Region-Wide Campaigns for Labor Improvements

In the mid-1860s, labor reformers fought to improve wages for workers and implement an eight-hour workday throughout the state. People like John Fehrenbach who was the president of the Indianapolis, Indiana, Machinists’ and Blacksmiths’ Union. He fought to improve labor conditions and advocated for workers rights. Fehrenbach later became the president of the International Union in 1870 and fought for universal labor reform throughout the US.

John Fehrenbach is a good example of how the labor reform movement was expanding. Regional collaboration was becoming a reality in the fight for workers. In this portrait of the first General Labor Conference in Louisville, Kentucky in 1865, the brief description tells a story of its own. The description lists twelve attendees from several different states around the Midwest and the East Coast. George Bunley was a Blacksmith from Indiana who attended this conference and represented the interests of the state. These men met to discuss how they could improve the working conditions of their state. The regional affiliations that this portrait shows speak to how the labor reform movement was moving from local to state to regional and would eventually reach national attention.

This stop represents the Midwest’s progression into a regional organization for labor movements. Louisville, Kentucky gives an opportunity to show how different organizations from different trades came together to further a shared interest in labor. Similar efforts were being made in different regions of the country around this time.