Following a failed 107-day cigar-makers' strike in 1877, Gompers assisted president Adolph Strasser in radically restructuring the Cigar Makers' International Union (CMIU) in 1879.
In April 1881, Gompers lost a re-election campaign for the presidency of Local 144 of the Cigar Makers' International Union to a coalition of socialists who advocated militancy as a way to improve working conditions of cigar makers.