In 1955, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), forming the AFL-CIO.
The CIO had been founded to promote industrial unionism, and the new federation created a department to bring together industrial unions.
[1] By 1985, the department had 57 affiliates, representing about 5.5 million members.
At the time, it spent about one-third of its funds on organizing, providing co-ordinators to direct the organizing activities of member unions, with a focus on the south.
It also arranged consolidated bargaining across unions with members in a single company, and campaigned on health and safety, which resulted in the Occupational Safety and Health Act.