Question: George A. Schilling, was a prominent American union leader and Georgist in the late nineteenth century, he made his mark in the Chicago labor movement as a member of the cooper's union and a leader of which was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s?
Context: Robert Fechner (22 March 1876 – 31 December 1939) was a national labor union leader and director of the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933–39), which played a central role in the development of state and national parks in the United States.  Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  With only a public school elementary education he had risen to become an American labor union leader and vice president of the International Association of Machinists.  He had a reputation for fairness, tact, and patience in all his dealings.  On 5 April 1933 he was appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  It was Fechner's fairness and ability for organization and administration that impressed the president to his appointment as director.  Although he had been an important labor figure, Fechner objected to attempts of union organizers to form unions among CCC enrollees in the camps.  He felt that the government was doing all it possibly could for the well-being of the enrollees: well fed, supporting dependents with monthly earnings, getting an education; and they were contributing in a constructive manner to the conservation needs of the nation.  The need for a union in this situation was not necessary, and he issued orders to keep union organizers out of the CCC camps and gave instructions that if any of the CCC enrolees joined a union they were to be discharged.  Upon Fechner's death while still serving as CCC Director he was succeeded by James McEntee. Walter Philip Reuther ( ; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers (UAW) a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the mid 20th century.  He was a socialist in the early 1930s and worked closely with the Communist Party in the auto industry in the middle and late 1930s.  He was a leader in removing communists from the offices in UAW and CIO in the 1940s.  By 1949 he had become a leading liberal and supporter of the New Deal coalition, working to strengthen the labor union movement, raise wages, and give union leaders a greater voice in state and national Democratic party politics.  During the 1960s he was a major supporter of the civil rights movement. Labor federation competition in the U.S. is a history of the labor movement, considering U.S. labor organizations and federations that have been regional, national, or international in scope, and that have united organizations of disparate groups of workers.  Union philosophy and ideology changed from one period to another, conflicting at times.  Government actions have controlled, or legislated against particular industrial actions or labor entities, resulting in the diminishing of one labor federation entity or the advance of another. Rudolfo Austria “Rudy” Fernandez, Sr. (July 26, 1927 – June 9, 1979) was a prominent Filipino Labor Leader, Trade Unionist and staunch opposer of the late President Ferdinand Marcos in Davao City, Philippines.  He was one of the original organizers of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP/KMP) in 1975 and helped draft, develop, and establish its constitution and by-laws.  He first came into the Philippine Labor Movement arena when he founded the Davao Port General & Transport Worker’s Union (DPGTWU), now the Association of Trade Unions - TUCP (ATU-TUCP), in Davao City.  DPGTWU was one of the most active labor organizations in Davao City and its membership spread throughout Mindanao in the Southern Philippines during the years between 1967-1979.  He ran for the Interim Batasang Pambansa (IBP) in the Philippines in 1978 as an Industrial Labor Sectoral Representative for the Mindanao Region but ultimately lost against his closest rival, Princess Porti Pacasum, daughter of one of the richest Lanao Muslim clans and owner of the biggest transport company in Lanao, Philippines. Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s.  Its most important leader was Terence V. Powderly.  The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected socialism and anarchism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic of republicanism.  In some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized, and after a rapid expansion in the mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation again. The history of union busting in the United States dates back to the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century which produced a rapid expansion in factories and manufacturing capabilities.  As workers moved away from farm work to factories, mines and other hard labor, they faced harsh working conditions such as long hours, low pay and health risks.  Children and women worked in factories and generally received lower pay than men.  The government did little to limit these conditions.  Labor movements in the industrialized world developed that lobbied for better rights and safer conditions.  Shaped by wars, depressions, government policies, judicial rulings, and global competition, the early years of the battleground between unions and management were adversarial and often identified with aggressive hostility.  Contemporary opposition to trade unions known as union busting started in the 1940s and continues to present challenges to the labor movement.  Union busting is a term used by labor organizations and trade unions to describe the activities that may be undertaken by employers, their proxies, workers and in certain instances states and governments usually triggered by events such as picketing, card check, worker organizing, and strike actions.  Labor legislation has changed the nature of union busting, as well as the organizing tactics that labor organizations commonly use. James Duncan (May 5, 1857 – September 14, 1928) was a Scottish American union leader, and president of the Granite Cutters' International Association from 1885 until his death in 1928.  He was an influential member of the American labor movement, helping to co-found the American Federation of Labor. George A. Schilling (1850 - 1936) was a prominent American union leader and Georgist in the late nineteenth century.  He was also active in Anarchist circles.  From 1865 to the 1890s, Schilling worked in Chicago for the Arbeiter Zeitung, a German-language newspaper with socialist (and later, anarchist) leanings.  He made his mark in the Chicago labor movement as a member of the cooper's union and a leader of the Knights of Labor.  In 1886, he was a prominent supporter of the Labor Party in Illinois.  In 1886, the Labor Party endorsed John Altgeld for a judgeship, which Altgeld won. Terence Vincent Powderly (January 22, 1849 – June 24, 1924) was an American labor union leader, politician and attorney, best known as head of the Knights of Labor in the late 1880s.  He was elected mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania for three 2-year terms, starting in 1878.  A Republican, he served as the United States Commissioner General of Immigration in 1897.  The Knights of Labor was one of the largest American labor organizations of the 19th century, but Powderly was a poor administrator and could barely keep it under control.  His small central office could not supervise or coordinate the many strikes and other activities sponsored by union locals.  Powderly believed that the Knights was an educational tool to uplift the workingman, and he downplayed the use of strikes to achieve worker goals. Disunited and poorly organized for most of its history, trade unions in Ecuador developed only slowly and had only a marginal political impact.  Precise figures on unionization in the late 1980s were practically nonexistent, even within the unions themselves.  The organized labor movement in Ecuador was divided into four confederations and a number of independent federations.  At the local level, labor organizations also took the form of artisan guilds, cooperatives, and neighborhood associations.  In addition to representing only a minority of the workers in all sectors of employment (approximately one-fifth), the labor movement traditionally was weakened by rivalry and government repression.  Nevertheless, it had influence disproportionate to its numbers as a result of the concentration of trade unions in urban areas, mainly Quito and Guayaquil, its organizational power, and the political impact of strikes and demonstrations on governments that did not enjoy strong support.
Answer: Knights of Labor (K of L)