For 124 Years,  Only International  Officials
Were Elected to AFL-CIO Executive Council

By Harry Kelber

Isn’t  It Time for a Change?

Ever since 1886,  when the American Federation of Labor was founded,  no officer or member of an affiliated State Federation or Central Labor Council has been elected to the policy-making Executive Council. And fewer than a handful have even dared to be a candidate for a national position to face a sham election, where they were certain to suffer a crushing, humiliating defeat.

The members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council are an exclusive group of international union presidents, who are middle-aged or elderly, and can hold their position until they are ready to retire or die, in which case, they are replaced by other international presidents, without a formal election.

The Executive Council functions like a private “Club” that doesn’t depend on the rank-and-file for anything but their steady union dues payments, because under the AFL-CIO Constitution, they command the majority of convention votes to ensure their re-election far into the future.

Union members know almost nothing about Executive  Council officers, whose decisions can affect the livelihood and economic future of working families. Even when they win a bogus election by default, we do not know who they are, what they look like, where they come from, what they do or think or what their achievements are.

The Club meets behind closed doors, at least twice a year,  and we are never informed about differences of opinions among them. In fact, Council members prefer to remain shadowy figures, who don’t air their views in public. You may be sitting in a restaurant and not know that the man at the next table is the president of the 600,000-member Communications Workers of America.

AFL-CIO Forces A Freeze on New Labor Leadership

The worst thing about the AFL-CIO’s exclusionary policy is that it blocks the development of new union leaders, who have  fresh ideas. and popular support.. It is outrageous to leave the monopoly of leadership in the hands of officials who have nothing to show for their many years in office

Since  “Club” members are  guaranteed their re-election, there is no reason for any of them to respond to criticism or to tell union members what is going on. Trumka and his pals have developed a culture of silence and secrecy, which keeps them immune from any criticism.  They can act as though  the AFL-CIO is their property, and they can spend our dues money  in whatever way they wish, without letting us know why or how. They think we’re dumb enough to accept that arrangement. Are we?

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If you want to restore members’ rights and union democracy, you’ve got to start a campaign that changes ARTICLE 4 of the AFL-CIO Constitution, that entitles international union candidates  to have as many convention votes as their total membership, while affiliated states and local bodies are limited to one vote each. Thus, the combined vote of delegates from all  state and local bodies can never be more than 800 convention votes, while a single large international union can have as many as one million votes.

The sensible change is to give each delegate “one—and only one-- vote,” like in the  U.S. Congress, the Canadian Labor Congress and in every well-run organization in the United States.

Don’Do you think this change is long overdue? Will you work for it? - Harry Kelber