Union Histories

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions. The AFL-CIO union movement represents 10.5 million members, including 2 million members in Working America, its new community affiliate. These unions represent 13 million working women and men of every race and ethnicity and from every walk of life. They 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 addition to being affiliated on a national level, these unions generally belong to a federation that unites the labor movement on a state level and local level.

Change to Win is a federation of six million workers formed in 2005 whose affiliates include the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), Laborers Union of North America (LIUNA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC), United Farm Workers of America (UFW), the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), and UNITE HERE.

You may be a member of one of the organizations listed below or have a relative, friend or acquaintance who carries a union card. You can discover more about the history and accomplishments of each union or federation by clicking on the following links:

ALSC :: American Labor Studies Center

National

States

International and Local Unions

Labor Spotlight

American Labor and U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s Story is Distorted in High School History Textbooks

Unionist

Class Time Limited?

Kate Mullany National Historic Site