This Labor Day, let us explore the history of the "union label" and urge everyone to support union label goods and services all year.

In the early days of union organization, long before the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, many struggling unions survived because of one factor: Brother and sister unionists demanded and purchased union label goods. Because of public pressure, many manufacturers had to recognize the union to stay in business.

The union label is as rich in tradition as just about any emblem in history. From the days of early Rome when Numa Pompilius organized the crafts of his day into guilds, various groups of organized workers have used symbols to distinguish their products in the marketplace.

The guilds from which modern labor unions are directly descended were those of the ancient Saxons. In eighth-century England, craft guilds provided one instrument of law and order, and the resemblance of a sound social structure. Out of the guilds developed the guild merchants, who operated using their own capital to protect their property from theft by nobles and ruling classes. From one such guild in the 15th century, the Goldsmith's Company, it is thought that the union label as we know it today originated. Goldsmiths imprinted their "trademark" or stamp on gold and silver articles to attest to their purity and quality of their workmanship.

While the union label principle was born in the Old World, it was in the New World that it gained its greatest strength. The cigar makers of the Pacific Coast are generally acknowledged as creating the earliest union label in America. First produced in 1875, the label was a symbol to consumers that the cigar was made under union conditions and not in an unregulated sweat shop.

In the 1880s, the union label was adopted by numerous trades, including the hatters, typographical unions and the can makers. In 1886 and 1887, the United Garment Workers of America, the Coopers' International Union, the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union, the Boot and Shoe Workers Union, and the International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America adopted labels.

Through the 1890s, the union label quickly became a device to promote trade unionism, and more and more members demanded to see labels on the goods they bought. In 1891, the Journeymen Barbers and Retail Clerks adopted union shop cards as their label. In 1892, the United Brewery, Flour, Cereal and Soft Drink Workers created their own label. In 1893, the Broom and Whisk Makers' Union followed suit. The Horseshoers, Laundry Workers and Tobacco Workers were all added to the label roster in 1895. In 1896, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, and Bartenders' International Union debuted shop cards and working buttons. And in 1897, the American Federation of Musicians, the Machinists and the Metal Polishers all joined the label family.

Which brings us to the IBEW. The official emblem, that of the clenched fist grasping lightning bolts, was adopted at the founding convention in 1891. But it wasn't until 1905, at the Ninth Convention, that a resolution was passed to regulate the label. The resolution stated that the "IBEW Union Label must appear on all electrical devices, apparatus, fixtures and machines, before being installed or maintained by a member of the IBEW, and urging all members of locals to do all in their power to further the use of the Union Label."

In 1909, the American Federation of Labor created the Union Label and Service Trades Department. This centralized the business of label advertising and has continued to support the union label as one of the greatest assets of organized labor — a rallying point for all union workers. In the pioneering days of unionism, it was by patronizing vendors with the label and boycotting those without it that many struggling unions were able to survive.

Today, practically every union of the AFL-CIO has a union label or shop card, or both.