According to the AFL-CIO constitution, ejecting a member union would require an investigation and vote by its executive council, which includes the federation’s top officers and representatives from the 55 member unions.
Richard Trumka, the federation’s president, suggested on a call with reporters about racial justice this week that he had little interest in a debate on whether to boot police unions.
It included the sort of criticism most unions have shied away from: “Many police and law enforcement unions across the country have refused common-sense steps to reform departments, address systemic bias in law enforcement and hold their own members accountable.”
The AFL-CIO has a financial interest in the IUPA remaining a member, since unions pay per-capita taxes to the federation, although the IUPA is relatively small compared to other public-sector unions.
Ana Avendaño, former member of an AFL-CIO race commission
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees carries the torch of the Memphis sanitation strikers, and has one of the country’s most powerful Black labor leaders as its president, Lee Saunders.
