An individual must be a member of an AFL-CIO-affiliated organization in order to be elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council as an AFL-CIO Vice President. Vice Presidents are elected and participate on the Executive Council as individuals but, almost universally, at the time of their election to the council they are incumbent officers of affiliated national or international unions, trade or industrial departments or state, area or local central bodies. And, on the Executive Council they customarily speak for the affiliated organizations in which they hold office.
The proposed amendment would give national and international unions, trade and industrial departments, and state, area and local central bodies the authority to request that the position of an AFL-CIO Vice President be declared vacant if that Vice President no longer holds office with the requesting affiliate. The Executive Council has authority to fill Executive Council vacancies pursuant to Article VI, Section 4.
Amend Article V (Officers), Section 2 as follows: (new language in bold and italics):
a. Each officer shall be a member of an affiliated organization.
b. In the event a Vice President, during his or her term, ceases to hold office in the organization of which the Vice President is a member, the organization may request, in writing, that the position of that Vice President be declared vacant, and the Executive Council shall grant the request.