Trumka on prospects for U.S. labor

Rich Trumka, the presumptive next President of the AFL-CIO talked about the future of the American labor movement today at a forum sponsored by the Center for American Progress today. The address offers some insights into the policies and priorities that a post-Sweeney AFL-CIO might follow.

In his speech, Trumka said that after the Employee Free Choice Act is passed, the first priority of the labor movement should be to organize African-American and other minority poverty-level workers.

We need a labor movement that tells American workers in no uncertain terms that racism – any kind of bigotry — may serve somebody’s interest, but it sure as hell isn’t ours.

In 2009, 30 years after the death of A. Philip Randolph, labor is still haunted by the legacy of Jim Crow. That’s why, after the Free Choice Act becomes law, our first priority has to be launching a drive to organize this country’s five million (4.8 million) poverty wage African American workers – and other minority workers and the women the labor movement left behind!

Trumka also stated that reaching out to young workers will be a top priority of the AFL-CIO. On Tuesday, the AFL-CIO will release a major study on young workers, showing a lost decade. Trumka said,” by every measurement, young Americans are in an economic a free-fall. One example: men and women under the age of 35 and earning less than $30,000 a year. Today, 52 percent of them are living in their parents’ homes!”

During the question and answer period, Trumka committed to regular meetings to dialouge with a young workers–both union and non-union. He praised CWA’s WashTech project and called for innovative approaches to organize young workers. Trumka said, ” we can’t ask millennials to change the way they earn their living to meet our model for unionism; we have to change our approach to unionism to meet their needs.”

Trumka also said that one of his top goals is bringing unions back into the AFL-CIO. As in recent speech to the Sheet Metal Workers Union, Trumka warned that luke-warm friends should not count on labor’s electoral support.

Another new direction was hinted by Trumka in the question and answer period when he said that it was a mistake to, in effect, shut down the AFL-CIO’s political operations on election day.