Elizabeth H. Shuler is president of the AFL-CIO, the democratic federation of 63 national and international unions that represent nearly 15 million working people. President Shuler is the first woman leader of America’s labor movement.  President Shuler believes the labor movement is the single most powerful vehicle for progress and that unions are a central force in leading lasting societal transformations.

President Liz Shuler was elected by acclamation to serve as president of the federation on June 12, 2022. She first held the office after being elected by the AFL-CIO Executive Council on Aug. 20, 2021, following the unexpected and untimely passing of her predecessor, Richard Trumka.

In 2009, Shuler became the first woman elected to the position of secretary-treasurer at an AFL-CIO convention and the youngest woman ever on the federation’s Executive Council. As secretary-treasurer, she served as the chief financial officer, turning deficits into surpluses.

Shuler grew up in a union household—her father, Lance, was a power lineman and longtime member of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 at Portland General Electric and her late mother, Joyce, worked as an estimator in the company’s service and design department. In 1993, Shuler was hired at Local 125, where she was thrust into a full-fledged campaign to help the clerical workers organize, an experience that underscored the importance of building mobilizing capacity within the local union, particularly for women workers.

In 1998, Ed Hill, then-secretary-treasurer of the IBEW, took notice of Shuler’s outstanding work and temporarily assigned her to California where she mobilized IBEW members to help defeat Prop. 226, the so-called paycheck protection initiative that threatened to silence union members in the political process. That victory prompted John J. Barry, president of the IBEW at the time, to hire her as an international representative in the union’s Political/Legislative Affairs Department in Washington, D.C. In that role, Shuler mobilized local unions across the country and frequently lobbied Congress on a range of issues important to working families. In 2004, she was promoted to assistant to the international president, where she advised President Hill, who had succeeded to that position, in driving the agenda of the nearly 1-million-member union.