The AFL-CIO has taken a page from the corporate giants it often opposes, announcing a sweeping restructuring of the organization, cutting 167 jobs and eliminating the national safety and health department, among other moves.

The four-person safety and health department will lose two positions, with Director Peg Seminario and Bill Kojola merging into the newly-created Government Affairs Department, according to Jordan Barab of the blog, Confined Space.

The re-org will create 61 new jobs, which laid-off employees will have the chance to apply for. Overall, four departments are being dropped, the union's magazine, America@Work, will be closed, and every union department will absorb cuts.

Union membership in the U.S. has plummeted from 33 percent of the workforce in 1955 to 12.5 percent today, reports the Washington Post. In the past ten years, the AFL-CIO's reserve fund has dropped to $31 million from $61 million.

"This is a sad day for workers, for the labor movement and for all those who care about the health, safety and working conditions of American workers," wrote blogger Barab. "The only voice standing up to this mess (attacks on the health of safety of American workers) is being dismantled by its own family."