American Federation of Labor

Federation of North American trade unions, representing through 68 affiliated unions, 13 million workers, or about 14% of the workforce in North America (2000).

The AFL was founded 1886 by Samuel Gompers and was initially a union of skilled craftworkers. The CIO, representing unskilled workers, broke away from the AFL in the mid-1930s. A merger reunited them in 1955, bringing most unions into the national federation. In 1995 John Sweeney became the leader of the AFL–CIO.