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The snickering can be heard all the way from Beijing... The call to ban gas stoves in the U.S., based on environmental concerns, certainly drew backlash from an angry public tired of seeing their household appliances, critical possessions and standard of living being targeted. After all, they've already gotten our incandescent light bulbs and flush toilets in many quarters. They've meddled with the design of our cars and guns. They're trying to get our meat, telling us to eat bugs instead. Many consumers, and professional chefs, who say gas is best for cooking, simply put their collective foot down. Where...

President Joe Biden reacted to the news of the death of AFL-CIO Union President Richard Trumka on Thursday at the White House, calling him a “very close friend.” “He was more than head of the AFL-CFO, he was a good, close, personal, friend,” Biden said at an event at the White House. The president said that Trumka died during a camping trip with his grandsons, reportedly of a heart attack. “At least he was with people who adored him,” Biden said shortly. Trumka was 72. “We’re sorry for your loss, Mr. President,” one White Hosue reporter replied after Biden finished...

Richard Trumka, president of the powerful AFL-CIO labor organization, has died unexpectedly, two sources told POLITICO. Trumka, 72, had served as president of the federation, which represents more than 12.5 million workers, for more than a decade and has been a close ally of the Biden White House.Trumka died of what was believed to be a heart attack, a source familiar with the matter said. It was unclear when exactly it occurred though believed to have taken place either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO labor organization boss has died unexpectedly. Sources told Politico Trumka, 72, died of a heart attack. Trumka was a very close ally to the Biden White House. Politico reported:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new North American trade deal addresses most concerns of U.S. labor unions, Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO union federation, said on Thursday, but even so he expects it could take more than a decade to reverse job losses resulting from the original 25-year-old trade pact.

President Trump on Monday slammed AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka over comments he made over the weekend, saying it’s easy to see why unions are doing so terribly.“Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend,” the president tweeted. “Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!” Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the...

President Donald Trump started his Labor Day with an attack on a top union leader, lashing out after criticism from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Trump tweeted Monday that Trumka “represented his union poorly on television this weekend.” He added: “it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!” […] Asked about the low unemployment rate and economic growth, Trumka said “those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year. Gas prices have been up since the first of the year. So, overall, workers aren’t doing as well.” On Monday, Trump touted...

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka said President Donald Trump has “hurt workers.” On Trump’s performance for workers, Trumka said, “Unfortunately, to date, the things that he has done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers. He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work. He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job.” He continued, “Wages have been down since the...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is getting an earful – on Twitter – from teachers union boss Randi Weingarten for reportedly keeping the door open to a possible Trump endorsement in 2020. Newsmax reported Wednesday that Trumka would not rule out a union endorsement for the president. “Every [candidate] will be looked at,” Trumka said. He added, “we will consider every candidate who’s running.” Trumka simply may have been stating union policy, not wanting to get ahead of an endorsement process that is nowhere close to starting, for an election more than two years out. At the same time, he noted...

Despite strong condemnations of the Trump administration for what he calls the “growing wage inequality” among Americans, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka on Wednesday refused to rule out his union endorsing President Donald Trump for re-election in 2020. “Well, he will be looked at [for the labor endorsement],” Trumka told Newsmax, “Everyone [of the presidential candidates] will be looked at.” Pressed as to how serious he was about the AFL-CIO considering not endorsing the Democratic nominee for president for the first time since 1972, Trumka insisted “we will consider every candidate who’s running in 2020.” Recalling the last presidential race, the...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered the following remarks at the opening meeting of the Commission on the Future of Work and Unions:  Good morning, everybody. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the first meeting of the AFL-CIO Commission on the Future of Work and Unions. I want to thank my partners, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre, along with our affiliate union presidents, who represent the broad sectors of the economy and will help guide this important work. We are also honored to be joined today by a number of labor leaders, academics, policy...

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in response to President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, which he attended last night: Last night, President Trump painted an everything-being-great picture of America that while optimistic, is not the reality for most working families. That may be how his friends are living, but the working men and women we represent aren’t seeing the same America; and his policies are making it worse. The truth is many of the things he says are undermined by the actual policies he supports. While he’s rightly acknowledged problems in trade, America’s workers are still...

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in response to the Republican tax bill passing the Senate: The GOP tax bill that passed the Senate by one vote is nothing but an attack on America’s workers. We will pay more, corporations and billionaires will pay less. It’s a job killer. It gives billions of tax giveaways to big corporations that outsource jobs and profits. President Trump said that he wanted to lower taxes for everyone as a Christmas gift to America, but this bill is simply a lump of coal to working families across the country. The only real gift is...

Yesterday, President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress released their new tax plan. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka responded to the proposal: The tax plan Republicans put out [yesterday] is nothing but a con game, and working people are the ones they’re trying to con. Here we go again. First comes the promise that tax giveaways for the wealthy and big corporations will trickle down to the rest of us. Then comes the promise that tax cuts will pay for themselves. Then comes the promise that they want to stop offshoring. And finally, we find out none of these things...

The president of the AFL-CIO stepped down from a council advising the White House on Tuesday, hours after President Trump reiterated that both sides were to blame for deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., where white supremacist groups rallied over the weekend. "President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. He announced that both he and AFL-CIO leader Thea Lee would step down from Trump's Manufacturing Advisory Board. "We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups."...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today made the following remarks at a rally to save health care: Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. I’m Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. I am proud to be here on behalf of the American labor movement. We oppose the Republican health care bill. It’s bad for workers. It’s bad for unions. It’s bad for America. It doubles down on taxing our health plans. It threatens Medicare and Medicaid. And it further tilts our economy toward the wealthiest few. In fact, this isn’t a health care plan at all. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from...

President Trump will hold individual meetings on Tuesday with two men who have consistently criticized his policies. Trump will first sit down with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at 12:30 in the presidential dining room in the White House. The two first butted heads during the campaign. Following the election, Graham continued to challenge some of Trump's foreign policy stances. In late December, Graham said nearly the entire Senate disagreed with the then-president-elect's statement that Russia did not try to meddle in the U.S. election.

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General: The AFL-CIO opposed the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General because of the nominee's long record of working to undermine the rights the Attorney General must uphold. The very process by which he was confirmed—the silencing of Senator Elizabeth Warren for reading a letter from Coretta Scott King on the Senate floor--demonstrated what his nomination was really about. Now that he has been confirmed, Senator Sessions has the chance to show us wrong—to uphold the law and protect the Constitution, to protect all...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made the following statement about last week’s immigration executive orders:President Donald Trump has announced three executive orders addressing immigration that are an affront to core union and American values. Building a wall on our border, scapegoating immigrants and refugees, and shutting out people of Muslim faith will do nothing to uplift working people in our country. To the contrary, these orders sow fear of raids among workers, promote racial profiling and erode core constitutional protections. As such, they are a clear attack on our members, and elevated fear is a direct obstacle to workers’ rights to...

Three years ago, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras spoke before us here in Washington about the need for the United States and all nations to set aside the single-minded pursuit of wealth. He repeated Pope Francis’ warning about an economy that kills. He cited global inequality that has left working families so far behind that they often don’t have safe places to sleep, enough food to eat or access to clean water.These concerns threaten us right here in America, right now. It’s the paradox of scarcity, and its solution is both increasingly difficult and increasingly important to embrace. When you...