Ratification of a new labor agreement at Titan Tire of Natchez, Miss., ends the longest strike in the history of the U.S. tire industry, which began May 1, 1998, at the company's Des Moines, Iowa, plant - 2001
Twenty-five unions found the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in Columbus, Ohio; Cigarmaker?s union leader Samuel Gompers is elected president. The AFL?s founding document?s preamble reads: ?A struggle is going on in all of the civilized world between oppressors and oppressed of all countries, between capitalist and laborer...? ? 1886
African-American delegates meet in Washington, D.C., to form the Colored National Labor Union as a branch of the all-white National Labor Union created three years earlier. Unlike the NLU, the CNLU welcomed members of all races. Isaac Myers was the CNLU's founding president; Frederick Douglas became president in 1872 - 1869