WASHINGTON: Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO’s strong president who rose from the Pennsylvania coal mine to lead one of the largest labor organizations in the world, died on Thursday.
He was 72.
Federation confirmed Trumka’s death in a statement.
He has become AFL-CIO President since 2009, after serving as a 14-year-old organizational secretorary.
From Hereng, he oversaw the federation with more than 12.5 million members and deliver a more aggressive leadership style.
“Movement of labor, AFL-CIO and the nation lost legend today,” AFL-CIO said.
“Trumka, who is rich in devoting his life to people who work, from the beginning as President of American mining workers to his unparalleled leadership as the sound of the American Labor Movement.” More details about Trumka’s death, including the cause and where he died, not immediately available.
The majority leader of Senate Chuck Schumer announced the death of Trumka from the Senate floor, saying “The people who worked in America had lost a fierce fighters when we really needed it.” President Joe Biden called Trumka “a close friend” who is “more than AFL-CIO’s head.” He apologized because it would appear late to the meeting with the leader of American civil rights, original Hawaii and the Pacific, saying that he had just learned Trumka had died.
A sturdy man with thick eyebrows and thick mustache, Trumka is the son and grandson of coal miners.
He grew up in the small Southeast Pennsylvania Nemacolin, where he worked as a coal miner while attending Penn State University.
He was elected in 1982 at the age of 33 when the youngest president of American mining workers, promised that the troubled unity “would rise again.” There, he led a successful attack on the Pittsston coal company, which tried to avoid paying and industrial pension funds, said the Union website.
At the age of 43, Trumka led the national attack against Peabody Coal in 1993.
During the walk-off, he stirred the controversy.
Asked about the possibility that the company would hire a permanent replacement worker, Trumka told the Associated Press, “he said if you attack the match and put your finger on it, you tend to burn.” Trumka insisted she did not threaten violence against replacement.
“Do I want it to happen? Not at all.
Do I think it can happen? Yes, I think it can happen,” he told the AP.
As President of AFL-CIO, he vowed to revive the rolls of slack membership unions and promised to make the labor movement attract the generation of new workers who consider trade unions as “only faded images from the next time.” “We need union that makes sense for the generation of women and the next young man who does not have money for college or almost no mess when they come out,” Trumka said to hundreds of delegates cheering in a speech.
At the UNI annual Convention in 2009.
That year, he was also the main supporter during the 2009 Health Care debate to include public insurance options, run the government, and threaten the Democrats who opposed one.
“We must be a labor movement that stands by our friends, punishing their enemies and challenging those who, well, it seems unable to decide which side they are,” he said in August 2009.
During the debate in 2011 ended the rights of the Union of public employees at The state controlled by GOP Trumka said the angry protest triggered was too late.
Trumka said he hoped-gov.
Bill Scott Walker to abandon trade unions about their bargaining power, which draw thousands of protesters to Capitol in Madison, can renew support for unions after decades down.
Does it mean or not, Trumka said, Walker began a national debate about collective bargains “that this country needs to be possessed.” Eulogi poured from his democratic allies in Washington.
“Richard Trumka dedicates his life to the labor movement and the right to regulate,” said Nancy Pelosi’s home speaker in a statement.
“Richard’s leadership goes beyond a single movement, when he struggles with the principles and perseverance to maintain everyone’s dignity.” Democrat Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia said he was “heartbroken” to find out his friend’s death.
“Rich Rich is the story of America – he is the son and grandson of Italian and Polish immigrants and started his career mining coal.
He never forgot where he came from.
He dedicated the rest of his career to fight for men and women who work in America,” Manchin said in a statement.