• AFL-CIO delegates adopted a resolution aimed at expanding union membership in the United States. In collaboration with Working America, the AFL-CIO is urging employees, both union and non-union, throughout the United States to join the labor movement. It will work to extend workplace representation and benefits to those not represented by a union. 
  • The AFL-CIO plans to play a significant role in 2014 elections in an effort to defeat representatives hostile to organized labor. The ALF-CIO mentioned congressional seats in Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan as targets for support. 
  • Over a two-year period ending on June 30, 2013, the AFL-CIO had an average membership of approximately 8.4 million people, not including associate members. The AFL-CIO has gained approximately 35,000 members since 2009. 
  • At the AFL-CIO convention, the delegates approved several resolutions including, but not limited to, the following: a resolution calling for deeper ties with community partners to win social and economic justice for all workers; a resolution that will give the AFL-CIO with power in overseeing organization efforts of affiliates; a resolution aimed at making the organization of the Southern United States a top priority; and a resolution aimed at making changes to labor law.
  • The AFL-CIO’s financial deficit has become unsustainable. The AFL-CIO approved a resolution to appoint a special committee to conduct a “strategic evaluation of new and existing programs . . . including those of associated organizations, and to assess the financial needs associated with them and the priorities among them.” The special committee might consider raising the per capita tax that unions pay the AFL-CIO from 65 cents per member per month, which has been the amount for the last eight years. 
  • Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, was re-elected for a second four-year term by delegates in attendance at the AFL-CIO convention. Also re-elected to a four-year term was Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler. Tefere Gebre, executive director of the Orange County Labor Federation, was elected Executive Vice President, also for a four-year term. Fifty-five other vice presidents were elected by the delegates to make up the rest of the executive council. 
  • At the AFL-CIO convention, union leaders blasted the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), claiming that union-backed health-plans would be adversely affected if the ACA goes into effect as currently written. In particular, the AFL-CIO would like the ACA to be administered in a way that would preserve multi-employer health coverage plans; provide individuals access to premium tax credits; and make the individuals exempt from various taxes and fees now included in the ACA. The White House responded to the AFL-CIO concerns, stating that “it does not see a legal way for individuals in multi-employer group health plans to receive individual market tax credits, as well as the favorable tax treatment, associated with employer provided health insurance at the same time.” However, “the administration will work with multi-employer plans and other non-profit plans and encourage them to offer coverage through the Marketplace.”