Laborers' International Union of North America
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| Full name | Laborers' International Union of North America |
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| Founded | April 13, 1903 |
| Members | 557,999 (2013) |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO |
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| Country | United States, Canada |
| Website | www |
The Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA, often shortened to just the Laborers' Union) is an American and Canadian labor union formed in 1903, which seeks to advance the rights and interests of its members. As of 2009, they had about 632,000 members, about 80,000 of whom are in Canada.
The current general president is Terence M. O'Sullivan who was appointed general president in 2000, elected by delegates in 2001, and re-elected in 2006. He did not face an opponent in either election. The union is divided into nine regions across North America; these regions are further divided into a total of just over 500 local unions. One region is in Canada and is led by Joseph Mancinelli.
On June 1, 2006, O'Sullivan announced that LIUNA had disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO and joined the Change to Win Federation. However, LIUNA officials said on August 13, 2010, that the union would leave Change to Win and rejoin the AFL-CIO in October 2010.
LIUNA’s origins stretch back to the 19th century when local construction unions began popping up across the United States. Then, in March 1903, Samuel Gompers, the President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), successfully persuaded various local construction unions from across the U.S. to unite in order to consolidate power in their fight against unfair labor practices.
As a result, on April 13, 1903, the International Hod Carriers and Building Laborers’ Union (IHC and BLC) was established at its founding convention in Washington D.C. At the convention there were 25 delegates from 23 unions in 17 different cities in attendance. During the course of the convention the delegates elected a General President, Herman Lilien, a General Secretary-Treasurer, Harold Stemburgh, and adopted a Declaration of Principles. Also, the delegates were able to produce the union's first charter, which claimed jurisdiction over:
"Wrecking of buildings, excavations of buildings, digging of trenches, piers and foundations, holes, digging, lagging, sheeting of said foundations, holes, and caisson work, concrete for buildings, whether foundations, floors or any other, whether done by hand or any other process, tending to masons, mixing and handling all materials used by masons (except stone setters), building of centers for fireproofing purposes, tending to carpenters, tending to and mixing of all materials for plastering, whether done by hand or any other process, clearing of debris from buildings, shoring, underpin- ning and raising of old buildings, drying of plastering, when done by sala- mander heat, handling of dimension stones."
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