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CRAFT UNIONSSociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011 Craft union is a structure of labour unions that brings together workers within the same area of craft or skill (typographical unions, carpenters, stoneworkers, iron molders, boilermakers, railway engineers, etc.). These craft unions, because their members possessed crucial knowledge and physical and conceptual skills, had considerable influence in the workplace and struggled to maintain control of their work process and standards of training and apprenticeship. Craft unions became uneasy about the rise of industrial unions which brought together all workers in a single industry regardless of their craft or level of skill. In this way craft unions were somewhat elitist and perhaps cautious. Craft unionism is best exemplified by many of the construction unions that formed the backbone of the old American Federation of Labor. The difference between craft and industrial unionism was a contested issue as the craft unions that held sway in the American Federation of Labor sought to block other unions from organizing on an industrial basis in the steel and other mass production industries. The dispute ultimately led to the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which split from the AFL to establish itself as a rival organization. Selective Mobilization in Craft Protest
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