President of AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, has been known as the face of labor rights defender over the past 10 years. President Richard Trumka is a third generation miner. He was leading the largest U.S. labor federation for more than 10 years. He died at the age of 72 years.
AFL-CIO confirmed the passing of Trunka’s death in a statement. They called him a “relentless champion of workers’ rights”. His cause of death was reported as heart attack. Politico was the first media outlet to report his death.
Richard Trumka was born outside Pittsburgh. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a law degree from Villanova. After graduation he served as a lawyer for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in the 1970s. In 1982 he got a chance to lead the organization.
During his tenure, he led large strikes against Peabody Coal and Pittston Coal Company in the late 1980s as well as early 1990s. In 1995 he became the Secretary-treasurer of AFL-CIO and its president in 2009.
As the head of AFL-CIO, Trumka steered a federation of more than 50 unions representing an excess of 12 million workers. During his time at the top, he fought policies and laws weakening unions.
Trumka was an important political friend of Joe Biden and Barack Obama. He made an effort to establish landmark reforms to federal labor laws when he died. Many mourners said that Richard was “one of the nation’s fiercest, most effective advocates for working people ever.”
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As president of the labour movement, he delivered a great speech on racial justice in St. Louis in 2014. This was after a Black man, Michael Brown, was killed by a police officer.
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