Oregon Historical Society Research Library

By the mid-19th century, workers in crafts and trades formed unions across the country. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) became the first successful alliance of trade unions when it was organized in 1886. The AFL focused on organizing workers by trade or craft. By the 1930s, enough unions within the federation were unhappy with the AFL's unwillingness to organize workers industry-wide that they formed the Committee for Industrial Organization in 1935. Participating unions were expelled from the AFL and formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938. The two merged in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was organized in 1905, sought to organize all workers into "one big union."

The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, which gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively, served as an impetus for union organizing in the 1930s and battles between AFL and CIO unions over representation of workers at industrial plants. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 controlled union organizing and other labor-relations issues and helped push the AFL and CIO toward merger.

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