AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly known as AFL-CIO, is a national trade union center. The labor organization is the largest federation of unions in the United States which consists of 54 national and international unions (including Canada), representing more than 10 million workers. It was formed in 1955 when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations 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. The membership of the AFL-CIO has reduced greatly since 2005 when several large unions split away from the federation.

Support/opposition to ballot initiatives

The AFL-CIO influenced the following ballot measures:

2010

Arizona

• Opposed Arizona Save Our Secret Ballot Amendment, Proposition 113 (2010)

Colorado

• Opposed Colorado Save Our Secret Ballot (2010) (Did not qualify).

South Dakota

• Opposed South Dakota Vote by Secret Ballot, Amendment K (2010)

Utah

• Opposed Utah Vote by Secret Ballot, Amendment A (2010)

Washington State

• Opposed Washington Workers' Comp Insurance Reform, Initiative 1082 (2010)

2008

Arizona

• Supports Arizona Homeowners Bill of Rights, Proposition 201 (2008).

California

• Opposed California Proposition 98 (2008).

Colorado

The Colorado branch of the AFL-CIO is part of Protect Colorado's Future, which is opposing:

• The Right to Work Initiative. (Amendment 47)
• The Limitation on Public Payroll Deductions Initiative (Amendment 49)
• The Colorado Clean Government Initiative (Amendment 54)

Connecticut

• Opposes the Connecticut Constitutional Convention, Question 1 (2008).

Massachusetts

• Opposes the Massachusetts State Income Tax Repeal Initiative (2008).

Michigan

• The Michigan Legislative and Judicial Restructuring Initiative (2008), which was removed from the ballot following a lawsuit. Michigan AFL-CIO president Mark Gaffney acknowledged that "a number of our unions" helped to fund the initiative.

North Dakota

• Opposes the North Dakota Income Tax Cut (2008) and North Dakota Constitutional Measure 1 (2008).

Oregon

The AFL-CIO is helping fund Defend Oregon, to which it has donated $100,000. Defend Oregon opposes:

Measure 58 Measure 59

Measure 60 Measure 61

Measure 62 Measure 63

Measure 64

2006

• Missouri Minimum Wage Act, Proposition B (2006), $80,000.
• Ohio Minimum Wage Initiative (2006). $550,000.

2004

• California Proposition 68 (2004)

• California Proposition 70 (2004)

• Nevada Minimum Wage Increase, Question 6 (2004)

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.

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.

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).

External links

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

References

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Portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.