The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL–CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual support and disappointed in the Knights of Labor. Samuel Gompers was elected the full-time president at its founding convention and was re-elected every year except one until his death in 1924. He became the major spokesperson for the union movement.
Linda Chavez-Thompson is a second-generation Mexican-American and union leader. She was elected the executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO in 1995 and served until September 21, 2007. She was also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1997 to 2012 and served as a member of the board of trustees of United Way of America. She was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in the 2010 election.
The President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10980 signed December 14, 1961. In 1975 it became the National Association of Commissions for Women.
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) is a nonprofit organization of African American trade union members affiliated with the AFL–CIO. More than 50 different international and national trade unions are represented in CBTU and there are 50 chapters in the United States of America and one in Ontario, Canada.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, formerly called the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups.
Elaine Bernard is the executive director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She is also a member of the interim consultative committee of the International Organization for a Participatory Society which she describes as offering "an opportunity to reach across borders, time zones, organizations, communities, and individual interests and grow solidarity".
Ruth Milkman is an American sociologist of labor and labor movements. She is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY and the director of research at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Between 1988 and 2009 Milkman taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she directed the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of trade union women affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The CLUW is a bridging organization that seeks to create connections between the feminist movement and the labor movement in the United States. The organization works towards overcoming past constraints and conflicts in pursuance of relationship improvement between those movements and thus enabling broad coalitions. The CLUW is the only national organization solely for women union members and is one of six constituency groups within the AFL-CIO. It is based in the headquarters of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C. CLUW pursues by four goals: to bring women into union leadership, to organise unorganized women workers, to bring women's issues onto the labor agenda, and to involve women into political action.
Working America is the political organizing arm of the AFL–CIO. Its membership is made up of non-union individuals. It is the largest non-union workers' group in the United States, with a self-reported membership of 3.2 million individuals. Working America advocates for progressive policy issues. The organization recruits people in working-class neighborhoods on their doorsteps in an effort to persuade them to support labor-backed candidates at election time.
9to5, National Association of Working Women is an organization established in 1973 that is dedicated to improving working conditions and ensuring the rights of women and families in the United States.
Lucy Randolph Mason was a 20th-century American labor activist and suffragist. She was involved in the union movement, the consumer movement and the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century.
Elizabeth H. Shuler is an American labor activist and, since August 5, 2021, President of the AFL–CIO. She is the first woman to be elected president of the federation. She was previously the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position of Secretary-Treasurer. She is the highest-ranking woman in the labor federation's history. From her election to the retirement of Arlene Holt Baker in 2013 was the first time that two of the three officer positions in the AFL–CIO were held by women; her election as president with Fred Redmond succeeding her as Secretary-Treasurer marked the first time two of the three positions were held by African Americans.
Lin Farley is an American author, journalist and feminist. She was a leader in calling attention to the problems faced by women in the workforce, in particular sexual harassment.
Labor feminism was a women's movement in the United States that emerged in the 1920s, focused on gaining rights in the workplace and unions. Labor feminists advocated for protectionist legislation and special benefits for women, a variant of social feminism. They helped pass state laws regulating working conditions for women, expanded women's participation in unions, and organized to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment.
Katherine Pollak Ellickson was an American labor economist. For much of her career, she worked for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). During the Kennedy administration, she was executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women and helped create the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Doris Crouse-Mays is an American labor leader.
Alice Holz was an American union organizer. She was involved in the foundation of the Office Employees International Union (OPEIU) and served as one of the union's first regional vice presidents.
Lane Windham is a historian and the associate director of Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and co-director of WILL Empower at Georgetown University.
Debbie Schneider is a labor organizer who has worked with multiple groups including 9to5, Women Office Workers, and United Healthcare Workers. She served as president of District 925 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and was a member of SEIU's executive board.
Jane Ellen LaTour was an American labor activist, educator, and journalist in New York City who advocated union democracy and documented the role of women in traditionally male-dominated trades. She was the author of Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City. A two-time recipient of the Mary Heaton Vorse Award for labor journalism, she was an associate editor for Public Employee Press, the publication of District 37 of AFSCME, and contributed to numerous other publications. For many years, she was the director of the Women's Project for the Association for Union Democracy, and served on the boards of the New York Labor History Association and the Women's Press Collective.
