History of AFL-CIO organization and organizing drives

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History of the AFL-CIO in general

Organizational issues

Revitalizing the Labor Movement

Interview with Linda Chavez-Thompson, in NACLA Report on the Americas, May/June 1997. The AFL-CIO Executive Vice President talks about where the AFL-CIO should be headed and its changing social composition.

Strengthening the house of labor

Workers World Editorial, 12 February 1998. Effect of merger of NEA and AFT.

Los Angeles AFL-CIO Conference: "Breaking Down Barriers of Discrimination"

By Martha Grevatt, in Workers World, 16 April 1998. Re. the AFL-CIO's Full Participation Conference in Los Angeles on March 27-28, 1998. Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson said oppressed workers "are the first to need a union," and "nothing is more important than organizing."

Organizing efforts

New Organizing Goals

By Harry Kelber, Labor Talk, 9 February 1998.
The AFL-CIO has not defaulted on its commitment to union organizing, the gains have been insufficient to offset the losses of union membership through corporate downsizing, outsourcing, new technology and the exporting of jobs to low-wage countries.
The Organizing Crisis(4): 'Catch-All' Organizing

By Harry Kelber, Labor Talk, 31 July 1998. One of a series of studies of the AFL-CIO. Free-for-all, anything goes recruiting campaigns may have troublesome consequences down the road.

The Organizing Crisis(5): Internal Organizing

By Harry Kelber, Labor Talk, 31 July 1998. Comments about the decline or organized labor obscures the fact that its 13 million dues-paying members make it the largest secular organization in the United States. The need to inspire an army of volunteers from its own ranks to participate in its organizing campaigns.

The Organizing Crisis(6): Conclusion

By Harry Kelber, Labor Talk, 31 July 1998. Concludes the series on organizing that was inspired by the firing of Richard Bensinger, which was just a symptom of underlying trouble. Criticizes the AFL-CIO's organizing efforts and calls upon Sweeney for some frank answers.