Unions 2.0? Trumka on Austerity, Elizabeth Warren, and Progressives [View all]

June 16, 2014


AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka characterizes his vision of a progressive and populist-oriented labor coalition, not as a modern innovation, but as a return to labor’s roots. In an in-depth interview for The Zero Hour, Trumka covered a range of topics that included the postwar heyday of the middle class, the union movement’s relationship to the left, the logic behind fighting for non-unionized workers, and the possible presidential candidacy of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The interview can be seen in its entirety above, but here are some selected excerpts. I began the interview by describing my own childhood in Utica, N.Y., during the 1950s and 1960s, when a family could live a good life on a single blue-collar income, and asked: “Are those days gone forever?”

“Those days will be gone forever if we continue with the same austerity policies of the last thirty years,” Trumka replied. “If we change those policies those days can yet be in front of us … we can produce good jobs … They’re doing it in Germany, they’re doing it in Brazil, they’re doing it in Australia, they’re even doing it in Canada.”

Former participants in the antiwar movement of the late 1960s recall a time when many unionized workers were pitted against progressive activists under the leadership of the AFL-CIO’s then-President George Meany. We mentioned this history to Trumka after he used the word “progressive” to describe the AFL-CIO’s goals. In his response (excerpted below), Trumka spoke about the progressive origins of the United Mine Workers of America, where he served as president before joining the AFL-CIO leadership:

http://ourfuture.org/20140616/re-envisioning-labor-an-interview-with-the-afl-cios-richard-trumka