Editing AFL-CIO (section)

== Governance ==
The AFL-CIO is governed by its members, who meet in a quadrennial convention. Each member union elects delegates, based on proportional representation. The AFL-CIO's state federations, central and local labor councils, constitutional departments, and constituent groups are also entitled to delegates. The delegates elect officers and vice presidents, debate and approve policy, and set dues.<ref>Ray M. Tillman and Michael S. Cummings, ''The Transformation of U.S. Unions: Voices, Visions, and Strategies from the Grassroots'' (1999) pp 49-60 explains in detail the governance structure of the AFL–CIO</ref>

=== Annual meetings ===
From 1951 to 1996, the Executive Council held its winter meeting in the resort town of [[Bal Harbour, Florida]].<ref name=Galvin1996>{{cite news|last=Galvin|first=Kevin|title=AFL-CIO saying goodbye to fun in sun as it fights decline|newspaper=Houston Chronicle|date=19 February 1996|page=5|quote=The Bal Harbour meeting dates to 1951, before the American Federation of Labor merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.}}</ref> The meeting at the Bal Harbour Sheraton has been the object of frequent criticism, including over a labor dispute at the hotel itself.<ref name=Stieghorst1991>{{cite news|last=Stieghorst|first=Tom|title=AFL-CIO May Cancel Annual Trip Sheraton Bal Harbor Focus Of Labor Dispute|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1991-12-21-9102230054-story.html|access-date=2 August 2012|newspaper=Sun-Sentinel|date=21 December 1991|archive-date=September 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918161453/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1991-12-21-9102230054-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sturr 2009">{{cite news|last=Sturr|first=Chris|title=The Staley Lockout (Thad Williamson)|url=http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/09/the-staley-lockout-thad-williamson.html|access-date=2 August 2012|newspaper=Dollars & Sense|date=24 September 2009|quote=In of the book's most memorable scenes, Staley workers made a pilgrimage to AFL–CIO executive council meetings in Bal Harbour, Florida in February 1995, confronting stunned national leaders inside the luxurious Sheraton Hotel.|archive-date=May 23, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523225937/http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/09/the-staley-lockout-thad-williamson.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Carmichael1986>{{cite news|last=Carmichael|first=Dan|title=Maverick strikers refused meeting|newspaper=United Press International|date=19 February 1986|quote=Renegade strikers at a Minnesota Hormel plant were refused entrance to an AFL–CIO Executive Council meeting Wednesday and they accused President Lane Kirkland and other labor leaders of being 'out of touch' with workers.}}</ref>

Citing image concerns, the council changed the meeting site to [[Los Angeles]].<ref name=PressRelease1997>{{cite web|title=Media Advisory for AFL–CIO Executive Council Meeting February 17–20|url=https://aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/AFL-CIO-Executive-Council-Meeting|work=Press Releases|publisher=AFL-CIO|access-date=2 August 2012|quote=Top leaders of the AFL–CIO will meet for nearly a week at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles beginning Sunday, February 16th – the first time in more than 30 years that the winter executive council meeting has not been held in the resort town of Bal Harbour, Florida.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730103609/http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/AFL-CIO-Executive-Council-Meeting|archive-date=30 July 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=Hershey1996>{{cite news|last=Hershey|first=William|title=Union Meeting Heads for L.A.: After 70 Years of Flocking to Florida, AFL–CIO Will Go Where There's Work, Organizing to Be Done|newspaper=Akron Beacon Journal|date=23 February 1996|page=B8}}</ref> However, the meeting was moved back to Bal Harbour several years later.<ref name=Strope2004>{{cite news|last=Strope|first=Leigh|title=AFL-CIO President Says Bush AWOL on Jobs|newspaper=Associated Press Online|date=9 March 2004|quote=The decision to return to Bal Harbor, where room rates for the meeting start at $225 a night, was made a few years ago to avoid losing deposit money, Sweeney said.}}</ref>   The 2012 meeting was held in [[Orlando, Florida]].<ref name=Daraio2012>{{cite news|last=Daraio|first=Robert|title=The AFL–CIO Executive Council and the IATSE General Executive Board Endorses Obama for Second Term|url=http://broadcastunionnews.blogspot.com/2012/03/iatse-general-executive-board-endorses.html|access-date=2 August 2012|newspaper=Broadcast Union News|date=14 March 2012|archive-date=April 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402162421/http://broadcastunionnews.blogspot.com/2012/03/iatse-general-executive-board-endorses.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== State and local bodies ===
The AFL-CIO constitution permits international unions to pay state federation and central labor council (CLC) dues directly, rather than have each local or state federation pay them. This relieves each union's state and local affiliates of the administrative duty of assessing, collecting and paying the dues. International unions assess the AFL-CIO dues themselves, and collect them on top of their own dues-generating mechanisms or simply pay them out of the dues the international collects. But not all international unions pay their required state federation and CLC dues.<ref>Michelle Amber, "SEIU Agrees to Pay Nearly $4 Million to Settle Dispute with AFL–CIO Over Dues," ''Daily Labor Report,'' March 2, 2006.</ref>

=== Constitutional departments ===
One of the most well-known departments was the [[Industrial Union Department]] (IUD). It had been constitutionally mandated by the new AFL-CIO constitution created by the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Collection: AFL–CIO Office of the President, State and Local Central Bodies Merger records {{!}} Archival Collections|url=https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/1473|access-date=2020-11-10|website=archives.lib.umd.edu|archive-date=November 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130180154/https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/1473|url-status=live}}</ref> as CIO unions felt that the AFL's commitment to industrial unionism was not strong enough to permit the department to survive without a constitutional mandate. For many years, the IUD was a ''[[de facto]]'' organizing department in the AFL-CIO. For example, it provided money to the near-destitute [[American Federation of Teachers]] (AFT) as it attempted to organize the [[United Federation of Teachers]] in 1961. The organizing money enabled the AFT to win the election and establish its first large collective bargaining affiliate. For many years, the IUD remained rather militant on a number of issues.

There are six AFL-CIO constitutionally mandated departments:
* [[North America's Building Trades Unions]]
* [[Maritime Trades Department, AFL–CIO|Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO]]
* [[Metal Trades Department, AFL–CIO|Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO]]
* [[Department for Professional Employees, AFL–CIO|Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO]]
* [[Transportation Trades Department, AFL–CIO|Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO]]
* [[Union Label Department, AFL–CIO|Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO]]