A Union of Unions: Revitalizing Labor Councils

I’d been to Music City Center in Nashville before, but this day was different. I sat with colleagues and ran into other people I knew from the progressive movement, but we had not convened to discuss organizing strategies or hear from a candidate. We were there to mourn the loss of a grand force in not only Nashville, but all of Southern labor: Vonda McDaniel. 

McDaniel’s presence loomed large all throughout the center’s 2.1 million square feet, literally and figuratively. Photos of her adorned the monitors across the building, and she had served as vice-chair of the Music City Center board, ensuring that organized labor had a seat at the table of Nashville’s largest convention center. Charles Starks, president of Music City Center, called it “the house that Vonda built.” 

Hundreds of people had gathered from across the country on July 8 to pay their respects to McDaniel, who at the time of her death was transitioning from her role as president of the Nashville and Middle Tennessee Central Labor Council (CLC) to co-executive director of the prestigious Highlander Center. 

McDaniel, a Nashville native, worked at the Bridgestone Firestone plant where she joined United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1055. She rose in union leadership and became president of the Nashville CLC in 2013. In this role, she brought together strong coalitions of labor, social justice organizations, and faith groups like Stand up Nashville, Nashville Justice League, and Tennessee for All. She also served on the national AFL-CIO Executive Council.

And for me, Vonda McDaniel opened the door to the labor movement and all it could be. I was a young activist in Nashville preparing for a direct action when someone told me I should reach out to the Nashville CLC. I didn’t understand. What did unions have to do with social justice? 

Seeing Vonda bring people together from all walks of life inspired me. My typical organizing circles were full of people who went to the same schools and shared the exact same politics and held the same types of jobs. At one of the CLC’s monthly luncheons, you could find teachers talking with ironworkers and politicians learning from electricians—all races, genders, and educational backgrounds represented. This was the kind of movement that social justice activists like me said we wanted to build, but it already existed, and the CLC that Vonda McDaniel steered for more than a decade gave us a living example. 

The what and why of labor councils

Central labor councils have been a critical piece of infrastructure for the American labor movement as far back as the end of the 19th century. With the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955, central labor councils and area labor federations became the go-to hubs for local organizing. 

Where national unions organize occupationally, central area labor councils organize geographically, becoming a logical home for the work of advancing labor’s needs politically at a local level. Labor councils are like a union of unions. Union locals represent workers at one business or in one bargaining unit in a large firm. They are branches of national unions, and join labor councils as affiliate members. For example, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) is affiliated with the national AFL-CIO and represents workers across the United States and Canada, while IAMAW 44 represents workers at United Launch Alliance in Decatur, Alabama and is an affiliated member of the North Alabama Area Labor Council.

Labor councils are categorized by the IRS as a 501(c)(5). This allows them to accept (non-tax-deductible) donations and do political work like endorsing candidates.  

But like all limbs of the labor movement, labor councils hit a slump as the 20th century progressed into the 21st. In the U.S. union density reached a peak of 33.5% in 1954, but had dwindled to a record low of 9.9% in 2024; in Alabama the descent was 21.1% in 1964 to 6.6% in 2024.

Huntsville and the North Alabama Area Labor Council

After I left Nashville, I returned to my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. I found a position at a great nonprofit that voluntarily recognized our union, represented by CWA 3908, instead of forcing us to have a tedious and drawn-out election process. My first task as a union member was to join the local labor council. I’m now vice-president and doing my best to continue Vonda’s legacy of Black women labor leaders.   

Huntsville is certainly not what one immediately thinks of as a union stronghold, past or present. But manufacturing played a significant role in North Alabama through the beginning of the 21st century. Then United Rubber Workers Local 915 took a big hit when the Dunlop plant closed in 2003. Lawrence County’s largest employer, International Paper, represented by Steelworkers Local 1137, started layoffs in 2000 before finally shutting down in 2014. 

Morrison sees a successful labor council as acting as “representatives of the working people.” That representation can come by electing pro-labor candidates and advocating once they’re in office, supporting organizing drives, and educating the general public about the labor movement. 

The aerospace industry that earned Huntsville its nickname of Rocket City continues to thrive due to the large federal presence that developed space exploration technology in the 1950s and ‘60s. More than 20,000 aerospace professionals call Huntsville home today; Redstone Arsenal, home to the Marshall Space Flight Center and more than 70 other organizations, is the city’s largest employer. And many of its employees are union members.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is a labor union that represents around 10,000 workers on Redstone Arsenal, from firefighters to systems analysts. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFTPE) represents approximately 1,400 NASA employees in Huntsville. 

After an internship at the Army Corps of Engineers, Jacob Morrison started as a project manager in 2018 and joined AFGE Local 1858. He quickly rose up the ranks at his union, becoming an Assistant Vice President (essentially a shop steward) by the time he was 25. After organizing on the University of Alabama at Huntsville campus for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign in 2016, he had gotten discouraged about the potential impact of electoral politics alone. The labor movement offered people a way to make their lives better through collective action, in their workplaces and in the community more broadly.  But he saw a gap.

Huntsville still had dozens of active union locals with thousands of workers represented, but they didn’t have a collective voice. To remedy that, he sought to revitalize the North Alabama Area Labor Council (NAALC), the umbrella group for unions in the area. Morrison sees a successful labor council as acting as “representatives of the working people.” That representation can come by electing pro-labor candidates and advocating once they’re in office, supporting organizing drives, and educating the general public about the labor movement. 

Newspaper stories from the last half of the 20th century highlighted the NAALC’s role in North Alabama politics: endorsements, statements on the day’s news stories, strike support, and more. But by 2018 when Morrison started asking how he could get involved, he said,  ”I was told that I just missed it. Literally. It was de-chartered in 2017.” 

He jumped in, becoming the youngest labor council president in the state. He and his colleague turned vice-president, David Story (Machinists Union Local 44) started with five affiliated locals, the minimum required by the AFL-CIO to charter a CLC. They applied for the charter, received $3,000 from the previous labor council’s bank account and put it in the Bank of Labor.

“I would like to get every local union in the area affiliated,” he says. “I’d like to see us be a counter to the Chamber of Commerce.” 

Morrison made sure entry to the labor council was accessible. He set the “per caps” at $.10 per member per month, meaning that if an affiliated local had 200 members, they were charged $20/month or $240/year for dues. 

The resurrected NAALC held its first meeting in 2019, and was fully rechartered in April 2020, eventually growing its membership to 12 affiliate local unions representing thousands of workers across seven counties in North Alabama. These workers include machinists, letter carriers, and stagehands.

In organizing, Morrison still finds that the first barrier is often demonstrating the value of the NAALC to local unions.

“Very few people want to get to a party before it starts,” he said of getting new members and locals engaged. His role is also unpaid, so he has limited time and resources to dedicate.

Still, Morrison and the other members of the NAALC are proud of their accomplishments. They’ve built relationships with local press, and with the support of AFL-CIO staff, have achieved consistent and favorable media coverage. In Summer 2024, the NAALC sent out candidate questionnaires and gave out its first endorsements and canvassed to help elect a retired union member who campaigned on working-class representation to become Huntsville’s first Black woman city councilperson. 

This spring, the NAALC’s Community Solidarity Committee collaborated with local advocates and community members to show resistance to a hospital consolidation that effectively created a healthcare monopoly for half the state; they held a listening session, released a report, and met with hospital leadership. 

And Morrison still has big goals for the council. 

“I would like to get every local union in the area affiliated,” he says. “I’d like to see us be a counter to the Chamber of Commerce.” 

Fertile soil for new leaders

In his work as the NAALC president as well as host of The Valley Labor Report, a union radio show that airs in five states, Morrison has met and learned from other labor leaders across the country. 

One of those leaders is Tevita Uhatafe, president of the newly formed North Texas Area Labor Federation (similar to labor councils, area labor federations are regional labor bodies). Formerly president of the Tarrant County Labor Council, Uhatafe says support from state leadership is essential for growing a labor council or area labor federation. 

Uhatafe did not grow up in a union family. Instead, his Tongan community grounded him in the elements he would come to recognize in the labor movement: solidarity, service, and loyalty. When he started working at the airport he joined Transport Workers Union Local 567. Affable by nature, he found the Tarrant County Labor Council was eager for new members and young leaders. 

Now the president, Uhatafe continues to develop young leaders through YALL. The Texas AFL-CIO runs Young Active Labor Leaders or YALL, which provides a space for young adults on all labor council boards throughout the state. Uhatafe sees this as an essential tool for ensuring the labor movement endures. 

Uhatafe uses traditional and social media to build credibility and support. He also engages with community members on a variety of projects. One of these is a school supply drive with teachers. This not only brings the community together, but helps facilitate organizing conversations with teachers that can often be difficult to start. 

Elsewhere around the country, just in the last two years the Chattanooga Area Labor Council supported a successful UAW drive at Volkswagen, and the Pierce County Central Labor Council secured $5 million from the state of Washington to create a childcare and workforce hub. 

Labor councils act as a breeding ground for leadership: Beau Hawk, formerly of the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Central Labor Council, had a prominent campaign for Knox County Mayor and closed the gap in a predominantly red county and before her death Vonda McDaniel had been tapped to serve as the co-executive director of the prestigious Highlander Center. 

Local innovation, national pushback

Labor councils can also pilot big changes in direction, though these are not always welcome or sustainable. In 2019, the Vermont State Labor Council (VSLC) elected new leadership to their executive board: The Vermont AFL-CIO United! slate was a group of progressive rank-and-file unionists who were excited to rebuild the VSLC’s organizing and advocacy strategies. 

“We were running worker circles while we were in office, where people could come, organized or unorganized, and share wisdom, information, tools, strategies,” Ellen Kaye, VSLC’s former executive vice-president said.

They made bold moves like using regular workers as policy advocates instead of paid lobbyists, supporting Green New Deal legislation, opening up meetings to all union members not just paid officers, and endorsing third party candidates. “The basic principle of organizing is calling somebody up and saying, ‘Hey, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this thing,” Kaye said. 

Their visionary approach paid off in legislative and organizing wins, and they started to receive attention for these changes. These wins and changes brought a high level of visibility to the small state. 

In 2020, the Vermont State Labor Council passed a resolution to call a general strike if Trump refused to leave office, in direct violation of a decision by the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO. The national president at the time, the late Richard Trumka, condemned the resolution, investigated VSLC president David Van Deusen for misconduct, and threatened to put the VSLC into a trusteeship as he felt the resolution conflicted with the national AFL-CIO’s electoral strategy. 

After Trumka passed away in August 2021, the new AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler continued to investigate the VSLC. The United! slate won in 2023, electing Katie Maurice as the youngest state federation president in the country (and the only DSA member at the time). The national AFL-CIO nullified these election results, ordering a new election with new rules in May 2024. Larry Moquin, who had run and lost against Maurice in 2023, was elected in that contest,  andreelected in September 2025. Currently the executive board of the VSLC is a mix of United! supporters and others.  

“We had people but we weren’t organized enough,” Kaye said. “I would say that’s my word of caution to people. If you’re going to do a progressive slate and really try to accomplish things, people have to be committed.” The VSLC experiment offers lessons to other labor movement visionaries who challenge established leadership. 

Whether serving as sites of innovation or incubators of solidarity, labor councils are formidable, although sometimes overlooked, institutions within the labor movement. They’re an essential organizing tool and a way for unions to act collectively.