Businessweek Archives  Can A New Leader Bring Labor Back To
Life?  The Workplace: UNIONS   Most employers don't worry too
much about unions these days. But it could be a mistake to write
off organized labor as dead and buried. After more than a decade
of complacency, disgruntled union chiefs on June 12 finally
forced AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to announce his
retirement and make way for a more vigorous leader. The two men
vying for his job, Thomas R. Donahue, the Federation's No.2, and
John J. Sweeney, head of the fast-growing service-employees'
union, have similar plans for reviving labor. They intend to
dramatically increase efforts to seek new members. And they hope
to use the top post as a pulpit to make unions more visible.
TREADING WATER. Whoever wins, his actions could help stop the
shrinkage of unions--to 15.5% of the workforce from 22% 15 years
ago. Already, more than a dozen unions, such as the clothing
workers' and Sweeney's union, have major commitments to
membership drives. Their success sh