Richard L. Trumka was president of the 12.5-million-member AFL-CIO from 2009 until his death on August 5, 2021. An outspoken advocate for social and economic justice, Trumka was the nation’s clearest voice on the critical need to ensure that all workers have a good job and the power to determine their wages and working conditions. He led the labor movement’s efforts to create an economy based on broadly shared prosperity and held elected officials and employers accountable to working families.

In Memoriam

In 1982, at age 33, Trumka ran on a reform ticket and was elected the youngest president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).

There, in addition to reforming the UMWA’s fractious bureaucracy, he led one of the most successful strikes in recent American history against the Pittston Coal Company, which tried to avoid paying into an industry-wide health and pension fund.

Trumka was elected AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer in 1995, and held that post until 2009, when he was elected president.

Trumka’s economic advocacy extended from the kitchen table and spanned the globe. He rallied international labor support for workers struggling for justice, and fought to end unfair trade practices and restore U.S. manufacturing strength. As secretary-treasurer, he carved out an innovative leadership role that continues today, working with programs that invest the collectively bargained pension and benefit funds of the labor movement to ensure they serve the long-term interests of workers.

Trumka’s commitment to improving life for working people began early. He grew up in the small coal-mining town of Nemacolin, Penn. Nearly all the men in his family, including his father and grandfather, were coal miners. Trumka followed them into the mines, working there as he attended Penn State and Villanova University law school.

Solidarity and his determination to improve life for all working families was a driving force in Trumka’s life as a labor leader. Comprehensive immigration reform was a central part of that goal. Trumka’s work on behalf of immigrants was just one facet of his deep commitment to securing economic and social justice for all working people.

Trumka envisioned an economy of shared prosperity for all working families—an economy of rising wages, equal pay, respect at work, safe jobs, secure retirement, and the freedom for all workers to form or join unions and bargain collectively.

Rich Trumka carried with conviction throughout his life the power of solidarity and commitment—from the mines of southwest Pennsylvania to the helm of America's largest federation of unions. With solidarity and commitment, we all have a chance to work in dignity and live well. 

Speech

Trumka on New NAFTA at Maryland/DC AFL-CIO Convention: We Are Not There Yet

We’ve been lobbying the White House specifically on NAFTA for more than two years, slowly but surely moving the ball down the field. But we are not there yet. Let me repeat: we are not there yet. I know from experience this can be one of the most dangerous points in a negotiation. An agreement is in sight so you fold on core issues in order to get across the finish line. I will not allow that to happen.
Media Hit

Richard Trumka on Successes in the 2019 Elections (MSNBC)

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Trumka Receives the 2019 NIAF Leonardo da Vinci Achievement Award

President Richard Trumka accepts the 2019 National Italian American Foundation Award.
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Trumka at the Joe Rauh Lecture: Anything is Possible When Working People Stand Together

When Jock ran for president of the Mine Workers in 1969, the need for democracy—both inside and outside our ranks—was greater than ever before. It was a time of great strife and grief across the country. This was the beginning of the Vietnam War. Nixon was president, though it was still a few years before Watergate. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had been shot and killed the year before. The Stonewall uprising for LGBTQ rights took place that year, as did Woodstock and the first moon landing. The Civil Rights Act had been passed, but it was still a long way from being truly enforced. There were riots, marches and protests over civil rights and equality. 

Unions were rising up, too. The growth of the public sector throughout the 1960s brought demands for better wages and protections on the job. Remember, Dr. King was shot and killed while fighting for striking sanitation workers in Memphis. The strike was called the “I Am A Man” strike. People were striking to be recognized and have dignity at work. One of the sanitation workers was killed on the job, and it precipitated the strike that Dr. King attended and where he was ultimately killed. And then, in the fateful year of 1969, thousands of mineworkers marched on the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, demanding protections against Black Lung disease. Their uprisings ultimately got the governor to sign the first legislation in the country recognizing Black Lung as an occupational hazard.

As working people were fighting for democracy in the country at large, we were also waging a battle within our own unions. 
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Trumka to Alabama AFL-CIO: United We Win, Divided We Fall

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's speech to the Alabama AFL-CIO Convention.
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Trumka on Future of Work: We Have to Get This Right

The most important question is whether the benefits of technological progress will be distributed fairly and broadly—or whether they will continue to be hoarded by the most privileged segments of our society.