Die '''American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations''' (AFL-CIO) ist der mitgliederstärkste Gewerkschaftsdachverband der USA und Kanada.

Er hat 54 nationale und internationale Mitgliedsorganisationen der USA und Kanada, welche zusammen 10 Millionen Organisierte vertreten. Er ist Mitglied im Internationalen Bund Freier Gewerkschaften.

== Geschichte ==
1935 hatte sich die Cio (Congress of Industrial Organizations) von der AFL (American Federation of Labor) abgespalten. 1955 vereinigten sich beide wieder zur AFL-CIO. 

Bis 2005 arbeitete er praktisch als zentaler Dachverband. Interne Meinungsverschiedenheiten führten dazu, dass im Juli/August 2005 zahlreiche Gewerkschaften (darunter mit der Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft SEIU die größte Einzelgewerkschaft) austraten und sich unter einem neuen Dachverband "Change to win" formierten.

== Präsidenten ==
Die Präsidenten der AFL-CIO waren:
* 1955-1979 George Meany
* 1979-1995 Lane Kirkland
* 1995 Thomas R. Donahue
* seit 1995  John J. Sweeney

{{Infobox Union |<!-- Include all unused fields for future use. See template:Infobox Union for usage. -->
|name= AFL-CIO     
|country=  Canada <br>  United States
|affiliation= ITUC
|members= 10,000,000+ (2008)<ref></ref>

|full_name= American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
|image= 175px   
|founded= 1886
|current= 1955
|office= Washington, D.C.
|people= John J. Sweeney, president
|website= [http://aflcio.org/ aflcio.org]
|footnotes= 
|native_name= 
|head=   
|dissolved_date=  
|dissolved_state= Merged into 
|merged_into= 
}}

'''American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations''', commonly '''AFL-CIO''', is a unions in the Canadian), together representing more than 10 million workers. It was formed in 1955 when the AFL and the CIO merged after a long estrangement. From 1955 until 2005, the AFL-CIO's member unions represented nearly all unionized workers in the United States. The largest union in the AFL-CIO is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with more than a million members, since 2005 when several large unions split away from AFL-CIO.

== Membership ==
The AFL-CIO is a federation of international labor unions. As a voluntary federation, the AFL-CIO has little authority over the affairs of its member unions except in extremely limited cases (such as the ability to expel a member union for corruption (Art. X, Sec. 17) and enforce resolution of disagreements over jurisdiction or organizing). As of January 2007, accounting for the disaffiliation of the Change to Win Federation unions, the AFL-CIO had 54 member unions.

Membership in the AFL-CIO is largely unrestricted. Since its inception as the American Federation of Labor, the AFL-CIO has supported an image of the federation as the "House of Labor"—an all-inclusive, national federation of "all" labor unions. Currently, the AFL-CIO's only explicit restriction on membership excludes those labor unions whose "policies and activities are consistently directed toward the achievement of the program or purposes of authoritarianism, ­totalitarianism, terrorism and other forces that suppress individual liberties and freedom of association..." (Art. II, Sec. 7). Under Art. II, Sec. 4 and Sec. 8, the AFL-CIO has the authority to place conditions on the issuance of charters, and formally has endorsed the policy of merging small unions into larger ones. In 2001, the AFL-CIO formally established rules regarding the size, financial stability, governance structure, jurisdiction, and leadership stability of unions seeking affiliation. And although the AFL-CIO constitution permits the federation to charter Directly Affiliated Local Unions, the AFL-CIO has largely refused to charter such unions since the 1970s.

Some of the current member unions are listed in section Member unions.

== Governance ==

The AFL-CIO is governed by its members, who meet in a quadrennial convention. Each member union elects delegates, based on proportional representation. The AFL-CIO's state federations, central and local labor councils, constitutional departments, and constituent groups are also entitled to delegates. The delegates elect officers and vice presidents, debate and approve policy, and set dues.

=== Executive council ===
The AFL-CIO has three executive officers: president, secretary-treasurer and executive vice president. The executive vice president is the most recently established office; it was created by constitutional amendment in 1995. Each officer's term is four years, and elections occur at the quadrennial convention.

Current officers are:
* President: John J. Sweeney (1995- )
* Secretary-Treasurer: Richard Trumka  (1995- )
* Executive Vice-President: Arlene Holt Baker (2007- )

The AFL-CIO membership also elects 43 vice presidents at each convention, who have a term of four years. Election is by plurality, with the top 43 candidates with the highest votes winning office. Article VI, Sec. 5, of the AFL-CIO constitution permits the president of the federation to appoint up to three additional vice presidents during the period when the convention is not in session, in order to increase the racial, gender, ethnic and sexual diversity of the executive council.

The three officers and the vice presidents form the executive council, which is the federation's governing body between quadrennial conventions. It is required to meet twice a year, and in practice meets four or five times a year. It passes resolutions, directly oversees AFL-CIO's legislative program, and has other duties. In 2005, the AFL-CIO constitution was changed to permit the executive council to form "Industrial Coordinating Committees" based on geography, employer, occupation or other appropriate subdivisions to coordinate the organizing and collective bargaining work of the member unions.

=== Executive committee ===
An executive committee was authorized by constitutional change in 2005. The executive committee is composed of the president, vice presidents from the 10 largest affiliates, and nine other vice presidents chosen in consultation with the executive council. The other two officers are non-voting ''ex officio'' members. The executive committee governs the AFL-CIO between meetings of the executive council, approves its budget, and issues charters (two duties formerly discharged by the executive council). It is required to meet at least four times a year, and in practice meets on an as-needed basis (which may mean once a month or more).

=== General Board ===
The AFL-CIO also has a General Board. Its members are the AFL-CIO executive council, the chief executive officer of each member union, the president of each AFL-CIO constitutional department, and four regional representatives elected by the AFL-CIO's state federations. The General Board's duties are very limited. It only takes up matters referred to it by the executive council, but referrals are rare. However, because of the sensitive nature of political endorsements and the advisability of consensus when making them, the General Board traditionally is the body that provides the AFL-CIO's endorsement of candidates for president and vice president of the United States.

===State and local bodies===
Article XIV of the AFL-CIO constitution permits the AFL-CIO to charter and organize state, regional, local and city-wide bodies. They are commonly called "state federations" and "central labor councils" (CLCs), although the names of the various bodies varies widely at the local and regional level. Each body has its own charter, which establishes its jurisdiction, governance structure, mission, and more. Jurisdiction tends to be geo-political:  Each state or territory has its own "state federation."  In large cities, there is usually a CLC covering the city. Outside large cities, CLCs tend to be regional (to achieve an economy of scale in terms of dues, administrative effectiveness, etc.). State federations and CLCs are each entitled to representation and voting rights at the quadrennial convention.

The duties of state federations differ from those of CLCs. State federations tend to focus on state legislative lobbying, statewide economic policy, state elections, and other issues of a more over-arching nature. CLCs tend to focus on county or city lobbying, city or county elections, county or city zoning and other economic issues, and more local needs.

Both state federations and CLCs work to mobilize members around organizing campaigns, collective bargaining campaigns, electoral politics, lobbying (most often rallies and demonstrations), strikes, picketing, boycotts, and similar needs.

Although the AFL-CIO constitution requires that all state and local unions affiliate with the appropriate state and local AFL-CIO body, in practice this is not enforced. Many unions do not affiliate with their state federation or CLC, or affiliate only a portion of their membership, leaving state feds and CLCs chronically short of funds.

Interestingly, the AFL-CIO constitution permits international unions to pay state fed and CLC dues directly, rather than have each local or state fed pay them. This relieves each union's state and local affiliates of the administrative duty of assessing, collecting and paying the dues. International unions assess the AFL-CIO dues themselves, and collect them on top of their own dues-generating mechanisms or simply pay them out of the dues the international collects. But not all international unions pay their required state fed and CLC dues.<ref>Michelle Amber, "SEIU Agrees to Pay Nearly $4 Million to Settle Dispute With AFL-CIO Over Dues," ''Daily Labor Report,'' March 2, 2006.</ref>

State federations and CLCs are historically important to the AFL and its successor, the AFL-CIO. George Meany, for example, had little experience as a union member or local union leader, but rose quickly to the top of the AFL-CIO due to his effectiveness as president of the New York State AFL. During the AFL's early history, when the federation remained as apolitical as possible, state feds were the legislative dynamos—lobbying for workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, child labor laws and the minimum wage. But in the 1970s and 1980s, state feds and CLCs became organizational backwaters. They were revitalized beginning in 1995, when John Sweeney campaigned heavily for their votes in his successful quest to unseat AFL-CIO interim president Thomas R. Donahue. Sweeney has continued to emphasize them throughout his presidency.

===Constitutional departments===
Throughout its history, the AFL-CIO had a number of constitutionally mandated departments. They are governed by Article XII of the constitution. Initially, the rationale for having them was that affiliates felt that such decisions should not be left to the whims (or political needs) of the president of the federation. 

Currently, Art. XII establishes seven departments, but allows the executive council or convention of the AFL-CIO to establish others. Each department is largely autonomous, but its must conform to the AFL-CIO's constitution and policies. Each department has its own constitution, membership, officers, governance structure, dues and organizational structure. Departments may establish state and local bodies. Any member union of the AFL-CIO may join a department, provided it formally affiliates and pays dues. The chief executive officer of each department is may sit in on the meetings of the AFL-CIO executive council, and departments have representation and voting rights at the AFl-CIO convention.

One of the most famous departments was the Industrial Union Department (IUD). It had been constitutionally mandated by the new AFL-CIO constitution created by the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955, as CIO unions felt that the AFL's commitment to industrial unionism was not strong enough to permit the department to survive without a constitutional mandate. For many years, the IUD was a ''de facto'' organizing department in the AFL-CIO. For example, it provided money to the near-destitute American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as it attempted to organize the United Federation of Teachers in 1961. The organizing money enabled the AFT to win the election and establish its first large collective bargaining affiliate. For many years, the IUD remained rather militant on a number of issues. It provided to be a center of opposition to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, and was abolished in 1999.

As of January 2007, there are six AFL-CIO constitutionally mandated departments:
* Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO
* Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO
* Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
* Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
* Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO
* Union Label Department, AFL-CIO

===Constituency groups===
"Constituency groups" are nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations chartered and funded by the AFL-CIO to enhance the representational effectiveness of various under-represented groups. Usually they serve as a means to enhance the organizing of new members and as voter registration and mobilization bodies. The four more mature constituency groups are A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Alliance for Retired Americans, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and Coalition of Labor Union Women. They conduct research, host training and educational conferences, issue research reports and publications, lobby for legislation and build coalitions with other groups.

Although constituency groups are not explicitly mentioned in the AFL-CIO constitution, the AFL-CIO exercises its general authority under Article XII to establish them in much the same way that it establishes other departments. Each constituency group has its own charter, officers, governance structure, etc., as constitutionally mandated departments do. They also have the right to sit in on AFL-CIO executive council meetings, and have representational and voting rights at AFL-CIO conventions. Many constituency groups are not self-sustaining and receive significant funding from the AFL-CIO.

As of January 2007, there are seven constituency groups within the AFL-CIO:
* A. Philip Randolph Institute
* Alliance for Retired Americans
* Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
* Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
* Coalition of Labor Union Women
* Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
* Pride at Work