Next leader of AFL-CIO could see rise in power

Richard Trumka still keeps his old coal miner's helmet on a shelf in his spacious office overlooking the Washington Monument.

The scuffed-up relic is a reminder of how far Trumka has come since he started working in the mines of Pennsylvania at 19, a path that led him to become the youngest president of the United Mine Workers and, later, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

Trumka is the favorite to become the next president of the nation's largest union federation later this summer _ its first new leader in 14 years _ at a time of great promise for a labor movement that has spent decades on its heels.

Several large unions that left the AFL-CIO in a …