NYT: Summer of Labor Discontent Focuses on Sweeney's Fitness for His Job

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A Summer of Discontent for Labor Focuses on Its Leader's Fitness for His Job
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: May 31, 2005


WASHINGTON, May 27 - At 71, after nearly half a century in the union movement and after a decade leading the nation's main labor federation, John J. Sweeney is facing his toughest time ever.

The percentage of American workers belonging to unions continues to fall, President Bush is seeking to weaken collective bargaining rights for 700,000 federal workers, and many unionized companies are cutting back once-unassailable benefits, like health insurance and pensions.

But for Mr. Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the biggest battle may be a nasty internal struggle - the federation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, is threatening to secede if, as many expect, Mr. Sweeney wins a new four-year term this summer. And several other major unions have hinted that they, too, might leave the A.F.L.-C.I.O., a federation of 57 unions and 13 million workers.

"We need to make far-reaching changes and have a leader committed to such changes, and that leader is not John Sweeney," said Andrew L. Stern, president of the service employees union, which has more than 1.7 million members....Mr. Stern's critique of Mr. Sweeney has strong support from four other unions - the Teamsters, the laborers, the food and commercial workers, and Unite Here, which represents hotel, restaurant and apparel workers. The five dissident unions represent more than a third of the membership of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

With such unrest, many union leaders agree that the labor movement is at a crossroads: one path might lead to disastrous division and hasten labor's decline, while the other might lead to a revival....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/politics/31labor.html