What Did Samuel Gompers Hope to Accomplish for the Working Man?

Solidarity

• The basic idea of unionism is power rests in numbers. When workers unite for a common cause, their voices and demands become hard to ignore. Gompers understood this concept and encouraged workers in the U.S. and abroad to fight for better wages, shorter work hours and above-average working conditions. His goal was to ensure that all union members exercise the right to meet and challenge the economical and sociological imbalances of a capitalist society.
  
  

Emancipation

• The word "emancipation" is typically applied to concepts of slavery and in relation to the working class it has the same indications. In the mid- to late- 1800s, Gompers recognized that the rights employers extended to workers were substandard and degrading. In his view, workers were owned by their employers, repressed, overworked and underpaid. His hope was that through organized labor, workers could free themselves from the oppression of capitalism and classicism and become free citizens in the greatest sense.
  
  

Self Reliance

• Gompers realized early on in his fight for workers' rights that the government was not a supporting force. He became more aware of this when in the 1880s, the New York Supreme Court overturned two cigar production laws he helped pass. As a result, he wanted workers to approach labor reform on an economical level rather than a political one. In this way, workers would not have to depend solely on the government for change, instead they could create their own campaigns and use their growing union membership to create progress.
  
  

Non-Partisanship

• In his later years, Gompers preached political non-partisanship for unions and its members. He believed that unions should not solely support or declare allegiance with either democrats, republicans or any other party, but instead align with whatever party provides the most support for the union's agenda at a given time. He argued that the best way for the union movement to further its cause was for it to remain politically independent. By doing this, he hoped union's would experience more leverage and bargaining power in the political arena due to the influence of its growing membership.