Samuel Gompers Papers

The National Building Trades Council of America organized to help local building trades councils achieve uniform wage rates and working conditions. It consisted of local councils, national and international unions -- namely the Painters, Plasterers, Electrical Workers, and Steam Fitters -- and independent local unions, and it published a monthly paper, The Labor Compendium. Because the NBTC admitted independent local unions, the AFL considered it to be dual organization. And because the NBT's structure gave local bodies greater weight than international unions, many building trades unions refused to join. Although the NBTC -- which changed its name to the International Building Trades Council of America in 1904-- apparently existed at least until 1912, it had no real influence after the Structural Building Trades Alliance was organized in 1903.