In 1977 the Liberian president William R. Tolbert Jr. had urged the different trade union centres to unite into a single body.
[5] LFTU was a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
[6] In August 1979 LFTU and UWC signed an agreement to work towards a merger and draft a joint constitution.
[8] The two centres were due to merge before the end of 1979, but merger talks were delayed after the death of mother and niece of the LFTU secretary-general Gray.
[9] In 1980 LFTU and UWC merged, forming the Liberian Federation of Labor Unions (LFLU).