ALF-CIO aims to grow membership by a million in the next 10 years; union leaders want more
The ALF-CIO revealed at their Philadelphia convention that they hope to grow union membership by a million over the next ten years, but some union leaders thought that, in the wake of prominent union drives at Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple, that the nation's largest union needs to aim higher and take advantage of the increased interest in unions. A goal of roughly 100,000 members per year is a growth rate of less than 1% for the country's unions. Unite Here, the union for hotel workers, for example, managed to increase membership by 8% before the pandemic. Other union leaders felt strongly that now was the time to set bigger goals based on young employees, who historically have made up the largest source of union growth. Newly elected ALF-CIO president Liz Shuler defended the goal as a "measurable" goal, and not merely a dream. She also announced the creation of the Center for Transformational Organizing, which will focus on how to unionize new-economy companies.
See "ALF-CIO aims to grow membership by a million in the next 10 years; union leaders want more", Steven Greenhouse, The Guardian, June 16, 2022