Richard Trumka 1949-1921
AFL—CIO President of the for the Last 12 Years
Background
Richard Trumpka , the president of the AFL—CIO, the American pre-eminent labor federation for the last 12 years and an important voice in Democratic politics, died on Thursday, August 5, 2021. He was 72 years old. He died on a camping trip with family members. The cause was a heart attack. “The working people of America have lost a great warrior at a time when we needed him the most,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in an emotional tribute on the senate floor. Mr. Trumka was elected to lead the federation in 2009 after serving as secretary-treasurer, its second-ranking official, since 1995; before that he was president of the United Mine Workers of America. He was the president of 12.5 million member AFL—CIO, an out-spoken advocate for social and economic justice.
Early Life and Education
Mr. Trumka was born on July 24, 1949 in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh to an Italian American mother and a second-generation Polish American father, coal miner Frank Trumka. His son, Richard Trumka, started to work in the coal mines in 1968. Richard Trumka was an American attorney and organized labor leader. He served as president of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to 1995, and then was secretary-general of the AFL—CIO from 1995 to 2009. He was elected president of the AFL—CIO on September 16, 2009, at the Federations Convention in Pittsburgh, and served in that position until his death. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1971 and a Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law in 1974. Trumka married Barbara (nee Vidovich) in 1982. They had one son. He was a Roman Catholic. Richard led a successful 1989 strike against the Pittston Coal Company, which refused to contribute to a health and retirement fund. Trumka urged a broad range of strike action including non-violent civil disobedience that resulted in the arrest of thousands of coal mine strikers.
New President
Under the AFL—CIO Constitution, the federation’s secretary-treasurer, Liz Shuler, will take over as president until its executive council can meet to elect a successor. The federation’s next presidential election was scheduled to take place this year, but was delayed until next year because of the pandemic. While the percentage of Americans represented by unions continued its long-term decline on his watch, those of Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and had been an influential outside voice in helping to shape president Biden’s ambitious jobs and infrastructure proposals.
Mr. Trumka took over the AFL—CIO with a reputation as a reformer, who was both tactically and strategically ambitious, dating back to his days running the mine workers’ union in 1989 and 1990. The union waged a months long strike against a company called the Pittston Coal Company, which had cut health care benefits to retirees. Striking miners and their labor allies sometimes tried to block trucks from transporting coal from the mine. Other workers threw rocks and other sharp objects at the trucks, though the union had urged that the strike remain nonviolent. The benefits were ultimately restored.
Mr. Trumka was a leader in the 1980s of the group jobs with justice, which sought to forge ties between organized labor and community groups, like civil rights and faith—based organizations, with a commitment by all parties to turn up several times a year in support of one another’s protests. Mr. Trumka, as an AFL—CIO secretary treasurer, joined in picketing by union members at a Kaiser aluminum plant in Mead, Washington in 1999 during a two year strike. For several years as an AFL—CIO president, he pursued a similar game plan, investing in organizing campaigns and helping to fund labor groups that were not traditional unions, like those representing undocumented immigrant laborers, but following union leaders and former aides.
Mr. Trumka became less and less committed to organizing as a priority for the federation. Documents obtained by the website splinter in 2019 showed that the federation had significantly scaled back its organizing budget as the previous decade wore on. A former AFL—CIO official, Ana Avendano, said the Federation began to be de-emphasize partnerships with so called worker centers, which help with protections and benefits for marginalized with the New York Times five years later. A spokesman for the Federation said at the time that the shrinking budget, caused by a decline in union membership had made it more difficult to fund such groups, but that it had continued to prioritize organizing that its organizing budget did not reflect all the resources it devoted to that objective.
Overtime the former aides said that Mr. Trumka came to wield power increasingly thorough relationships he had built up in Washington, while he sometimes talked at the White House about labor under President Obama . At one point he was squeezed in awkwardly at the corner of a table for a White House meeting on immigration and “Couldn’t even open his pad,” Ms. Avendano said. He had a strong rapport with Mr. Biden, then vice president, and with other Obama administration officials.
Mr. Trumka also pursued as relationship with President Donald J. Trump, meeting with him at Trump Tower in Manhattan just before the 2017 inauguration and warning aides that Federation should not criticize Mr. Trump personally, only his policies, according to one aide. He eventually turned against Mr. Trump when he concluded that the efforts had largely been futile. “I was hopeful we could work together on the few issues where we actually agreed,” Mr. Trumka said in a 2019 speech. “Well, it’s been nearly three years, and I can tell you one thing for certain: Donald Trump is one of the most anti-worker president in American history.”
After Mr. Biden entered the White House this year, Mr. Trumka gained direct access to the presidency, which he used to push for top labor priorities, including the so called protecting the right to organize, act, or pro act. The measure would make it easier for workers to unionize by prohibiting employers from holding mandatory anti-union meetings, and by imposing financial penalties on employers for labor law violations. There are currently no penalties, only make-whole remedies, like back pay. Mr. Biden has supported the legislation which passed the House of Representatives in March, but lacks uncertain prospects in the Senate.
Mr. Trumka played a critical role in easing the concerns of more skeptical labor leaders that Mr. Biden’s efforts to move the country away from fossil fuels would devastate their membership. After some building trades union leaders reacted critically to Mr. Biden’s decision to cancel an oil pipeline, Mr. Trumka helped arrange a White House meeting between them and the president, to reassure them that jobs for their members remains a top priority. Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s building trades unions, said he was encouraged by the meeting. “I can tell you that we may not agree with every decision he makes, we already haven’t,” he said in an interview shortly after the meeting. But, he added, “we assured” Mr. Biden that the building trade unions would be supportive on issues like infrastructure and covid-19 safety. Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America and a longtime friend of Mr. Trumka’s aide that while Mr. Trumka had earlier this year considered running again for re-election, he gave the impression in a conversation
about a month ago that he had decided against doing so.” In many ways it was the high point of him as an insider,” Mr. Cohen said, but he added, his sense was that “he was clearly not going to run again”. Mr. Trumka’s new leadership style and emphasis on community solidarity heralded a period of reform. In 1995 Trumka became secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor—Congress of Industrial-Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the youngest elected member. Trumka was re-elected fours times by 2009 and served on several key committees including the executive council, strategic approaches committee. In 2008 he delivered a ground breaking speech against racism in the presidential election, becoming the first labor leader to earn more than 500,000 cyberspace viewers on this popular online video website You tube. In 2009 President Barack Obama appointed Trumka to the president’s economic recovery advisory board. Trumka was honored for his continuing work through such distinctions as the Gompers—Murray—Meany Award from the Massachusetts AFL—CIO, the Labor Responsibility Award, the Award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and the Jewish National Fund Tree of Live Award from the State of Israel.
By Ted Rajchel
References:
1. The New York Times—https://www.nytimes.com/com/2021/08/05/business/Richard-trumka-dead.htm
2. Richard Trumka, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Chief, Dies at 72
3. The Polish American Encyclopedia, Richard Trumka p. 523
