The
American Federation of Labor (
AFL) was a national federation of
labor unions in the United States. It was founded in
Columbus, Ohio, in May 1886 by an alliance of
craft unions disaffected from the
Knights of Labor, a national labor association.
Samuel Gompers of the
Cigar Makers' International Union was elected president of the Federation at its founding convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. The AFL was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the 20th century, even after the creation of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that were expelled by the AFL in 1935 over its opposition to
industrial unionism. While the Federation was founded and dominated by
craft unions throughout the first fifty years of its existence, many of its craft union affiliates turned to organizing on an industrial union basis to meet the challenge from the CIO in the 1940s.