Union del Trabajo de Filipinas was a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 confederation in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. It was formed, with support of the U.S. administration of William H. Taft, as a substitute for the defunct Union Obrera Democratica Filipina

Union Obrera Democratica Filipina

Union Obrera Democratica was a trade union centre in the Philippines. The organization was the first modern trade union federation in the country, earlier labour groups had been more of mutual aid societies and guilds. The organization had thirty-three affiliated trade unions as of 1902...

. UTF was modelled after the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

, and represented a much more moderate political line than its predecessor. Lope. K. Santos, head of the union at the Katubusan Cigar and Cigarette Factory, was the president of UTF. Political rivalries led to the dissolution of UTF in 1907.