Largest labor union in the United States.
The AFL-CIO formed in 1955 when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged. During the 1950s and 1960s, the AFL-CIO concentrated on increasing the wages of union members and on improving employee benefits. Collective bargaining, legal under the Wagner Act, provided labor with a powerful bargaining tool, and the prosperity of the times resulted in employers agreeing to most union demands. However, by the 1970s economic stagflation (the coexistence of high unemployment and high inflation) resulted in many workers being laid off.
One of the most difficult challenges faced by the union was that the Japanese automakers flooded the U.S. market with their smaller, more fuel-efficient cars just when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) placed embargoes on oil shipped to western nations. For the first time, AFL-CIO officials petitioned Congress to raise tariff rates on Japanese imports. Congress did not acquiesce to an increase, because tariff officials agreed that Americans wanted smaller vehicles and the Japanese had not engaged in unfair trade practices. The AFL-CIO continued to pressure the government, fearing the loss of American jobs. The Japanese agreed to voluntary export restrictions and began building plants in the United States to address the issue of lost jobs. Since the late 1980s, the union has opposed free trade. During the negotiating process for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the AFL-CIO pushed for provisions that would protect American workers and the environment and expressed its disapproval when Congress ratified the agreement without such provisions.
