The progressives were concerned about the country’s labor problems. They disagreed with and were disturbed with the growing use of court rulings to halt strikes. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-trust Act which purpose was to punish big business corporations that combined to prevent competition. However, it seemed to be used more as a weapon against unions. Progressives also were irritated by the use of federal troops and state militia against strikers. (3)

Factory conditions still had not improved. The Progressives and the AFL pressured state governments for laws to protect wage earners. Almost all the fifty states passed laws to forbid the hiring of children less than fourteen years of age. Thirty-seven states forbade children under sixteen to work between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. nineteen states established the eight-hour day for children under sixteen in factories and stores. Women were also in need of protection for their jobs. Forty-one states wrote new or improved laws to protect women workers, limiting the workday to nine hours or the week to fifty-four hours. (3)

What motivated Gopmpers to form the AFL was to have a more militant type of union. Though their immidetiate goals were economic; higher wages and shorter hours many of the first leaders considered these as the first step toward the broader goal of abolishing the wage system and capitalism. (Lens 43) Gompers not only attempted to organize workers, but to give the union movement status and respectability. He hoped to make industrialists see the light, to accept the view that a responsible trade union movement was an asset to an industrial enterprise rather then a liability. The AFL represented a conservative type of unionism, but was regarded in decidedly different ways. The employer saw it as threat to his property and his right to conduct his business as he saw fit. The radical viewed it as betrayal of the historical revolutionary mission of the laboring class. (Merkel 43) Gompers concentrated first on forming national craft unions out of isolated locals, and second on securing predominance of the national union. When the AFL was founded there were thirteen national unions some of them were carpenters, molders, cigar makers, bricklayers, boilermakers, miners, and so on. In 1891, Gompers assembled various local unions into two more national craft organizations they were the electricians and coopers. From 1896 to 1901 he grouped together an additional thirty-five national unions, which included the laborers, lathers, upholsters, stationary firemen, teamsters, and others. (Lens 61) The AFL was a conglomeration of twenty-five unions that included three hundred thousand workers working for increasing wages, reducing hours, and improving working conditions.

hich organized a walk out on the cities largest shoe firm, called John Mundell and Co. He organized the strike, because the company was being unfair with the wages. For several weeks none of the seven hundred employees went to work even the women. Mundell settled and Soon the Knights gained more recognition and power (Merkel 34). By 1884 the knights expanded their organization and now had eleven local assemblies each representing different groups of occupations. The knights of laborers became a very organized association handling grievances and arbitrations, in all of the different organizations. Soon word got out of the knight of laborers and other employees followed their guild lines and started protesting and walking out of their jobs. The knight’s favorite tactical tool used against companies and corporations was the boycott. (Merkel 36) All was going well for the knights, but slowly they were deteriarateting from within. It started with their leader

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