AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO
American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations
FormationDecember 5, 1955; 68 years ago (1955-12-05)
Merger of
TypeTrade union center
HeadquartersWashington, DC, US
Location
  • United States
Membership (2022)
12,471,480[1]
President
Liz Shuler
Secretary-treasurer
Fred Redmond
SecessionsChange to Win Federation
AffiliationsInternational Trade Union Confederation
Websiteaflcio.org Edit this at Wikidata

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 60 national and international unions,[2] together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers.[1] The AFL-CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of progressive and pro-labor policies.[3]

The AFL-CIO was formed in 1955 when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged after a long estrangement. Union membership in the US peaked in 1979, when the AFL-CIO's affiliated unions had nearly twenty million members.[4] From 1955 until 2005, the AFL-CIO's member unions represented nearly all unionized workers in the United States. Several large unions split away from AFL-CIO and formed the rival Change to Win Federation in 2005, although a number of those unions have since re-affiliated, and many locals of Change to Win are either part of or work with their local central labor councils. The largest unions currently in the AFL-CIO are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) with approximately 1.7 million members,[5] American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with approximately 1.4 million members,[6] and United Food and Commercial Workers with 1.2 million members.[7]

  1. ^ a b US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-106. Report submitted September 28, 2022.
  2. ^ "AFL-CIO". aflcio.org. AFL-CIO. March 2, 2023. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  3. ^ Timothy J. Minchin, Labor under Fire: A History of the AFL–CIO Since 1979 (U of North Carolina Press, 2017).
  4. ^ Jillson, Cal (July 2007). American Government: Political Change and Institutional Development. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0415960779.
  5. ^ US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-012. Report submitted September 28, 2020.
  6. ^ US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-289. Report submitted March 30, 2021.
  7. ^ US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-056. Report submitted March 25, 2021.