Is Our Union Leaders Learning?
By 
I’ve defended Richard Trumka on a lot of fronts. But this is unforgivable.
President Trump touted his accomplishments during his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations President Richard Trumka said it was one of his finest moments.
“I think his change of tone,” Trumka said during an interview on the FOX Business Network, “signaled he’s about to start doing business rather than playing for the camera—that was a good sign.”
Trumka pointed out President Trump’s comments on illegal immigration and the three-decade long stagnate wage issue in America. Even though he would have preferred to hear more from Trump on this, he said he’s willing to partner with the White House to tackle these issues.
“Talking about trade the way he has, doing away with TPP was good, talking about redoing NAFTA is good… and will we partner with him? Absolutely,” he said. “Will we partner with him to try to rewrite the immigration rules of the country? Absolutely because those will help workers, it will decrease the imbalance between corporate America and workers.”
Trumka added he would also like see Trump follow up on his promises to boost the working class.
“[Workers] have been beat down for four decades…If you come from rural America or Appalachia, where I come from, workers just feel like they’ve been left behind.” He noted this was a big reason why Trump won the election.
“They wanted him to rewrite the rules of the economy—not for the rich, not for the wealthy, not for corporate America, not for Wall Street but for them – and so he’s been a mixed bag on that.” he said.
A mixed bag? What, is the bag full of both cobras and copperheads? Is that the mix? Because there’s nothing in it for working people except for suppressing indigenous rights for a few construction jobs. And that’s not a win for working people.
This is just pathetic. The leader of the American union movement seems to think that kissing up to Cheeto Mussolini is going to work out for unions. That is not the union leadership we need. Not at all.