Sweeney, John Joseph (1934-...), became president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in 1995. The AFL-CIO is a federation of labor unions in the United States. Since 1980, Sweeney had been president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). That union was, until 2005, an AFL-CIO member representing many nurses' aides, janitors, and other workers in health care and building services.