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WASHINGTON - Republican Rep. John Sweeney's attendance at a beer-drinking, college fraternity party has drawn criticism from Democrats who accused the New York lawmaker of using poor judgment. "What is a 50-year-old congressman doing at a frat party at 1 in the morning cavorting with students 30 years his junior? Teaching them how a bill becomes a law?" Blake Zeff, a spokesman for New York Democrats, said Friday.

WASHINGTON, April 28 — A congressman from upstate New York found himself on the defensive Friday over a series of photographs that surfaced showing him at a college fraternity party a week earlier. Democrats seized on the photographs in an attempt to embarrass the congressman, John E. Sweeney, a Republican from the Albany region who attended a party on April 21 at the Alpha Delta Phi house at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. His visit was initially reported by the Union College student newspaper, the Concordiensis, which said that witnesses described the congressman as being "inquisitive and engaging" and "acting...

The editorial, “Victory falls apart” (April 10), was wrong on the labor movement's stance on immigration reform. The AFL-CIO proudly stands on the side of immigrant workers and believes that when one worker's rights are abused, all workers suffer. Since 2000, we've supported a path to citizenship for those immigrants already here. We oppose legislation that includes guest worker programs because these programs treat some workers as second-class citizens and make workers too vulnerable to employer exploitation. Real immigration reform cannot be designed primarily to enlarge guest worker programs that have served only to provide employers with a steady stream...

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest labor organization on Tuesday criticized plans to expand guest worker programs for immigrants seeking to come to the United States, parting company with longtime Senate Democratic allies who pushed successfully to include them in broad-based immigration legislation. "Guest worker programs are a bad idea and harm all workers," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement released the day after the Senate Judiciary Committee cleared an immigration bill. "They cast workers into a perennial second-class status, and unfairly put their fates into their employers' hands." Sweeney's statement praised numerous provisions of the overall immigration legislation,...

WASHINGTON - The AFL-CIO is organizing rallies around the country and overseas this week to try to energize a labor movement that has been losing membership for years. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Monday that American workers have lost their right to organize — pointing to lost manufacturing jobs, companies' increased hostility to unions and government policies that don't weaken unions' strength. "The ability to form unions is the key to this nation's middle class," Sweeney said. "Yet, the right to come together in a union is a fundamental freedom that has been eroded beyond recognition." More than one- third...

The bolt in Chicago from the AFL-CIO by the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union reflects a long-building reaction to John Sweeney's plans a decade ago when he muscled his way into the labor federation presidency. He wanted to restore union power through politics. His project was a total failure, and the AFL-CIO is in ruins 50 years after its creation. The scenario of the breakup was accurately laid out to me by Teamsters sources nearly a year ago. Sweeney would be offered a deal he could not accept. To keep the two big unions in the federation, Sweeney would...

WASHINGTON -- The bolt in Chicago Monday from the AFL-CIO by the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) reflects a long-building reaction to John Sweeney's plans a decade ago when he muscled his way into the labor federation presidency. He wanted to restore union power through politics. His project was a total failure, and the AFL-CIO is in ruins 50 years after its creation. The scenario of the breakup was accurately laid out to me by Teamsters sources nearly a year ago. Sweeney would be offered a deal he could not accept. To keep the two big unions in...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Organized labor split into warring factions Sunday as four major unions staged a boycott of the AFL-CIO convention, poised to sever ties to the 50-year-old federation in a dispute over how to reverse the decades-long decline of union membership. Dissident unions representing nearly one-third of the AFL-CIO's 13 million members, primarily in the service and retail industries, planned to announce the boycott late Sunday, several labor officials told The Associated Press. The convention was beginning Monday. None of the four unions intended to cut ties immediately from the AFL-CIO, but the boycott makes that next step a...

A local pastor and union worker, striking back at the AFL-CIO's opposition to a federal amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, has launched a Web site to further his cause. The Rev. Kendall Boutwell, 41, who leads a Brookhaven church and also works at Georgia Pacific in Monticello, created www.unionworkersagainstgaymarriage.com to enlist support against the president and executive council of the AFL-CIO, which in March announced its opposition to a federal marriage amendment. The AFL-CIO is an umbrella organization for nearly 60 American labor unions comprising more than 13 million dues-paying workers,...

An AFL-CIO executive committee resolution opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment was attacked this week by a broad coalition of religious and traditional-values organizations. In a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, more than three dozen state and national organizations — including the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Catholic Vote, the Coalition of African American Pastors and Christian television and radio networks — implored union officials to rescind their opposition to the FMA at the labor group’s annual convention, which will be held July 25-28 in Chicago. “We write on behalf of tens of millions of...

Conservative coalition writes labor union urging respect for pro-family workers ------------- A broad coalition of religious and family values organizations went toe-to-toe with Big Labor this week, demanding in a letter to American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Unions (AFL-CIO) president John Sweeney that union officials rescind a recent resolution supporting homosexual "marriage." The AFL-CIO Executive Committee's March 3 resolution in support of same-sex marriage has gone largely unreported outside of a few "gay and lesbian" publications. The labor organization officials unanimously adopted the measure, which opposes federal and state constitutional amendments to define marriage exclusively as a union between...

The largest organizer of American unions is opposing the Marriage Protection Amendment, though most of its constituents support traditional marriage. ------------- The AFL-CIO is lobbying against the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA)—an effort to constitutionally define marriage as between one man and one woman. The organization represents 58 national and international labor unions and more than 13 million workers, but its policies are liberal compared to the people it represents. The march toward the left by a few in leadership misrepresents what most rank-and-file union members hold as deep convictions. In March 2005, a Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll reported that 68 percent...

AFL-CIO urged to rescind resolution at July convention WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A broad coalition of religious and family values organizations this week went toe to toe with Big Labor, demanding in a letter to national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney that union officials rescind an unreported AFL-CIO executive committee resolution opposing federal and state constitutional amendments to define marriage as only between one man and one woman. * See AFL-CIO resolution at: http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/ecouncil/ec03032005g.cfm Dr. Don Wildmon, Chairman of the American Family Association, said the letter's purpose is "to protect one-man, one-woman marriage and defend the precious religious liberties of millions of...

March 03, 2005 Las Vegas The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. We believe that all union members are entitled to equal rights and that all of their families should have access to benefits they need and deserve. The AFL-CIO is dedicated to fighting for those rights at the bargaining table, in the voting booth, in city halls and statehouses, and on Capitol Hill. The AFL-CIO recognizes that families come in all shapes and sizes. As our families change, our union contracts...

John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), has spent tens of millions of dollars in union dues in a failed ten-year quest to re-take the U.S. House from Republicans.  Sweeney also saw George W. Bush beat his favored Democratic candidates in 2000 and 2004. Sweeney's policies have failed to halt the drop in union membership and a corresponding decrease in the organization's political clout and is at the center of a conflict that threatens his job as the coalition's president.  It would mark only the second time in its half-century history...

AFL-CIO Has Money Problems Labor Federation Could Be Forced to Lay Off Staff, President Acknowledges By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 29, 2005; Page E01 AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, who is facing challenges from some of the labor federation's largest member unions, yesterday acknowledged that the organization is financially squeezed and may have to lay off a quarter of its workforce. Sweeney, who was first elected in 1995 as an insurgent who promised to increase the percentage of the workforce represented by unions, has presided over a decade of union decline. Signs of the AFL-CIO's...

BOSSES AT BALLY'SIt isn't lost on some AFL-CIO union leaders that their president, John Sweeney, has led them into the desert after the union's disastrous foray in the 2004 election cycle. Granted, they are staying in the desert, at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. But all things considered, they'd rather be meeting in Washington with a Democratic president inviting some of them over to the White House and maybe a Lincoln Bedroom sleepover. The AFL-CIO winter national meeting out west comes at a critical time for Sweeney and organized labor. Since their failed (and very expensive) attempt to...

To:        Interested Parties From:   Bush-Cheney '04 Communications Date:    10/11/04 Re:        Violence At Republican And Bush-               Cheney '04 Campaign Headquarters               Across The CountryBelow is the text of a letter sent by Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman Governor Marc Racicot to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney via fax at 10:15 a.m. today.  The letter asks Sweeney to put an end to protest activities that have led to injuries, property damage, vandalism and voter intimidation at Bush-Cheney '04 and Republican Party offices around the country.Bush-Cheney '04 has created a hotline for victims of voter intimidation to report what happened.  The hotline, 1-888-303-7125, will...

Fox News just reported that a great American hero, Major Charles Sweeney, has died. Maj. Sweney was the pilot who dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, Japan to help bring an end to WW2.

Radio talk show host launches boycott against local newspaper KSEV radio talk show host Dan Patrick went on a crusade against the Houston Chronicle for what he calls a liberal slant. By Tom Abrahams ABC13 Eyewitness News (4/09/04 - HOUSTON) — A local family who lost their son in Iraq recently is upset with the Houston Chronicle newspaper. Marine Leroy Sandoval's family thinks a recent Chronicle article unfairly portrayed the family's feelings about the president. The family's displeasure has now launched a boycott of the paper by a local radio talk show host. Private First Class Leroy Sandoval, Jr., was...