The catch-all “associate member” category was recognized by the Department of Labor during the Clinton regime. This presumably to account for “members” counted by the union, but paying reduced or mostly zero dues, and possessing no or extremely limited voting privileges within the functioning of the union. In 2003, the AFL-CIO created the “Working America” subsidiary organization, and since then every contact made by the Working America canvassers – or people who find the Working America web site and leave their contact information somehow – are all counted as “associate members” of the AFL-CIO.
>From the inception of the labor movement, union “membership” was always >defined as something granted to a worker who had filled-out the required union >membership application form, tendered any required initiation fee, and then >paid their first month of dues. That was the definition. The labor movement >lobbying corps won this associate member “concession” from the Clinton Labor >Department, with today’s consequences now run amok. The Working America minnow has problematically grown to whale-size, now comprising more than one third of all “members” claimed by the AFL-CIO. While the AFL-CIO declares with a straight face having nearly 15 million “members”, the annual 2025 federal reporting form reveals that a full 4,823,802 of those “members” are merely Working America contacts. Those who want to learn more about Working America will find their web site workingamerica.org/ very limited in any substantial or updated detail about what exactly this “Community Affiliate” of the AFL-CIO does beyond occasional canvassing for some basic worker issues and supporting assorted Democratic Party candidates. Any suggestion that you are “joining” a union is absent from the web site. There are also no links on the site to the actual AFL-CIO or any of its 65 affiliate unions, a very odd fact since there may well be workers encountered by the Working America canvassers or web site visitors who might be seeking more information about actually joining a union. Matt Morrison is the Executive Director of Working America. His bio offers that he is a lawyer and spent a very brief part of his political campaign career in the governmental affairs office of the Teachers Union (AFT). His near complete lack of any trade union experience or credentials is of course the shameful norm today in labor’s staff realm. To find that a full 35% of the Federation’s “members” are phantom members paying no dues and having no vote is nothing short of scandalous. –excerpted from "The AFL-CIO Numbers Gimmick," Chris Townsend, Sep 18, 2026 https://mltoday.com/the-afl-cio-numbers-gimmick/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#43473): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43473 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/121362643/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
