ABSTRACT
The mild-mannered Mr. Sweeney is into far-reaching projects. When he was elected president of the AFL-CIO in October 1996, the labor movement turned away from busi ness-as-usual to face the consider able problem of rebuilding its membership and restoring its clout. In the early 1950s, a third of the labor force belonged to unions, but now the total is down to about 16 percent. Unions have fallen on hard times in other advanced countries as well, but the fall has not been nearly as catastrophic as this.
