About Us

The Illinois AFL-CIO is comprised of over 1500 affiliated unions representing nearly 900,000 workers in Illinois.  Union members and their families can be found in nearly every community from Antioch on the Wisconsin border to Cairo at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi River and from Danville on the Indiana border to Quincy on the Missouri border.

Illinois Union members work in thousands of occupations – electricians, laborers, teachers, first responders, health care workers, transit workers and the list goes on and on.

Although we are many, we have one common goal – economic security and a fair economy that works for all.

We are engaged in politics and legislation for one simple reason – we have to be.   Wealthy corporate interests continually push to weaken economic security measures such as Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment Insurance, push for tax cuts that deprive the public of vital services for schools and public safety, push to weaken wages laws and on-the-job safety measures and continually try to change banking and other laws to make the economy work the top 1%.

Union members understand that our lives and security are dramatically affected by laws and government policies.  As we celebrate more than 60 years since the founding of the Illinois AFL-CIO, our resolve remains to be a unified movement dedicated to advancing the many interests of working families.