The AFL asked the TDIU to merge with Young's union to form a new, AFL-affiliated union and the two groups did so in 1903, forming the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), and electing Cornelius Shea as the new union's first president.
Claiming more than 28,000 members in 47 locals, its president, Albert Young, applied for membership in the AFL. Unlike the TDIU, which permitted large employers to be members, the new Teamsters National Union permitted only employees, teamster helpers, and owner-operators owning only a single team to join, and advocated higher wages and shorter hours more aggressively than the TDIU. In 1901, a group of teamsters in Chicago, Illinois, broke from the TDIU and formed the Teamsters National Union. In November 1898, the AFL organized the Team Drivers' International Union (TDIU).
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) had helped form local unions of teamsters since 1887.
