Sweeney, John Joseph,
1934–2021, U.S. labor leader, b. New York City. An official of the
Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) from 1960, he became president of
the SEIU in 1980. As president, he emphasized organizing new workers and
nearly doubled the union's membership. In 1995 he led dissatisfied labor
leaders who challenged American Federation of
Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations president Lane
Kirkland. After
Kirkland resigned, Sweeney defeated Thomas Donahue, who had been appointed
interim president, for the presidency of the AFL-CIO in the first contested
such election in the organization's history. An unsuccessful challenge to
his continued leadership resulted in 2005 in a split in the AFL-CIO, and
several large unions with a total of more than 5 million members left the
organization. He retired as president in 2009; Richard L. Trumka succeeded him. In 2010, he was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
See his autobiography (2017); with K. Nussbaum, Solutions for the New Workforce:
Policies for a New Social Contract, 1989; with D. Kusnet,
America Needs a Raise: Fighting for Economic Security and Social
Justice, 1996.
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