News

Missouri Working Families Relief Fund

In the wake of natural disasters across the state, the Missouri AFL-CIO has created the Missouri Working Families Relief Fund to send a message of hope and solidarity to working people in need.

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.”

Kamala Harris and Liz Shuler: Unions can help America build back better after COVID-19

This Labor Day, America’s working families are facing unprecedented challenges.

Control the Virus and Protect Workers—and the American Economy Will Roar Back

Over the past few months, President Donald Trump’s performance has been both unprecedented and unpresidential.

To Restore Trust, Fight Pandemic, American Government Needs New Leadership

Everett Kelly is national president for AFGE.

OSHA Has Failed to Protect Workers From COVID-19, Unions Say

Half a century after Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, labor advocates say the agency in charge of enforcing the landmark law is failing to protect American workers during the coronavirus pandemic. "We lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to health and safety on the job," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said this week in a conference call. "OSHA has been absent."

Read the full article in CBS News.

Labor Unions, Environmental Groups Sue Feds Over Lack of PPE

“The AFL-CIO is joining this lawsuit to force the Trump administration to do what it should have done months ago — protect American workers by dramatically increasing the supply of the PPE they need to work safely during this pandemic,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a news release. “The failure to do so is immoral and inexcusable, and we demand action now.

Read the full article in Mass Device.

Deregulation, Lack of Health Enforcement Worsened Coronavirus Pandemic

The GOP Trump administration’s massive job safety and health deregulation and its lack of enforcement have worsened the toll of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., the AFL-CIO says. In a Zoom press conference on Death On The Job 2020, the federation’s 29th annual report on job safety and health, federation President Richard Trumka blamed GOP Oval Office occupant Donald Trump for that. He said Trump left “millions vulnerable to infection, and in far too many cases, death.”

U.S. Accused of Violating International Labor Laws, Forced-Labor Protections in New Complaint

The complaint is another sign of the frustration over the treatment of workers under the Trump administration, and it places the United States in the realm of potential wrongdoing typically occupied by less-developed and less-democratic countries. “Covid has laid bare what we already knew,” Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO said in an interview. “It has demonstrated that not only is the U.S. violating workers’ rights, but those violations are resulting in people dying. It became so outrageous that we wanted to file a complaint.”

Chief Justice Roberts: America’s Chief Guardian of Corporate Power

When the Supreme Court’s new term opens today, public attention will be focused on the furious and hypocritical effort of President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to ram through Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the voters remove both Trump and McConnell from power.

Workers Will Not Tolerate Trump Trashing the Constitution

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued a strong warning to Donald Trump Friday that the nation’s workers are ready to stop any attempt by the administration to trash the U.S. constitution.

He was reacting to announcements by Trump that he considers the mail-in voting process unacceptable and that he will not commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election. Trump has said, essentially, that only an election he wins would be one he would recognize.