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AA
The acronym for the American Federation of Labor, a national federation of labor unions established in 1886 as an umbrella organization for multiple different unions. The origins of the AFL go back to the famed labor leader Samuel Gompers, who in 1881 established the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States of America and Canada, a precursor to the AFL. Gompers served as the AFL’s first president and held that post (with the exception of a single year) until 1924. Until the 1930s, the AFL only represented skilled workers. In 1935, AFL member and noted labor leader John L. Lewis formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which existed alongside the AFL until the two organizations merged as the AFL-CIO in 1955.
AFL Quotes in Out of This Furnace
The Out of This Furnace quotes below are all either spoken by AFL or refer to AFL. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 3, Chapter 5
Quotes
He was a child of the steel towns long before he realized it himself.
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AFL Term Timeline in Out of This Furnace
The timeline below shows where the term AFL appears in Out of This Furnace. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 3, Mary: Chapter 5
...of a strike at the steel mill. The previous year the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.) had resolved to target the steel industry and sent organizers into Braddock. In response, the...
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...the union; rather, it is the company “plus the Government, plus the newspapers, plus the A.F.L. itself.” Frank also tells Johnny about Blackjack, an infamously violent state trooper who delighted in...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 5
Dobie and other workers refuse to vote for the ERP reps. The AFL, jolted into action by the creation of the ERPs, sends its organizers into the steel...
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...does and says he thinks that Walsh, a middle-aged and generally incompetent organizer from the AFL’s Pittsburgh office, will do much of the work at first. Walsh wields near-total control over...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 8
...calls a special convention to ward off the strike. He enlists the help of the AFL president, who tells the workers that it is not the time to strike. The inexperienced...
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...be no strike, but he is puzzled that the AA has voted to accept the AFL’s proposal for a special “Labor Board,” supposedly endorsed by President Roosevelt. Back at the union...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 11
...of the men in the mills, stripped defenseless by the union's defection.” Inspired by the AFL promise for aid, some 400 rank-and-file delegates meet in February to discuss a new union...
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...organizer John L. Lewis, who considers the need to form a new federation. With the AFL’s abandonment and the Supreme Court’s decision that the NRA was unconstitutional, Dobie and Gralji realize...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 12
Around this time, renowned labor leader John Lewis appeals for industrial unionism at the AFL convention in Atlantic City. He gets into a physical spat with the president of the...
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