The Chamber de Travail constituted a group that united associations of workers in the city's trades, the successors of the guilds, that was created in January 1875 under the initiative of socialist leader César de Paepe. Motivated to improve labor conditions, the group joined with others in Belgium to form the Parti Ouvrier Belge (Belgische Werklieden Partij, Belgian Workers' Party), which was founded in Brussels in 1885. Activists in the party broadened labor's demands to include greater political rights, most especially universal manhood suffrage.
Historical Dictionary of Brussels. Paul F. State.