The untimely passing of Rich Trumka
Of all the deaths that took place in 2021 perhaps none was more unexpected and consequential than Richard Trumka鈥檚, the Greene County native and president of organized labor鈥檚 the AFL-CIO.
Trumka was 72 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in August on an outing with his family. A cousin, state Rep. Pam Snyder, described the devastating loss to the family.
President Biden called Trumka a close friend. He spoke from the White House.
A graduate of Carmichaels Area High School and Penn State Fayette (a law degree from Vanderbilt University followed), Trumka rose to prominence by the time he was a little past 30. He served a 13-year stint as president of the United Mine Workers.
A fiery speaker and fierce advocate for workers, Trumka drew instant comparisons to John L. Lewis, who zealously led the union for some six decades, starting in 1919.
Like Lewis, Trumka was once a miner himself. Also like Lewis, he was ambitious to achieve bigger things.
Jolted by the murder of union dissident Jock Yablonski on the orders of then-president Tony Boyle, the UMW was ripe for competent, determined leadership. Trumka brought his considerable skills to bear on multiple fronts for the union beginning in 1982.
In an interview with the 缅北禁地 early in his term, Trumka highlighted the fact that he had reorganized the union鈥檚 internal operations, cutting out 120 jobs at national headquarters in Washington and closely 鈥渕onitoring鈥� the work of the remaining staff.
鈥淲hen we first got there,鈥� Trumka told the editorial board and reporter Chuck Mortimer, 鈥渢he union finances were managed like a clubhouse. We had a payroll that was grossly inflated in terms of the number of people. They were not properly trained.鈥�
The interview in August 1983 took place close to the three-year mark of the Ronald Reagan presidency. 鈥淭he current administration will readily admit that they have basically neglected labor seriously,鈥� Trumka said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e willing to work with the administration to the extent we can, but the budget cuts we鈥檝e seen have fallen on the working class people.鈥�
Trumka met with the newspaper during a period of high inflation. He wasn鈥檛 enamored of the Reagan administration鈥檚 attempts to fight rising prices.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e seen an approach 鈥� that caused mass unemployment,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a decision to fight inflation by using layoffs and unemployment, and we think that鈥檚 not in the best interests of the country.鈥�
It鈥檚 emblematic of how times have changed that the mine workers鈥� president felt compelled to visit Uniontown, which even then was well beyond the point of serving as the national hub of the bituminous coke industry in the United States 鈥� the coke that helped make possible Pittsburgh-area steel-making.
Both the Western Pennsylvania coke and steel industries are long past their primes. And the vitality of the UMW has been severely, perhaps fatally, undermined.
As reporter Mortimer wrote in 1983: Trumka 鈥渕ust rebuild a tradition-steeped union which has seen a decline in membership from 595,000 in 1942 to the current mark of approximately 240,000, of which 50,000 are jobless.鈥�
Today, there aren鈥檛 50,000 active miners in the entire country.
Trumka was elected AFL-CIO president in 2009, after first serving as the organization鈥檚 secretary-general starting in 1995.
Speaking to a union gathering in Las Vegas in 2008, in the midst of that year鈥檚 presidential campaign, Trumka told of encountering a Democratic Party activist in Nemacolin, Greene County, who expressed a number of reasons for not wanting to cast her ballot for Barack Obama.
He was a Muslim, she said. No he鈥檚 not, said Trumka, and it doesn鈥檛 matter anyway. He doesn鈥檛 wear an American flag lapel pin. Trumka asked, do you? Am I? The answer was no.
Finally, the woman said Obama was the wrong color. Presidents are not supposed to be Black.
Trumka told the Las Vegas audience that he implored the woman to check out her surroundings. The town is dying, jobs are disappearing, he said. Obama says he鈥檒l fight for us and you won鈥檛 vote for him because he鈥檚 Black? 鈥淎re you out of your ever-lovin鈥� mind, lady?鈥�
Trumka鈥檚 relationship with President Obama was not entirely satisfactory, and he failed to get along Donald Trump, though he did support the Trump administration鈥檚 revision of NAFTA, the Clinton era trade pact with Canada and Mexico
Things were potentially on the up-swing with Joe Biden, the most pro-labor president in decades, in the White House. 鈥淚t鈥檚 too bad Trumka didn鈥檛 live long enough to see鈥� where that may have led, wrote The New Republic鈥檚 Timothy Noah at the time of Trumka鈥檚 death.
Too bad, indeed.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.