Story at a glance
- The United States’s most influential labor union organization elected its first woman president after more than six decades in operation.
- President Liz Shuler is a veteran labor activist.
- Following her election, Shuler told reporters that sustainable union job growth is her top priority.
Last week, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest conglomerate of labor union organizations in the U.S., announced that it would be helmed by a woman for the first time in the group’s 66-year history.
The AFL-CIO’s Executive Council elected Liz Shuler to represent its 12.5 million union members and corresponding 56 unions. A career labor activist, Shuler will take over the position following the passing of former president Richard Trumka.
In addition to Shuler’s historic election, Fred Redmond and Tefere Gebre were also elected to secretary-treasurer and executive vice president, respectively. Both are Black Americans, making this slate of AFL-CIO leadership the most diverse in organization history.
“I am humbled, honored and ready to guide this federation forward,” Shuler said following the election. “I believe in my bones the labor movement is the single greatest organized force for progress.”
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Labor unions have long been a powerful political force, gaining renewed traction as Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama fought corporate leadership for the vote and right to unionize. Other notable unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO, including the American Teachers Federation (ATF), have also made headlines recently coming out in support of vaccination for educators and announcing the organization is exploring vaccine mandates as schools reopen.
Shuler offered more insights into her leadership plans, speaking to NPR about the labor movement’s role in addressing institutional socioeconomic issues such as wealth inequality and structural racism.
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“My vision for the AFL-CIO starts with a very simple idea, which is nothing is more transformative or powerful than a good sustainable job,” she told NPR, explaining that advocating sustainable union job creation is her biggest priority.
Passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, known as the PRO Act, is one of Shuler’s immediate priorities. The legislation, which cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2021, would expand workers rights to collective bargaining and organization, specifically banning any corporate coercion tactics.
“The public approval of unions is at an all-time high,” Shuler told NPR. “The moment is ripe for massive organizing and mobilizing of working people. And people are seeing that you can’t just go it alone in the workplace.”
Polling data from Gallup confirmed that about 65 percent of Americans approved of labor unions as of September 2020. This is up from previous low points seen in 2009 during the Great Recession. Membership in unions has also been steady, although just 16 percent of American respondents said a member of their household is in a union.
Aside from labor organizing, Shuler notes that her term as the AFL-CIO’s first woman president sets a strong example.
“When you see women in key positions of leadership, it emboldens women to continue to aspire to more,” she told Reuters.
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