Kirkland Retires From Afl-Cio Helm

“Full ahead, steady as she goes,” ordered Lane Kirkland, one-time mariner, fan of nautical metaphors, when he took control of the great ship of labor 16 years ago.

Steady the AFL-CIO president was, in reuniting the shrinking labor movement, in supporting Polish workers at the dawn of Eastern European democracy, in pushing to open an organization that was as mysterious as Mars to some of the rank and file.

Kirkland, 73, retires today at the AFL-CIO’s executive council meeting in Chicago. And Labor’s famous cry, “Which Side Are You On?” resonates through the organization itself as it submits to a fearsome struggle for succession.

His longtime deputy, Thomas Donahue, is bidding for the job against upstart challenger John Sweeney of the Service Employees International Union.