Page 7 - Graduation Commencement_2021

Eastern Gateway Community College
2021 Commencement Address Speaker

Richard L. Trumka is president of
the 12.5-million-member AFL-CIO.
An outspoken advocate for social
and economic justice, Trumka is the
nation’s clearest voice on the critical
need to ensure that all workers have a
good job and the power to determine
their wages and working conditions.
He heads the labor movement’s efforts
to create an economy based on broadly
shared prosperity.

Trumka’s economic advocacy extends
from the kitchen table and spans the
globe. He has rallied international labor
support for workers struggling for
justice, and he has fought to end unfair
trade practices and restore U.S. manufacturing strength. As secretary-treasurer,
he carved out an innovative leadership role that continues today, working with
programs that invest the collectively bargained pension and benefit funds of the
labor movement to ensure they serve the long-term interests of workers.

Trumka’s commitment to improving life for working people began early. He grew
up in the small coal-mining town of Nemacolin, Penn. Nearly all the men in his
family, including his father and grandfather, were coal miners. Trumka followed
them into the mines, working there as he attended Penn State and Villanova
University law school.

In 1982, at age 33, Trumka ran on a reform ticket and was elected the youngest
president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).

There, in addition to reforming the UMWA’s fractious bureaucracy, he led one of
the most successful strikes in recent American history against the Pittston Coal
Company, which tried to avoid paying into an industry-wide health and pension
fund.

Trumka was elected AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer in 1995, and held that post until
2009, when he was elected president.