I cannot sit on a council for a President that tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism; I resign, effective immediately.
Reading News 4U: AFL-CIO chief leaves Trump's manufacturing council after president's latest remarks
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
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| Richard Trumka, the head of AFL-CIO, just stepped down from Trump's Manufacturing Council |
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is a national trade union center and the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of fifty-six national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers. The AFL–CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of Democrats and liberal or progressive policies.
The AFL–CIO was formed in 1955 when the AFL and the CIO merged after a long estrangement. Membership
in the union peaked in 1979, when the AFL–CIO had nearly twenty million members. From
1955 until 2005, the AFL–CIO's member unions represented nearly all unionized
workers in the United States. Several large unions split away from AFL–CIO and
formed the rival Change to Win Federation in 2005,
although a number of those unions have since re-affiliated. The largest union
currently in the AFL–CIO is the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),
with approximately 1.4 million members.
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AFL-CIO chief leaves Trump's manufacturing council after president's latest remarks
The head of the AFL-CIO has stepped down from the White House's manufacturing council after President Trump doubled down on his position that violence in Charlottesville was perpetrated by many sides at a press conference Tuesday.
Richard Trumka said in a statement posted on Twitter that he "cannot sit on a council for a President who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism," and called Tuesday's remarks "the last straw."
The statement was jointly issued by Thea Lee, an economist who previously served as deputy chief of staff at the AFL-CIO. She also resigned from the council.
"President Trump's remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America's working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups," they said.
Trumka is one of the best-known manufacturing leaders in the country. The AFL-CIO union represents 12.5 million workers around the world.
During the presidential campaign, Trumka called Trump "anti-American" and "a bigot."
"From his anti-American proposal to ban Muslims to his horrendous comments about women and immigrants, Trump is running on hate," he said in a speech in March 2016.
But he has praised the president's policies on trade -- particularly the decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in January.
"Today's announcement that the US is withdrawing from TPP and seeking a reopening of NAFTA is an important first step toward a trade policy that works for working people," Trumka said in a statement.
Six business leaders have now resigned from Trump's manufacturing council since the weekend.
Kenneth Frazier of Merck (MRK), Kevin Plank of Under Armour (UA) and Brian Krzanich of Intel(INTC, Tech30) all left the group on Monday. The Alliance for American Manufacturing chief Scott Paul quit on Tuesday, as did the two AFL-CIO leaders.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump said the media is downplaying the role of the "alt-left," and said blame for what unfolded at the white supremacist rally in Virginia lies with "both sides."
"You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now," he said.
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