U.S. workers lose a tireless advocate with Trumka’s death

Bill Knight column for 8-9, 10 or 11, 2021

 Richard Trumka and I first crossed paths at a union’s national convention in New York City, where I was about to accept an award, and he was AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and the keynote speaker.

A Newspaper Guild unionist at Peoria, then San Diego, I felt like The Who opening for Jimi Hendrix at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival.

Trumka, who died Thursday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 72, was as friendly and soft-spoken as Hendrix, but also as fiery as the legendary rocker’s guitar pyrotechnics.

He asked me, straight-faced, if I were related to the Knight family that owned the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain – then embroiled in labor strife in several cities, and I quickly said, “No, sir.”

Then Trumka cracked a smile, laughed and poked me, adding, “I knew that. I checked it out.”

AFL-CIO president for 12 years, Trumka was elected to the post in 2009 following 14 years as its secretary-treasurer and leader of the United Mine Workers (UMW) before that.

The third generation of his Pennsylvania family to work as a miner, he earned a law degree from Villanova and then worked as a UMW attorney until 1982, when he was elected as a 33-year-old reformer to lead the union.

On Thursday, tributes started pouring in immediately, ranging from power brokers to grassroots activists.

“Richard Trumka dedicated his life to the labor movement and the right to organize,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “Richard's leadership transcended a single movement, as he fought with principle and persistence to defend the dignity of every person.”

The progressive group Pride at Work, the largest national organization advocating for LGBTQIA+ working people, echoed Pelosi.

“President Trumka dedicated his life to fighting for working people across the country and around the world,” said Pride at Work National Co-President Shellea Allen. He was “a rock and leader in our labor movement. He will be missed.”

Trumka led a federation with some 12 million members and steered it in a more aggressive direction, but overall membership had decline to about 12% of U.S. workers during his tenure, mostly due to strong anti-union actions by employers and weak labor-law enforcement. Still, he was influential and became close to Presidents Obama and Biden, the latter benefiting from his input in planning comprehensive infrastructure and job initiatives.

Plus, despite an erosion of membership since the 1950s, unions are on an upswing.

Apart from possible impressions from a lot of typical news stories, unions won most National Labor Relations Board elections during the pandemic – and the last decade. Reuters News reports 72% of the 5,804 public and private union elections in the past five years were in favor of workers trying to organize, according to data from the NLRB.

Nine out of every 10 petitions to form bargaining units were won by unions last year, the highest rate of success in at least 10 years. Even in the decade, workers won more than half the NLRB-supervised elections, Reuters showed.

Further, a 2020 Gallup poll found that 65% of Americans approve of labor unions – almost a 50-year high of public support, up 16% since 2008. Politically, 82% of Democrats approve of unions; 61% of Independents, and even 45% of Republicans. Also, adults ages 18–34 support unions at an even higher level —71%, the Economic Policy Institute reported in April.

In addition, the percentage of Americans who say they’d join a union in their workplace if they could is 50% higher than in 1995 – about half now (48%) compared to 32% 26 years ago.

The AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, Liz Shuler, reportedly will assume duties as president until the federation’s Executive Council picks a successor. The AFL-CIO’s next presidential election had been set for this year, but it was postponed until next year because of the COVID pandemic.

Reflecting on Trumka’s death – and life – reminds me of lines from Hendrix’ stunning version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”:

“Businessmen, they drink my wine,

Plowmen dig my earth.

None will level on the line,
Nobody offered his word.”