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Trumka Announces Candidacy for AFL-CIO President |
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AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka this morning announced his candidacy for president of the AFL-CIO to succeed the retiring John Sweeney. Trumka has served as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer since 1995.
Gregory Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), announced June 8 he is running for secretary-treasurer.
At a rally that drew several hundred supporters at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., Trumka also introduced his running mates. Joining Trumka on the ticket are Liz Shuler, executive assistant to the Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Edwin Hill, for secretary-treasurer and incumbent AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker for re-election. This marks the first time two women have run for the AFL-CIO’s top offices.
No other candidates for the top three leadership positions have announced. Earlier this year, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announced he was retiring when his fourth term as president expires in September. Delegates to the AFL-CIO’s 26th Constitutional Convention meeting in Pittsburgh Sept. 13-17 will elect the AFL-CIO’s new officers.
In a joint statement, Trumka, Shuler and Holt Baker note that the labor movement “faces tremendous challenges,” including an unregulated global economy, labor laws that favor employers over workers and a political system in which the wealthy wield far too much influence.
At the same time, we have historic opportunity, with a president and Congress we elected, to overcome these challenges. Our most important task is to make sure our economy creates jobs. And we are keenly aware that we must look within our movement for answers about how we can create full employment, organize workers and make sure workers prosper in the 21st century.
Before being elected AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer in 1995, the same year Sweeney took the helm of the AFL-CIO, Trumka served as president of the Mine Workers (UMWA) from 1982 to 1995. He is a third-generation coal miner and graduate of Pennsylvania State University and holds a law degree from Villanova University Law School.
Shuler is the highest-ranking women in the IBEW and has served as Hill’s top assistant since 2004. In 1993, she joined IBEW Local 125 in Portland, Ore., where she worked as an organizer and state legislative and political director. In 1998, she was part of the IBEW’s international staff in Washington, D.C., as a legislative and political representative.
Holt Baker has served as AFL-CIO executive vice president since September 2007. The longtime AFSCME member and leader came to the federation in 1995 as executive assistant to Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, who was the first woman to become a top AFL-CIO officer. Holt Baker was AFSCME’s international union area director in California from the late 1980s to 1995 and also worked as an organizer and international representative.
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Junemann has served as IFPTE president since 2003. He also served three terms as the union’s secretary-treasurer, IFPTE Midwest area vice president from 1986 to 1994 and president of IFPTE Local 92 in Milwaukee. At his website, Junemann states that
Coming from a decentralized, member-driven union, I am well aware of the gains that can be made by building the power of the local unions while reinforcing the strength that can be realized when differing sectors work in solidarity. That same model can work with our national federation as it sets its sights on building the power of its affiliates and reinforces the need for grassroots support across various fields of employment.
For more information on the Trumka, Shuler, Holt Baker ticket, visit www.TogetherWeCanTogetherWeWill.com. For more information on Junemann, visit www.Junemann09.org.
6 Comments
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Richard Trumka has fire in his belly. Lord knows the labor movement needs some fire. We need to put some “move” back into the movement. That’s another way of saying labor has to grow a new spine. For too long the hierarchy has relied on Congress for relief. What a failed strategy!
Less than 10% of Congress identifies themselves as coming from “blue collar”, working class America. Let’s face it; we’re wretchedly underrepresented in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals. Over the past three decades the working class has been screwed by lawmakers. While we fiddled with Congress our numbers shrank. We need to return to our roots!
Our power to achieve justice doesn’t flow from Congress. Never in our history has Congress initiated programs for social or economic justice. They were forced to act [somewhat] ethically and morally! From the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy, to the New Deal, to Civil Rights, to ending the war on Viet Nam, Congress only acted after men, women - and children - laid down their tools, or left school, and then marched, demonstrated, picketed, and protested until a measure of justice was won.
Take real health care reform, i.e., single payer as embodied in HR 676 and SB 703. (Not the bogus HCAN half-measure!) Take the Employee Free Choice Act. (Not the watered-down crumb that some in labor have signaled they will accept!)
Both of those people-helping programs are attainable, but not without a fight. We’ll have to force Congress to practice democracy. We’ll have to make lawmakers begin representing the 90% of us who are America’s working class.
We are a mighty power for justice if we act in unison! The threat of work stoppages in key industries like transportation, aerospace, and auto would cause even the most fascist of Republicans to come around, but only if they know we’re prepared to take economic and other action to achieve justice.
Our movement isn’t confined to just those of us who pay union dues, we must advocate for all workers! That’s how to make labor popular! That’s how we’ll add tens of millions of new members. Continuing to play footsie with Congress will only worsen our already dismal situation.
Richard Trumka may be the labor leader with the guts to call the ranks and file to action in order to win justice. That’s what it will take. History proves that.
Will the conservative suits and ties in labor back him up? Only if we make them!
The only recipe for success is action….so “let’s get ready to rumbllllllllllllllle!”
I agree with you. Those in the past who never even supported unions do not realize just how much they have gained by unionized labor. Everyone gains, not just those who pay dues. Trumka is perfect for the job as the new president. He will do much for the AFL-CIO. I wish him the best of luck.
I also agree that Congress never does anything for blue collar workers unless they are forced to by the citizens. Congress has been too busy protecting the financial industry and its profits, instead of protecting those who have worked tirelessly to try to earn a decent living and who have contributed the most to make this country great; that is to say, the real backbone of our nation.
I will never forget the strength of my Dad and my brothers when they worked tirelessly in the mills, and gave 110% to their employers. They were instrumental in helping this country grow and prosper. Their work ethic was equal to none. Give me the name of one banker or CEO who could even understand what that kind of loyalty was about.
Wow! Great for us! Richard Trumka came to Effingham Illinois to stand with us on the picket line. We just passed our two year mark on the picket line and we long for the leadership that Trumka can provide. Please know that we support Mr. Trumka and invite him back to our town anytime. Congratulations and may the best man win, the BEST man for the job IS: Richard Trumka. In Solidarity,
Gail Warner, AFSCME Local 3494; Effingham Illinois, two years stronger; one day longer!!!
Richard Trumka is uniquely qualified to lead the AFL-CIO. Having followed his leadership for the last 15 years, he has earned the respect of unionists and political leaders. His message has always been clear and heartfelt. Being an attorney, he knows the ins and outs of civil, criminal, and labor law. As a former mine worker, he understands the importance of workplace safety, teamwork, and caring for his fellow union brothers and sisters. He knows who gets things done and where we need to go to bring about a labor renaissance. I trust him!
No question that Trumka is the best person for the AFL/CIO and his pick for Sect./Treasurer is outstanding. Shuler is one of the most competent and effective people I have ever worked with. This is a great team to move the union ahead in a troubling time.
“AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka this morning announced his candidacy for president of the AFL-CIO to succeed the retiring John Sweeney.”
There is no doubt that Richard Trumka or any of the other candidates mentioned here have the education, experience and long term involvement in the AFL-CIO to be credible candidates.
Will the election of these candidates mean simply a continuation of the past poliicies of John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO? Is there any new thinking, perspectives, strategies coming from these candidates to confront the many crises faced now faced by a declining labor movement and increasingly impoverished working class?
Do these candidates have any critical or new perspectives on how the labor movement should deal with the following realities:
Capitalism: Can the labor movement continue to be a “business partner” to corporate capitalists that forever wish to destroy unions and working people?
To maximize profit, to profitably compete against other capitalists globally, U.S. capitalists must forever minimize the costs of labor by throwing out essential health and retirement benefits, minimizing wages, degrading health and safety conditions, and ultimately when this fails, to shut down and move to China.
To be specific: What do these candidates propose to do about Stella D’oro and the hundreds of businesses that have collapsed? What about the needs of these workers who need “living wage” jobs now to pay rent and buy food NOW!
Will they have to wait for months or years, until a “recovery” for capitalists occurs?
Why did the labor movement so slavishly support the Democratic Party and Obama in the last election? There was another choice open beside supporting anti-labor McKain! Why doesn’t the labor movement issue a call to form a new political party that prohibits corporate campaign money. A new party whose purposed is to promote the economic needs of all the people. The Democratic Party and Obama are totally controlled by run-amok gangster capitalist greed.
The trillion dollar Wall Street bailouts, the billion dollar wars, every new proposal of Obama (cap and trade, health care reform, expanding wars), promotes the profit interests of entire sectors of parasicitc capitalism. This vast LOOTING of the economy is destroying public education, public health and the well-being of the millions of working people.
Why doesn’t the AFL-CIO demand access to mass media, especially PBS and NPR, with new programs of information, education and ultimately organization of working people?
Today the Wall Street Journal, American Enterprise Institute propagandize “MYTHICAL CAPITALISM” which is an unending lie. Global capitalism is destroying the planet (global warming) and waging a war of genocide (through impoverishment, starvation, water pollution) against all peoples deemed unprofitable, in their quest for resources and profit. The “war on terrorism” is nothing but a war for oil profits.
The candidates for the leadership of the AFL-CIO must confront these issues in the next few months. Hopes of maintaining a personally comfortable “status quo” will not work because the “status quo” of everyone is being shattered by gangster capitalists forever determined to “make a killing” figuratively, financially, and even literally when necessary.