National Labor Union

     The National Labor Union was the first labor federation in the United States. The National Labor Union was a polyglot association, it had 640,000 members, which included a variety of reform groups that had little or no direct relationship with labor. The NLU was founded in 1866.

     Most of the support the NLU received was from the construction unions, other skilled employees were invited to join, even the unskilled farmers. Interestingly, colored peoples created their own union since they weren't exactly supported by the NLU, their union was called the Colored National Labor Union.
     The NLU was around for about seven years until the Panic of 1873 occurred and the union slowly disintegrated.