Union Mergers Rarely Bring New Strength Or Promote Worker Loyalty and Solidarity LaborTalk By Harry Kelber
When the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CI0) merged in 1955, the move was hailed as marking a new era of union organizing and growth. At that point, the new AFL-CIO had a total of 104 national unions with a membership of 15,912,000 dues payers.
Today, the AFL-CIO has slimmed down to 64 national unions, with every merger heralded as giving added resources and strength to the combined labor organization. But after 49 years, the total AFL-CIO membership stands at only 13 million, nearly three million less than at the time of the merger.
Labor experts say that the AFL-CIO will eventually be reduced to about 20 affiliated national unions through mergers, and there are labor leaders who say that the only way that the labor movement can grow is through fewer unions that will be richer and stronger to defend the interests of working people.