Directly Affiliated Local Union - History and Structure

History and Structure

Article XV of the AFL-CIO constitution authorizes the federation to issue charters to 'directly affiliated local unions,' although many trade departments of the AFL-CIO do not.

The AFL constitution permitted the formation of DALUs, or federal unions. But DALUs remained few in number until the early 1930s when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) challenged the AFL's craft unionism policies. Although the AFL officially rejected industrial unionism, it could not argue with the success CIO unions were having. Rather than admit failure, however, in 1933 the AFL proposed to use DALUs to organize workers on an industrial basis.

The AFL did not promise to allow DALUs to maintain a separate identity indefinitely. In fact, the AFL dissolved hundreds of federal unions in late 1934 and early 1935 and assigned the members to various other unions.

Although the AFL (and the AFL-CIO) continued to charter DALUs, it did so infrequently and in extremely small numbers. Beginning in the early 1970s, the AFL-CIO adopted an official policy encouraging DALUs to merge with national affiliates. After the election of John Sweeney (labor leader) as president of the AFL-CIO in 1995, the AFL-CIO executive council adopted a policy preventing the charter of new DALUs.