AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 60 national and international labor unions.

Today's unions represent 13 million working women and men of every race and ethnicity and from every walk of life. We are teachers and teamsters, musicians and miners, firefighters and farm workers, bakers and bottlers, engineers and editors, pilots and public employees, doctors and nurses, painters and laborers—and more.

In the AFL-CIO, workers and unions find the opportunity to combine strength and to work together to improve the lives of America's working families, bring fairness and dignity to the workplace and secure social and economic equity in our nation. The AFL-CIO and member unions are dedicated to four interconnecting goals critical to achieving that mission: strengthening working families by enabling more workers to join together in unions, building a stronger political voice for working families, providing a new voice for workers in the global economy and creating a more effective voice for working families in our communities.

The AFL-CIO was created in 1955 by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The AFL-CIO's first president, George Meany, was succeeded in 1979 by Lane Kirkland, whose unexpired term was concluded by Thomas R. Donahue. In 1995, the biennial convention elected President John J. Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson. They have been re-elected three times since then, most recently in 2005 for four-year terms. Since its founding, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have been an effective force in America for enabling working people to build better lives and futures for our families.

Mission and Goals of the AFL-CIO
The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. To accomplish this mission we will build and change the American labor movement.

We will build a broad movement of American workers by organizing workers into unions. We will recruit and train the next generation of organizers, mass the resources needed to organize and create the strategies to win organizing campaigns and union contracts. We will create a broad understanding of the need to organize among our members, our leadership and among unorganized workers. We will lead the labor movement in these efforts.

We will build a strong political voice for workers in our nation.
We will fight for an agenda for working families at all levels of government. We will empower state federations. We will build a broad progressive coalition that speaks out for social and economic justice. We will create a political force within the labor movement that will empower workers and speak forcefully on the public issues that affect our lives.

We will change our unions to provide a new voice to workers in a changing economy.
We will speak for working people in the global economy, in the industries in which we are employed, in the firms where we work, and on the job everyday. We will transform the role of the union from an organization that focuses on a member's contract to one that gives workers a say in all the decisions that affect our working lives—from capital investments, to the quality of our products and services, to how we organize our work.

We will change our labor movement by creating a new voice for workers in our communities. We will make the voices of working families heard across our nation and in our neighborhoods. We will create vibrant community labor councils that reach out to workers at the local level. We will strengthen the ties of labor to our allies. We will speak out in effective and creative ways on behalf of all working Americans.

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	The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 60 national and international labor unions. Today's unions represent 13 million working women and men of every race and ethnicity and from every walk of life. We are teachers and teamsters, musicians and miners, firefighters and farm workers, bakers and bottlers, engineers and editors, pilots and public employees, doctors and nurses, painters and laborers—and more. In the AFL-CIO, workers and unions find the opportunity to combine strength and to work together to improve the lives of America's working families, bring fairness and dignity to the workplace and secure social and economic equity in our nation. The AFL-CIO and member unions are dedicated to four interconnecting goals critical to achieving that mission: strengthening working families by enabling more workers to join together in unions, building a stronger political voice for working families, providing a new voice for workers in the global economy and creating a more effective voice for working families in our communities. The AFL-CIO was created in 1955 by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The AFL-CIO's first president, George Meany, was succeeded in 1979 by Lane Kirkland, whose unexpired term was concluded by Thomas R. Donahue. In 1995, the biennial convention elected President John J. Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson. They have been re-elected three times since then, most recently in 2005 for four-year terms. Since its founding, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have been an effective force in America for enabling working people to build better lives and futures for our families. Mission and Goals of the AFL-CIO The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. To accomplish this mission we will build and change the American labor movement. We will build a broad movement of American workers by organizing workers into unions. We will recruit and train the next generation of organizers, mass the resources needed to organize and create the strategies to win organizing campaigns and union contracts. We will create a broad understanding of the need to organize among our members, our leadership and among unorganized workers. We will lead the labor movement in these efforts. We will build a strong political voice for workers in our nation. We will fight for an agenda for working families at all levels of government. We will empower state federations. We will build a broad progressive coalition that speaks out for social and economic justice. We will create a political force within the labor movement that will empower workers and speak forcefully on the public issues that affect our lives. We will change our unions to provide a new voice to workers in a changing economy. We will speak for working people in the global economy, in the industries in which we are employed, in the firms where we work, and on the job everyday. We will transform the role of the union from an organization that focuses on a member's contract to one that gives workers a say in all the decisions that affect our working lives—from capital investments, to the quality of our products and services, to how we organize our work. We will change our labor movement by creating a new voice for workers in our communities. We will make the voices of working families heard across our nation and in our neighborhoods. We will create vibrant community labor councils that reach out to workers at the local level. We will strengthen the ties of labor to our allies. We will speak out in effective and creative ways on behalf of all working Americans.