California State Federation of Labor

History

Representatives of sixty-one unions and five central bodies convened in San Francisco, January 1901, and organized the State Federation of Labor. The only group of workers which refused to affiliate was the building trades unions. They, in turn, formed the State Building Trades Council later that same year. This situation was reversed however in 1910 when P. H. McCarthy, President of the Building Trades Council, permitted building trades locals to affiliate with labor councils in their community and with the CSFL.

The next division occurred in 1936 when locals which affiliated with the emerging Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) either withdrew or were expelled from the CSFL. The CIO unions formed the California Industrial Union Council, which was the second state labor federation until 1956. With the merger of the national AFL and CIO that year, a committee from the two California federations was established. It took almost three years to agree upon merger language which resolved the problems of jurisdiction and feelings of enmity between the two groups.

One of the major functions of the Federation has been political and legislative activity. They lobby for and against legislation which affects the welfare of workers, and endorse candidates based upon their record and commitments to the labor movement.

The most powerful office holder in the CSFL is the secretary-treasurer, who usually serves as the Federation's political spokesman in Sacramento as well.

From the guide to the California State Federation of Labor (CSFL) Photograph Collection #15, (San Francisco State University. Labor Archives & Research Center)