最伟大的劳工组织者，他为工会的繁荣时期打下了基础。
The country’s greatest labor organizer, he made the golden age of unions possible.
Samuel Gompers(January 27, 1850-December 13, 1924) was an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AF of L), and served as that organization"s president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AF of L, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted "thorough" organization and collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages, the first essential steps, he believed, to emancipating labor. He also encouraged the AF of L to take political action to "elect their friends" and "defeat their enemies." During World War I, Gompers and the AF of L worked with the government to avoid strikes and boost morale, while raising wage rates and expanding membership.
Cigarmakers" International Union career
Gompers was elected president of Cigarmakers" International Union Local 144 in 1875.
As was the case with other unions of the day, the Cigarmaker"s Union nearly collapsed in the financial crisis of 1877, in which unemployment skyrocketed and ready availability of desperate workers willing to labor for subsistence wages put pressure upon the gains in wages and shortening of hours achieved in union shops. Gompers and his friend Adolph Strasser used Local 144 as a base to rebuild the Cigarmakers" Union, introducing a high dues structure and implementing programs to pay out-of-work benefits, sick benefits, and death benefits for union members in good standing.
Gompers told the workers they needed to organize because wage reductions were almost a daily occurrence. The capitalists were only interested in profits, "and the time has come when we must assert our rights as workingmen. Every one present has the sad experience, that we are powerless in an isolated condition, while the capitalists are united; therefore it is the duty of every Cigar Maker to join the organization. ... One of the main objects of the organization," he concluded, "is the elevation of the lowest paid worker to the standard of the highest, and in time we may secure for every person in the trade an existence worthy of human beings."
He was elected second vice-president of the Cigarmakers" International Union in 1886, and first vice-president in 1896. Despite the commitment of time and energy entailed by his place as head of the American Federation of Labor, Gompers remained first vice-president of the Cigarmakers until his death in December 1924.
塞缪尔?龚帕斯(Samuel Gompers)（1850-1924年），美国工会领袖，美国劳联第一任主席。1886-94年和1896-1924年，担任美国劳工联合会主席（AFL，简称劳联）。
龚帕斯出生于伦敦。10岁时，成为学徒工。1863年，随父母移居纽约市。后来，他成为雪茄烟厂的熟练工并积极参与雪茄烟工人的工会工作。1877年，他被选为当地工会的主席。1881年，他参与创建了行业工会与劳工组织联合会。1886年，该组织重组为美国劳工联合会，龚帕斯出任主席。在他的领导下，劳联的规模和声势急速壮大。
第一次世界大战期间，他加入国防委员会(Council of National Defense)。第一次世界大战后，他作为美国代表之一参与了1919年凡尔赛和会。他著有自传《七十年的生活与劳动》(Seventy Years of Life and Labor)（两卷本，1925年出版）。
