Directly Affiliated Local Union

A Directly Affiliated Local Union (DALU) is a U.S. labor union that belongs to the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) but is not a national union and is not entitled to the same rights and privileges within the Federation as national affiliates.

Legally, the AFL-CIO is the parent union of the DALU, and the AFL-CIO is responsible for filing financial disclosure forms with federal and state authorities and providing bargaining support. The AFL-CIO also takes fiduciary responsibility for the local.

Most DALUs have fewer than 1000 members and represent workers in only one workplace.

At one time DALUs were called 'federal labor unions,' and some trade unionists still refer to them as such.

DALU status is usually indicated by the sign on a union office or the title of a webpage, e.g., 'DALU Local 2002, AFL-CIO.' The origin of the numbering system is obscure; that one DALU is called 'Local 2002' does not indicate the existence of 2001 other DALUs, either currently or historically.

As of March 3, 2006, there were only six DALUs remaining in the AFL-CIO, but that number may increase.

Article XV of the AFL-CIO constitution authorizes the federation to issue charters to 'directly affiliated local unions,' although many trade departments of the AFL-CIO do not.

The AFL constitution permitted the formation of DALUs, or federal unions. But DALUs remained few in number until the early 1930s when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) challenged the AFL's craft unionism policies. Although the AFL officially rejected industrial unionism, it could not argue with the success CIO unions were having. Rather than admit failure, however, in 1933 the AFL proposed to use DALUs to organize workers on an industrial basis.

The AFL did not promise to allow DALUs to maintain a separate identity indefinitely. In fact, the AFL dissolved hundreds of federal unions in late 1934 and early 1935 and assigned the members to various other unions.

Although the AFL (and the AFL-CIO) continued to charter DALUs, it did so infrequently and in extremely small numbers. Beginning in the early 1970s, the AFL-CIO adopted an official policy encouraging DALUs to merge with national affiliates. After the election of John Sweeney as president of the AFL-CIO in 1995, the AFL-CIO executive council adopted a policy preventing the charter of new DALUs.

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