The AFL-CIO came home to Pittsburgh yesterday by saying a goodbye of sorts.

John J. Sweeney, the federation's president since 1995, will be stepping off the dais Wednesday when Richard L. Trumka, who grew up in Nemacolin, Greene County, is expected to take over as president.

Mr. Trumka served as the president of the United Mine Workers before his 1995 election to the No. 2 post as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. His candidacy for president of the federation is unopposed.

Mr. Sweeney rose through the ranks of the Service Employees International Union to ultimately lead the AFL-CIO. Yesterday he stepped onto the stage accompanied by the sort of triumphal music usually reserved for elderly members of the Academy of Motion Pictures when they are presented with lifetime achievement awards.

His speech to the delegates was both a summation of achievements and a call to arms:

"We transformed the debate over globalization and helped redefine the global labor movement as a champion of workers' rights. We increased the minimum wage. We took on the Enrons and the Exxons. We called the hand of the greedy corporations that sent out jobs overseas, destroyed our mortgage markets and nearly destroyed our economy. We brought health care and labor law reform to the top of our national agenda. We seated a pro-working family majority in the United States Congress."

And he said that the members of the AFL-CIO worked to elect the first African-American president in the history of the country.

He told the thousands members in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center there is so much farther to go.

"We're closer to winning our long struggle for universal health care, but our success has kindled a kind of meanness stoked by politicians playing on fear, racism, nativism and greed," he said. "Every one of our achievements represents unfinished business -- and the tasks we're challenged with are daunting."

He placed reviving the economy, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to organize work places, and guaranteeing health care to all Americans at the top of the AFL-CIO's to-do list.

He also thanked the delegates for their support when his former union, the SEIU and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, split from the AFL-CIO in 2005.

It was a day of Pittsburghers as the convention opened with Jack Shea, the president of the Allegheny County Labor Council.

It also included a speech by former Steelers running back Franco Harris, who spoke of his 1972 Immaculate Reception.

Back then, he said, "the city was hurting. We needed a reason to believe."

Then, bringing his message to the delegates, he said, "Now its your time to believe in the power and potential of labor."

Then he pulled a football from the shelf of the podium, held it up and said, "The ball is in your hands," as he handed it to Arlene Holt-Baker, the executive vice president of the union.

The convention recessed to the music of Pittsburgh's Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers.

During the next four days at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center union delegates and guests will hear speeches from President Barack Obama, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Caroline Kennedy and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous.