If the AFL-CIO Had a Convention, Would Anyone Notice?
I recently conducted a straw poll, over 10 days in March, 2026. I asked union members or union retirees only, not wanting to pack the results with people unfamiliar with the labor movement. Almost all were members today, the rest had been members in their work lives. A big majority are today, or were, stewards, elected leaders, staff members or activists. All from unions affiliated with the nation’s only labor federation, the AFL-CIO. My question was simple: “Do you know when the next AFL-CIO Convention will be held?” Of the 30 contestants, exactly 3 knew that there was a Convention sometime soon. None knew the exact date or the city where it is going to convene or had any idea of what debates or developments might be in the works.
Current AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, always eager to share the news that “public opinion polls show that big majorities of working people in the U.S. support unions…”, might do well to examine this reality. Try as today’s labor leadership might – to claim the support of their members and the gigantic numbers of unorganized – the real situation is alarming, although not a surprise in any way. Did you know about this coming Convention at this critical junction in our labor movement and our country? Offer a comment below, or send me an e-mail. My address is at the end.
The fact is, the 30th Convention of the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), is set for June 7 to 10, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This once-every-three-years convening of the unions – that represent about two thirds of the U.S. organized workforce – is about to be held. For a sense of how these meetings work, see my article from the last AFL-CIO Convention in 2022: https://mltoday.com/sunset-of-the-afl-cio/
This invisible status raises an obvious question: if even the active layer of union members do not know that there is going to be an AFL-CIO Convention, then does it even matter? The labor federation comprising 61 different National and International unions, with more than 10 million working people paying dues to belong to it, has steadily slipped farther and farther into obscurity in recent decades. Today, many labor movement observers, even strong union supporters and leaders, might amend that description of “obscurity” to read “obscurity and irrelevance.”
THE COMING 2026 AFL-CIO CONVENTION
Many millions in union members’ dues money will be spent to hold this top level meeting in June. Around 2,000+ delegates, guests, and a small staff army will journey to Minneapolis for the highly scripted proceedings. The food, accommodations, and entertainment will be top-notch. The speakers will be carefully selected and scrubbed, always staying “on message”. Lots of union “gear” will be passed out, and some will even be sold. Every politically correct button in the universe to support Democrats will be worn and pushed a hundred times. It also might be time for Federation consultants to roll-out another expensive and tricky new slogan, since the carefully researched “It’s Better in a Union” jingle failed to electrify the masses last time.
Some Convention speakers will be driven to denounce Trump for his flagrant crimes, but they might stop short of invoking his name. There will be reluctance in some unions to blast Trump or Trumpism by name – since huge numbers of union members voted for Trump. Not once, but twice. A carefully selected number of high-profile Democrat politicians will be given the podium, and we can bet that they will all bend over backwards to try to prove to us that one of their parents, or a great aunt at least, once belonged to a union someplace. A Republican speaker may even be dredged up and offered as some “balance”, since the federation is sure to reassure everyone that the two-party system is just fine, even if the Republican Party has degenerated into a criminal cabal. Somewhere in the multi-day program a handful of union members will be showcased and choreographed to say the right things, claiming a victory here or there. Bravo for them as the only real workers who will be heard from. This also provides the appearance that the federation has real vitality, is growing, and is confidently confronting the Trump regime and its pathologically anti-worker agenda. Of course, none of that would be the case.
NONSTOP DECLINE, 1955 TO THE PRESENT
The obvious, glaring fact to any sober or concerned observer is that the AFL-CIO continues to recede in relevance and importance on all fronts. The highest leadership body of the federation – the coming Convention in Minneapolis – is virtually unknown to the vast masses of even active union members. This absurd situation poses the question of whether the AFL-CIO leadership would hold the coming Convention at all, were it not for the Constitutional requirement that they do so?
It is an historical fact that both the AFL and the CIO were already in decline prior to their ballyhooed 1955 founding Convention, where the reactionary AFL elements gladly took the surrender papers from the cleansed and tamed CIO remnants. This became known as a “merger”. The leading militant, left, and yes, communist forces within labor had been mostly destroyed after rounds of massive state and corporate repression. The AFL-CIO that was born banned the class struggle, elevated class collaboration to a permanent all-consuming policy, and made its truce with the two-party political trap. The stage was set for what has ensued – more than 70 years of drift, decline, membership loss, destruction of most accepted union standards in the industries, and loss of most loyalty from, or influence among, the broad masses of working people.
FRANK DONNER’S WARNING
Frank Donner, for several decades the general counsel of the independent and unaffiliated United Electrical Workers Union (UE), spoke to the 1962 UE Convention offering some of his thoughts on the state of the nascent AFL-CIO. At that point the federation was still in its infancy, being only 7 years old at the time. Donner pointed out that, “… the AFL-CIO is undergoing a process of transformation and decline… that the process is irreversible and continuing… The evidence shows that the collapse of the organized labor movement is not due to the existence of new problems which defy solution, such as hostile legislation or automation, but because of certain inherent policies and weaknesses of the movement itself. It has become clear that all of the separate and individual failures of the labor movement – in organizing, in collective bargaining, in the achievement of social and economic goals – are all explained by the decay, reaction, and corruption which are eating away at the heart of the movement.”
Donner’s landmark address, later reprinted as a UE pamphlet, concluded with a stark warning, just as relevant today as it was in 1962. “It seems clear to me that… the merged movement is dominated by the most virulent practitioners of business unionism. The remnants of the old CIO lack the strength and clarity of purpose to resist this dominant pressure… The old CIO leaderships have abandoned the trade union philosophy of militance and social reconstruction, the only approach which successfully organized industrial workers and brought labor to a position of leadership in the struggle for economic and political democracy.” He continued, “The historic evidence is too overwhelming to be ignored any longer. The labor establishment has betrayed the American worker. We must find a way to undo the mistakes of the past and rekindle the bright promise which trade unions once offered working people”.
Donner’s blunt warning and forecast has, for the most part, been borne out, tragically, but predictably so. More than 90% of the U.S. working class remains unorganized, helpless and increasingly super-exploited in the grip of the employers. Since 1955, the beginning of the AFL-CIO era, the size of the U.S. workforce has more than tripled in size while union membership has skidded to less than 10% – and been destroyed across many sectors. Large sections of the disaffected, impoverished, abandoned, and angry working class have demobilized completely, or have joined the reactionary and destructive Trump MAGA bandwagon. Today, a full 15 months into the Trump regime disaster, the Democratic Party – the alleged patron of working people – remains mired in political confusion, historically low public opinion ratings, organizational paralysis, and drift. The near-total subordination of the labor officialdom to this failed Democratic Party should be cause for concern – but at the coming AFL-CIO Convention there will be virtually no debate about this crisis. Likely none in fact.
TODAY’S BUSINESS UNION “HIDEOUT STRATEGY”
Such an appalling set of circumstances is sadly not new, and in the opinion of this author, it is now by design. Organized and unorganized working people face the growing many-headed threat of Trump and Trumpism. But what are the top AFL-CIO labor “leaders” doing? Beyond public pronouncements, assorted defensive lawsuits, and occasional social media offerings, very little, it appears. Some unions have made serious efforts to rally their membership to confront the dangers, the National Nurses United (NNU) health care union for one. https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/ The United Electrical Workers Union (UE) https://www.ueunion.org/ has also maintained a high degree of member education and activism in their pushback against Trumpism. There are also several other national and regional sections of unions who have also mobilized in the face of the dangers.
But this list is far too short. A visit to the web sites of the various unions is an instant indicator of whether that union sees its role as a mobilizer of its members – and the broad working class – or not. Dozens of unions are instead apparently taking cozy cover in the political tall weeds, waiting as the Trumpzilla beast stomps by, hoping to remain safely out of sight. This contemptible “hideout strategy” has been the predominant recent game plan, leaving labor stunned, bruised, and on the run across the board.
TWO UNIONS COMPARED: AFL-CIO AND INDEPENDENT
Over my long career I have belonged to four different unions, having completed entire careers in two – the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), and the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). The contrast at this critical junction could not be more stark. A comparison just of their print publications – sent by mail to the homes of their respective memberships to presumably inform and educate them – tells the story of our current dilemma. The UE News publication which recently arrived in my mailbox contains more than 13 articles over 16 pages in their newspaper, all explaining the links between Trumpism and the attacks on union members and working people. UE journalists commendably dig out the real story on the despotic Trump regime, its crimes, and expanded dangers. There is exactly one photo of the current UE General President, featured among photos of hundreds of members engaged in all manner of actions in opposition to Trump and employer assaults.
In contrast, the 32-page color ATU magazine which likewise arrived at my home recently, featured 13 photos of their President, including an odd religious-themed cover photo as if to present the leader presumably as some sort of deity. Having read the 32 page magazine word-for-word, I can also report that the name of Donald Trump, or any direct reference to him not by name, does not appear even one single time. Not one single time! No mention whatsoever of the criminal acts of the Trump regime, his further plans for war and domestic repression, no reports on his massive union-busting. And for the members of the largest transit union in the U.S. there is no mention of Trump’s intentions to further attack transit funding and worker protections. Silence. There are thankfully several articles showcasing struggles of ATU members against various employers and local regressive legislation, including in Canada, but any member reading the magazine would find themselves lost in a time warp, as if Trumpism did not exist or perhaps poses no danger and is unworthy of mention.
MORE CONTRASTS
As I have recently written about in these columns, the opinions of ATU’s Canadian members are of keen interest, since this “International Union” seems to have forgotten that Trump has declared an all-out political and trade war against Canada in hopes of fragmenting their nation and absorbing its pieces into our poverty-stricken and anti-union operation. See: https://mltoday.com/international-unions-and-trumps-aggression-against-canada/ What a contrast, one union working diligently to educate the rank-and-file to resist Trumpism in its many forms, and one doing…. very, very, little. While the now 90-year-old UE remains an independent union, never having been an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, the ATU has been an AFL or AFL-CIO affiliate for its entire 134 year history. The current President of the ATU also sits on the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) too. While this is merely a comparison of the two unions where I spent the bulk of my working life, it does speak volumes about why the labor federation is mired in failure and retreat.
LABOR NOTES CONFERENCE FOLLOWS AFL-CIO
The large and very popular Labor Notes publication conference will follow the AFL-CIO by several days, convening in Chicago, Illinois, with more than twice the attendance. The AFL-CIO proceedings will bear no resemblance to the Labor Notes event, with nearly 5,000 mostly rank-and-file unionists traveling to the meeting to plot resistance and share experiences in trade union and political struggles. Trumpism and how to resist it will be a centerpiece of the Labor Notes event, while the well-paid and well-fed AFL-CIO Convention will reflect more the look of a high-budget business union staff meeting. One meeting will be stage managed down to the smallest detail, the other will be vital and overflowing with energy pushing towards a revitalized labor movement.
The Labor Notes publication and its attendant networks have also reached a clear new junction in their development. It is clear to all observers that Labor Notes has triumphed so far as the respect and loyalty of the activist union layers. This is certainly an accomplishment by itself, the result of decades of genuine trade union action and persistence. But the courageous union activist movements and fragments remain shut-out of most of the unions. Progressive and militant forces are still small, even microscopic, and find themselves sidelined and frequently isolated. Wealthy and powerful business union regimes still control the bulk of the unions and are largely unchallenged. Organized resistance to even the worst aspects of business union corruption, autocracy, and decay, is limited. Much remains to be done, with Labor Notes hopefully considering some new strategies as we approach the midpoint of Trump’s second term.
PART TWO
Defenders of the AFL-CIO often point out that critics are too hard on the Federation, or are somehow unfair. They sometimes apply their “logic”, which observes that the AFL-CIO is merely the sum of its parts. That it merely reflects the views of the bulk of the leadership of its affiliate unions. Is this then confirmation of a new low in trade union organization, thinking, and action by the federation? By this measure, has the AFL-CIO ceased to be a realistic force for the progress of the U.S. working class?
Part two of this article is forthcoming and will examine additional aspects of the coming AFL-CIO Convention.
Chris Townsend is a 47-year union member and leader. He is the retired Political Action Director for the United Electrical Workers Union (UE) and was the Organizing and Field Director for the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). He may be reached at cwtownsend52@gmail.com