WASHINGTON – John Sweeney, who spent 14 years steering the AFL-CIO through a time of declining union membership and rising internal dissent, has died.
He was 86. He died on Monday, AFL-CIO national media manager Carolyn Bobb said. The cause of his death wasn't immediately disclosed.
Sweeney was credited with transforming the nation’s largest labor federation into a political powerhouse more firmly aligned with the Democratic Party, as well as with civil rights, environmental and anti-poverty groups.
After stepping down as president of the labor federation in 2009, Sweeney served as the AFL-CIO’s president emeritus, offering advice to the group’s executive council, delivering speeches and taking on other discrete assignments.