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During the late nineteenth century there were several attempts at organizing a national labor union. They included the National Labor Union, the Knight’s of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor. All three of these unions fought for similar goals, but only the American Federation of Labor was able to survive the ninetieth century. The National Labor Union was the first attempt to organize workers throughout the country. It was founded in 1866, as a …

…though the American Federation of Labor represented a much larger number of people, these people were mostly in the same industry which made it easier to organize them and to negotiate with their employers. That AF of L stayed out of the political scene as well, this prevented their members from disagreeing with leadership. The Knights of Labor and the NLU on other hand were involved in politics and this lead to their untimely endings.