AFL-CIO Pledges to Direct Boycott: The AFL-CIO...

AFL-CIO Pledges to Direct Boycott: The AFL-CIO pledged to direct a nationwide boycott of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. if union members strike later this month. The strategy could cost the long-distance giant millions of dollars while giving union business to a non-union company. The labor federation’s governing body approved the plan, which asks the 14 million members of the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions to route their long-distance calls via non-union US Sprint. “You have a choice between a struck company and a non-union company,” AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told reporters after the first day of the federation’s spring meeting in Washington. “If you want to make a telephone call, those are your choices. Under those circumstances, you take the lesser of two evils.”