In the face of unprecedented attacks from the Trump administration and anti-worker corporations, union membership grew across industries and the country
(Minneapolis)—The AFL-CIO announced today at its 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention in Minneapolis that it had reached its goal to organize 1 million workers years ahead of schedule, and it rolled out an updated strategy to organize millions more workers.
At its convention in 2022, the nation’s largest labor federation set a goal to organize at least 1 million members in 10 years. That goal was surpassed after just three years, thanks to workers organizing in new industries and new geographies, in the private and public sectors; leading historic strikes; and creating a pipeline to the union workforce through apprenticeships. And despite corporate greed and union-busting, broken labor laws that denied their rights and freedoms, and the Trump administration attacks making life less free and more expensive, union representation reached the highest level in 16 years.
“Working people are facing down and fighting back against every obstacle thrown their way—and they’re doing it by coming together and organizing,” said Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO president. “Our movement is building a world where every worker who wants a union can join one; where they have a voice on the job to demand the wages, benefits, protection and dignity they are owed; and where the broken labor law that is rigged for the bosses is a thing of the past. Unions deliver the power to take on corporate greed and the hope for—and path to—a better life. We won’t stop until that is the reality for every worker in this country.”
At the gathering of its 65 affiliated unions and state and local labor federations, the AFL-CIO announced its goals to:
- Bring at least 2 million more workers into unions by 2032.
- Coordinate across the movement to challenge union-busting corporations; drive multi-union, multi-sector organizing campaigns; maximize resources and capacity; and leverage our power as a movement.
- Align organizing and political work to make worker organizing a core goal anywhere labor supports candidates, committing that no candidate should receive labor’s support unless they are willing to fight for stronger collective bargaining rights and the empowerment of working people.
- Expand and develop coordinated local organizing strategies in key geographies, deepen alignment with community organizations, and deliver tangible wins for working people through the joint work of international unions and the AFL-CIO’s state and local labor federations.
- Redouble support for legislation to reform our broken labor law system on the federal, state and local levels.
- Align bargaining demands and contract expirations to amplify the power of collective action, including strikes, at the broadest possible level.
- Build on ongoing organizing with a mass training program to invest in all workers who want to organize with the skills, tactics and strategy to get it done.
- Invest in campaigns that enable workers to organize outside labor board processes as well, creating pathways around delays and abuse by unscrupulous employers, including supporting federal workers and others without congressionally guaranteed bargaining rights in their efforts to organize, build and maintain power.
Contact: Mia Jacobs, 202-637-5018