American Federation of Labor
1
5.3
- proper noun
- US
:
Federación Americana del Trabajo
- The Southern Tenant Farmers Union grew into a national movement and ultimately merged into the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
- American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- president of the American Federation of Labor
Examples
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The first addressed the opposition voiced by the American Federation of Labor and other groups that Chinese immigrants would undermine American labor.
Academic text (2003) -
Yet the American Federation of Labor also provided an important venue in which "old immigrant" workers interacted with new immigrants, teaching important lessons in both whiteness and Americanization.
Academic text (1997) -
Even the American Federation of Labor (AFL) accepted these waivers as necessary.
Academic text (2002) -
Initially rejected by Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor, Wilson's compromise was accepted by labor's congressional allies in May 1913.
Academic text (2013) -
In this scheme, he had the support of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) President William Green, who endorsed Johnson & Johnson's call for a higher minimum wage, a shorter work week, and authority to operate machinery without restriction.
Academic text (2007) -
For all of these reasons, it is argued, Irish workers gravitated to the cautious policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), steadfastly avoiding radical alternatives.
Academic text (1992) -
Similarly, in the USA, the older craft-based American Federation of Labor (AFL) experienced a revolt by industrial workers in the 1920s against the sweetheart nature of the AFL and its protection of skilled white workers.
Blog text (28) -
Since organized labor, especially the American Federation of Labor (AFL), favored severe immigrant restrictions to protect their jobs and wages, they knew he could not please both blocs of voters.
Academic text (1994) -
Increasingly, both the CIO and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), with its more conservative orientation toward skilled workers, turned instead to the promise of a pluralistic state and Keynesian economics, in which government played a defined and confined role.
Academic text (2003) -
In 1886, the American Federation of Labor was formed to represent the interests of various labor unions across the country.
Synonyms
A group of labor unions in the United States that merged with the CIO in 1955
Surface Forms
Morphology
American + federation + of + labor
The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'American' (connected to the United States) + 'federation' (an association or union) + 'labor' (workers), so a learner who knows these words can infer it denotes an American association of workers/unions. Although it is a specific historical proper name, its semantic structure is fully compositional and therefore immediately understandable to B1 learners.
Etymology
American Federation of Labor began in the late 1800s when many local workers' groups joined to act as one. Its name shows the idea: American (national), Federation (a group of 'unions') and Labor (workers), so the phrase means a national organization of unions and explains why it later joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO.