Union Label Department, AFL–CIO
# Union Label Department, AFL–CIO

The Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL–CIO was founded on April 12, 1909, to promote the products and services produced in America by trade union members—especially those products and services identified by a union label, shop card, store card and/or service button. The department is a constitutionally mandated department of the AFL–CIO.

The department's offices are located at the AFL–CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. The department has many state and local councils and committees, and works closely with AFL–CIO state and local labor bodies to carry out its functions.

## Activities

The ULS&TD primary function is to promote the union label. These emblems demonstrate that the employees who make the product or provide the service are union workers, and that they are treated fairly by their employers.

The ULS&TD also coordinates national boycotts that have been endorsed by the AFL–CIO executive council. The department maintains and publishes the "Do Not Buy" list of companies being boycotted and the products and services involved. The Label Letter publication is the most visible means the department uses to publicize boycott updates. The Label Letter features special interest stories, alerts, a "Do Buy" section, and other information of interest. Member unions of the AFL–CIO and their local affiliates often reproduce sections and articles of the newsletter to spreading the "union label message" to union members and their families.

One of the more widely known activities of the department is the annual AFL–CIO Union-Industries Show. Held in a different city each year, the show is a cooperative effort of unions and the companies with which they have contracts. Unions and employers exhibit union-made and American-made products and services. Free to the public, the event often draws large crowds.

ULS&TD also exclusively endorses the "Shop Union Made" website as an "official" Internet shopping site for union-made products and services.

## Leadership

### Presidents

    1909: John Brown Lennon
    1911: John F. Tobin
    1916: John W. Hays
    1926: George William Perkins
    1934: Matthew Woll
    1956: John J. Mara
    1960: Richard F. Walsh
    1975: Joseph D. Keenan
    1980: John E. Mara
    1982: James E. Hatfield
    1997: Charles Mercer
    2008: Richard Kline

### Secretary-Treasurers

    1909: Thomas F. Tracy
    1917: John J. Manning
    1932: George W. Perkins
    1933: John J. Manning
    1934: Ira M. Ornbum
    1950: Raymond F. Leheney
    1957: Joseph Lewis
    1971: Edward P. Murphy
    1976: Earl D. McDavid
    1982: John E. Mara
    1988: Sidney Heller
    1989: Richard J. Perry
    1994: Charles E. Mercer
    1997: Dennis L. Kivikko
    2003: Matthew C. Bates
    2000s: James H. Dunn
