(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO union one of the largest and . Findings from our 2018 IT strategy survey reveal that companies with top IT organizations are much more likely than others to have the CIO very involved with shaping the business strategy and agenda, and strong performance on core IT tasks enables faster progress against a companys digital goals. These were costly, complex systems that often required significant business process reengineering. As IT became critical to business success, not surprisingly the number of tech-related titles in the C-suite grew. In 1955, the CIO, now much weakened by McCarthyism, rejoined the AFL, forming the new entity known as the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Do the questions about technology that leaders in the C-suite ask reflect a true understanding of the impact of tech decisions? The CIO challenge: Modern business needs a new kind of tech leader, Author Talks: The worlds longest study of adult development finds the key to happy living, The executives guide to new-business building, Generative AI is here: How tools like ChatGPT could change your business. The pandemic radically changed that mindset. At the same time, decentralization highlighted the need for an executive-level technology leader to oversee a function that now touched every part of the enterprise, directly affected how businesses made money and increasingly dictated how employees did their jobs. By hiring the best tech people, weve seen companies reduce their technology costs by as much as 30 percent while maintaining or improving their productivity. 2017). William Green They cant do it alone, however. Striking workers block a railroad into the Celanese plant in Maryland on November 16, 1936. The IT organization enlists automation wherever possible to streamline the user experience and simplify workflows. It has been pushing for floor . Between 2010 and 2019, the need for digital transformation marked yet another turning point in the role of the CIO and IT, but not without resistance and hardly overnight. Transformative CIOs dont settle for that kind of interaction, articulating instead how a proposed solution solves the underlying business problem, what alternative approaches exist, and the pros and cons of each. Since 1955 the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO) has been the only union federation representing the organized section of the working class in the United States, the most powerful imperialist country of the world. Their IT organizations of highly trained experts were perceived as order takers of the business, not as innovators. Large IT initiatives have always required detailed planning, but business-oriented CIOs ensure that transformation plans account for dependencies outside of IT, such as marketing campaigns or legal implications. 25+ search types; Win/Lin/Mac SDK; hundreds of reviews; full evaluations. For years, executives have stressed the need for CIOs to move beyond simply managing IT to leveraging technology to create value for the business. We are now digesting innovation and making sure everything works. Next on the agenda: Looking for opportunities to automate key business processes and ramping up security, he adds. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the country's largest union federation, has 12.5 million members worldwide. This is often in the form of negotiating and improving pay, pension, working conditions, and other workplace benefits. For example, the Harris v. Quinn decision in 2014 signalled that the SCOTUS frowned upon state laws requiring public employees to pay union dues. Put simply, it's an organization of people committed to protecting and improving the interests of its members. The war-room team actively tracked progress and quickly escalated issues for speedy resolution. Lucy Randolph Mason As more companies strive to improve operations and enhance the customer experience, CIOs lead the charge to implement automation initiatives that work now, and strategies to ensure future success. Created by John L. Lewis, it was originally called the Committee for Industrial Organization, but changed its name in 1938 when it broke away from the AFL. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2011.. Ibid, 445.. Goldfield, Michael. As the physical world was overlaid with AI, sensors, computer-generated simulations and other digital technologies, IT became integral to a company's tangible products as well. Legal strategist for the union movement and former secretary of labor. CIOs remain the go-to resource for navigating technology decisionsmore than half (52%) of IT leaders surveyed this year categorized CIOs as a strategic advisor who proactively identifies business opportunities and makes recommendations while 26% viewed the CIO as a consultant, providing advice and guidance on technology selection. This effort to understand what mattered to each leader established trust, and from each of these discussions it became clear that the business wanted a true partnership with technology and understood what it meant. This decentralization of information systems gave rise to IT managers throughout the enterprise -- including businesspeople with IT expertise. Moving forward, there are efforts to improve workspace management and the employee experience thanks to the infrastructure investment, which resulted in savings now funneled to continuous improvement. Data was not just the province of the few but currency for the many, as the adoption of PCs put powerful technology in the hands of employees. Beth Stackpole is a veteran reporter who has covered the intersection of business and technology issues for more than 20 years. Make sure you talk to colleagues in business terms so they understand how youre delivering for them.. They accomplish this by delivering bulletproof and agile systems and services that are inextricably linked to business goals -- in real time, if required -- and by leading their enterprises through the cultural shift required to become digital businesses. If theres one thing Jamie Holcombe has learned from his decades-long career as a public and private sector IT leader, its how to be a good salesman. In practice, CIOs can enable collaboration if theyre willing to relinquish some control. This years research also confirmed CIOs dominant leadership role in defining and spearheading digital innovation. President of the Mine Workers (UMWA) and founding president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). However, despite burgeoning IT budgets, a C-level title and oversight of companywide systems, late 20th-century CIOs were still largely IT operators rather than business executives. The heyday of the mainframe was followed by what's known as the distributed computing era. Learn howand get unstoppable. We make it a point to engage and connect to understand whats happening in the platform and product teams.. So, what exactly is a CIO and how do you get to be one? At the end of the process, the business was able to make an informed decision. No longer just the overseers of IT operations and services, many CIOs are now acting as key business strategists, working with their C-level peers and the board of directors to create the business models necessary to survive -- and thrive -- in the 21st-century digital economy. Working in customized, cooled rooms and garbed in white lab coats, IT experts were as remote from the day-to-day business as the powerful machines they operated. The term CIO came into use in 1981. Whether or not the union is affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) was also provided as supplemental data. Only 10% of respondents turn to the CIO for the sole purpose of risk assessment. Driving a transformation around the three vectors we laid out earlier (reimagining the role of technology, reinventing technology delivery, and future-proofing the foundation) starts with a CIO mind-set that both acknowledges the need for transformative change and commits to a multiyear journey. And in an increasingly tech-driven business landscape, they position CIOs as legitimate contenders to lead businesses as well. The builder of the modern AFL-CIO. Security and risk management is the highest-ranked technology initiative commanding IT investment this year, cited by 45% of respondents. In comparison, in the 2021 State of the CIO survey, only 62% of LOB respondents viewed the CIO role through a digital and innovation lens and only 59% thought CIOs shouldered more of the digital transformation agenda compared to other top-level executives. In 1960 just 5 percent of state, county, and municipal workers were union membersbut by 1966, the figure had jumped to 25 percent. With the chargeback approach, business units could see the implications of the IT decisions they were making. Companies will be looking to their CIOs for proofs of concept on these technologies and others still to come. The scope of an IT transformation means that CIOs must be prepared to interact with the business in different ways. But that needs to change, especially around the most crucial capabilities. In short, businesses understand that using technology to drive business objectives requires a depth of expertise. Membership in the CIO rose from four million in 1938 to six million in 1945. The technical challenges CIOs faced did not abate. Esther Eggertsen Peterson Eloquent and effective advocate for the rights of workers, women and . U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday announced plans to have the committee he chairs vote next week on whether to subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who so far has refused to provide testimony about the coffee chain's federal labor law violations. Unions and Benefits. They approach planning as a dynamic process rather than something static, which allows transformation teams to better remove roadblocks and to allocate people and spend when and where they are needed. (Applause.) Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America founder whoinvented trade unionism as we know it today. The calls. In the mainframe era, IT's top professionals were the specialized programmers, systems operators and analysts hired to operate the massive machines that gave the era its name. False. The digital CIO has arrived, MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, 2016. Csar Estrada Chvez Answer (1 of 3): I will answer this in relation to the situation in the USA. Peoples World is a voice for progressive change and socialism in the United States. When he started out as a young CTO in the 1990s, the CIOs he knew were IT operators -- by necessity. The CIO of a B2B technology-services company, meanwhile, meets customers on a regular basis to get firsthand feedback on both products and the customers experience of doing business with the company. Top CIOs, therefore, develop diverse career paths so that top talent can advance in their own areas of strengthfor example, by letting a top-notch software engineer advance while continuing to code design software rather than forcing her to manage others in order to succeed. The proponents of industrial unionism, on the other hand, generally believed that craft distinctions may yet be appropriate in certain industries such as construction or printing, but that they were unworkable in industries such as steel or auto production. Thomas Reilly Donahue Throughout the guide, hyperlinks point to related articles that cover the topics being addressed in more depth. In just 18 months, one CIO at a transportation-and-logistics company radically reshaped its talent profile. For this reason, companies need to be tech forward: technology needs to drive the business. The looming metaverse will certainly bring more business disruption. 2. Both technology and business leaders made it a priority to attend these panel discussions so that they could effectively guide their teams on developing products that would best address the needs of end customers. This complex balancing act has had a big impact on business perceptions of IT leaders. Knowing which technology will help the business remains one of the trickiest aspects of the CIO role. Our guide to the CIO's place in the modern enterprise takes stock of this multifaceted role, including its history, its relation to other IT executive positions in the C-suite, its chief challenges and its future prospects. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not Communists. Contact. Success increasingly depends on the widget being Wi-Fi-enabled. The union staged Texas' first strike that autumn and won a 25 per cent wage increase. Now, fresh off a pandemic-fueled cycle of accelerated innovation, Holcombe is channeling his vaunted sales skills to drive an upcoming IT agenda centered on foundational areas like optimization, security, and enterprise resiliency. Ibid., 17-18.. . how receptive the business leadership was to embarking on a digital transformation journey. As a result, CIOs were continually pressured to cut costs and strive to do more with less. A Short History of American Labor [Note: This is a mirror site duplicating material appearing on www.unionweb.org.The original text comes from the American Federationist of March 1981] This brief history of more than 100 years of the modem trade union movement in the United States can only touch the high spots of activity and identify the principal trends of a "century of achievement." The union had to report the data to the OLMS in order to be considered for this list, thus some unions are not listed. Since its beginnings nearly 40 years ago, the job of an organization's top IT executive has involved the cost-effective andstrategic management of IT systems. Photo: 900 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C.-The CIOs second headquarters was an office on the third floor of this, the United Mine Workers headquarters. Sanders (I-Vt.) and the 10 Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) last month invited . We continue to stay at the table by building and innovating with partners on the operational or sustainability side, she explains. WM is also in the midst of absorbing and capitalizing on a major business enablement program that included moving its data center to the cloud and modernizing its network infrastructure, according to Erika Walk, the firms senior director, digital business services. This is particularly important around cybersecurity. . The AFL-CIO is the largest union federation in the U.S., made up of 55 national and international unions with 12.5 million members worldwide. Longtime president of the UAWand was considered the model of a reform-minded, liberal trade unionist. In 1955, the two unions joined together to form the AFL-CIO. 1835 General strike for 10-hour day in Philadelphia. Findings from our 2018 IT strategy survey reveal that companies with top IT organizations are much more likely than others to have the CIO very involved with shaping the business strategy and agenda, and strong performance on core IT tasks enables faster progress against . Two solutions have proven effective. To kick-start the transformation journey, the CIO of a transportation-and-logistics company made it her first priority to meet with every single business leader to understand their goals and issues and to set expectations on how they could best work together, by clarifying, for example, what the business side could expect to get from IT in a consultant role versus IT as a service provider or partner. Do you have a war room to manage the transformation that can solve problems as well as track progress? The first major industrial union to be chartered by the CIO, on November 16, 1938, was the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, also called the UE.The subsequent explosive growth of the UE was instrumental for the survival in those early days of the CIO. Figure 13.1: Union membership as a percentage of total employment, 1930-2015. Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) proposed by John L. Lewis in 1938, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The evolution of the CIO job from technology expert to a business strategist with deep technical expertise has arguably been more dramatic than any other C-level role transition. Now, he concurs that IT operational excellence is necessary but not sufficient for CIOs. Those who favored craft unionism believed in defending the advantages they had secured through their skills. In the late 2000s, Liz Shuler joined AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, which works with more than 12.5 million members at 57 unions, including those representing . Never miss an insight. meeting the challenge of the ever-expanding CIO role. This reality requires a CIO to first come to terms with the scope of the transformation itself. Today, this has reversed: 36 percent of public workers and 7 percent of those in the private sector are union members. Let's break down this period of rapid and extreme change. It also involves infusing technology into every strategy discussion and process throughout the organization. Legitimate factors are delaying progress, from the scale of the change to the mind-boggling complexity of legacy systems. Protective labor legislation of the 1930s, such as the Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, did not extend to agricultural workers, although 31.8 percent of the African American population in 1940 was employed in agriculture (40.4 percent in the South). The CIO further built on the relationship with the business by prioritizing initiatives in the tech transformation that addressed business needs and working closely with business leaders to drive progress. How often do company leaders reach out to you for substantive guidance about how tech can improve their business. Unlike years past, he believes the CIO is well situated to weather a back-to-basics IT deployment cycle without undermining status or ceding any leadership ground. On September 10, 1936, the AFL suspended all ten CIO unions (two more had joined in the previous year). 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