AFL-CIO spends far more on politics than organizing

A leaked internal budget for the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, shows that it devotes more than three times as much to political advocacy as it does to organizing and recruiting new members. The imbalance comes despite a membership decline for the federation and the labor movement in general.

The AFL-CIO’s 2018–2019 budget, acquired by Splinter, lists the total amount allocated to organizing about $5 million. In the same year, the federation allocated about $40.6 million to “political, electoral and issue mobilization.”