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Trumka: 'Biden is committed' to strengthening unions

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discusses why America needs a strong labor movement and how the Biden administration is committed to strengthening unions.

Broken Promises, a Botched Response and a Better Way Forward

Working families deserve a leader who will focus on “we, the people,” not just on the person they see in the mirror. Only Vice President Joe Biden can be that president. I’ve known Joe for 40 years. He loves his family, loves working people and loves our country. His “Made in America” plan will revitalize America's manufacturing in a way Trump never could. Biden doesn’t only have the best plan to beat the virus and help workers recover financially—he is the only candidate for president with a plan at all. And with a Biden administration, we’ll finally pass the PRO Act, allowing workers to join a union freely and fairly.

Joe Biden and Richard Trumka: Put power back in workers' hands

Fifty-five years ago, in a speech to the convention of the Illinois AFL-CIO, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out with characteristic moral clarity the essential role of unions in American life. “The labor movement,” he explained, “was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress … [When] the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society. Civilization began to grow in the economic life of man, and a decent life with a sense of security and dignity became a reality rather than a distant dream.”

Union Family Member Aspires to Become Orthopedic Surgeon; Union Plus Scholarship Application Deadline Is Jan. 31

Makaelah Murray, a student athlete at Howard University in Washington, D.C., is among the 2020 Union Plus Scholarship winners. Murray is a biology major at Howard and a member of the women’s soccer program. She graduated with honors from San Joaquin Delta College and aspires to become an orthopedic surgeon to help other athletes like her recover from their injuries. While at Delta, she completed, with distinction, the Leadership Education for Aspiring Physicians (LEAP) program at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Biden must pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act

So America today needs more than anything solidarity and human dignity — the church's core teachings. The teaching that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, that we are not commodities whose value is determined by a flawed and arbitrary market, but human beings, souls, created in the image of God, and each of our worth is beyond price. And it is high time our nation's laws promoted solidarity and human dignity.

Democracy and the labor movement are one and the same

Our Constitution says that after a presidential election, Congress shall meet on Jan. 6 to count the electoral votes cast for the president and vice president. It is a solemn ritual of democracy.

But it is only that — a ritual. This ceremonial custom is not how our president and vice president are chosen. They are chosen by us, the people.

Of course, President Donald Trump and senators like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz know this. But it did not stop them from inciting an insurrection. Acting out of nothing but unprincipled ambition, they put democracy in danger.

AFL-CIO Calls on Trump to Resign or Be Removed from Office 'at Once'

The AFL-CIO called on President Trump to resign or be removed from office “at once, whether through impeachment or the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” following the riots at the U.S. Capitol this week. The labor group’s general board released the statement Friday, saying it is not one America's labor movement makes lightly. “The deadly storming of the U.S.

Trumka Says Walsh Will Be 'Exceptional' Labor Secretary

The president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of unions, praised President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D) for secretary of Labor, calling the mayor an “exceptional” choice. “Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will be an exceptional Labor secretary for the same reason he was an outstanding mayor: he carried the tools.

Trumka Calls Trump Protest ‘One of the Greatest Assaults on Our Democracy Since the Civil War’

Prominent union leaders of the AFL-CIO and United Auto Workers are publicly condemning President Donald Trump’s supporters for storming the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called it “one of the greatest assaults on our democracy since the Civil War.” 

Read the full article on CNBC.

A New Labor Department Rule Would Classify Gig Workers as Contractors

The Labor Department on Wednesday released the final version of a rule that could classify millions of workers in industries like construction, cleaning and the gig economy as contractors rather than employees, another step under the Trump administration toward endorsing the business practices of companies like Uber and Lyft. Companies don’t have to pay contractors a minimum wage or overtime and don’t have to pay a share of contractors’ Social Security taxes or contribute to unemployment insurance on their behalf.

BLS: On-the-job Deaths Reach Highest Level in 12 years

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said: “Instead of increasing lifesaving measures aimed at protecting working people at our workplaces, the Trump administration consistently rolled back existing safety and health rules and has failed to move forward on any new safety and health protections. We look forward to working with the new administration to strengthen job safety protections and enforcement; rebuild workplace safety agencies; and prevent worker deaths, injuries and disease.”