Labor Leaders

John J. Sweeney and Andrew L. Stern emerged as leaders of organized labor's fastest-growing union. The first was from an older generation, known for his consensus-style leadership. The second has a reputation of being a risk-taker. When Sweeney was president of the Service Employees International Union, he hired Stern and the two worked closely for about a decade as they tried to bolster the country's labor movement. Stern, 54, has since become president of the fast-growing SEIU. And Sweeney, 71, heads organized labor's umbrella organization, the AFL-CIO.

Larry Lorshbaugh spends his days heating and then cooling huge vats of sugar, cream and other ingredients into such sweet concoctions as Creamsicles, Fudgsicles and Klondike bars. At 45, he has spent nearly half his life on the assembly line at the Good Humor/Breyers ice cream plant in Hagerstown. Although he has been in the ice cream business for so long that the factory doesn't even smell like dessert to him anymore, Lorshbaugh considers himself a Steelworker. "I love being a Steelworker," said Lorshbaugh, a pasteurizer at Breyers.

As the boundary between business and personal time continues to blur, labor experts predict that workers this year will find themselves grappling with how to focus that line in a sharper divide. Technology advances allow - sometimes require - work to be done at all hours via computer, cell phone and pager, interrupting social events and family gatherings. More international companies also create wide-ranging hours and demands for some workers. The office of the 21st century can seem omnipresent.

Labor leaders have sharply criticized new financial disclosure regulations that the Labor Department issued Friday, asserting that the Bush administration is intent on retaliating against unions. "These new rules are blatantly political," said Jonathan Hiatt, the AFL-CIO's general counsel, charging that the administration wanted to punish labor for supporting many Democrats and battling the president on numerous issues. "They aim to send a retaliatory message." Administration officials said the new rules were not designed to punish labor, but to prevent union corruption and provide union members with more information about their unions' operations and financial health.

The Senate voted yesterday to block work rule changes proposed by the Bush administration that labor leaders say could deprive up to 8 million American workers - from nurses to firefighters to middle managers - of overtime rights. The 54-45 vote was a rare victory for Democrats in a Congress with Republican majorities in both houses, and they didn't hesitate to crow. "I'm proud that 53 of my colleagues joined me today to stop the administration from stripping overtime protection from 8 million workers," said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat and co-sponsor of the amendment.

Hoping to increase its political leverage, the AFL-CIO announced yesterday that it was creating a novel organization for nonunion workers who agree with the labor movement on many issues and want to campaign alongside labor on those issues. Federation officials said they hoped the new organization, to be called Working America, would attract more than 1 million members to lobby Congress and to join demonstrations on issues from raising the minimum wage to stopping the privatization of Social Security.

CHICAGO - California Gov. Gray Davis gained ground yesterday in his effort to keep other prominent Democrats out of the recall election - as the nation's largest labor organization greeted him with rousing support here, and state labor leaders prepared to warn other party members not to put their names on the ballot. Union backing has been key to Davis campaigns in the past and remains central to his effort to retain his job. The unions can provide a large group of politically active members for get-out-the-vote efforts as well as money.

JERUSALEM - Israel's beleaguered Labor Party chose as its new leader last night Amram Mitzna, a retired army general who has pledged to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians and dismantle Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He will be the party's candidate for prime minister in elections scheduled for Jan. 28. Mitzna, the 57-year-old mayor of Haifa, was selected by party members over two other candidates, current party chairman and former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and parliament member Haim Ramon.

WASHINGTON - John Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO, chuckled as he recounted the frantic phone message he received from a concerned neighbor. "Have you seen those self-checkout machines in our grocery store?" she asked the labor leader, whose federation represents 13 million union workers and who shops for groceries at Giant Food in Bethesda's Westwood Shopping Center. Sweeney's eyes widened for effect as he quoted the caller: "What's going to happen to all those workers?" Sweeney - who said he has not used the self-scan gizmos that popped up in his store last month - put his neighbor's mind at ease.

WASHINGTON - Parades and rallies across the nation tomorrow will salute the union cause. But when it comes to its national agenda, organized labor has little to celebrate. Labor unions have failed during this Congress to achieve many items on their wish list for workers - from benefit improvements to wage increases - and are having to fend off a threat to their very right to unionize. For all its legendary political influence and ability to turn out union members to tilt elections, the labor movement has been unable to translate those attributes into legislative victories.