Trumka, Richard L. (Richard Louis), 1949-2021

Richard Louis Trumka (July 24, 1949 – August 5, 2021) was an American attorney and organized labor leader. He served as president of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to 1995, and then was secretary-general of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009. He was elected president of the AFL–CIO on September 16, 2009, at the federation's convention in Pittsburgh, and served in that position until his death.

Born in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, Trumka went to work in the mines in 1968. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1971 and a Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law in 1974. After earning his J.D., Trumka was a staff attorney with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was elected to the board of directors of UMWA District 4 in 1981 and became president of the UMWA in 1982. While President of the UMWA, Trumka led a successful nine-month strike against the Pittston Coal Company in 1989, which became a symbol of resistance against employer cutbacks and retrenchment for the entire labor movement. Besides his domestic labor activities, Trumka established an office that raised U.S. mineworker solidarity with the miners in South Africa while they were fighting apartheid. He further helped organize the U.S. Shell boycott, which challenged the multinational Royal Dutch Shell Group for its continued business dealings in South Africa. For these steps, Trumka received the 1990 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award.

As secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009, Trumka focused on creating investment programs for the pension and benefit funds of the labor movement, capital market strategies, and demanding corporate accountability to America's communities. He chaired the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, a consortium of manufacturing unions focusing on key issues in trade, health care, and labor law reform. He co-chaired the China Currency Coalition, an alliance of industry, agriculture, services, and worker organizations whose stated mission is to support U.S. manufacturing.

Trumka was elected president of the AFL-CIO after the retirement of John Sweeney in 2009 and president of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD in May 2010. Trumka was named one of Esquire Magazine's Americans of the Year in 2011. In March 2013, Trumka confirmed that organized labor would make an effort to work more closely with groups trying to aid immigrant workers, as the national debate on minimum wage and fair employment in the restaurant industry heated up. On February 4, 2018, Trumka was announced to be the first recipient of the World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership because he has dedicated his life to the cause of labor and labor rights, seeking equality, and defending the rights of working men and women. He died from an apparent heart attack on August 5, 2021.