John J. Sweeney, President
John J. Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO at the federation's biennial convention in October 1995 and has been re-elected three times since then. At the time of his election, he was serving his fourth four-year term as president of SEIU, which grew from 625,000 to 1.1 million members under his leadership. An AFL-CIO vice president since 1980, Sweeney was born May 5, 1934, in Bronx, N.Y.
His trade union career began as a research assistant with the Ladies Garment Workers. In 1960, he joined SEIU as a contract director for New York City Local 32B. He went on to become union president and to lead two citywide strikes of apartment maintenance workers. In 1980, he was elected president of the international. Sweeney is the author of America Needs A Raise: Fighting for Economic Security and Social Justice.
Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President
Arlene Holt Baker’s experience as a union and grassroots organizer spans more than 30 years. On Sept. 21, 2007, she was approved unanimously as executive vice president by the AFL-CIO Executive Council, becoming the first African American to be elected to one of the federation’s three highest offices and the highest-ranking African American woman in the union movement. In her position, Holt Baker builds on her legacy of inspiring activism and reaching out to diverse communities to support the needs and aspirations of working people.
Holt Baker began her work in the union movement with AFSCME. She moved through the AFSCME ranks as an organizer, union representative and area director—helping public-sector workers in California form a union and win contracts that provided better wages and pay equity for women. She has served on California’s Comparable Worth Task Force Committee and served as first vice chair of the California Democratic Party. She has received numerous civic awards for her work as a labor and community advocate.
Holt Baker came to the AFL-CIO as executive assistant to Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson in 1995. Since coming to the AFL-CIO, the federation has turned to Holt Baker to lead huge challenges and campaign initiatives, such as the 1998 Paycheck Deception in California, the AFL‑CIO Florida recount, the AFL-CIO Voice@Work campaign and, most recently, the AFL-CIO Gulf Coast Recovery effort.
In 2004, Holt Baker was the president of Voices for Working Families, a nonpartisan voter participation organization dedicated to registering, educating, mobilizing and protecting the votes of communities of color and women.
Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer
The youngest secretary-treasurer in AFL-CIO history, Richard L. Trumka was first elected to the post in October 1995 at the age of 46. Born in Nemacolin, Pa., on July 24, 1949, Trumka was elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 1989. At the time of his election to secretary-treasurer, he was serving his third term as president of the Mine Workers.
At the UMWA, Trumka led two major strikes against the Pittston Coal Co. and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association. The actions resulted in significant advances in employee-employer cooperation and the enhancement of mine workers' job security, pensions and benefits. In 1994, President Clinton named him to the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform to represent the interests of working families.
