Samuel Gompers, Labor Leader - NJOP
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In honor of Labor Day, Jewish Treats presents a brief biography of Samuel Gompers, a man who helped transform the early American labor movement. Born in London, England, on January 27, 1850, Gompers was the son of a family of Sephardic Jews who settled in Amsterdam. He was educated at…

Happy Labor Day!

Gompers Jewish upbringing helped teach him the importance of Labor organizing, and helped him forge connections that led to him becoming a founder of the American Federation of Labor, its first, and longest serving president. He helped establish the labor movement worldwide.

He joined the Cigarmakers Local Union #15 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan at just 14, and soon went on to become its president. After WWI, he helped to found the International Labor Organization, and continued to serve workers throughout his life.

Samuel Gompers died in 1924 at the age of 74, after collapsing at a meeting of the Pan-American Federation of Labor in Mexico City.