Definition of Congress of industrial organizations

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by Senator Huey Long in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The CIO was more aggressive and militant than the American Federation of Labor (AFL); its leaders were often younger and used more radical tactics until certain leaders within the organization, that are claimed to have been Communists, were purged in the late 1940s and 1950s and the organization merged with the AFL in 1955. The CIO strongly supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Coalition, and was notable for being open to African Americans. The CIO grew rapidly from 1936 to 1945, but so did the larger AFL. Battles for control over industrial sectors such as meatpacking and electric machinery made for a bitter and often violent rivalry with the AFL.