Category Archives: Richard Trumka

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s Statement On May Jobs Report

  By New Hampshire Labor News | June 7, 2013 - 5:07 pm | , ,
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The politics of austerity still hold the world in a vise-like grip and today’s employment report provides another view of that failure, despite U.S. job creation barely above what’s needed to accommodate new entrants into the labor market.

Within today’s 7.6% unemployment rate are millions of people who could be building our economy. Millions of young people are living with unemployment rates between 25 and 50 percent, their dreams of opportunity slowly fading. Communities of color are devastated.  And formerly middle class workers are finding part time, low wage, no benefit jobs. This tepid, so-called recovery hurts all of us.

The reality is, our economy will not recover until our government and global financial institutions begin to govern – not just for the banks – but for the well-being of all of us. People unwilling to give up the ghost of austerity provide the same-old tired ideas: the idea that drastic cuts to public spending will promote private spending.

Austerity doesn’t work—under any name or by any measure. Eurozone leaders are beginning to accept this idea. We should do the same.

As Michael Linden of the Center for American Progress reported yesterday, the economic theory and empirical reality undergirding the bipartisan embrace of austerity have crumbled. The evidence shows that what we need now is job creation.  Amidst sequester and without real progress on the 2014 budget or the debt ceiling, he argues that “[t]hese changes should dramatically affect the debate on federal economic policy in general and the federal budget in particular.”

We strongly agree with Linden’s assertion and urge Congress to reject cuts in Social Security and Medicare, reject senseless cuts that hurt the ability of our country to grow and meet the needs of people. The sequester is not savvy frugality but a disastrous assault on working people that Congress must repeal, rather than replace. We must all demand real solutions — like investments in good jobs, education, infrastructure, job training, and the green jobs that come with sustainable development. America’s working people are ready to stand with any leaders committed to large-scale investments to create jobs, to rebuild our middle class and lead us all forward.

AFL-CIO President Trumka On Currency Exchange Reform Act

  By New Hampshire Labor News | June 5, 2013 - 3:42 pm | , , ,
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Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2013

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2013 sends an important message that this nation will no longer tolerate currency manipulation by other governments. This wrongful and unfair practice distorts the global economy and disadvantages countries like the United States that follow international trade rules. The growth of these illegal actions has cost far too many jobs over the past several years. We call on the House and Senate to take action on this issue without delay.

Working people are proud of the leadership from Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Richard Burr (R-NC), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to introduce this important the bipartisan legislation.

In addition to supporting this bill, the AFL-CIO supports companion legislation in the House, The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act of 2013 (H.R. 1276). Considering the continuing job-destroying impacts of currency manipulation, there should be strong bi-partisan support in both the House and Senate.

When foreign governments manipulate currency, they give producers in their country an unfair advantage.  When a country’s currency is devalued by 25 percent, that means US exports are 25 percent overpriced by comparison, while our imports from that country are underpriced by the same amount. Not only does this unfair practice severely damage the US manufacturing sector, it also means that workers in those countries suffer from reduced purchasing power themselves.  The result on the U.S. trade deficit has been devastating—last year, the U.S. ran a trade deficit of more $315 billion dollar in trade in goods with China alone.

Congress must stand up for American manufacturing and put an end to the trade war being waged against the working families and communities. Our country needs to create millions of good jobs now. We can no longer afford to be passive in the face of these illegal job-killing practices.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Retiree Leader Edward Coyle comment on the 2013 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports

  By New Hampshire Labor News | June 4, 2013 - 6:50 pm | , ,
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The most important message from the 2013 Social Security Trustees Report is that our Social Security system continues to work for the American people.  After years of economic crisis for working families, Social Security is in better shape and more dependable than 401(k)s, private pensions, or any other public or private program.  We must call out those who will try to misuse today’s  report as political cover for unwarranted and ill-advised benefit cuts, like switching to the “chained CPI” to calculate Social Security’s annual cost of living increase (COLA).

The truth is that at a time when America’s retirement income deficit is estimated to be an astounding $6.6 trillion because too many people have nothing or too little in pensions or savings, we cannot afford to cut Social Security’s modest benefits in anyway whatsoever, including how it keeps pace with inflation through its annual COLA.   The Report reaffirms that, without any changes, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2033 and three-quarters of benefits after that, unchanged from last year’s report.

Social Security provides a critical base of financial security and dignity for Americans in retirement or unable to work due to disability or when a working parent dies and is survived by young children. Going forward, strong economic growth broadly shared will serve to strengthen the program further.

While much might be made of the projected shortfall in the disability trust fund, there is a simple step that should be taken to address any short-run concerns.  As it has done eleven times before, Congress should reallocate the income across the two funds.

The good news from today’s Medicare Trustees report, extending the life of the Hospital Insurance trust fund by another two years to 2026, reminds us that we do not have a Medicare problem.  We have a health care cost problem.  Recent reforms have helped strengthen Medicare and appear to have contributed to a significant slowing of health costs overall in the short run.  If we are to succeed in the long run, however, we need to continue taking steps to make health care more affordable and the health care system more cost effective, and reject proposals to cut benefits or shift costs to individuals.

The AFL-CIO and EUTC Discuss Trans-Atlantic Trade And Investment Program

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 28, 2013 - 4:49 pm | , , ,
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Richard_TrumkaMeeting in Paris, President Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO and General Secretary Bernadette Ségol of the ETUC discussed shared priorities for the TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) to advance the interests of working people and fight misguided austerity policies on both sides of the Atlantic.

The AFL-CIO and the ETUC officially kicked off a joint campaign to ensure that shared prosperity and sustainable growth are the driving principles in the upcoming talks on a United States – European Union trade agreement known as TTIP.

The ETUC and the AFL-CIO both recognised that a successful trade agreement must be based on the best practices on each side of the Atlantic, in order to have positive impacts on jobs and economic growth.  Both organisations committed to devoting the resources and effort needed to ensure that working people as well as negotiators understand how the TTIP can be shaped to maximise the opportunities for workers to share in its benefits.  Priority areas include the labour, regulatory, and investment rules the agreement would establish.

Both groups agreed that the goals of the TTIP should include full employment, decent work, and rising standards of living for all—not the enshrinement of destructive austerity, de-regulation, or other neoliberal ideas prominent in recent years.  Trumka and Ségol’s first order of business will be finalising a joint position statement on the pending agreement.  They agreed to maintain close contact in following the course of the negotiations.

The two labour leaders also discussed the unacceptable labour rights regime in Bangladesh and ways the two organisations could cooperate to advance labour rights, fair pay, and improved working conditions for Bangladesh’s workers.

For more information on the federations’ principles and goals for the TTIP, please visit:

http://www.etuc.org/a/11228 (ETUC)

http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Trade/U.S.-EU-Free-Trade-Agreement(AFL-CIO)

The ETUC exists to speak with a single voice, on behalf of the common interests of workers, at European level. Founded in 1973, it now represents 85 trade union organisations in 36 European countries, plus 10 industry-based federations.

The ETUC is also on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. If you would like to subscribe to the ETUC newsletter, please click here.

 

AFL-CIO President Trumka Comments On Senate Vote Undermining American Tech

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 22, 2013 - 4:26 pm | , , ,
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Richard_TrumkaThe labor movement has no higher priority in 2013 than a workable immigration system that will allow 11 million aspiring Americans to become citizens. That’s why labor has been working tirelessly with faith groups, DREAMers, and the civil rights community to ensure that we move forward this year and create a roadmap to citizenship.

The progress on this bill so far has been commendable. With the hard work of so many for so long, our broad and diverse coalition has become unstoppable.

There is no reason why this strong coalition should accept anti-worker amendments. And let’s be clear: Senator Orrin Hatch’s H-1B amendments are unambiguous attacks on American workers.

Hatch’s amendments change the bill so that high tech companies could functionally bring in H-1B visa holders without first making the jobs available to American workers. Hatch’s amendments would mean that American corporations could fire American workers in order to bring in H-1B visa holders at lower wages.

The next Sergei Brin might be sitting in an American classroom right now. But if that future innovator cannot get an entry-level job in high tech because employers prefer importing temporary workers, entrepreneurial innovations will not occur in the United States.

Tech tycoons like Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg have gotten rich while wages in the technology sector have stagnated. Today’s H-1B amendments have passed on the same day that Apple’s CEO is testifying about Apple’s multi-billion dollar tax avoidance schemes. If the hard work of America’s tech workers is ever to pay off, we need to craft policy that benefits the people who actually write code, rather than just rewarding industry honchos who write checks to politicians. Our goal should be an America in which our young tech workers can pay off their student loans, not one in which Larry Ellison can build ever more extravagant yachts. We expect better, we deserve better, and if necessary, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, we will get better.

We are thankful that the Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to report out a bill today that supports a real roadmap to citizenship. We will continue to work with our allies to pass immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship in 2013.

Workers Need A Functioning NLRB

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 21, 2013 - 8:10 am | , , , ,
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By Mark MacKenzie (Pres. of NH AFLCIO)  and Richard Trumka (Pres. of AFL-CIO)
Also published in the Nashua Telegraph

Most people in New Hampshire don’t even know what the National Labor Relations Board is. Well, why should they? Here’s why.

For decades, American labor law helped working people come together to have a voice on the job which in turn gave them a say in our economy and in our politics and public life.  This freedom to organize, which is enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act (and, by the way in the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights) helped produce the greatest period of sustained and broad prosperity in our country’s history.

Everyone did better.

Broadly shared prosperity is needed once again. In order to rebuild our economy and level the playing field for all working people – union and non-union – the law protecting workers’ rights must be enforced. That’s the role of the National Labor Relations Board – and it needs to work.

That doesn’t mean protecting the rights of working people as opposed to the rights of employers. It means ensuring the NLRB’s ability to promote commerce by governing the relationship between workers and employers.

The less the board works, the more America’s economy falls out of whack, as we see it today with record inequality and a shrinking middle class.

But currently the NLRB is under unprecedented attack by extremist Congressional Republicans and corporate lobbyists who want to weaken the board’s power to protect workers who choose to organize and form unions on the job.

While this issue may not grace the front page of every newspaper the effects are and will continue to be felt at home here in New Hampshire and across the nation.

In the face of partisan obstruction threats in Washington, President Obama made three Board recess appointments. But an unprecedented and radical decision by conservative U.S. District Court judges has put these appointments in jeopardy.

To make matters worse, House Republicans are pushing legislation to further cripple the Board. Their so-called “Preventing Greater Uncertainty in Labor-Management Relations” Act (H.R. 1120), despite its name, would create more uncertainty and deprive workers of enforceable rights.

These attacks are causing real consequences in real people’s lives.

Marcus Hedger is just one of the many workers who has been denied justice because of the attack on the NLRB.  Marcus was the Chief Steward for the union at Fort Dearborn Co. After the union rejected a company proposal Marcus was fired and told the company was tired of the “union circus”.  The NLRB rules that the firing was illegal and ordered the company to rehire Marcus, but the company has refused because of the Noel Canning decision. Marcus recently lost his home to foreclosure because of the financial distress he faced after being unlawfully fired.

Marcus is hardly alone. Four years ago, Visions of Elk River a Minnesota school busing company illegally fired two drivers and three aides, who accompany special needs children, for trying to form a union. The firings were motivated by employees’ known involvement in past union activity.

Without a functioning NLRB, these people were fired, not for doing something wrong, but for doing something that’s protected by law, by openly talking about forming a union or bargaining for a better life. And yet their lives have been thrown into turmoil, and they have no effective recourse.

Justice delayed is justice denied, and justice to working people is being seriously denied because of the instability being forced upon the NLRB.

President Obama has taken an important step towards restoring stability to our system of labor-management relations by nominating a full, bi-partisan package of nominees to the NLRB.

New Hampshire’s working people can’t wait in limbo any longer.

Responsibility for providing needed stability and the functioning NLRB working people need and deserve is now up to the U.S. Senate. The Senate should act quickly and confirm the President’s full slate of nominees.

 

Richard Trumka is president of the 12 million member AFL-CIO. Mark MacKenzie is president of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO.

AFL-CIO President Trumka Calls For Immediate Action Needed In Bangladesh

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 10, 2013 - 10:50 am | , ,
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Working people around the world are watching in horror and disbelief as the number of workers who have needlessly died in Bangladesh rises. Now, over 800 brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, friends and loved ones have been confirmed dead in a tragedy that never should have happened – and hundreds more remain missing. There is no doubt that the collapse of the Rana Plaza building and factories in Bangladesh will be known as one of the worst workplace catastrophes in history. We must collectively as a nation and as a world, together with Bangladesh, take immediate steps to prevent these kinds of disasters in the future.

First and foremost, the AFL-CIO encourages the unions and corporations throughout the supply chain to negotiate, sign and implement a binding agreement regarding workplace fires and building safety in Bangladesh. The proposed Fire and Building Safety Agreement, already accepted by two major brands, guarantees worker participation, recognizes the role of government and takes measures to combat corruption by requiring rigorous inspections, transparent reporting of audits and public oversight of results. This agreement offers an integrated and sustainable solution. Agreements like these are needed in many countries where major brands and retailers have chosen to produce their goods under a low-wage and no-rights model, but the many recent and needless deaths and injuries in Bangladesh make that country the most urgent priority right now. Companies that say they want to improve conditions in Bangladesh must join the brands that have signed this agreement, rather than seeking an alternative with less transparency and accountability.

We call on the U.S. government to immediately withdraw, suspend, or limit Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits for Bangladesh until it fulfills its most basic duties to workers. As the AFL-CIO has maintained since filing a GSP petition in 2007 (and in earlier years), suspending trade benefits is a crucial mechanism to pressure the Bangladeshi government to take clear and concrete actions to afford workers their internationally recognized worker rights. Clearly, the pace of progress has been inadequate to date.

Over 80 percent of garments produced in Bangladesh are exported to the United States and the European Union. This creates shared responsibility for finding a sustainable solution to the lax conditions and weak workplace protections. Major brands and retailers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have made millions from high profit margins based on low wages and dangerous conditions. We call on the retailers not to leave Bangladesh, but to take an active role in improving conditions by pressuring the government to implement reforms and by negotiating with workers and local employers. People outside Bangladesh must insist that retailers, brands, investors, and our governments use their power to promote sustainable development and shared prosperity for workers in Bangladesh who produce our clothes.

AFL-CIO President Trumka Comments On The April Jobs Report

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 4, 2013 - 8:56 am | , , ,
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The economy added 165,000 jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate down slightly, to 7.5 percent. This is welcome news, together with upward revisions to prior months’ jobs figures. But overall, the nation’s economic recovery remains lackluster – almost four full years after the “official” end of the recession. By any measure, the shortage of jobs is the real deficit crisis for this economy.

Beneath the headlines, there are several troubling indicators in today’s report.  Hours worked per worker actually fell; involuntary part-time work increased; and the unemployment rate for teenagers is stalled at 24.1 percent. Youth unemployment rates would be even higher, were it not for the dramatic drop in the labor force participation numbers for young people, meaning that many are not counted as unemployed.

Our economy is struggling to achieve the economic velocity necessary for full recovery. The blame for this falls largely on Republicans in Congress. For years, they have pushed austerity policies that have turned stimulus tailwinds into austerity headwinds. It is this misguided policy direction that distinguishes this weak and slow recovery from past economic cycles.

Austerity policies are failing around the world, and have now also been discredited among policy analysts. The main research cited to support these policies — by Professors Reinhart and Rogoff  — contained significant errors in calculation and design, and no longer supports the strong policy recommendations initially claimed.

It is time for leaders in Washington to take immediate action to reverse these disastrous policies. That starts, first and foremost, with repealing the harmful and unnecessary “sequester.” Misguided austerity has hurt our economy, kept unemployment high, and undermined wages, and we urgently need to change course. But the price for correcting this mistake should not be cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits, or other harmful cuts that would further damage the economy. Working people were not responsible for this mistaken policy, and they should not have to pay the price. We need more economic security, not less. We need to invest in good jobs and our future – not slash essential social programs and investments.

AFL-CIO President Trumka Speaks To Immigration Reform On May Day

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 3, 2013 - 6:15 am | ,
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May 1, 2013

Today, working people here and around the world are coming together to commemorate past struggles and gather strength for ongoing ones. In the United States, the labor movement has no higher priority this year than securing the passage of an immigration reform bill that features an inclusive road map to citizenship, protects workers’ rights, unites families, and maintains the diversity that keeps our country strong and competitive in a globalized world.

On this day, also known as International Workers’ Day, we commemorate those workers who have died or been injured on the job and vow to redouble our efforts to improve working conditions and workers’ safety across the globe. Recent tragedies such as in West, Texas, and Bangladesh are painfully fresh reminders of how we still struggle both nationally and globally to provide basic and necessary protections for workers.

America’s unions, hand in hand with our allies in the broad-based immigrant rights movement, will continue to mobilize around the country today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow until we offer all aspiring Americans a roadmap to citizenship. On this May Day, we honor those workers who have come from all over the world, for many generations, to build our nation. We stand with our brothers and sisters here and around the world in their fight for justice – because workers’ rights are immigrant rights.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Reflects On Workers Memorial Day

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 30, 2013 - 8:46 am | , , ,
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On Workers Memorial Day, we come together to recognize the inherent dignity and value of every person and to remember all those who have perished on the job. As a third-generation coal miner, I’ve known firsthand the uncertainty of whether my loved ones would return home at the end of the day safe and healthy, and my heart goes out to all the communities who have endured terrible losses.

Each day in this country, 150 workers die from job injuries and occupational diseases. Last year in the United States more than 3.8 million workers were reported injured on the job, but this number understates the problem. The true toll of job injuries is likely two to three times greater. Around the globe, the toll is vast, with 2.3 million workers dying and 317 million workers injured on the job each year.

This year our thoughts are particularly with the families of West, Texas, where two weeks ago a horrific explosion at a fertilizer plant killed 15 people, injured hundreds more and caused widespread destruction. While the investigation is still under way, from all reports regulatory authorities had not inspected this dangerous facility in years.

We are outraged by the deaths of our sisters and brothers in Bangladesh, where over three hundred workers have perished, and hundreds have been injured, in the collapse of a building that housed garment factories.  Despite warnings by authorities that there were cracks in the building that made it unsafe, factory owners told the workers there was no danger and ordered them to work.  No worker should have to sacrifice life, limbs or health to earn an honest day’s pay – not here in the United States, not in Bangladesh or anywhere else. Yet, corporations continue the push for profits, seeking to avoid regulation and oversight.  They claim that stronger worker protections and enforcement kill profit, when the reality is that failure to act kills workers.

This is especially true for the millions of immigrant workers who live in the shadows and face even greater risks of death and injury on the job. Until all workers, regardless of where they were born or what country they live in, have the ability to come together on the job and speak out against dangerous conditions, we will continue to mourn needless deaths and preventable tragedies.

This Workers Memorial Day we must speak out against all those who value profit over life and wealth for the few over prosperity for all. Corporations that exploit workers and put them in danger must be held accountable.  We call on the Obama Administration to act without further delay to implement important regulations on silica, coal dust and other hazards.  And we must strengthen our job safety laws to give all workers the protection they need and deserve.