AFL-CIO

 

(AFL-CIO), a federation of autonomous labor unions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and U.S. dependencies, formed in 1955 by the merger of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). As of 2006, the AFL-CIO included 52 national and international unions that had a U.S. membership of 9 million. Heavily involved in politics, the AFL-CIO's primary function is to lobby on behalf of organized labor and mediate disputes between its member unions. The AFL-CIO has campaigned actively against the so-called right-to-work laws, which outlawed union shops (see closed shop), has worked to repeal the Taft-Hartley Labor Act, and has fought other legislation deemed inimical to organized labor's interests.

The organization has five operating levels. Ultimate authority is vested in those attending its biennial convention, but between conventions the organization is run by an executive council, which is composed of the executive officers (president, secretary-treasurer, and executive vice president) and 51 vice presidents. Executive officers handle the day-to-day operations of the organization, and they are advised by a general board consisting of the executive council members, a chief officer of each affiliated union and of each programmatic department within the AFL-CIO, and four regional representatives from the 51 state federations. In addition to these levels of authority, the AFL-CIO carried over autonomous departments from the AFL (such as the Building Trades Dept.) and added an Industrial Union Dept. to handle the problems of the former CIO unions. The union's 13 programmatic departments handle the work of the federation, including labor organizing, political education, legislation, civil rights, and worker safety and health.

History

American Federation of Labor

In 1881 representatives of workers' organizations, meeting in Pittsburgh, formed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States and Canada. In 1886 at another conference in Columbus, Ohio, this group reorganized as the American Federation of Labor. Opposed to the socialistic and political ideals of the Knights of Labor, the AFL was, instead, a decentralized organization recognizing the autonomy of each of its member national craft unions. Individual workers were not members of the AFL but only of the affiliated local or national union. From its inception the AFL emphasized organization of skilled workers into craft unions (composed of a single occupation such as painters or electricians), as opposed to industrial unions (where all the workers in the automobile or steel industry would belong to one union).

Opposed to the idea of a labor party, the AFL was a relatively conservative political force within the labor movement of the late 19th and early 20th cent. But the union did help secure for its members higher wages, shorter hours, workmen's compensation, laws against child labor, an 8-hr day for government employees, and the exemption of labor from antitrust legislation (see Clayton Antitrust Act). Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, William Green, and then George Meany, the AFL became the largest labor federation in the United States, with a membership of over 10 million at the time of its merger with the CIO in 1955.

Congress of Industrial Organizations

Within the AFL in the early 1930s a strong minority faction evolved, advocating the organization of workers in the basic mass-production industries (such as steel, auto, and rubber) on an industry-wide basis. John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers of America led this faction in forming a Committee for Industrial Organization in 1935. This group (changing its name in 1938 to Congress of Industrial Organizations) immediately launched organizing drives in the basic industries. The spectacular success of those drives, particularly in the automobile and steel industries, enhanced the CIO's prestige to the point where it seriously challenged the AFL's hegemony within U.S. organized labor. After fruitless negotiation the parent body revoked the charters of the 10 dissident international unions.

The CIO, under the presidency of Lewis until 1940 and then of Philip Murray until his death in 1952, followed more militant policies than the AFL. The CIO's Political Action Committee, headed by Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, played an active role in the CIO's attempt to urge its membership into more active political participation. The CIO grew rapidly until its affiliated international unions numbered 32 at the time of the 1955 merger, with an estimated membership of five million. Its growth, however, was marked by internal dissension; the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) withdrew in 1938 and the UMW in 1942. While the AFL was grappling with the problem of gangster-dominated affiliates, the CIO decided in 1948 to bar Communists from holding office in the organization, and in 1949–50 it expelled 11 of its affiliated unions, which were said to be Communist-dominated.

Merger to the Present

During the entire period of the alienation of the CIO from the AFL, the idea of merger was being considered by elements in both federations, and labor's concern over the apparent antiunion policies of President Eisenhower's administration (the first Republican administration in 20 years) gave new impetus to the movement for labor unity. The death in 1952 of the presidents of both organizations and the appointment of George Meany to head the AFL and Walter P. Reuther to run the CIO paved the way for a merger in 1955.

At its first convention the merged organizations, now called the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), elected Meany as its president. In 1957 the AFL-CIO adopted antiracket codes, and the convention expelled the Teamsters Union for alleged failure to meet the parent organization's ethical standards. The AFL-CIO took a major step in 1961 in the direction of settling internal disputes by setting up a mandatory arbitration procedure.

A submerged dispute between George Meany and Walter Reuther, who opposed the AFL-CIO's conservative approach to civil rights and social welfare programs, finally erupted in 1968 and the United Automobile Workers (UAW) withdrew from the union. The AFL-CIO supported the Democratic presidential candidates in 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968. In 1972 however, Meany led the AFL-CIO into a neutral stance, supporting neither major candidate. Meany decided not to run for reelection in 1979 and Lane Kirkland, who had been secretary-treasurer for the AFL-CIO, was elected president.

From the start of Kirkland's term, the AFL-CIO was forced to adapt to a number of adverse economic trends. Union membership dropped from 33% of all U.S. workers in 1960 to 14% in the late 1990s. To shore up organized labor's declining influence, the AFL-CIO concentrated on organizing service workers and public employees and improving labor unity. In 1981 the UAW rejoined the union; the Teamsters (1988) and United Mine Workers (1989) later followed.

Kirkland retired under pressure in 1995. Thomas R. Donahue, the AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer, was named interim president, but Donahue was challenged for the federation's presidency by John J. Sweeney, who won the first contested election for president in the AFL-CIO's history. In 2005, heads of some of the organization's largest and most active unions, led by Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), unsuccessfuly attempted to secure Sweeney's retirement and to implement other organizational changes, such as the merging of the ALF-CIO's member unions into 20 large unions, each representing a segment of the economy, and the refocusing of its energies to stress the unionization of unrepresented workers. The SEIU, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, Laborers' International, and Unite Here subsequently left the AFL-CIO, and with several other unions formed the Change to Win Federation.

Bibliography

See W. Galenson, The CIO Challenge to the AFL (1960); S. Gompers, Seventy Years of Life and Labor (1925, repr. 1967); P. Taft, The A. F. of L. from the Death of Gompers to the Merger (1959, repr. 1970); M. Dubofsky, Industrialism and the American Worker (1975); U.S. Dept. of Labor, A History of the American Worker (1983); F. R. Dulles, Labor in American History (1984); M. Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States (1987); K. Moody, Injury to All (1988).

AFL-CIO

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
Founded	1886
Cur. affiliation date	1955
Members	9,000,000+ (2006) [1]
Country	Canada United States
Affiliation	ITUC
Key people	John J. Sweeney, president
Office location	Washington, DC
Website	aflcio.org
1

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 54 national and international unions (including Canadian), together representing more than 10 million workers. It was formed in 1955 when the AFL and the CIO merged after a long estrangement. From 1955 until 2005, the AFL-CIO's member unions represented nearly all unionized workers in the United States. The largest union in the AFL-CIO is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with more than a million members, since 2005 when several large unions split away from AFL-CIO.

Membership

The AFL-CIO is a federation of international labor unions. As a voluntary federation, the AFL-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 (Art. X, Sec. 17) or adjudicate and enforce resolution of disagreements over jurisdiction or organizing). As of January 2007, accounting for the disaffiliation of the Change to Win Federation unions, the AFL-CIO had 54 member unions.

Membership in the AFL-CIO is largely unrestricted. Since its inception as the American Federation of Labor, the AFL-CIO has supported an image of the federation as the "House of Labor"—an all-inclusive, national federation of "all" labor unions. Currently, the AFL-CIO's only explicit restriction on membership excludes those labor unions whose "policies and activities are consistently directed toward the achievement of the program or purposes of authoritarianism, ­totalitarianism, terrorism and other forces that suppress individual liberties and freedom of association..." (Art. II, Sec. 7). Under Art. II, Sec. 4 and Sec. 8, the AFL-CIO has the authority to place conditions on the issuance of charters, and formally has endorsed the policy of merging small unions into larger ones. In 2001, the AFL-CIO formally established rules regarding the size, financial stability, governance structure, jurisdiction, and leadership stability of unions seeking affiliation. And although the AFL-CIO constitution permits the federation to charter Directly Affiliated Local Unions, the AFL-CIO has largely refused to charter such unions since the 1970s.

Some of the current member unions are listed in section Member unions.

Governance

The AFL-CIO is governed by its members, who meet in a quadrennial convention. Each member union elects delegates, based on proportional representation. The AFL-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 AFL-CIO has three executive officers: president, secretary-treasurer and executive vice president. The executive vice president is the most recently established office; it was created by constitutional amendment in 1995. Each officer's term is four years, and elections occur at the quadrennial convention.

Current officers are:

• President: John J. Sweeney (1995- )
• Executive Vice-President: Linda Chavez-Thompson
• Secretary-Treasurer: Richard Trumka

The AFL-CIO membership also elects 43 vice presidents at each convention, who have a term of four years. Election is by plurality, with the top 43 candidates with the highest votes winning office. Article VI, Sec. 5, of the AFL-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, in order to increase the racial, gender, ethnic and sexual diversity of the executive council.

The three officers and the vice presidents form the executive council, which is the federation's governing body between quadrennial conventions. It is required to meet twice a year, and in practice meets four or five times a year. It passes resolutions, directly oversees AFL-CIO's legislative program, and has other duties. In 2005, the AFL-CIO constitution was changed to permit the executive council to form "Industrial Coordinating Committees" based on geography, employer, occupation or other appropriate subdivisions to coordinate the organizing and collective bargaining work of the member unions.

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 AFL-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 AFL-CIO also has a General Board. Its members are the AFL-CIO executive council, the chief executive officer of each member union, the president of each AFL-CIO constitutional department, and four regional representatives elected by the AFL-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 AFL-CIO's endorsement of candidates for president and vice president of the United States.

State and local bodies

Article XIV of the AFL-CIO constitution permits the AFL-CIO to charter and organize state, regional, local and city-wide 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 over-arching 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 needs.

Although the AFL-CIO constitution requires that all state and local unions affiliate with the appropriate state and local AFL-CIO body, in practice this is not enforced. Many unions do not affiliate with their state federation or CLC, or affiliate only a portion of their membership, leaving state feds and CLCs chronically short of funds.

Interestingly, the AFL-CIO constitution permits international unions to pay state fed and CLC dues directly, rather than have each local or state fed 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 AFL-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 fed and CLC dues.^[1]

State federations and CLCs are historically important to the AFL and its successor, the AFL-CIO. George Meany, for example, had little experience as a union member or local union leader, but rose quickly to the top of the AFL-CIO due to his effectiveness as president of the New York State AFL. During the AFL's early history, when the federation remained as apolitical as possible, state feds were the legislative dynamos—lobbying for workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, child labor laws and the minimum wage. But in the 1970s and 1980s, state feds and CLCs became organizational backwaters. They were revitalized beginning in 1995, when John Sweeney campaigned heavily for their votes in his successful quest to unseat AFL-CIO interim president Thomas R. Donahue. Sweeney has continued to emphasize them throughout his presidency.

Constitutional departments

Throughout its history, the AFL-CIO had a number of constitutionally mandated departments. They are governed by Article XII of the constitution. 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 AFL-CIO to establish others. Each department is largely autonomous, but its must conform to the AFL-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 AFL-CIO may join a department, provided it formally affiliates and pays dues. The chief executive officer of each department is may sit in on the meetings of the AFL-CIO executive council, and departments have representation and voting rights at the AFl-CIO convention.

One of the most famous departments was the Industrial Union Department (IUD). It had been constitutionally mandated by the new AFL-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 AFL-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 provided to be a center of opposition to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, and was abolished in 1999.

As of January 2007, there are six AFL-CIO constitutionally mandated departments:

• Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
• Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Union Label Department, AFL-CIO

Constituency groups

"Constituency groups" are nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations chartered and funded by the AFL-CIO to enhance the representational effectiveness of various under-represented groups. Usually they serve as a means to enhance the organizing of new members and as voter registration and mobilization bodies. The four more mature constituency groups are A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Alliance for Retired Americans, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and Coalition of Labor Union Women. They conduct research, host training and educational conferences, issue research reports and publications, lobby for legislation and build coalitions with other groups.

Although constituency groups are not explicitly mentioned in the AFL-CIO constitution, the AFL-CIO exercises its general authority under Article XII to establish them in much the same way that it establishes other departments. Each constituency group has its own charter, officers, governance structure, etc., as constitutionally mandated departments do. They also have the right to sit in on AFL-CIO executive council meetings, and have representational and voting rights at AFL-CIO conventions. Many constituency groups are not self-sustaining and receive significant funding from the AFL-CIO.

As of January 2007, there are seven constituency groups within the AFL-CIO:

• A. Philip Randolph Institute
• Alliance for Retired Americans
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
• Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
• Coalition of Labor Union Women
• Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
• Pride at Work

Allied organizations

"Allied organizations" are nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations chartered and funded by the AFL-CIO to serve certain policy goals of the federation. They have evolved in a number of ways. For example, the American Center for International Labor Solidarity started out as the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC), an "independent" organization funded and controlled by the AFL to promote anti-communist labor unions overseas.^[2] However, the Working for America Institute started out as a nonconstitutional department of the AFL-CIO. Established in 1958, it was previously known as the Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI). President Sweeney renamed the department and spun it off as an "independent" organization in 1998 to act as a lobbing group to promote economic development, develop new economic polices, and lobby Congress on economic policy.^[3]

Although allied organizations are not explicitly mentioned in the AFL-CIO constitution, the AFL-CIO exercises its general authority under Article XII to establish them in much the same way that it establishes other departments. Each allied organization has its own charter, officers, governance structure, etc., as constitutionally mandated departments do. However, they do not have the right to sit in on AFL-CIO executive council meetings, and do not have representational or voting rights at AFL-CIO conventions. The current three allied organization are all self-sustaining. Their boards are interlocking with the AFL-CIO executive council.

As of January 2007, there are three allied organizations:

• American Center for International Labor Solidarity
• International Labor Communications Association
• Working for America Institute

Allied groups

"Allied groups" are organizations that have more informal relationships to the AFL-CIO. Some, like the Labor and Working-Class History Association, are truly independent organizations that wish to work very closely with the AFL-CIO and promote its mission and goals. Others, like American Rights at Work, are independent in name only; they are nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations with their own articles of incorporation, charter, governance structure, etc., but are funded largely by the AFL-CIO, and their boards are dominated by its directors. Others are plainly programs of the AFL-CIO operated as federation-wide, cross-cutting organizations serving AFL-CIO goals (such as disaster relief or member mobilization apart from legislative or organizing work). These programs have little or no staff (often using staff already employed by the AFL-CIO), and little or no need for funding (or using funds provided on an as-needed basis through existing AFL-CIO budgets).

As of January 2007, there are four allied groups:

• American Rights at Work
• Community Services Network
• Labor and Working-Class History Association
• Working America

Programs

"Programs" are organizations established and controlled by the AFL-CIO to serve certain organizational goals. Because of legal requirements (such as federal and state securities laws), they are truly independent organizations. But their governance structures are either dominated by or have sizable blocks of AFL-CIO directors, which effectively direct them to implement policies favored by the AFL-CIO.

Programs serve a variety of goals. For example, the AFL-CIO Building Trust enables union pension and health funds to invest in the for-profit Building Investment Trust. The Trust then uses this capital to construct office buildings, hotels, housing developments, and other capital construction. Some profits are kept by the Trust to build its investment capabilities, the rest are distributed to the investors. Other programs serve goals such as the banking needs of individual union members (AFL-CIO Credit Union) or to provide credit card and other consumer services (Union Privilege).

As of January 2007, there were five programs of the AFL-CIO:

• AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust
• AFL-CIO Credit Union
• AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust
• National Labor College
• Union Privilege

International policy

The AFL-CIO is affiliated to the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation, formed November 1, 2006, and incorporating the member organizations of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, of which the AFL-CIO had long been part. The ITUC is the most representative international labor grouping.

History

For the history of the AFL-CIO prior to and including the merger see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and Labor unions in the United States.

In 2003, the AFL-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 AFL-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 formed, threatening to secede from the AFL-CIO if its demands for major reorganization were not met. As the AFL-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). The Laborers' International Union of North America and the United Farm Workers remain members of both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win Federation.

In addition to the issues listed above, the dispute was seen as deeply personal. SEIU President Andy Stern, the most outspoken leader of the Change to Win coalition, was once considered the protege of former SEIU President and current AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney.

Presidents

• George Meany (1955-1979)
• Lane Kirkland (1979-1995)
• Thomas R. Donahue (1995)
• John J. Sweeney (1995- )

Member unions

Below is a list of some of the Unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO:

• Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA)
• Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)
• American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
• American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
• American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA)
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
• American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
• American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
• American Radio Association (ARA)
• American Train Dispatchers Department (ATDD)
• Associated Actors and Artists of America (AAAA or 4As)
  • Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
  • American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
  • American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
  • American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA)
  • Hebrew Actors' Union (HAU; 1899–2005)
  • Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
  • The Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA)
• Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union (BCTGM)
• Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS)
• California Nurses Association (CNA)
• California School Employees Association (CSEA)
• Communications Workers of America (CWA)
• Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
• Federation of Professional Athletes (NFLPA)
• Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union (GMPIU
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes (IATSE)
• International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers (Ironworkers)
• International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF)
• International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers (AWIU)
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
• International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers (Boilermakers)
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
• International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)
• International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
• International Longshoremen's Association (ILA)
• International Plate Printers, Die Stampers and Engravers Union of North America (Printers & Engravers)
• International Union of Allied Novelty and Production Workers (Novelty and Production Workers)
• International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC)
• International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC)
• International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)
• International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)
• International Union of Police Associations (IUPA)
• Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA)
• National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)
• National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)
• National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC)
• National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU)
• Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)
• Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association (OPCMIA)
• Seafarers International Union of North America (SIU)
• Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA)
• Transport Workers Union of America (TWU)
• United American Nurses (UAN)
• United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA)
• United Auto Workers (UAW)
• United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
• United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial & Service Workers International Union (USW)
• United Transportation Union (UTU)
• United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (Roofers and Waterproofers)
• Utility Workers of America (UWUA)
• Writers Guild of America, East (WGA-East)

See also

• Labor unions in the United States
• Labor movement
• List of U.S. trade unions
• Directly Affiliated Local Union (DALU)
• Change to Win Federation
• Labor federation competition in the U.S.
• Union Organizer

Notes

1. ^ Michelle Amber, "SEIU Agrees to Pay Nearly $4 Million to Settle Dispute With AFL-CIO Over Dues," Daily Labor Report, March 2, 2006.
2. ^ Under AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland, the Free Trade Union Committee was broken into the four units: the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), which covered Latin America; the African-American Labor Center (AALC); the Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI); and the Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI), which encompassed Europe. In 1997, these four units were merged into one organization, renamed the American Center for International Labor Solidarity.
3. ^ Gilroy, Tom. "Labor to Stress Get-Out-the-Vote Among Members in Fall Elections," Labor Relations Week, October 21, 1998.

References

• Amber, Michelle. "SEIU Agrees to Pay Nearly $4 Million to Settle Dispute With AFL-CIO Over Dues." Daily Labor Report. March 2, 2006.
• Constitution of the AFL-CIO, as amended at the Twenty-Fifth Constitutional Convention, July 25-28, 2005. Accessed January 15, 2007.
• 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.

External links

• AFL-CIO official website
  • List of AFL-CIO affiliated unions
  • Speeches from the 2005 AFL-CIO convention
• Teamster's Disaffiliation letter to John Sweeney, President AFL-CIO 2005
• Workers Independent News

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