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Labor Hall of Fame Honoree

1988 Honoree

Samuel Gompers
1850-1924

Samuel Gompher
"To be free, the workers must have choice. To have choice they must retain in their own hands the right to determine under what conditions they will work"

Samuel Gompers Signature

Samuel Gompers was a cigar-maker who, in 1886, became the first president of the newly-formed American Federation of Labor. He established the pattern of labor's struggles for improved working conditions. Often against the wishes of more radical elements of the labor movement, Gompers favored indigenous approaches to workers' problems, preferring to operate within American institutions rather that in oppositions to them.