posts tagged asafl-cio

From Solidarity to Shock Therapy: The AFL-CIO and the Fall of Soviet Communism

by on November 22, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the death of Mikhail Gorbachev this year have sparked renewed interest in the USSR’s 1991 disintegration, a moment that officially brought an end to the Cold War.

Historians have been prominent in the many recent discussions and debates about how the demise of the Soviet Union thirty years ago set the stage for Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, the controversial expansion of NATO, and the current war in Ukraine.  

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Richard L. Trumka (1949 – 2021)

by on August 29, 2021

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President, died on August 5, 2021 at the age of 72 after a lifetime of service dedicated to America’s working families.  He worked to guide the labor movement amidst rapid changes with his signature emphasis on capital stewardship, organizing rights, global solidarity, and working-class political power. 

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AFL-CIO Merger: In Commemoration of the AFL-CIO’s 60th Anniversary

by on March 2, 2016

Before 1955, the AFL (American Federation of Labor) and the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) were separate, competing organizations. The two organizations chose to merge in 1955 to strengthen the labor movement and help eliminate competition between unions and workers. From the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Maryland, this collection is a “behind the scenes” look at the logistics involved in working out the details of the merger.

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