National Labor Union

National Labor Union (NLU), in U.S. history, a political-action movement that from 1866 to 1873 sought to improve working conditions through legislative reform rather than through collective bargaining. The NLU began in 1866 with a convention in Baltimore, Maryland, called to organize skilled and unskilled laborers, farmers, and reformers into a coalition that would pressure Congress to pass a law limiting the workday to eight hours. Seventy-seven delegates attended the convention, and during its brief...