Sweeney kicks off world labor mobilization

By WILL LESTER   ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO was 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 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 of American workers, about 35 percent, were union members in the mid-1950s, and that number is now 13 percent. Only 8 percent of those in private industry now are union members.

The AFL-CIO, an umbrella group that includes more than 50 unions, and dozens of allied organizations are putting together a mobilizing campaign with more than 100 rallies around this country and a dozen overseas.