AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka dead at 72
Trumka had served as president of the federation for more than a decade and has been a close ally of the Biden White House.
Richard Trumka, president of the powerful AFL-CIO labor organization, has died unexpectedly, the federation announced Thursday.
Trumka, 72, had served as president of the AFL-CIO, which represents more than 12.5 million workers, for more than a decade and was called a “close personal friend” by President Joe Biden.
He died of what was believed to be a heart attack, a source familiar with the matter said. It was unclear when exactly it occurred, though it’s believed to be either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
Staff at the AFL-CIO were informed of the death on Thursday morning.
“He was a relentless champion of workers’ rights, workplace safety, worker-centered trade, democracy and so much more,” AFL-CIO Communications Director Tim Schlittner said in a statement.
Trumka’s stature in the labor movement means his absence will surely be felt during the upcoming election cycle, where unions will play a large role in grassroot campaigning and get-out-the-vote efforts. Democratic president hopefuls fought to tally up the most union endorsements during the 2020 primary.
Democrats, who lost a close ally, were shocked by his sudden death.
“It’s just horrible news,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. “He had in his veins, in every atom of his body, the heart, the thoughts, the needs of the working people of America. He was them. Rich Trumka was the working people of America.”
A third-generation coal miner, Trumka spent his career in the labor movement, serving as president of the United Mine Workers of America, and a member of the AFL-CIO’s executive counsel, as well as on various of the federation’s committees before being elected AFL-CIO president in 2009.
Trumka came to power at a time of great transition for organized labor. Much of his tenure was spent trying to stop declines in membership and balancing the often disparate interests that exist under the AFL-CIO umbrella.
He was not afraid to demand change from within the ranks. As secretary treasurer of the AFL-CIO, he gave a series of speeches to fellow union members during the 2008 campaign, challenging them to look beyond then-candidate Barack Obama’s race. The most memorable of those speeches took place at the national convention of the United Steelworkers.
“We can’t tap dance around the fact that there are a lot of white folks out there,” Trumka said, before bluntly declaring that a lot of union members “just can’t get past this idea that there’s something wrong with voting for a black man.”
There’s “only one really, really bad reason to vote against Barack Obama,” he added. “And that’s because he’s not white.”
Trumka’s untimely death raises questions about the future direction of the federation, which represents dozens of affiliated unions and has a major voice in politics at the federal, state and local levels.
Trumka’s support of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement was key to securing enough Democratic votes to pass the Trump-era trade deal, after having strongly criticized labor’s lack of involvement in past trade negotiations. Under his leadership, the federation has also focused its resources on fighting for the repeal of the so-called “Cadillac tax” on expensive health care plans, raising the federal minimum wage to $15, and advocating for legislation to broadly expand collective bargaining rights.
According to the AFL-CIO’s constitution, in the event of a vacancy in the office of the president, the Secretary-Treasurer, a position currently held by Liz Shuler, performs the president’s duties until a successor is elected. Shuler, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was Trumka’s running mate when he ran for president of the AFL-CIO in 2009.
It was unclear whether Trumka was going to run for another term as AFL-CIO president or retire ahead of the federation’s convention, which was originally scheduled for this fall.
Citing coronavirus concerns, the federation announced earlier this year it was pushing the convention to June 2022, a move that some in the labor movement criticized as effectively extending the federation’s leadership’s terms by roughly eight months.
But that now leaves an even longer gap for the federation to fill the role permanently in Trumka’s absence.
Faithandnature 