AFL-CIO

While the AFL-CIO retains a large member base, the proportion of the workforce that is organized by labor unions has declined substantially since the 1960s.² Since 2021, Liz Shuler has led the AFL-CIO; she succeeded controversial late president Richard Trumka after Trumka died in office.

While the union federation has generally supported Democrats and liberal candidates, it was once far more centrist than it has been since an internal power struggle in the mid-1990s. Under former presidents George Meany and Lane Kirkland, the AFL-CIO was staunchly anti-Communist, going so far as to refuse to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Sen. George McGovern in 1972 over McGovern’s opposition to the Vietnam War.³

Under Kirkland’s successor John Sweeney and through Trumka’s terms in office, the union has aligned much more closely with the Democratic Party and the organizational left. After Sweeney took over as the union’s president with Trumka as his chief lieutenant, the AFL-CIO increased its support for liberal politicians and progressive causes, including those unrelated to the economy and collective bargaining.⁴

This trend only accelerated under Richard Trumka’s leadership. In the AFL-CIO’s 2016 fiscal year, the union reported $45,972,521 in political activities and lobbying (including $8,165,576 in deposits of employee-elected contributions to the union’s political action committee).⁵ Recipients of AFL-CIO dues-funded contributions include the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and the New World Foundation.⁶ The federation has also proposed admitting progressive groups other than unions, including the NAACP, the Sierra Club, and MomsRising, to its membership as either formal partners or affiliates.⁷ In 2021, Trumka died in office and was replaced as president by the federation’s secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler.⁸