(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, Peoplein America. Today we tell about one of the country’s greatest laborleaders, Samuel Gompers.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
Samuel Gompers was born in London, England in eighteen-fifty. Hisparents were poor people who had moved to England from theNetherlands to seek a better life. Sam was a very good student.However, when he was ten-years-old, he was forced to quit school andgo to work to help feed the family. He was the oldest of five sons.Like his father, Sam became a tobacco cigar maker. He liked thecigar-making industry because it had a group of members. Duringmeetings, workers could talk about their problems. This is whereyoung Sam began to develop an interest in labor issues.
VOICE TWO:
But life was difficult for the Gompers family in London, evenwith both Sam and his father working. They soon decided to move tothe United States to again try to make a better life for themselves.In eighteen-sixty-three, the Gompers family got on a ship and sailedacross the Atlantic Ocean. Seven weeks later, the ship arrived inNew York City. The Gompers settled in a poor part of New York wheremany immigrants lived.
VOICE ONE:
Sam soon learned that life in America was not easy. At that time,most people worked many hours each day for little money. They workedmaking goods in factories. Often these factories had poor workingconditions. New York was known for these so-called “sweatshops.”Whole families, including young children, worked fourteen hours aday in sweatshops for just enough money to stay alive.
Sam hated the sweatshops and refused to work there. Instead, heand his father became cigar makers again. Soon Sam joined theCigarmakers International Union. In those days, labor unions werenot strong or permanent. They did little to help workers in theirstruggle for better working conditions and a better life. Sambelieved this needed to change.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Sam Gompers was married at the age of seventeen. He became afather one year later. He earned a living making cigars in shopsaround New York City. Employers recognized him as a skilled andvaluable worker. The men he worked with recognized him as aneffective labor activist.
Sam also became a student of socialism. Ineighteen-seventy-three, he started working for an old Germansocialist, David Hirsch. Most of Mister Hirsch’s workers were alsosocialists from Germany. These men became Samuel Gompers’ teachers.They taught him much about trade unions.
One teacher was Karl Laurrell, who had been the leader in Europeof the International Workingman’s Association. Mister Laurrelltaught Sam Gompers what labor unity meant. He also taught him about”collective bargaining.” This is how representatives of labor groupsmeet with the people they work for and negotiate an agreement. Forexample, labor and management might negotiate for more money, fewerhours and cleaner working places for workers.
VOICE ONE:
In time, Samuel Gompers used his knowledge of labor issued tohelp cigar makers throughout New York form a single, representativeunion. It was called the Cigarmakers’ Local NumberOne-Hundred-Forty-Four. Each cigar shop in New York had its ownsmall union that elected a representative to sit on the council of alarger union. In eighteen-seventy-five, this council elected MisterGompers as president of Cigarmakers’ Local NumberOne-Hundred-Forty-Four.
The union’s constitution was like the constitution of ademocratic government. All people in the union had a representativevoice. Experts say the organizing of Cigarmakers’ Local NumberOne-Hundred-Forty-Four was the beginning of the American labormovement.
VOICE TWO:
Sam Gompers believed that one day all working men and women couldbelong to organized trade unions. He believed workers should not beforced to sell their labor at too low a price. He also believed eachperson must have the power to improve his or her own life. A personcan get this power by joining with others in a union. He believed ademocratic trade union can speak and act for all its workers. Thisis the same way a democratic government speaks for the peoplebecause voters elect officials to represent them.
(MUSIC BRIDGE)
VOICE ONE:
Labor organizations began to grow stronger in America during thelate nineteenth century. At the same time, Sam Gompers started tospeak of new ideas. He dreamed of bringing all trade unions togetherinto one big, nation-wide organization that could speak with onevoice for workers throughout the country.
In eighteen-eighty-one, Mister Gompers was sent as the delegateof the cigar makers union to a conference of unions. The delegatesagreed to organize an alliance called the Federation of OrganizedTrades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. Thealliance held yearly meeting of national union and local laborcouncils. It was designed to educate the public on worker issues,prepare labor-related legislation, and pressure Congress to approvesuch bills. Sam Gompers was an officer in the alliance for fiveyears.
VOICE TWO:
During that time, he worked for several measures to improve thelives of workers and children. These included proposals to reducethe work day to eight hours, limit child labor and require childrento attend school. He soon learned, however, that the alliance ofunions had neither the money nor the power to do much more than talkabout these issues. So, in eighteen-eighty-six, Sam Gompers helpedorganize a new union for all labor unions. It was called theAmerican Federation of Labor.
(MUSIC BRIDGE)
VOICE ONE:
Sam Gompers was elected president of the American Federation ofLabor in eighteen-eighty-six. He held that position, except for oneyear, for thirty-eight years until he died. In eighteen-ninety, theA-F-L represented two-hundred-fifty-thousand workers. Two yearslater, the number had grown to more than one-million workers. Underhis leadership, the A-F-L grew from a few struggling labor unions tobecome the major organization within the labor movement in theUnited States.
VOICE TWO:
As leader of the A-F-L, Mister Gompers had enemies both withinand outside the labor movement. Some opponents believed MisterGompers was more interested in personal power than in improving therights of workers. They believed his ideas about strikes andcollective bargaining could not stop big business. They believed theAmerican Federation of Labor was a conservative organizationdesigned to serve skilled workers only.
Other opponents considered Sam Gompers a foreign-borntroublemaker who wanted to destroy property rights. At the sametime, opponents in industry and business feared that the laborleader was demanding too much for workers. They said his talkviolated the law, and that he excited workers and urged them tostrike.
VOICE ONE:
Sam Gompers was not troubled by any of these attacks. He arguedthat because there was freedom of speech in America, he would not beafraid to speak freely. He said that no one hated strikes more thanhe did because workers suffered the most in a strike. However, hesaid that in a democracy, strikes were necessary. After a strike, hesaid, businessmen and workers understood each other better and thiswas good for the nation. He said, “I hope the day will never comewhen the workers surrender their right to strike.”
Sam Gompers also had an interest in international labor issues.At the end of World War One, he attended the Versailles Treatynegotiations. He was helpful in creating the International LaborOrganization under the League of Nations. He also supported tradeunionism in Mexico.
VOICE TWO:
Samuel Gompers died in nineteen-twenty-four. He is remembered as”the grand old man of labor.” He worked during his whole life forone cause – improving the rights of workers. He led the fight forshorter working hours, higher pay, safe and clean working conditionsand democracy in the workplace.
In nineteen-fifty-five, the American Federation of Labor joinedwith the Congress of Industrial Organization to form theA-F-L-C-I-O. This organization has become an influential part ofAmerican economic and political life. It has also helped improve thelives of millions of American workers.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss. It wasproduced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PeopleIn America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA.