Kirkland Defends His Record At Contentious Afl-Cio Meeting

Lane Kirkland offered a defiant defense of his tenure as AFLCIO president Monday as labor leaders received a bleak report from Democrats on the legislative outlook in the new Congress.

“This movement has not been standing still,” Kirkland said, responding to some labor leaders’s criticism of his stewarship of the 13.3 million-member federation. “It has not been ignoring the problems and needs.”

The annual winter meeting of the AFL-CIO executive council is routinely dedicated to discussing the labor movement’s legislative and political agenda. This year, that is a depressing topic, given the Democratic debacle in the midterm elections and Republican policy proposals unions say would hurt their workers.

But as they convened Monday, even the daunting question of how labor should proceed in this new political environment was overshadowed by the controversy over Kirkland, who has headed the AFL-CIO for 15 years.

In recent weeks, several major union presidents have publicly said it was time for Kirkland to step aside so the labor movement could have a younger, more dynamic and telegenic spokesman in tune with major changes in labor-management relations.

Even staunch Kirkland allies say he is in the toughest political fight of his tenure. For his part, Kirkland, 72, scoffed at the criticism - and said none of the critical union presidents had said anything to his face.

“All I know is what I read in the papers,” he said scornfully.

In a lengthy defense of his record, Kirkland said he had fought to get women and minorities named to the executive council and create a program through which union members get cut-rate deals on credit cards, insurance and other services.

For all his defiance, Kirkland would not say whether he will seek another term in October.