The defining moment for many UBCJA locals was the fight for the eight-hour day, first in 1886 and then most crucially in 1890.
For example, Wollner describes UBCJA national founder Peter McGuire as a man who "regarded strikes with profound distaste" and believed that they "led only to radicalism and anarchy", although McGuire was a lifelong Socialist who spearheaded the most significant strike movements in the United States of the late nineteenth century.