John Sweeney, an IOP fellow and President Emeritus of the AFL-CIO, leads his last study group on “The Future of American Unions and Politics” on Wednesday, April 14, 2010, at the Institute of Politics.

In the middle of a field in the heart of coal country in the summer of 1989, John J. Sweeney—who only six years later would become the president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations—was missing in action.

Sweeney, then the president of the Service Employees International Union, was scheduled to give a speech to the crowds gathered to protest the lack of health insurance for retired mine workers. But, according to United Mine Workers’ then-President Richard L. Trumka, Sweeney was nowhere to be found.

Trumka, now Sweeney’s successor at the AFL-CIO, eventually discovered the lost labor leader amidst a group of displaced mine workers and had to “drag” Sweeney away from the workers and up to the stage to give his speech.

After demonstrations that led to Sweeney’s and Trumka’s arrests, the two union presidents and their fellow protesters could call this strike a success—the mine retirees eventually obtained health care coverage.

After years of fighting for workers’ rights, Sweeney ended his four-term tenure as president of the AFL-CIO in September and is now a resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Although he no longer leads America’s largest federation of unions, Sweeney has continued to feel pulled towards the plight of everyday workers, even during his semester at Harvard.

On a recent Wednesday, in between meeting with students at the Kennedy School and running his 4 p.m. study group, Sweeney briefly stepped out of the office to join a group of workers protesting for jobs outside of the Bank of America in Boston.

Although he could only stay at the rally for an hour, he smiles remembering the opportunity he had to speak individually with 20 of the workers.

“If I was to talk about where I would like to be, I would say that I would like to be back in the local union in New York City, representing workers and really interacting,” Sweeney says.

From his experience negotiating with international leaders to his time spent at the IOP this semester, Sweeney has maintained this emphasis on the power of individual, personal connections to make meaningful change.

LABOR LEADER

Years before Sweeney held his first job, he already knew the power of labor unions.

Growing up among a family of Irish immigrants in the Bronx, Sweeney saw firsthand the power of organized labor. His father, a unionized New York City bus driver, received salary and vacation benefits unavailable to his mother, a domestic worker.

Sweeney’s experiences growing up, including working unionized jobs in college—such as a grocer and a gravedigger—inspired his decision to pursue a career in the labor movement.

His first union job was with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, where he worked in the research department. Three years later he moved to the Building Services Employees Union (now the Service Employees International Union), where he quickly rose through the ranks, ultimately becoming the union’s president in 1980.