Labor under Fire by Minchin Timothy J.;

Author:Minchin, Timothy J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press

CHAPTER NINE

Big Visions and Big Hopes

The Early Sweeney Years

The early Sweeney years were a remarkable time. Hitting the ground running, the new administration poured resources into organizing, securing some impressive early results. In 1998 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that union membership had increased by 101,000 over the previous year, a notable turnaround. It seemed that the long-term trend of union decline had been halted, prompting Sweeney to declare that labor was “on the right track.”1 In the political arena, the AFL-CIO won some important victories. During the 1996 elections, it ran an extensive political campaign, turning out a record number of voters from union households. In November 1997 the Federation also helped to block President Clinton’s Fast Track trade bill, which threatened further job losses. An air of optimism infused the AFL-CIO headquarters, which was now staffed by an unprecedented number of women, many recruited from outside the labor movement. Among them was Lane Windham, a twenty-seven-year-old Duke University graduate who got a job working as a media aide in the president’s office. “Everywhere you looked there was activity, and plans,” she recalled. “People had such big visions, and such big hopes. It was just a matter of … whose vision got the resources, right. There was no question we were going forward, the question was just in which direction, and how.… It was a great time.”2

The media picked up this air of optimism, providing the labor movement with sustained positive coverage for the first time in decades. In the immediate aftermath of Sweeney’s election, many experienced journalists believed that the new leader was capable of reviving the labor movement. According to labor reporter Stephen Franklin, Sweeney may have looked like a “cuddly grandfather,” but he made “fiery pronouncements not heard from labor’s top leaders in many years.” To Time, Sweeney was the “rebel of American labor,” while the San Diego Union-Tribune thought that he was “as tough and as militant as the captain on a picket line.”3 The business press was apprehensive. According to the Journal of Commerce, the AFL-CIO’s “militant turn” represented “the most dramatic shift in the direction of U.S. labor since the 1930s.” Sweeney’s candidacy, added the Wall Street Journal, represented a “revolution,” and employers should be worried.4 Calling the new AFL-CIO head “a force for inclusion and activism,” President Clinton also welcomed Sweeney’s election, and was upbeat about labor’s prospects.5

The optimism was still evident at the end of 1999, when the AFL-CIO joined with environmentalists and engaged in mass demonstrations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Seattle. To many, the protests were a high point, confirming that Sweeney had transformed organized labor into a progressive force. Heading into the 2000 presidential election, the AFL-CIO’s revived political machine poured resources into Al Gore’s campaign, helping him pick up the crucial states that made the vote such a nail-biting affair. Gore’s controversial defeat—in what most labor staffers saw as a “stolen” election—proved a turning point. It resulted in the presidency of George W. Bush, initiating a hostile era that put the labor movement back on the defensive.

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