The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFLâ€"CIO) is a national trade union center and the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of fifty-six national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers. The AFLâ€"CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of Democrats and liberal or progressive policies.
The AFLâ€"CIO was formed in 1955 when the AFL and the CIO merged after a long estrangement. Membership in the union peaked in 1979, when the AFLâ€"CIO had nearly twenty million members. From 1955 until 2005, the AFLâ€"CIO's member unions represented nearly all unionized workers in the United States. Several large unions split away from AFLâ€"CIO and formed the rival Change to Win Federation in 2005, although a number of those unions have since re-affiliated. The largest union currently in the AFLâ€"CIO is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with approximately 1.4 million members.
Membership
The AFLâ€"CIO is a federation of international labor unions. As a voluntary federation, the AFLâ€"CIO has little authority over the affairs of its member unions except in extremely limited cases (such as the ability to expel a member union for corruption and enforce resolution of disagreements over jurisdiction or organizing). As of June 2014, the AFLâ€"CIO had 56 member unions representing 12.5 million members.
Political activities
The AFLâ€"CIO was a major component of the New Deal Coalition that dominated politics into the mid-1960s. Although it has lost membership, finances, and political clout since 1970, it remains a major player on the liberal side of national politics, with a great deal of activity in lobbying, grassroots organizing, coordinating with other liberal organizations, fund-raising, and recruiting and supporting candidates around the country.
In recent years the AFLâ€"CIO has concentrated its political efforts on lobbying in Washington and the state capitals, and on "GOTV" (get-out-the-vote) campaigns in major elections. For example, in the 2010 midterm elections, it sent 28.6 million pieces of mail. Members received a "slate card" with a list of union endorsements matched to the member's congressional district, along with a "personalized" letter from President Trumka emphasizing the importance of voting. In addition, 100,000 volunteers went door-to-door to promote endorsed candidates to 13 million union voters in 32 states.
The AFLâ€"CIO gave $6,123,437 to super PACs in 2012, including $5.95 million to the AFLâ€"CIO's own super PAC.
In the 2016 election, the AFLâ€"CIO endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Governance
The AFLâ€"CIO is governed by its members, who meet in a quadrennial convention. Each member union elects delegates, based on proportional representation. The AFLâ€"CIO's state federations, central and local labor councils, constitutional departments, and constituent groups are also entitled to delegates. The delegates elect officers and vice presidents, debate and approve policy, and set dues.
- Executive council
The AFLâ€"CIO has three executive officers: president, secretary-treasurer and executive vice president. Each officer's term is four years, and elections occur at the quadrennial convention. Current officers are Richard Trumka (President), Liz Shuler (Secretary-Treasurer) and Tefere Gebre (Executive Vice-President).
The AFLâ€"CIO membership elects 43 vice presidents at each convention, who have a term of four years. The AFLâ€"CIO constitution permits the president of the federation to appoint up to three additional vice presidents during the period when the convention is not in session.
- Annual meetings
From 1951 to 1996, the Executive Council held its winter meeting in the resort town of Bal Harbour, Florida. The meeting at the Bal Harbour Sheraton has been the object of frequent criticism, including over a labor dispute at the hotel itself.
Citing image concerns, the council changed the meeting site to Los Angeles. However, the meeting was moved back to Bal Harbour several years later. The 2012 meeting was held in Orlando, Florida.
- Executive committee
An executive committee was authorized by constitutional change in 2005. The executive committee is composed of the president, vice presidents from the 10 largest affiliates, and nine other vice presidents chosen in consultation with the executive council. The other two officers are non-voting ex officio members. The executive committee governs the AFLâ€"CIO between meetings of the executive council, approves its budget, and issues charters (two duties formerly discharged by the executive council). It is required to meet at least four times a year, and in practice meets on an as-needed basis (which may mean once a month or more).
- General Board
The AFLâ€"CIO also has a General Board. Its members are the AFLâ€"CIO executive council, the chief executive officer of each member union, the president of each AFLâ€"CIO constitutional department, and four regional representatives elected by the AFLâ€"CIO's state federations. The General Board's duties are very limited. It only takes up matters referred to it by the executive council, but referrals are rare. However, because of the sensitive nature of political endorsements and the advisability of consensus when making them, the General Board traditionally is the body that provides the AFLâ€"CIO's endorsement of candidates for president and vice president of the United States.
- State and local bodies
Article XIV of the AFLâ€"CIO constitution permits the AFLâ€"CIO to charter and organize state, regional, local and citywide bodies. They are commonly called "state federations" and "central labor councils" (CLCs), although the names of the various bodies varies widely at the local and regional level. Each body has its own charter, which establishes its jurisdiction, governance structure, mission, and more. Jurisdiction tends to be geo-political: Each state or territory has its own "state federation." In large cities, there is usually a CLC covering the city. Outside large cities, CLCs tend to be regional (to achieve an economy of scale in terms of dues, administrative effectiveness, etc.). State federations and CLCs are each entitled to representation and voting rights at the quadrennial convention.
The duties of state federations differ from those of CLCs. State federations tend to focus on state legislative lobbying, statewide economic policy, state elections, and other issues of a more overarching nature. CLCs tend to focus on county or city lobbying, city or county elections, county or city zoning and other economic issues, and more local needs.
Both state federations and CLCs work to mobilize members around organizing campaigns, collective bargaining campaigns, electoral politics, lobbying (most often rallies and demonstrations), strikes, picketing, boycotts, and similar activities.
The AFLâ€"CIO constitution permits international unions to pay state federation and CLC dues directly, rather than have each local or state federation pay them. This relieves each union's state and local affiliates of the administrative duty of assessing, collecting and paying the dues. International unions assess the AFLâ€"CIO dues themselves, and collect them on top of their own dues-generating mechanisms or simply pay them out of the dues the international collects. But not all international unions pay their required state federation and CLC dues.
- Constitutional departments
Throughout its history, the AFLâ€"CIO had a number of constitutionally mandated departments. Initially, the rationale for having them was that affiliates felt that such decisions should not be left to the whims (or political needs) of the president of the federation.
Currently, Art. XII establishes seven departments, but allows the executive council or convention of the AFLâ€"CIO to establish others. Each department is largely autonomous, but its must conform to the AFLâ€"CIO's constitution and policies. Each department has its own constitution, membership, officers, governance structure, dues and organizational structure. Departments may establish state and local bodies. Any member union of the AFLâ€"CIO may join a department, provided it formally affiliates and pays dues. The chief executive officer of each department may sit in on the meetings of the AFLâ€"CIO executive council. Departments have representation and voting rights at the AFlâ€"CIO convention.
One of the most well-known departments was the Industrial Union Department (IUD). It had been constitutionally mandated by the new AFLâ€"CIO constitution created by the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955, as CIO unions felt that the AFL's commitment to industrial unionism was not strong enough to permit the department to survive without a constitutional mandate. For many years, the IUD was a de facto organizing department in the AFLâ€"CIO. For example, it provided money to the near-destitute American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as it attempted to organize the United Federation of Teachers in 1961. The organizing money enabled the AFT to win the election and establish its first large collective bargaining affiliate. For many years, the IUD remained rather militant on a number of issues. It proved to be a center of opposition to AFLâ€"CIO president John Sweeney, and was abolished in 1999.
There are six AFLâ€"CIO constitutionally mandated departments:
- Building and Construction Trades Department, AFLâ€"CIO
- Maritime Trades Department, AFLâ€"CIO
- Metal Trades Department, AFLâ€"CIO
- Department for Professional Employees, AFLâ€"CIO
- Transportation Trades Department, AFLâ€"CIO
- Union Label Department, AFLâ€"CIO
Constituency groups
Constituency groups are nonprofit organizations chartered and funded by the AFLâ€"CIO as voter registration and mobilization bodies. These groups conduct research, host training and educational conferences, issue research reports and publications, lobby for legislation and build coalitions with local groups. Each constituency group has the right to sit in on AFLâ€"CIO executive council meetings, and to exercise representational and voting rights at AFLâ€"CIO conventions.
The AFLâ€"CIO's seven constituency groups include the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the AFLâ€"CIO Union Veterans Council, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and Pride at Work.
Allied organizations
The Working for America Institute started out as a department of the AFLâ€"CIO. Established in 1958, it was previously known as the Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI). John Sweeney renamed the department and spun it off as an independent organization in 1998 to act as a lobbying group to promote economic development, develop new economic policies, and lobby Congress on economic policy. The American Center for International Labor Solidarity started out as the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC), which internationally promoted free labor-unions.
Other organizations that are allied with the AFLâ€"CIO include:
- Alliance for Retired Americans
- Solidarity Center
- American Rights at Work
- International Labor Communications Association
- Jobs with Justice
- Labor Heritage Foundation
- Labor and Working-Class History Association
- National Day Laborer Organizing Network
- United Students Against Sweatshops
- Working America
- Working for America Institute
- Ohio Organizing Collaborative
Programs
Programs are organizations established and controlled by the AFLâ€"CIO to serve certain organizational goals. Programs of the AFLâ€"CIO include the AFLâ€"CIO Building Investment Trust, the AFLâ€"CIO Employees Federal Credit Union, the AFLâ€"CIO Housing Investment Trust, the National Labor College and Union Privilege.
International policy
The AFLâ€"CIO is affiliated to the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation, formed November 1, 2006. The new body incorporated the member organizations of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, of which the AFLâ€"CIO had long been part. The AFLâ€"CIO had had a very active foreign policy in building and strengthening free trade unions. During the Cold War it vigorously opposed Communist unions in Latin America and Europe. In opposing Communism it helped split the CGT in France and helped create the anti-Communist Force Ouvriere.
History
For the history of the AFLâ€"CIO prior to and including the merger see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and Labor unions in the United States.
Civil rights
The AFLâ€"CIO has a long relationship with civil rights struggles. One of the major points of contention between the AFL and the CIO, particularly in the era immediately after the CIO split off, was the CIO's willingness to include black workers (excluded by the AFL in its focus on craft unionism.) Later, blacks would also criticize the CIO for abandoning their interests, particularly after the merger with the AFL.
In 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech titled "If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins" to the organization's convention in Bal Harbour, Florida. King hoped for a coalition between civil rights and labor that would improve the situation for the entire working class by ending white supremacy. However, King also criticized the AFLâ€"CIO for its tolerance of unions that excluded black workers. King and the AFLâ€"CIO diverged further in 1967, when King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War, which the AFLâ€"CIO strongly supported. The AFLâ€"CIO endorsed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
New Unity Partnership
In 2003, the AFLâ€"CIO began an intense internal debate over the future of the labor movement in the United States with the creation of the New Unity Partnership (NUP), a loose coalition of some of the AFLâ€"CIO's largest unions. This debate intensified in 2004, after the defeat of labor-backed candidate John Kerry in the November 2004 U.S. presidential election. The NUP's program for reform of the federation included reduction of the central bureaucracy, more money spent on organizing new members rather than on electoral politics, and a restructuring of unions and locals, eliminating some smaller locals and focusing more along the lines of industrial unionism.
In 2005, the NUP dissolved and the Change to Win Federation (CtW) formed, threatening to secede from the AFLâ€"CIO if its demands for major reorganization were not met. As the AFLâ€"CIO prepared for its 50th anniversary convention in late July, three of the federations' four largest unions announced their withdrawal from the federation: the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ("The Teamsters"), and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). UNITE HERE disaffiliated in mid-September 2005, the United Farm Workers left in January 2006, and the Laborers' International Union of North America disaffiliated on June 1, 2006.
Two unions later left CtW and rejoined the AFLâ€"CIO. After a bitter internal leadership dispute that involved allegations of embezzlement and accusations that SEIU was attempting to raid the union, a substantial number of UNITE HERE members formed their own union (Workers United) while the remainder of UNITE HERE reaffiliated with the AFLâ€"CIO on September 17, 2009. The Laborers' International Union of North America said on August 13, 2010, that it would also leave Change to Win and rejoin the AFLâ€"CIO in October 2010.
ILWU disaffiliation
In August 2013, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) disaffiliated from the AFLâ€"CIO. The ILWU said that members of other AFLâ€"CIO unions were crossing its picket lines, and the AFLâ€"CIO had done nothing to stop it. The ILWU also cited the AFLâ€"CIO's willingness to compromise on key policies such as labor law reform, immigration reform, and health care reform. The longshoremen's union said it would become an independent union.
Presidents
- George Meany (1955â€"1979)
- Lane Kirkland (1979â€"1995)
- Thomas R. Donahue (1995)
- John J. Sweeney (1995â€"2009)
- Richard Trumka (2009- )
See also
- Change to Win Federation
- Directly Affiliated Local Union (DALU)
- Labor federation competition in the U.S.
- Labor movement
- Labor unions in the United States
- List of unions affiliated with the AFLâ€"CIO
- List of U.S. trade unions
- Union organizer
References
Further reading
- Amber, Michelle. "SEIU Agrees to Pay Nearly $4 Million to Settle Dispute With AFLâ€"CIO Over Dues." Daily Labor Report. March 2, 2006.
- Arnesen, Eric, ed. Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History (2006), 3 vol; 2064pp; 650 articles by experts excerpt and text search
- Gilroy, Tom. "Labor to Stress Get-Out-the-Vote Among Members in Fall Elections." Labor Relations Week. October 21, 1998.
- Greenhouse, Steven. "For Chairwoman of Breakaway Labor Coalition, Deep Roots in the Movement." New York Times. October 10, 2005.
- Lichtenstein, Nelson. "Two Roads Forward for Labor: The AFLâ€"CIO's New Agenda." Dissent 61.1 (2014): 54-58. Online
- Lichtenstein, Nelson. State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (2nd ed. 2013)
- Minchin, Timothy J. Labor under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO since 1979 (U of North Carolina Press, 2017). xvi, 414 pp.
- Mort, Jo-Ann, ed. Not Your Father's Union Movement: Inside the AFLâ€"CIO (2002)
- Rosenfeld, Jake. What Unions No Longer Do. (Harvard University Press, 2014) ISBN 0674725115
- Tillman, Ray M. and Michael S. Cummings. The Transformation of U.S. Unions: Voices, Visions, and Strategies from the Grassroots (1999)
- Yates, Michael D. Why Unions Matter (2009)
Constitution
- Constitution of the AFLâ€"CIO, as amended at the Twenty-Fifth Constitutional Convention, July 25-28, 2005. Accessed January 15, 2007.
Further reading
Archives
- AFLâ€"CIO Region 9 Records. circa 1955-2000. 14.00 cubic feet (14 boxes). At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
- Preliminary Guide to the AFLâ€"CIO King County Labor Council of Washington Provisional Trades Section Records. 1935-1971. .42 cubic foot (1 box). At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
- AFLâ€"CIO, Washington State Labor Council Records. 1919-2010. 187.18 cubic feet. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
- Washington State Federation of Labor Records. 1901-1967. 45.44 cubic feet (including 2 microfilm reels, 1 package, and 1 vertical file). At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
- Antonia Bohan 1995 AFLâ€"CIO Convention Delegate Collection. 1995-1996. 0.39 cubic feet (1 box and 1 oversized folder). At University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. Contains material collected by Bohan as a Service Employees International Union delegate to the AFLâ€"CIO convention that elected John Sweeney president in 1995.
- Jackie Boschok Papers. 1979-2011. 16.32 cubic feet (22 boxes). At University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. Contains records from AFLâ€"CIO National Community Services Documents, AFLâ€"CIO Resources, and AFLâ€"CIO Working Women Working Together Conference Records.
- Phil Lelli Papers. 1933-2004. 10.45 cubic feet (11 boxes and 1 vertical file). At University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. Contains "Principles of Autonomy & Jurisdictional Intergrity within the AFLâ€"CIO".
- George Meany Memorial AFLâ€"CIO Archive. Approximately 40 million documents. At University of Maryland Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives. Contains material that will help researchers better understand pivotal social movements in this country, including those to gain rights for women, children and minorities.
External links
- AFLâ€"CIO official website
- One Hat for Labor? by David Moberg, The Nation, April 29, 2009.
- Labor's Cold War by Tim Shorrock. The Nation, May 19, 2003.
- AFLâ€"CIO on OpenSecrets.org