We republish below an article by EC member of the International Workers’ Institute (IWI), Chris Townsend.
The American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations, (AFL-CIO) 30th Convention met in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from June 6th to 10th. The proceedings were predictable, scripted, uneventful, and barely noticed by most union members. The working class more broadly were oblivious to this meeting of the top leaders of the nation’s only labor center – representing nearly 70% of the organized workforce here in the United Sates.
All preparations for the shortened Convention had been geared towards maintaining a low profile, and it succeeded in that goal. The very well-paid union officialdom came and went, with no controversy or drama in evidence. Total attendance continues to decline as well, with far fewer attending when compared with the last Convention in 2022. ( See my review of the previous AFL-CIO Convention here: https://mltoday.com/sunset-of-the-afl-cio/ )
Minneapolis Saves Federation Proceedings from Complete Obscurity
The decision by the AFL-CIO leadership to hold their Convention in Minneapolis was fortuitous, saving the event from almost certain and total obscurity. The Minneapolis venue allowed the Federation to associate itself with the mass resistance to the Trump regime immigrant roundups of early this year. That heroic resistance marks a high point – so far – in mass resistance to the Trumpist agenda, with several unions playing key roles in that resistance.
But in a Convention deliberately shortened and tightly scripted the deserved celebration of the Minneapolis resistance served also to crowd out any significant discussion or debate of the growing number of trade union crises facing the labor movement. Most among the 1,900 delegates and guests greeted the Minneapolis reports and comparisons with enthusiasm, even if it is impossible to imagine many affiliate unions engaging in similar mass resistance against Trump – or certainly against the employers.
But in the end, the significant genuine trade union forces in the Convention heartily supported the association with the anti-Trump demonstrations in Minneapolis. Top Federation leadership no doubt senses the outrage among wide and deep layers of the labor movement against Trump. And the association with the Minneapolis events left many top leaders of the unions able to associate themselves with this sentiment without compelling them to articulate their views publicly – or make detailed plans to continue this struggle.
Sham Election as First Order of Business
Setting the tone for the entire Convention was the unprecedented re-election of the top AFL-CIO officers – Liz Shuler, President, and Fred Redmond, Secretary Treasurer – as the very first order of business on the opening day. This sham and snap “election” precluded any possibility of a challenge – or even a modest debate regarding their leadership. This left the delegates listening to the nomination speeches and then victory speeches of both unopposed leaders only minutes into the entire Convention agenda.
The established tradition in most U.S. trade unions has regularly been to elect or re-elect the leadership mid-Convention, in order to at least provide the appearance that opposing candidates might materialize from among the assembled delegates. Similar fixed elections where incumbent leaders are whisked into new terms without so much as a discussion, a leadership report, or any debate whatsoever have historically been foisted on delegates and members by company unions and unions dominated by organized crime.
Avoidance of contested elections has become a hallmark of the U.S. labor movement in recent decades, with an increasing proportion of top leaders elected only after first having been undemocratically selected to fill vacancies. This will repeat very soon when Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond is likely to retire long before the next Convention, allowing the Executive Council of the Federation to secretly select his successor.
Domination by Democratic Party Downplayed
Perhaps the greatest divergence from past practice in Federation Conventions was the greatly reduced profile of the Democratic Party, the party which completely dominates and controls Federation thinking and action. High profile speakers from Democratic or Republican parties were absent, and strenuous attempts by speakers to exhort delegates to remain loyal to the Democrats were kept to a minimum throughout the event.
This development is merely a reflection of the historically low standing of the Democratic Party among working people, also a reflection of the significant support in some sections of the labor movement for certain policies of Trump.
Federation leaders Shuler, Redmond, and the Executive Council faced a difficult task throughout the Convention; how to acknowledge is subtle ways the shortcomings and even failures of the Democratic Party “opposition” to Trump, while at the same time maintaining some credible ability to mobilize the union membership in a bigger-then-ever push for Democrats in this November’s election – and beyond to the 2028 contest. The ruling inner circle of AFL-CIO leaders and political consultants are well aware of the anger within many unions towards mainstream corporatized Democratic Party thinking. And the challenge for them is to try to appeal to and ultimately tap into this increasing progressive sentiment without simultaneously strengthening their significant and expanding challenges to the Democratic Party establishment.
Resolutions Control Discussion and Decisions
No doubt a significant majority of Convention attendees thankfully opposed Trump for a virtually endless variety of reasons, but the choreographers of the event succeeded in heading off any significant criticism aimed at Democrats. With the Convention agenda planned to virtually eliminate the high profile official Democratic Party speeches, resolutions were instead used to occupy the time of delegates and safely shape the very limited discussions. Of the 20 Resolutions adopted by the Convention none was discussed in any significant detail. They range from substantial and sometimes coherent, to those cobbled together for reasons that are difficult to fathom. Readers should scan the list of passed resolutions for themselves here: https://aflcio.org/2026-resolutions
Also be aware that little to nothing has been – or will be – done to publicize any of these resolutions, and even less will be done to actively work towards their goals in the years running up to the next Convention. At some point they will be scrubbed from the AFL-CIO web site, ending any attention drawn to them once and for all. They reflect the truncated and scattered thinking of the wide variety of unions comprising the Federation, but overall, they fail to offer much consistent trade union thinking or principle. Class consciousness, or references to it, are absent. This is also a reflection of the generally low-level political thinking of Federation leadership, and, sadly, of many affiliates.
Sampling the Resolution Grab Bag
Resolution 1, “With You, It’s Better in a Union”, quietly updates the slogan adopted by the Federation leadership at the previous Convention. Intended presumably to inspire the leaders, staff, and members of the Federation, this lackluster slogan never motivated anyone, and its update by adding “With You” merely reflects the fact that even more Federation money has been spent on expensive public relations consultants. The resolution goes on to announce the launch of large new union organizing projects, with no detailed explanations of how, when, or where such organizing will be attempted. Similar claims from previous Conventions have delivered no tangible results.
Resolution 2 continues with claims that two million new union members will be organized over the coming six years. No details are offered, and no believable prospects for this success exist. The so-called “Center for Transformational Organizing” is mentioned as some sort of leading force for new organizing, when in fact this nearly invisible and microscopic organization has conducted little to no new organizing in the several years of its existence – despite the expenditure of millions of dollars in contributions from outside foundations. These devices do however continue to prop-up sagging Federation membership numbers, a scandalous but un-examined situation where almost 5 million phantom “members” are claimed by the federation leaders when in fact none are actual members at all.
Resolutions 5 and 6 offer long and compelling lists of various problems and crises facing all working people today, but none declares any specific resolves for needed action. Resolution Nine, “We Want a Just and Peaceful World” breaks some new ground by expressing the overwhelming sentiment of the membership in support for a cease-fire in Gaza, but fails otherwise to denounce the Zionist genocide now being waged in the greater Middle Eastern region. Trump wars being waged on Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba are ignored. The AFL-CIO Convention, so completely subordinated to the Democratic Party, finds itself unable to raise even a faint voice in opposition to the world-wide war agenda promoted and supported by Trump – and most of the Democratic Party establishment.
The final adopted resolution, “Resolution 41: Justice for Virginia’s Public Service Workers”, denounces the shameful and disastrous veto of legislation to legalize public sector union organizing in Virginia by former CIA agent and Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger. But so timid and dishonest are the AFL-CIO Convention managers that it is never mentioned that Spanberger is a Democrat, having been elected with enormous labor support. (See my recent article for this deeper and astounding story: https://mltoday.com/virginia-labor-movement-takes-a-torpedo-from-a-democrat/ )
The remaining Resolutions are an assortment of issues, complaints, goals, and grievances, all cobbled together and reflecting in the aggregate the fractured thinking of the Federation. Of particular note among the remainder would be Resolution 17, “Revitalizing Domestic Shipbuilding, Ship Repair and Maritime Industries”. While certainly in dire need of a national rebuild of this key and embattled industry, the resolution purports to blame China for all manner of ills regarding this industry, hoping to utilize this cheap anti-communism in the search for Republican and Trump support. This resolution engages in wholesale dishonesty on several levels, since all facts will attest that the domestic shipbuilding and maritime industries were destroyed not by China, but by U.S. corporate greed. All of that greed protected and subsidized by the pathologically anti-communist U.S. political, military, and economic agenda. The industrial and maritime unions promoting this absurd formula find themselves willingly addicted to the unsustainable levels of U.S. military spending, refusing to recognize that the rebuild of the civilian maritime industries will be the only source of stable jobs and union membership. More taxpayer money poured into super-profitable boom-and-bust war projects has already proven over past decades to be no solution.
Little News – and Even Less Reporting
Given the deliberate and effective strategy of the Federation leadership to keep the Convention proceedings out of the public eye, it is guaranteed that little post-Convention discussion or action will take place. With nothing of significant note having happened, and with few reporters on hand to observe even the subdued event, there has predictably been almost no follow-up reporting on the gathering of the leadership of the nation’s one and only labor center.
Less than a dozen media reporters attended the Minneapolis Convention, once automatically considered front-page national news. National left media missed or ignored this gathering of the labor movement, with most opting to spend their precious resources covering the far larger and active Labor Notes meeting the following week in Chicago. The Jacobin publication, In These Times, and Labor Notes all avoided even mentioning the Minneapolis happening. The Communist Party’s People’s World web site did cover the event with nearly a dozen brief reports posted, but the coverage contained little analysis and mostly reflected the evolving thinking of the Communist Party. With several notable and welcome exceptions, the reporting offered the same tired and exaggerated cheerleading for labor establishment figures which has dogged and damaged the Communist Party’s reputation for several decades. This situation leaves even interested and supportive observers of the labor gathering with the official line, some anti-union blathering available on-line, and not much else.
Major Retreat Signaled by Fed Leaders
The single notable and astonishing item buried in plain sight was “Constitutional Amendment Number 1”. Promulgated prior to the Convention, embraced by the Executive Council leaders in secret, and then hurriedly run past the delegates, this remarkable amendment to the AFL-CIO Constitution sets in stone that the next convention will be delayed until 2031, a full five years away. Given the emergency nature of the assaults landing on workers and the unions, and in view of the incredibly urgent need for labor’s “general staff” to meet even more frequently than has been the norm, the delay of the next Convention for nearly 5 years is an appalling act of treachery and misleadership, to put it mildly.
The Amendment was pitched as a sort-of ordinary “housekeeping” measure, presumably to align the next Convention dates with odd numbered years every 4 years, as had been the custom. That being noted, it is astonishing given the urgent and dangerous conditions in which all labor and AFL-CIO affiliates currently function, that it seemed acceptable to extend out the next Convention a full 5 years!
The actual significance of the quick move is more sinister. All democratic norms have been suspended by a Federation already addled by its lack of democratic processes, and this acts to protect those already “re-elected” in the sham election just conducted. The Convention is ultimately the highest body of the Federation, and the apparent lack of opposition to this power-grab by Shuler and Redmond – and whoever emerges as the backroom choice to replace Redmond – from the affiliate union leaders is perhaps not shocking, but no less staggering in its significance. None of the “decisions” made at the just concluded Convention will face any scrutiny until 2031. The virtually unknown Executive Council members will continue to “lead” the Federation from their secret sessions. Shuler will be left unquestioned to preside over another 5 years of drift, decay, demoralization, and subordination to the Democratic Party.
AFL-CIO Mummification Nearly Complete
The mummification of the AFL-CIO, and its end as an effective and relevant force for progress is nearly complete. Those pieces as yet not subject to the embalming process will by 2031 be completely mummified, as the just concluded 30th AFL-CIO Convention has decided. While expectations for the recent Convention were low, in fact very low, it is still remarkable that the sitting leadership of the majority of the U.S. labor movement has seen fit to lay out such an uninspiring strategy at this moment, of all moments.
For those seeking a deeper look into the 30th AFL-CIO Convention, see several article by this author: From 2026 https://mltoday.com/if-the-afl-cio-had-a-convention-would-anyone-notice/ and https://mltoday.com/one-man-versus-the-afl-cio-machine/
From 2022 https://mltoday.com/sunset-of-the-afl-cio/
Significant video clips from the Minneapolis Convention are available – at least until such time as they are removed – on the AFL-CIO web site at: https://aflcio.org/afl-cio-tv
Source: https://mltoday.com/the-mummification-of-the-afl-cio/
