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AFL-CIO

From Ballotpedia
AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO.png
Basic facts
Location:Washington, D.C.
Type:501(c)(5)
Top official:Liz Shuler, President
Year founded:1955
Website:Official website

TheAmerican Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly known as theAFL-CIO, is a501(c)(5) national trade union. The union was founded in 1955 and is a "voluntary federation of 63 national and international labor unions that represent nearly 15 million working people."[1][2]

Background

The AFL was founded in 1886 and focused on organizing around skilled trades and crafts, instead of along industry lines. The CIO was initially created in 1935 as an AFL committee under the name Committee for Industrial Organizations. It organized industrial unions that included both skilled and unskilled workers. In 1937, the CIO split from the AFL and formed its own organization, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, before merging with the AFL, as the AFL-CIO, in 1955.[3][4]

As of November 2025, the AFL-CIO's mission was "to ensure all working people are treated fairly, with decent paychecks and benefits, safe jobs, dignity, and equal opportunities. We help people acquire valuable skills and job-readiness for the 21st century economy."[1] The union also worked toward "strengthening Social Security and private pensions, ensuring fair tax policies, and making high-quality, affordable health care available to all."[1] It also said it fought to keep "good jobs at home by reforming trade rules, reindustrializing the U.S. economy and providing worker protections in the global economy. "[1]

Leadership

Below is the AFL-CIO leadership as of October 2025:[5]

  • Liz Shuler,President
  • Fred Redmond,Secretary-Treasurer


Work and activities

Member services

As a union, the AFL-CIO represented 15 million workers throughout the United States in November 2025.[1] The union offered a number of services and benefits to its members, which included the following:

  • Collective bargaining: The AFL-CIO helped workers bargain for better pay, benefits, hours, leave, safe workplace conditions, and retirement.[6]
  • Education: The AFL-CIO helped its members by offering educational opportunities through training and apprenticeships.[7]
  • Financial services: The union offered members services that included credit cards, mortgages, and other financial services.[8]
  • Scholarships: The AFL-CIO offered college scholarships to members and their children and has awarded more than $4 million as of November 2025.[8]

Focus areas

The AFL-CIO focused on the following issues as of November 2025:

  • Better Pay and Benefits
Excerpt: "To achieve this, we support a broad range of policies, including restoring the minimum wage to a living wage, pay equity for women and people of color, restoring overtime protections, prevailing wage standards, and putting an end to wage theft and the rampant misclassification of employees as independent contractors."[9]
  • Civil Rights
Excerpt: "The labor movement has been at the forefront of the struggle for every major civil rights law. We stand strong today in the fight for dignity, life and liberty for every worker at the intersection of economic justice and civil rights."[10]
  • Corporate Greed
Excerpt: "We believe increased accountability and responsibility must be required of our corporations and our capital markets. And we will continue to campaign for increased corporate accountability, be the leading voice in reining in executive pay and advocate for sensible tax policies that make sure corporations pay their fair share."[11]
  • Gender Equality
Excerpt: "40% of working women in the United States are the sole breadwinner for their families ... Working people in unions are dedicated to fair schedules, fair wages, access to affordable health care and child care, and paid leave for all working families and women who are disproportionately affected."[12]
  • Global Worker Rights
Excerpt: "We cultivate strong partnerships with unions and labor rights movements in other countries and develop joint strategies to improve protections for all working people, including multinational organizing campaigns and an economic agenda on trade, tax and development that puts human rights before private profit."[13]
  • Immigration
See also:AFL-CIO stance on immigration
Excerpt: "Like it was for generations of immigrants before, the labor movement is the natural home for new immigrants struggling to achieve economic security and win social justice, and our commitment to building an immigration system that represents the needs and interests of all working people is fierce and unwavering."[14]
  • Infrastructure
Excerpt: "Investment in our infrastructure will increase safety for all Americans and create and sustain good jobs. ... The AFL-CIO has launched a major effort to secure funding and staff to upgrade our nation's aging infrastructure and energy-saving retrofits."[15]
  • Labor Law
Excerpt: "We work tirelessly to counter the increasingly sophisticated and well-funded groups who threaten our rights. Union members work together to advocate for better working conditions and better pay and to narrow the widening chasm of income inequality."[16]
  • Workplace Health and Safety
Excerpt: "We have made real progress: Workplace deaths and injuries have declined dramatically. In fact, the lives of more than half a million workers have been saved by strengthening workplace protections."[17]

Legislative and policy work

In 2025, the AFL-CIO launched a campaign in support of the Protect America’s Workforce Act, an act to restore bargaining rights to federal workers. The AFL-CIO said, "Since Trump’s first executive order in March ripped away collective bargaining rights from nearly 1 million workers, it’s only gotten worse. ... But we are not powerless. We got organized and helped introduce a bipartisan bill in Congress to overturn this executive order. ... We need every senator—Republican, Democrat and independent—who says they support America’s unions to vote for the Protect America’s Workforce Act and restore federal workers’ union rights. ... Urge your senators to co-sponsor the Protect America’s Workforce Act."[18]


Notable endorsements

See also:Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia'scoverage scope.

Notable candidate endorsements by AFL-CIO
EndorseeElectionStageOutcome
Gloria Young  source  (D)Missouri House of Representatives District 16 (2024)GeneralLost General
Esau Freeman  source  (D)U.S. House Kansas District 4 (2024)GeneralLost General
Hillary Clinton  source  (D)President of the United States (2016)PrimaryLost General


Affiliations

AFL-CIO COPE Political Contributions Committee

The AFL-CIO COPE Political Contributions Committee is a PAC affiliated with the AFL-CIO. During the 2023-2024 election cycle, the PAC raised $152,410 and spent $122,330.[19]

Workers' Voice

Established in 2012, Workers' Voice was the AFL-CIO'ssuper PAC. The super PAC represented "all working families, union and non-union, in political and legislative campaigns. It [was] funded by large and small dollar donors and [its resources were] directed by activists participating in a field program to elect progressive candidates and pass legislation to improve the lives of working families."[20]

Workers' Voice was no longer active as of November 2025.[21]

Working America

Working America is the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. As of November 2025, the organization "makes sure that the priorities of working people, their families and communities are heard from our state houses to the White House, from our city councils and school boards to the halls of Congress."[22] Priorities included "corporate accountability, education, good jobs and a fair economy, health care, and workplace rights."[23]

AFL-CIO Working for America Institute

AFL-CIO Working for America Institute is a501(c)(3) affiliate of the AFL-CIO. As of November 2025, the nonprofit worked with AFL-CIO institutions and unions, employers, workforce boards, community organizations, and apprenticeship officials "to increase the effectiveness of economic development and workforce systems, and to create, expand, and retain high-quality jobs."[24] Areas of work included apprenticeships and work-based learning.[25]

Alliance for Retired Americans

The AFL-CIO founded Alliance for Retired Americans as a501(c)(4) affiliate. As of November 2025, the organization educated "the public and policymakers about critical issues facing older Americans and working families."[26] The organization worked toward economic, retirement, and healthcare security.[27]

Finances

The following is a breakdown of AFL-CIO's revenues and expenses from 2016 to 2019 and 2022. The information comes from theInternal Revenue Service.

AFL-CIO financial data 2016-2019, 2022
YearRevenueExpenses
2016$155 million$149 million
2017$140 million$130 million
2018$119 million$100 million
2019$126 million$116 million
2022$111 million$103 million


See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑1.01.11.21.31.4AFL-CIO, "About Us," accessed October 30, 2025
  2. ↑AFL-CIO, "Leadership," accessed November 17, 2025
  3. ↑National Employment Law Project, "What is the CIO in the AFL-CIO?" November 9, 2018
  4. ↑Stanford University: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, "American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)," accessed October 30, 2025
  5. ↑AFL-CIO, "Leadership," accessed October 30, 2025
  6. ↑AFL-CIO, "Collective Bargaining," accessed October 30, 2025
  7. ↑AFL-CIO, "Apprenticeships," accessed October 30, 2025
  8. ↑8.08.1AFL-CIO, "Union Plus Benefits," accessed October 30, 2025
  9. ↑AFL-CIO, "Better Pay and Benefits," accessed November 17, 2025
  10. ↑AFL-CIO, "Civil Rights," accessed October 30, 2025
  11. ↑AFL-CIO, "Corporate Greed," accessed October 30, 2025
  12. ↑AFL-CIO, "Gender Equality," accessed October 30, 2025
  13. ↑AFL-CIO, "Global Worker Rights," accessed October 30, 2025
  14. ↑AFL-CIO, "Immigration," accessed October 30, 2025
  15. ↑AFL-CIO, "Infrastructure," accessed October 30, 2025
  16. ↑AFL-CIO, "Labor Law," accessed October 30, 2025
  17. ↑AFL-CIO, "Workplace Health and Safety," accessed October 30, 2025
  18. ↑AFL-CIO, "CALL: Tell the Senate to Pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act," accessed November 17, 2025
  19. ↑Federal Election Commission, "AFL-CIO COPE Political Contributions Committee: Financial summary," accessed November 17, 2025
  20. ↑Workers' Voice, "FAQ," accessed May 9, 2016
  21. ↑Federal Election Commission, "Workers' Voice: Financial summary," accessed November 17, 2025
  22. ↑Working America, "About," accessed November 17, 2025
  23. ↑Working America, "Issues," accessed November 17, 2025
  24. ↑AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, "About Us," accessed November 17, 2025
  25. ↑AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, "Home," accessed November 17, 2025
  26. ↑Alliance for Retired Americans, "About Us," accessed November 17, 2025
  27. ↑Alliance for Retired Americans, "Our Issues," accessed November 17, 2025
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