AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka seemed to be making nice with President Trump last month when the topic was billions in federal infrastructure spending but speaking to the National Press Club yesterday, Trumka started showing his true colors.
The president campaigned on the promise of helping workers find high-paying jobs. But AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that Trump’s failed attempt to repeal ObamaCare would’ve hurt many of the same working-class voters who helped elect him.
The labor boss also criticized moves by Trump to roll back health and safety protections for workers during a speech to the National Press Club.
“If you pull a bait-and-switch on working people, if you say that you’re with us and then attack us, you’re going to fail,” Trumka said.
“When the president says, ‘I’m for you,’ and then he does the old switcheroozy and he pulls a healthy or safety regulation that hurts us, we’ll let him know.”
Switcheroozy? Who talks like that?
It’s always fun to hear guys like Trumka talk like they’re just another average working stiff. I wonder how rank and file union members who struggle to make ends meet feel about being included in Richard Trumka’s “us” when Trumka reportedly pulled down more than $300k of their union dues last year.
The union boss pretended not to be completely in bed with the Democrats though.
Trumka admitted the AFL-CIO has some issues of its own that need fixing, starting with finding a new strategy to win back many of the working-class voters who sided with Trump.
“We will not be an ATM for any political party,” Trumka said. “We’ll stand up to the corporate Republicans who attack working people and the neoliberal Democrats who take us for granted.”
The AFL-CIO dumped about $17 million on Democrats and left wing PACs in 2016 according to OpenSecrets.org.
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