The American Federation of Labor (AFL), a federation of industrial unions, was the largest labor organization in the United States from the time of its founding in 1880s until 1955. In 1955 the AFL merged with its rival, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), a federation of craft unions, to form an even larger labor organization. Today the AFL-CIO represents 13 million men and women and includes 65 diverse national and international unions. The AFL-CIO’s mission is to "bring social and economic justice to our nation by enabling working people to have a voice on the job, in government, in a changing global economy and in their communities."