Talk:AFL-CIO

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Contents

[edit] Expansion request

I have added this notice after reading CSB and seeing a request to improve this article. The AFL-CIO is one of America's most important and influencial lobby groups, and deserves a much larger article on its achievements in government, legislation and union work. Harro5 09:00, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

  • Inserted Attention and Hist-stub towards the same goal. The article looks nice, but it is drastically short of materials on this long storied and colorful American institution with a checkered and influential past. FrankB 01:14, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
    • Definately needs more material, but I took the stub tag back off - it's just too long for a stub tag.--Bookandcoffee 02:13, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure how far to go on this. I have a really good 'short' history, but it runs to 33 typewritten pages. Far too long for a Wikipedia article. Some of it (Haymarket riot, 'Battle of the Bridge,' Samuel Gompers bio, Walter Reuther bio, etc.) can be chopped out, but it's still too lengthy. Tim1965 02:06, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox Union

I added the Union infobox. It is has been created as part of WikiProject Organized Labour. This is only the second article it has been added to, as development has not been finalized. Please feel free to comment on both the content fields and style of the infobox on the template disscusion page at {{Infobox Union}}. There is a (fairly arbitrary) date of March 1st as an aim for a more general usage of this infobox, and any input would be appreciated. Cheers.--Bookandcoffee 23:57, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] links dropped

This uncommented edit by User:Jacrosse dropped a bunch of "see also" links, which looked to me like a listing of portions of the AFL-CIO. Jacrosse: were these wrong, or did you just decide they aren't important? - Jmabel | Talk 05:31, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] merge Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO

I don't think these two should be merged. At 5 million members the MTD is a large organization on its own, and a seperate article is reasonable.--Bookandcoffee 22:48, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree: The departments of the AFL-CIO are largely autonomous, and each has a great deal of control over its jurisdictional areas. For example: The disaffiliation of the Carpenters union in 2000 led to a major dispute within the Building Trades Dept. in which the larger AFL-CIO was unable to participate or resolve. The dispute led, in part, to the larger debate over the role of the AFL-CIO in 2004-2005. The disaffiliation of the Operating Engineers from the Building Trades in 2006 continues to reverberate, and may well impact the entire AFL-CIO as well as the Change to Win labor organization. Additionally, these departments establish major contractual, jurisdictional and organizationl structures which have a significant impact on American industry. Merging them would be akin to merging Library of Congress into an article on Congress. Tim1965 18:03, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Agree. We need more articles on labor-related entities that are significant in their own right, not fewer. - Jmabel | Talk 00:58, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

It's been over ten days - I'm going to remove the merge tag. Bookandcoffee 00:08, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed "International Relations" Section

This section isn't really well explained and the articles given are very biased. I think that until we have more general iformation about AFL-CIO policies, these claims should be removed.

== Role in Destabilizing Democratically elected Venezuelan government == ===2002=== In Venezuela, the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center worked with and funded what it called the "flagship organizations" behind illegal, company-initiated lockouts of oil workers and the failed coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez. See www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=19&itemID=8268 and http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona10222005.html Role in Destabilizing Democratically elected Haitian government ===2004=== In June 2006 an American Labor Magazine, Labor Notes, documented the role that the ORIT, ICFTU, ILO, and the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center played in supporting a destabilization campaign waged against Haiti's elected Aristide government. The Solidarity Center ignored and failed to investigate massive labor persecution against public sector workers and trade unionist supporters of the ousted government throughout 2004, 2005, and 2006. See http://labornotes.org/archives/2006/06/articles/f.shtml

--Trabisnikof 06:26, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] link error?

Under "See also" is Organizing Institute, is this meant to Interest Group? Can anyone help with this? --24.7.194.240 07:58, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

The AFL-CIO's Organizing Institute ([1]) is an organizer training program. Perhaps it shouldn't be linked though - removing. Fcendejas 05:18, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bussie & other links

Is Victor Bussie really of enough importance to merit a "see also" here? And isn't "Louisiana labor legend" rather POV? - Jmabel | Talk 00:45, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Louisiana has traditionally been the most unionized state in the South, and Victor Bussie dominated state government from the 1950s-1970s.Billy Hathorn (talk) 23:20, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Conversely, Organizing Institute and Union Summer were both recently removed (presumably because the articles don't yet exist). I can't argue with the logic, but they are both articles that someone should write. - Jmabel | Talk 06:37, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] US or international?

So is the AFL-CIO an international organization or is a US organization? The article is confusing and seemingly contradictory about this. The first sentence (after my copy-edits) says that the AFL-CIO is "the largest federation of unions in the United States", but then says "made up of 53 national and international unions" and later the article says "The AFL-CIO is a federation of international labor unions". -Pgan002 07:05, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The AFL-CIO is not a truly internaional organization. 'International unions' in America are really large American unions that have locals in Canada. As a national labour federation, the AFL-CIO only has influence over the American unions, but the American unions often have varying degrees of control over the Canadian sections. Canada also has a national labour fed, the Canadian Labour Congress, which most of the unions affiliate with as well. If I remember, I'll wikify the mention of international and write up a quickie explanation page. --Crigaux 16:14, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
"International" is a standard term in the North American labor movement to describe what is essentially the national union, compared to a Local, Joint Council or regional body. Yes, most of the "international" unions only have membership in Canada and Puerto Rico, and although that does technically makes them international, it is something of a misnomer. It's a standard term in the community nonetheless, and to use anything else would be a bit revisionist. --Poppopbang 13:12, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Teamsters

I thought the Teamsters was the largest Union. No? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.12.161.181 (talk) 18:40, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Removed "Food and Allied Service Trade Department, AFL-CIO"

FAST was dissolved as a constitutional department of the AFL-CIO following the disaffiliation of UFCW and UNITE-HERE and subsequent creation of Change to Win. It now operates as a non-profit called FAST-RAA and does the same work for the same people (both Change to Win and AFL-CIO unions). I changed the number of constitutionally mandated number to six from seven, although i can't vouch for that number. --Poppopbang 21:22, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NNOC

NNOC is merely a union affiliated with the California Nurses Association. The list of AFL-CIO unions does not also list affiliates of unions; that would be for the union's page or (if the list is large) a list page. The rare exception is when an affiliate union is autonomous (such as RWDSU within UFCW). Another exception is when several small unions have joined together in a federation and that federation has affiliated with the AFL-CIO (such as the actors' unions). NNOC is a unique organization no doubt (it is a combination of "movement union" akin to SEIU's "Purple Ocean" or the AFL-CIO's Working America, and traditional organizing project), but it is not autonomous within CNA and did not affiliate separately with the AFL-CIO (as the actors' unions did, as did their federation). Absent additional information on either the CNA or NNOC pages, I would argue NNOC should come off this list. And it has. - Tim1965 13:59, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think NNOC should be absent from this list, since it is a national organization, but I see where you're going with your edit. I edited the union's designation to "California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee," and created the redirect to the CNA page.Tony Clothes 02:44, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
There are plenty of "national organizations" which unions have (for example, UFCW's "Hotel Workers Rising" or AFT's "AFT Healthcare" or CWA's "Nurses United"). My test is not whether it's national or not; my test is whether NNOC is the collective bargaining agent (it currently is not), whether it is incorporated separately from the parent union (I did some cursory research, and did not find any separate incorporation), and whether any affiliation agreement exists between the parent and subdivision (there is none). In cases where NNOC has been active (only Arizona and Illinois so far), it has acted like an organizing project rather than a union and not met these criteria. NNOC is not like SAG, which is affiliated under the umbrella "Actors and Artistes". Your solution works well enough, but I'd still press for its elimination until there is evidence to the contrary. - Tim1965 (talk) 23:27, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Canadian" AFL-CIO?

I want to raise an issue with tagging this as an article about Canada. I think the infobox is incorrect. While international unions may have members in Canada, the international does not (as far as I can determine) pay dues on these Canadian members to the AFL-CIO. Rather, the dues are paid to the Canadian Labour Congress. I don't think the AFL-CIO counts a single Canadian as a member. For example: International unions based in the U.S. may claim they represent "1.1 million members," but the AFL-CIO recognizes only the 750,000 based in the U.S. Can anyone else confirm this? - Tim1965 (talk) 23:34, 27 January 2008 (UTC)