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Press Release

AFL-CIO President Named to New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission

… Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was named by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to his state’s Restart and Recovery Commission. The commission will examine the ways to safely restart business and other critical operations throughout the state and develop policies for short-term and long-term economic recovery. “I am grateful that Gov Murphy is committed to having the voice of working people play a prominent role in his commission,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “The …
Press Release

AFL-CIO Unanimously Endorses Kamala Harris for President

… fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on. From taking on Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she’s shown time and again that she’s on … powerful legacy of the Biden-Harris administration to create good union jobs, grow the labor movement and make our economy work for all of us.” As vice president, Harris:  Played a critical role in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, investing … She was a vigorous advocate for workers’ freedom to form or join a union, including strongly supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to reform broken labor legislation that stacks the deck against workers.  As attorney general of …
Convention Resolution

Resolution 7: The Conversation About Economics We Need to Have

… Shared Prosperity in the Global Economy and the Executive Council THE ECONOMY IS NOT THE WEATHER. It does not just happen to us. The economy is all about the wealth we create every day at work. Without our labor, there is no economy. But while we do the work, we do not control the economy we create. For a … economy so that they take a larger and larger share of the wealth we create. And as they are busy changing the rules to benefit themselves, the 1% have told us for a generation that this fundamentally unfair economic order is the only way we …
Speech

Trumka to Bricklayers Convention: Together We Rise

… extremely proud of this union. You make good buildings. You bargain good contracts. You organize. You stand up for what’s right. You live the theme of this convention… “Build… Adapt… Change.” 150 years ago… bricklayers and stone masons and craft workers of all kinds stepped away from their jobs and joined the fight to end the evil of slavery. After a terribly long and bloody war, the forces of freedom prevailed. Some of those soldiers … in your resolution against mass incarceration and your statements for justice and #blacklivesmatter. I see it in your work for immigration reform and for your direct advocacy for union and non-union bricklayers alike. Every day, and in every …
Page

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

… top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Firefighters arrived at the scene, but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the upper floors of the 10-story building. Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, … young as age 15, worked seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a half-hour lunch break. During the busy season, the work was nearly non-stop. They were paid about $6 per week. In some cases, they were required to use their own needles, … was worth $150 million in today’s dollars) believed that all women—rich and poor—would be treated better if women had the right to vote. Alva saw the labor uprising as an opportunity to move the women strikers’ concerns into a broader feminist …
Speech

Richard L. Trumka Acceptance Speech at the AFL-CIO 2017 Convention

… Thank you. I’m humbled and honored. First, I want to thank Lee Saunders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for nominating me, and Randi … rough. She did more than teach. She inspired. That’s a way of looking at the world that’s getting attention across America right now. It’s a kind of unionism and responsibility and solidarity that has been hard to find in America for a long, long … office. It is what drives me today.  Our labor movement is more unified, more focused, more fiscally sound… because of the work we’ve done together. Now we’re ready to write the next chapter. Because no matter what we hear from the naysayers, we …
Executive Council Statement

People's Liberation Army

… are the executioners of prisoners. The PLA acts with swift brutality, as evidenced by the massacre at Tiananmen Square, to crush any attempt to introduce democracy or promote basic human rights in China. Workers who seek to form genuine unions, religious believers, … The AFL-CIO, together with its state federations and central labor councils, will join with other groups and actively work to ban commercial operations by the Chinese military in the U.S. and with U.S. companies. We will make our stand with …
Executive Council Statement

Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority

… OR The 1996 merchandise trade deficit of $165 billion, an all-time record, is further evidence that America's approach to international trade and investment is not working. Over the last dozen years, the trade deficit has totaled more than $1-+ trillion, and helped turn the United States from being the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor. During this period, a period of increasing trade liberalization, the nation has experienced … promote open markets, unregulated capital mobility, export growth and the protection of private property are inadequate to address the complexities of the global economy. Workers not just corporations must be empowered, and government needs to …
Executive Council Statement

Vice President Jay Mazur

… In the years before his election as president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and later to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 1986, Vice President Mazur had devoted his entire career to the service of the members of his union.  Starting out as an ILGWU local organizer in New York when he was only 18, attending college and graduate school at night, Mazur rose to become the elected manager of Local 23-25 in the New York garment industry, one of the union’s largest local unions. In …
Press Release

New Study Confirms 4.1 Million African Americans Would Benefit from a Minimum Wage Increase

… Click here to view the report (Washington, DC, March 27, 2014) – A new study conducted by the AFL-CIO confirms 4,123,000 African American workers would benefit if the federal minimum wage were increased to $10.10 per hour. The study, “Closing the Gap to the American Dream,” which uses information provided by the Economic Policy Institute, found that while African Americans …