20/03/2015 AmericanFederationofLaborandCongressofIndustrialOrganizations(AFLCIO):Status&TrendsinMembershipVideo&LessonTranscript|

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American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial

Organizations (AFL-CIO): Status & Trends in Membership
Chapter 9 Course
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Instructor: Christie Rowe

While union membership is in relative decline, unions still represent a powerful force in American labor and
politics. This is especially true of the AFL-CIO. In this lesson, you'll learn about the AFL-CIO, its history and
current status.

AFL-CIO History
The AFL-CIO is a federation of about 56 labor unions that was created with the merger of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955.
Let's take a brief look at the history of both organizations before the merger.

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The American Federation of Labor was established in 1886. It focused on providing member
benets, maintained centralized control over local unions and used collective bargaining to
obtain concessions from employees for better wages, benets and working conditions.
The AFL was based on a craft union model where the union represents workers that possess
a specic skill, such as plumbers or electricians. Consequently, the unions under the AFL were
organized by occupation. Plumbers belonged to a plumbers' union and dockworkers were in
the longshoremen's union. Craft unions were able to gain power by controlling the supply of
skilled labor, which is why the AFL used strikes as a tactic against employers.
While effective in the rst two decades of the 20th century, the AFL's effectiveness started to
wane. The union suffered some important institutional weaknesses. It was permissive of race
and gender discrimination and often hostile to immigrant workers. This policy of exclusion
failed to recognize the important demographic changes in the labor force.
The AFL was also slow to adapt to the need for industrial unionism, which focuses on
organizing all the workers in a given industry into one union, regardless of the individual
workers' skills or occupations. For example, an autoworker's union may represent electricians,
assembly line workers, machinists and janitors. The power of industrial unions lies in their
large numbers acting together as one force. Consequently, the AFL failed to pursue the
unionization of millions of relatively unskilled industrial workers.
In fact, we can trace the roots of the Congress of Industrial Organizations back to the AFL's
slow reception to industrial unionism. In 1935, an inside group of leaders within the AFL
created the Committee for Industrial Organizations with the goal of pursuing industrial
unionism. However, the AFL leadership did not support the committee and suspended all
unions organized through industrial unionism. These unions left the AFL, and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations was formed in 1938. The CIO grew fast and had about three million
members that were organized into about 6,000 local unions by the end of the 1930s.
The AFL and CIO mended their fences in 1955 with a merger, creating the AFL-CIO. This merger
was possible for a couple of reasons. First, the CIO became less politically radical, which was
important during the days of the Cold War and fear of communism. The AFL was also willing to
compromise on racial equality and acceptance of industrial unionism. The merger created a
15.5 million member organization.

Current Status
The AFL-CIO is the largest organization of labor in the United States and represents about 12.5
million workers in 2014. Members of the AFL-CIO touch most trades and industries. Nurses,
teachers, pilots, writers, actors, plumbers, electricians and even professional football players
all belong to unions that are part of the AFL-CIO. Some notable examples include:
Air Line Pilots Association
American Federation of Government Employees
American Federation of Teachers
American Postal Workers Union
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International Association of Fire Fighters

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
International Longshoreman Association
International Union of Police Associations
NFL Players Association
National Nurses United
Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of American International Union

Trends
Union membership and power has been on the decline since the 1970s. Several factors
contribute to this decline. One of the biggest factors leading to the decline of union
membership is the decline of the manufacturing sector in the United States. Additionally,
unions have not been as effective in bringing in service sector employees as they have in the
past with manufacturing employees.
Moreover, businesses have also relocated overseas or to states that are not union-friendly.
Finally, the success of unions in obtaining high wages and good benets for their members
has made union-produced goods and services less competitive because of the relatively high
cost of union labor to businesses compared to non-union labor. In order to price
competitively, there has been a trend to seek cheaper, non-union labor markets to reduce
costs of production.

Lesson Summary
Let's review what we've learned. The AFL-CIO is a federation of about 56 unions representing
over 12 million workers in a multitude of professions and industries. It was formed with the
merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in
1955.
The American Federation of labor was founded in 1886. It was based upon the craft union
model where skilled workers were organized along specic trades, such as plumbing. In the
early part of its existence, it permitted its unions to discriminate on the basis of race, gender
and nationality. It was also slow to accept industrial unionism, which focuses membership on
all employees in an industry, regardless of trade or skill.
The AFL's discriminatory practices and initial reluctance with industrial unionism prompted
several unions to leave it and form the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938. The CIO
was successful in unionizing a large population of industrial workers. After resolving their
disagreements, the CIO eventually returned to the fold and merged with the AFL in 1955 to
create the current AFL-CIO.
The membership and inuence of the AFL-CIO and similar labor organizations has been on the
decline. The decline of the power of organized labor in the United States is not a result of a
single factor. Instead, it's a combination of the decline of the manufacturing sector, the
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movement of jobs to union-unfriendly labor markets and even the success of unions achieving
increases in wages and benets that have made union-produced goods and services less
competitive.

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