Old Missoula

Local Council Joins AFL During 1910

The Missoula Labor Council affiliated with the American Federation of Labor in 1910.

The charter, signed by Samuel Gompers, was granted Jan. 11 of that year and the first meeting after the charter was received in February.

Early records of the council were destroyed in 1911 when the building in which the council had its offices burned, but sufficient history of the labor movement in Missoula was preserved by old-time members to present a picture of the early days of organized labor in Missoula.

Completed in 1917

The present Union Hall was completed in 1917, after the Union Hall Co. organized and local unions subscribed for the stock. The lots on which the building stands were donated by Marcus Daly to the Western Labor Union, parent of the present organization.

Organized at the turn of the century, the first group was originally known as the Western Montana Trades and Labor Council and was affiliated with the Montana State Federation of Labor. The Missoula council assumed the name of Missoula County Central Trades and Labor council.

The Knights of Labor in Missoula assembled as early as 1894 in Missoula. Mixed assemblies of the Knights of Labor took in all workers who were not eligible for membership in an existing union.

The Western Federation of Miners was organized in 1894 by Ed Boyce and affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. In 1896 the Western Federation of Miners, withdrew from the American Federation of Labor and organized the Western Labor Union. Loggers and sawmill workers of western Montana affiliated with this union.

The Federal Labor Union, Local 43, was the mother of most of the building trades before they were organized into separate crafts. Federal Labor Union 43 was an affiliate of the Western Labor Union and the local membership consisted of carpenters, laborers, laundry workers, barbers, and other crafts.

Around 1896 the Western Labor Union issued a charter to the Western Montana Trade and Labor Council of Missoula – Missoula County extended to the Idaho border.

The Montana State Federation of Labor was chartering unions in 1904 and when the American Labor Union was discontinued, the unions in western Montana, including the Missoula Trades and Labor Council, applied for charters from the Montana State Federation of Labor.

An old cash book of the Missoula Trades and Labor Council indicates that R. A. Fuller was the 1904 – 05 secretary and that 16 unions were affiliated with the early council. These unions were the Stationary Engineers, Federal Labor Union 43, Printers, Carpenters, Woodworkers, Cooks and Waiters, Plumbers, Lumber Workers, Farmers, Barbers, Electricians, Retail Clerks, Lathers, Painters and Bricklayers.

When the State Federation of Labor ceased to issue charters, the council was chartered under four different charters, yet continued to exist and function regularly from the time it first organized regardless of under which organization it held a charter.

In 1910 the council had increased its membership to 26 unions. The first president was James R. Froman.

The first American Federation of Labor Union chartered in Missoula was Local 277 of the International Typographical Union, chartered Feb. 2, 1891. The second oldest chapter [charter] in Missoula is Carpenters and Jointers Local 28, organized in 1895.

The pioneer unions of Missoula are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Later a lodge of the Order of Railroad Conductors was organized. But the “big four” railroad brotherhoods were never affiliated with the American Federation of Labor or Missoula central labor bodies.

Early day charter unions included the Bricklayers and Masons, organized in 1897. The Cigar Makers Union was one of the earliest in Missoula, but the charter was surrendered.