The AFL-CIO was formed when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged in 1955. The AFL was formed in 1886 and was led by Samuel Gompers as a more traditional union that organized workers along craft lines. The CIO, initially a committee within the AFL called the Committee for Industrial Organization, broke away from the AFL in the late 1930s after disputes in how to organize all the workers of one industry into the same union. George Meany, the president of the AFL, was elected to serve as the first president of the newly merged AFL-CIO. He was succeeded by Lane Kirkland in 1979. As a voluntary federation of international labor unions, the AFL-CIO represents nearly all unionized employees in the United States and Canada. The AFL-CIO lobbies on behalf of organized labor and mediates disputes between member unions. It holds quadrennial conventions and member unions are proportionately represented with delegates who attend and vote. John Sweeney was elected as president in 1995, this was the AFL-CIO's first contested election. When Sweeney retired in 2009, Richard Trumka, of the United Mine Workers of America was elected president.