Afl Cio

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney came to Los Angeles Tuesday to tell the county Board of Supervisors that it needs to give county employees a long-awaited pay raise because union workers have gone without one during the county's fiscal crisis over the last few years. Sweeney, the nation's top labor leader, met personally with each supervisor, adding a powerful voice to the chorus of calls for raises for workers who have gone as long as five years without one.

It appears likely that the AFL-CIO will not endorse a candidate during the primaries, labor leaders gathered here said Wednesday. Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and William H. Wynn, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, two of the labor federation's largest affiliates, as well as numerous other union leaders, said they thought there was little chance of an endorsement before the Democratic convention.

The AFL-CIO, a major shareholder in public companies, is targeting Verizon Communications Inc. this year for a shake-up of its board of directors as it accuses the company's chief executive of collecting exorbitant pay while turning in a poor performance. The labor federation scored successes last year at Home Depot Inc. and Pfizer Inc., whose chief executives departed in a storm of investor anger over executive pay.

Lane Kirkland, an intellectual union bureaucrat who championed liberal politics at home and anti-communism abroad during 16 years as president of the AFL-CIO, died Saturday of lung cancer. He was 77. Kirkland had battled cancer since before his election in 1979 to the top post in the U.S. trade union movement. Over the years, one kidney, part of the other and a lung were removed by surgeons.

Poland's Lech Walesa on Tuesday finally got to take up the invitation he received eight years ago to address the American labor movement, and--judging by his tear-streaked smile--how sweet it was. The emotional moment--shared by an overflow crowd of 1,100 AFL-CIO delegates who interrupted with applause about 29 times--would have strained a seasoned diplomat, let alone the spiritual father of Eastern Europe's democratic revolution.

The board of the nation's largest labor union gave its leadership the authority Saturday to break away from the AFL-CIO, citing a "fundamental and apparently irreconcilable disagreement" over how to rebuild the ailing labor movement. Meeting in San Francisco, the executive board of the 1.

In a deal that would bring the labor movement at least $375 million in the next five years for organizing drives and other campaigns, the AFL-CIO has reached a preliminary agreement with a financial services firm on a new credit card program for union members. AFL-CIO spokesman Ray Abernathy said Thursday that the tentative pact is a model for innovative ways that unions can use their buying power and investments to further their aims.

The AFL-CIO has launched a $5-million TV campaign in five cities to improve the image of organized labor--and add to its membership. The ads are running in Baltimore, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Antonio and St. Louis. After years of suffering declining membership, the 78-union federation is devoting one-third of its $95-million budget to organizing and membership recruitment.

Organized labor is taking to the airwaves in a bid to quash President Clinton's request for "fast-track" legislative authority to negotiate an expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Radio advertisements in English and Spanish began Monday in Southern California as part of a multimillion-dollar media push funded by the AFL-CIO. Some television ads will be broadcast in congressional districts back East, but only radio ads are planned for California.

In a new sign of dissatisfaction within organized labor, two national trade unions broke away from an alliance affiliated with the AFL-CIO after complaints about declining membership and misplaced priorities. The Laborers International Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers, representing more than 1 million members, are breaking from the umbrella group known as the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO as of March 1.