The Unions Today: Trouble, Problems, Conflict

Historically, this is a big year for the labor movement. A century ago Samuel Gompers, aged 31, helped to create the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. That little group merged five years later with the American Federation of Labor at its first convention in Columbus, Ohio. Gompers, elected president, was voted the princely sum of $1,000 a year plus traveling expenses.

The centennial celebration is underway, but more than one friend of labor will participate with a heavy heart. Others, for odd reasons, will simply rejoice. Philip Shabecoff of the New York Times seems to be such a person. Or so we were bound to conclude last January 11 upon spotting a Times headline, “Labor and Business Amity,̶...