Central Labor Union

The Central Labor Union of New York, Brooklyn, and New Jersey was an early trade union organization that later broke up into various locals, which are now AFL-CIO members. The establishment of the CLU predates the consolidation of New York City (1897) by nearly two decades and is best known as the organization that created the American Labor Day holiday. Organized in 1867, it later spread to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The union was firmly Marxist in orientation and was the first integrated labor union in the United States.