The AFL comprised primarily craft unions and was oriented towards the moderate and conservative end of the labour movement, while the CIO primarily comprised industrial unions which tended to be more radical.
[4] In some regions, such as the Nordic countries, different federations exist on a sectoral basis, for example, for blue collar workers and professionals.
[5] One of the ITUC's predecessors, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), was founded as an anti-communist splinter of the WFTU.
A federation may also be founded on explicitly secular grounds such as the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT).
[5][9][10] It was the smallest of the 3 major international federations during the cold war,[9] and ended up merging with the ICTFU to form the ITUC.