The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) currently represents 24 unions comprising more than four million white collar workers. The Department was chartered by the AFL-CIO in 1977, in recognition of the dramatic rise in professional and technical employees among union members. The number has increased dramatically since that time, reflecting the changes in the work force.

The world of work is increasingly white collar. By the year 2005, the proportion of the work force that was white collar had grown to almost 63% and was continuing to grow at an accelerating rate. Professional and related occupations are the fastest growing in the entire economy. When the Department was chartered, these occupations accounted for 13.9 million workers and 15.2% of the work force. Today, they number 25.5 million and account for 35.5% of all white collar workers and 20.3% of the work force. Between 2004 and 2014, employment of professional and related workers is projected to increase by more than six million, or 21.2%, continuing its position as the fastest growing occupational group in the United States.

DPE is one of seven constitutional "trades" departments that are part of the AFL-CIO structure. Like the other trades departments, DPE unites unions with common interests and goals. DPE’s mission is to promote unionization among professional, technical and other highly skilled white collar workers; advocate for appropriate legislation; conduct research and create publications. The Department offers a variety of education and training programs. In addition, it reaches out to students, non-union professionals and the general public, educating them as to the value of union representation for highly skilled white collar workers.

In its research, publications and education activities, as in its legislative and government relations work, the Department focuses on an important component of America's work force. In so doing, it assists its affiliates in their efforts to cope with the massive shifts to professional, technical and other white collar employment, to understand the newly emerging technologies that affect these workers and deal with a radical reorganization of the industries in which they work. Most importantly, the Department provides its affiliates with a forum in which to discuss matters of common concern and coordinate efforts to address them.

Our affiliates represent professional, technical and administrative support workers in health care, education, science and engineering, the arts, entertainment and mass media, and public administration. Despite the common perception that labor unions primarily organize and represent male, blue collar workers, the labor movement is increasingly white collar and female. As such, it is a reflection of the changing world of work.

While total union representation has fallen since the Department was created, it has increased to almost 21% among the professional and related occupations. Professionals currently comprise the largest contingent of union members of any occupational classification. Significant numbers of administrative support workers also enjoy union representation. Their numbers are rising. The turbulence resulting from the changing nature and conditions of work have led to growing insecurity, increasing work hours and decreasing job satisfaction. This has prompted many such workers to turn to the collective power of unions for support and assistance. In recent years, numbers of scientists, engineers, technicians, nurses, doctors, university researchers, professors and graduate teaching assistants, psychologists, customer service representatives, and a host of other highly trained and skilled white collar workers have joined the millions who find a voice for themselves and their occupations within the AFL-CIO.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has underscored the importance of highly skilled white collar workers to the labor movement, "the labor movement – must relate to the concerns of the new majority of workers, embrace their causes and vigorously recruit them into the ranks of organized labor."