urban workers—many, though not all, of them unskilled—organized mainly in industrial organizations. One Denver WLU affiliate was the powerful Butchers Protective Union, with nearly fifteen hundred members in 1902. It included skilled butchers and unskilled meatpackers. Renamed organization In 1902, as a response to a visit of a delegation from the American Federation of Labor "to plead for a reunited labor movement," the WLU changed its name to the American Labor Union. While at one time the American Labor Union claimed 135,000 members, a more sanguine estimate pegs the group's membership strength at 43,000 in 1905, which included 27,000 members of the WFM. When the AFL excluded unskilled workers, the ALU accused that federation of exercising policies that divided the working class. However, the ALU favored Asian Exclusion. (A Chinese exclusion act had been passed in 1882, and wasn't repealed until 1943.) In the Cripple Creek district of Colorado where the ALU had a presence, many non-white nationalities were excluded or discriminated against. The Industrial Workers of the World, on the other hand, professed from its first conference in 1905 that there should be no discrimination against any worker. The American Labor Union endorsed the Socialist Party in 1902, as did "all the major Colorado labor organizations." The ALU moved its headquarters from Butte to Chicago. It was in decline and on the verge of dissolution when it found new life in merging with other organizations into the IWW. The American Labor Union employed the rhetoric of political socialism, although it focused primarily on economic action by workers. Such economic action would later be referred to as direct action by the Industrial Workers of the World. Structure The officers consisted of a President, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer, and an Executive Board of nine members, which included the President and Vice-president. The officers were elected biennially by a referendum vote of the general membership. The government was more centralized than the typical federation of trade unions of the time. For example, the executive board could depose any general officer, and affiliated organizations were not permitted to strike without the approval of the executive board. The official organ of the American Labor Union were the weekly American Labor Union Journal. Price of the publication was 50 cents per year. Termination Three years after its founding the ALU took part in the creation of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). See also Western Federation