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Richard L. Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is set to be elected its president on Sept. 16, 2009, at the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s convention in Pittsburgh. Mr. Trumka is running unopposed, and will replace John J. Sweeney, who is stepping down as president after a 14-year tenure.
With union leaders desperate to stop labor's long decline, many are hoping Mr. Trumka will figure out a way to raise labor's energy, profile and numbers. At the same time, some union leaders worry that Mr. Trumka will be a polarizing figure who might not be adept at building consensus among the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s 56 unions, a crucial step in moving it forward.
If elected Mr. Trumka, 60, would bring the tough guy image he developed in his 13 years as president of the United Mine Workers. In that position, he led long, successful strikes against Pittston and other coal companies, often persuading hundreds of miners to block roads to pressure the companies.
In 1989, he led a 10-month walkout by 1,700 miners in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky after Pittston moved to cut health benefits to disabled and retired miners. During that strike, there were 3,000 arrests of miners and their allies.
Mr. Trumka can boast of something unusual for a labor leader - one of his videos has more than 535,000 hits on YouTube.
That video shows Mr. Trumka giving a stemwinder of a speech at a steel workers' convention last year, telling union members it would be wrong - and stupid - to vote against Barack Obama because of his race.
With his Polish ancestry, heavy mustache, brawny frame and dynamic, earthy speaking style, Mr. Trumka has been compared with Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland's Solidarity movement.
Mr. Trumka went to work in the mines at 19, sometimes alternating several months below ground and several months in school. He graduated from Pennsylvania State and received a law degree from Villanova.