Working Life

   I’ve just been given a letter that John Sweeney is sending today to every Senator. Here it it is.    It makes all the right points, with this being the key nut graf:    It proposes a grant of unlimited authority to the Bush Administration to spend $700 billion of the public’s money to […]

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With the country facing the biggest financial crisis in 100 years, which threatens the homes, livelihoods and bank accounts of millions of working Americans, where is the labor movement? This moment fits the classic observation by community organizer Saul Alinksy that the Chinese character for "crisis" means both "danger" and "opportunity". The "danger" part is […]

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    A colleague sent me this note from AFL-CIO staff director Bob Welch: President Sweeney informed the AFL-CIO Executive Council yesterday that Linda Chavez-Thompson had notified him that she intended to step down as Executive Vice President of the Federation effective next Friday, September 21st —  for personal and family reasons. President Sweeney also advised […]

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    Okay, no surprise, the Employee Free Choice Act is dead. I’ve gotten no fewer than a dozen e-mails from various politicians and organizations, including the AFL-CIO and Change To win, hailing the Senate vote because a majority–51 senators–voted to let the bill proceed i.e., to cut off the filibuster. Here’s what John Sweeney had […]

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Last week, I asked whether there was any international union president willing to say publicly that the seniority is a sacred union principle and that the way in which the AFL-CIO layoffs were structured potentially threatens that principle. I haven’t heard from any international president. But, I just got this letter that was written by […]

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I have just been given two letters that were sent to John Sweeney yesterday by Federation workers at 16th Street in the wake of the deep cuts announced two weeks ago. Coming soon after the release of the insurgents new proposal, this cannot help John Sweeney try to stem the vibrations coursing through the AFL-CIO […]

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It was a grim group that crowded into the President’s Room at 16th Street at 4 p.m. yesterday. Along with many people who participated via phone, the AFL-CIO staff vented their anger at John Sweeney and Bob Welsh, his executive assistant and chief of staff, for the brutal staff cuts announced Tuesday. Black Tuesday is […]

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Ouch, this is not good for John Sweeney. He’s managed to royally piss off Harold Schaitberger, president of the Fire Fighters union. In the April 29th letter that was just passed to me tonight, Schaitberger resigns as head of the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s Public Affairs Committee. He does so in a harsh, stinging letter to […]

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I’m troubled after the teleconference John Sweeney held yesterday with the press. It’s not that the whole affair lasted just 30 minutes (and we had to provide our own coffee, doughnuts and Scotch), which included John’s opening statement and, then, a rush to squeeze in questions before, poof, he had to run before anyone really […]

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A review of AFL-CIO audited statements for 1996 and 2004 by the coalition pushing for changes inside the labor movement shows some fairly interesting trends. I offer them as they are, with some comment: Under John Sweeney: AFL-CIO Income has grown dramatically, and AFL-CIO Expenses have grown far more dramatically. AFL-CIO income has increased by […]

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