More than 13,000 persons are directly employed by international, national, and local unions, as well as state and regional bodies.' The work force is primarily composed of office-clerical and maintenance workers, but also includes full-time, paid business agents, officers, international representatives, organizers, professionals, and other staff personnel. Prompted largely by the same basic concerns and desires which motivate rank-and-file employees of private and public employers to seek the protective mantle of union representation, many of these individuals have formed their own "unions-within-unions. " It is the purpose of this article to explore the nature of these organizations, the-reasons for their existence, and the reactions of union managements to the efforts of their own employees to gain the right to self-organization. The record is far from complete. There is a woeful lack of literature about2 (or apparent interest in) this area of labor relations. Occasionally, a case before the National Labor Relations Board, or the threat of a walkout by staff employees of a union, catches the fleeting attention of the commercial press. One aim of this article is to encourage more intensive investigation so that a more complete record of this phase of unionization may be developed.