The Man Who Realigned Labor
John Sweeney, 1934â2021
Charles Dharapak/AP Photo
Labor leader John Sweeney, seen here in September 2009, died yesterday at the age of 86.
By the time he became president of the AFL-CIO in 1995, John Sweeney looked a good deal like the Park Avenue doormenâIrish and portlyâwhoâd joined New Yorkâs Building Service union when Sweeney was growing up in a very working-class neighborhood in the Bronx. In his twenties, Sweeney went to work for those doormen and the janitors who maintained buildings across Manhattan, negotiating contracts for their union, which he eventually came to lead. He first took over at the local level, heading Local 32BJ. By 1980, he was in charge of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), to which 32BJ belonged.
Garden City Telegram
Teaching remotely is difficult, especially with only a small computer screen of about 13 inches to both see students and share learning materials.
Ember Dortch, a computer studies teacher at Garden City High School, said she didn t realize how much difference a second computer screen could make until she got one. I had to have Zoom open in one window and then my attendance in another window and I had to view several different things and they were really tiny, and my eyes are getting old, so it was difficult for me to see everything I needed to see, she said. The difference has been amazing.
before. i have a strange relationship with you. i can feel you when i look out in the camera. and the thing that has been happening to he over the last year is i feel you say we get it. we get it. now what? i have felt the responseability to be a guy ringing the bell. i don t think we re going to get anybody else in the boat at this point. i think what we have to do now is prepare to be different people. i do believe that the radicals have nefarious plans for our country and for us as a people. we have a choice. we can be swept up in it, or we can stand together. and be an alternative. it means more than bag tea party. it means reaching out in different ways and rolling up your sleeves and getting involved. it s what i told you at the beginning of the year. the first episode of the program i told you i am tired of waiting and looking for someone to lead. so we have to take it on ourselves. that doesn t mean that we, at least me, it doesn t mean that i want to lead and rup for
before. i have a strange relationship with you. i can feel you when i look out in the camera. and the thing that has been happening to he over the last year is i feel you say we get it. we get it. now what? i have felt the responseability to be a guy ringing the bell. i don t think we re going to get anybody else in the boat at this point. i think what we have to do now is prepare to be different people. i do believe that the radicals have nefarious plans for our country and for us as a people. we have a choice. we can be swept up in it, or we can stand together. and be an alternative. it means more than bag tea party. it means reaching out in different ways and rolling up your sleeves and getting involved. it s what i told you at the beginning of the year. the first episode of the program i told you i am tired of waiting and looking for someone to lead. so we have to take it on ourselves. that doesn t mean that we, at least me, it doesn t mean that i want to lead and rup for