This was sometimes described as the first international trade secretariat, but no central office or leadership was established.
This included affiliates from Germany, Norway and Sweden, and local unions from Brussels, Copenhagen, Genoa, Grenoble, Jáchymov, Kadaň, Luxembourg, Milan, Naples, Paris, Prague and Vienna.
Despite this, the federation survived, organising congresses in Grenoble in 1893, Paris in 1895, Zurich in 1898, and Stuttgart in 1904.
Its headquarters were initially in Brussels, and from 1892 it published a journal in French, Gantier.
That year, it merged into the rival International Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives, Leather, Skin and Hide Workers.