American Federation of Labor and Congress of
Industrial Organizations 
AFL-CIO Superseding the Federation of 
Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the USA 
and Canada, and was initially a union of 
skilled craftworkers. The CIO was known in 
1935 as the Committee on Industrial 
Organization (it adopted its present title 
1937 after expulsion from the AFL for its 
opposition to the AFL policy of including 
only skilled workers). A merger reunited 
them 1955, bringing most unions into the 
national federation, currently representing 
about 20% of the workforce in North America.