John Sweeney (labor leader)
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John Sweeney (born May 5, 1934 in The Bronx, New York) is the president of the AFL-CIO. An AFL-CIO vice president since 1980, he was elected president of the AFL-CIO at the federation's biennial convention in October 1995 and has been re-elected twice since then. At the time of his election, he was serving his fourth four-year term as president of SEIU, which grew from 625,000 to 1.1 million members under his leadership.
His trade union career began as a research assistant with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. In 1960, he joined SEIU as a contract director for New York City Local 32B. He went on to become union president and to lead two citywide strikes of apartment maintenance workers. In 1980, he was elected president of the international. Sweeney is the author of America Needs A Raise: Fighting for Economic Security and Social Justice.
Soon after taking office, Sweeney initiated several programs intended to reverse the decline in union membership and recruit more new members, especially younger people. Union membership has continued to decline during his tenure, and other labor leaders (including Andy Stern, Sweeney's one-time protege at the SEIU) have begun to publicly find fault with his leadership.
Sweeney is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.