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Show Labor Organizations Had Early-Day Origin began with the industrial revolution in Great Britain during the Eighteenth Eight-eenth century. The American Federation ol Labor in August, 1937, claimed a membership of 3,271,726 and the Committee for Industrial Organization Organiza-tion in September, 1937, estimated a membership of 3,718,000 in 32 unions; we find no estimate of membership mem-bership in independent unions. The oldest known sitdown strike has been traced back to 1565, when journeymen bakers in Lyons, France, struck. The first American sitdown strike is reported to be that of 3,000 General Electric company workers at Schenectady, N. Y., in December, 1906. More recently it was revived first in Akron, Ohio, in 1934. In reviewing the history of labor unions the Americana points out that organizations of laborers have existed from time immemorial and that the guilds of the Middle ages were exclusive and monopolistic, caring nothing for other workers. This form appeared among the shoemakers of Massachusetss in 1648, organized mainly to control inferior in-ferior workmen. Similar organizations organiza-tions in other industries were always al-ways local and more or less temporary. tempo-rary. The birth of the modern trade union movement may be assigned to the closing years of the Eighteenth Eight-eenth century, though it never attained at-tained the dignity of a movement until the Nineteenth century was well under way. Famous First Facts gives 1792 as the date for the first local craft union, that of Philadelphia shoemakers. The labor la-bor movement grew out of the industrial in-dustrial revolution which brought about a change in the manner and means of production, and so caused a wider separation between master and journeyman. The Americana states that trade unionism reached the "coming out" stage with the organization or-ganization of the Mechanics Union of Trade Associations at Philadelphia Philadel-phia in 1827. I Modern trade unionism in Europe |