In 1911, the Union Label Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) chartered the Central Union Label Council of New York City. Like its parent body, which had been established by Samuel Gompers in 1909, the New York City Union Label Council was dedicated to "a more systematic and thorough agitation and demand for union-made and particularly union label products, and for the patronage of union organizations issuing them." The Union Label Council, and later its state counterpart, focused on lobbying, service and publicity, all in the interest of union-labeled goods produced by members of craft unions. In 1935, the Union Label Trades and Services Department of the AFL chartered a Union Label Trades and Services Department for the state of New York. The state organization called conventions annually and published the Union Label News. In 1959, the New York Council expanded its jurisdiction to Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
From the guide to the Union Label and Service Trades Council of Greater New York and Long Island Lantern Slides, circa 1912-1921, (Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive)
