The Preamble to the AFL-CIO Constitution:
The Preamble to the AFL-CIO Constitution:
- The establishment of this Federation through the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial
- Organizations is an expression of the hopes and aspirations of the working people of America.
- We seek fulfillment of these hopes and aspirations through democratic processes within the framework of our constitutional
- government and consistent with our institutions and traditions.
- At the collective bargaining table, in the community, in the exercise of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, we shall
- responsibly serve the interests of all the American people.
- We pledge ourselves to the more effective organization of working men and women; to the securing to them of full recognition
- and enjoyment of the rights to which they are justly entitled; to the achievement of ever higher standards of living and working
- conditions; to the attainment of security for all the people sufficient to enable workers and their families to live in dignity; to the
- enjoyment of the leisure which their skills make possible; and to the strengthening and extension of our way of life and our
- democratic society.
- We shall combat resolutely the forces which seek to undermine the democratic institutions of our nation and to enslave the
- human soul. We shall strive always to win full respect for the dignity of the human individual whom our unions serve.
- With Divine guidance, grateful for the fine traditions of our past, confident of meeting the challenge of the future, we proclaim
- this Constitution.
What it is
Its Structure What it does The Union Label