Documents AFL-CIO 13 results

"This article explores the role that organized labor played in the landmark presidential election of 2008. In particular, it explores the work of the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), which ran its biggest ever election campaign in 2008, spending upwards of $250 million. While there is a vibrant emerging literature on the election, particularly from political scientists and former reporters, labor's role in the story has been largely overlooked. Drawing on new parts of the AFL–CIO's papers, as well as interviews with key staffers and federation leaders, this article highlights the important – and overlooked – role that labor played in putting Barack Obama into the White House. Especially important were its extensive efforts to educate – and pressure – white members, many of whom had backed other candidates during the Democratic primaries, to support Obama. Indeed, the Washington Post asserted that union members played a ‘pivotal role' in Obama's victory, especially in terms of delivering the white vote. It was a conclusion largely supported by exit polls, which showed that white union members were much more likely to support Obama than whites who were not in unions. The article highlights that despite the decline in union density – by this time only about 12% of American workers belonged to unions, compared to 35% in the 1950s – the labor movement retained considerable political influence, chiefly because of reforms carried out by AFL–CIO President John J. Sweeney. While Obama was unable to fulfill many of the expectations generated by his campaign, the story of labor and the 2008."

"Formed as an anti-communist labour international, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) nevertheless experienced internal conflict over the appropriate approach to communism. The different perspectives of the two largest affiliates, the British TUC and the American AFL-CIO, caused disharmony and ultimately near organizational paralysis until it forced a change of leadership. Caught between these rival positions, the ICFTU secretariat's relations with the AFL-CIO were initially the most strained, but as the International extended its activity in Africa, in a bid to outflank communist organization among labour, relations with the TUC also deteriorated over the correct stance on nationalism and colonialism."

"This paper reviews the broad relevance of “citizenship” for theory and practice in labor relations. It introduces the notion of “citizenship movement” as a particular type of social movement uniquely related to the development of public life. It argues that several strands of labor movement revival in the United States are members of this family of social movement. These include public service unionism, education and health care unionisms, immigrant worker movements, community-based organizing campaigns, temp unionism, living wage campaigns and campaigns to defend local communities from corporate cutbacks and plant closures. In the global age, it observes, these and related democratic social movements converge in the defense and reconstruction of local communities. "

"In a 2005 effort to reinvigorate new-member organizing efforts, seven unions split from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to form a new union federation, Change to Win. Using ten years of data from the National Labor Relations Board and the National Mediation Board and a difference-in-difference estimator, the author estimates the effect of Change to Win policies on whether a union won its certification election and the number and percentage of workers successfully organized. The results indicate no statistically significant difference in organizing success following Change to Win's implementation of new organizing strategies and practices, relative to the AFL-CIO."

"The AFL-CIO's new domestic organizing strategy, engaging working people in their communities, provides a context to re-evaluate and redirect labor's foreign policy as well. For nearly twenty years many unions, and the Federation, have undertaken genuine international solidarity efforts well beyond tactical cross-border organizing. Domestic and international work must be closely linked in a single global economy. Redefining labor's foreign policy must be integral to the reorientation of the labor movement as a whole. The context, history, and institutional capacity for this purpose are at hand."

"This article assesses the AFL–CIO's in Bangladesh's readymade garment (RMG) industry over the past two decades, drawing upon documentary sources and in-depth interviews conducted in 2007. Our research indicates that AFL–CIO actions clearly match four of the five characteristics of hegemonic trade union imperialism, including initiating its own organizations that it can directly control instead of working with existing unions; and employing bureaucratic and legalistic methods when pursuing workplace grievances. Nevertheless, while we characterize the AFL–CIO's actions in Bangladesh as renewed trade union imperialism, this thrust has been tempered with reformist achievements. These include path-breaking attention to the development of women workers' leadership skills. We conclude that the labor movement in the RMG industry in Bangladesh will have to find ways to accumulate new resources and credibility and to overcome its historical subservience to the two major Bangladeshi political parties if it is to effectively counter the AFL–CIO's trade union imperialism."