American Labor Union

The WLU was conceived in November, 1897 in a proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana, and gained support from the WFM's executive board in December 1897.

[1] The WLU was formed in 1898 at a convention in Salt Lake City which was attended mostly by former members of the Knights of Labor.

Members of the WFM saw the WLU as an opportunity to meet the needs of these other workers, and also as a means to bolster solidarity when the need arose.

[5] One Denver WLU affiliate was the powerful Butchers Protective Union, with nearly fifteen hundred members in 1902.

[8] When the AFL excluded unskilled workers, the ALU accused that federation of exercising policies that divided the working class.

In the Cripple Creek district of Colorado where the ALU had a presence, many non-white nationalities were excluded or discriminated against.

[12] The American Labor Union employed the rhetoric of political socialism, although it focused primarily on economic action by workers.