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21 September, 2009
At the 26th Constitutional Convention of the US’s largest national labour center last week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, delegates elected Richard Trumka as president. Trumka, a member of ICEM-affiliated United Mine Workers’ of America (UMWA), had been serving as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO since 1995.
A third generation miner from western Pennsylvania, Trumka pledged to reinvigorate the American labour movement by recruiting more young people into the ranks of organised labour. In his acceptance speech, Trumka promised to build “a new kind of labour movement – one shaped to meet the needs of Americans in a changing economy.”
Trumka succeeds John Sweeney of the Office, Professional Workers’ Union, who retired after three terms as head of the AFL-CIO. A labour attorney by training, Trumka worked in the Legal Department of the UMWA starting in 1974. In 1982, he was elected as president of the UMWA, a position he held until joining Sweeney as part of a new AFL-CIO leadership team in 1995.
Arlene Holt-Baker, Richard Trumka, and Liz Shuler
Elected last week to replace Trumka as secretary-treasurer of the 56-union, ten-million-member federation was Liz Shuler, a member of the Electrical Workers’ Union (IBEW) from the state of Oregon. She served most recently as executive assistant to the president of the IBEW. Elected as executive vice president was Arlene Holt-Baker. A member of the public employees’ union, AFSCME, she has held that position since 2007 after being appointed by the AFL-CIO Executive Council .
Among some 70 resolutions passed, two dealt with Iraq. One called on US President Barack Obama’s administration to use its influence on the Iraqi government to adopt internationally-accepted work rights, including passage of an ILO-written labour law that assures the legitimacy of trade unions in Iraq. The other calls on the US government to end its military occupation and bring a speedy withdrawal home of both troops and US armed contractors from the Middle Eastern country.
Another resolution calls on the US to sanction the military regime in Honduras by withdrawing the US ambassador, freezing assets of those responsible for the June 2009 coup, and for the US government to seriously consider suspending all trade with Honduras until Manuel Zeleya is restored as President of a democratic Honduras.