinists and Blacksmiths, and Ironmoulders unions met. It was the first national labor organization in the country, and the first time that societal change was put forth as a solution for workers. Its members included farmers, laborers, and reformers, and delegates included representatives from local unions and labor bodies.
They had issues to discuss, and one at the very forefront was “the adoption of a law whereby eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s work in every State,” and they declared that they were “determined never to relax their efforts until this glorious result is consummated.”
They called on Congress to make it so.
Congress declined. It would take until 1916 to see an eight-hour workday enshrined into federal law, and even then it applied only to railroad workers for nearly two decades. (But that’s a different day’s story.)
David Davis was Abraham Lincoln’s presidential campaign manager.
In 1872, though, the NLU waded into politics as the National Labor Reform Party. It didn’t go well. U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis, an associate of Abraham Lincoln, was the party’s pick for president. But he later withdrew his nomination after he tried and failed to become the candidate for an opposing party. The National Labor Reform Party collapsed, Davis ended up with exactly one electoral vote, and the National Labor Union ceased to exist after 1873.
But the seed had been planted. Labor reforms were coming to major industries in the decades ahead.
And workers learned to dream bigger: a 30-hour workweek bill was put forth in 1933.
Alas, it failed to pass, so back to work we all go now.
- 77: Delegates to the conference
- ~500,000: The NLU’s peak membership
- ~64: Average working hours per week in the 1860s in manufacturing
- 1920: The NFL is formed, as the American Professional Football Association
- 1975: Viking 1 is launched to study Mars
- 2023: Spain wins the country’s first Women’s World Cup
