AFL-CIO People - John Sweeney, David J. McDonald, Peter J. Brennan, Victor Kamber, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Joseph Curran, Nelson Cruikshank, Richard Trumka, George Becker, Shannon J. Wall, Iorwith Wilbur Abel, Edwin D. Hill, Edward J. McElroy, Robert Georgine, William Hutch (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 34. Chapters: John Sweeney, David J. McDonald, Peter J. Brennan, Victor Kamber, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Joseph Curran, Nelson Cruikshank, Richard Trumka, George Becker, Shannon J. Wall, Iorwith Wilbur Abel, Edwin D. Hill, Edward J. McElroy, Robert Georgine, William Hutcheson, Lane Kirkland, Cecil Roberts, George Meany, Thomas R. Donahue, Lynn R. Williams, Arthur Moore, Andrew Biemiller, Nat LaCour, Melvin Smith. Excerpt: John Joseph Sweeney (born May 5, 1934) was the president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009. Born in The Bronx, New York, Sweeney is the son of Joseph (a city bus driver) and Agnes (a domestic worker), both Irish immigrants. The family moved to Yonkers in 1944, where Sweeney attended St. Barnabas Elementary School and graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School. Sweeney's father took him to numerous union meetings, and it is there that Sweeney began his life-long commitment to the American labor movement. Sweeney enrolled at Iona College in New Rochelle in 1952. Sweeney worked as a grave-digger and building porter to pay his tuition, and joined his first union at this time. In 1956, he graduated with a degree in economics. Sweeney during his presidency of SEIU Local 32B-32J.After graduation, Sweeney became a clerk at IBM. But his commitment to the labor movement led Sweeney to take a two-thirds cut in pay to become a researcher with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1956 (now UNITE HERE). In time, Sweeney met Thomas R. Donahue, then a union representative with the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU, now the Service Employees International Union or SEIU). Donahue asked Sweeney to leave the ILGWU, and he became a contract director with BSEIU Local 32B in 1960. BSEIU changed its name to the Services Employees International Union in 1968. In 1972, Sweeney became assistant to the presiden...