Richard Trumka

Union leader, born in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, USA. The son of an Italian-American mother and a Polish-American coalminer, he spent some seven years of his youth working in the coal mines. He took an active role in the local branch of the United Mine Workers union (UMW) but then left the mines to take a degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a law degree from Villanova. In 1974 he went to Washington to serve on the legal staff of the UMW, where he soon became dissatisfied with the way the union was being operated. Running as an insurgent, he was elected president in 1982, winning by a clear 2–1 majority. As the fourth president in 10 years of a union long-associated with violence and corruption, he brought a new stability. As a ‘technocrat’ he spoke for the new breed of highly skilled miners, and as a man of the highest personal standards, he was expected to bring a new integrity to the UMW.

Richard Trumka is a leader in the American labor movement.

Trumka was born in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, a third-generation coal miner who went to work in the mines at age 19.

During his tenure at the AFL-CIO, Trumka has focused on creating investment programs for the pension and benefits funds of the labor movement.