President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka speaks about his role in securing labor protections in the USMCA trade agreement during an interview with Reuters in Washington, December 19, 2019.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
AFL-CIO union leader Richard Trumka publicly condemned President Donald Trump supporters for storming the U.S. Capitol, calling it “one of the greatest assaults on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Trumka, who has worked with the Trump administration over the last four years, largely blamed the president for instigating the actions.
“Today’s attempted coup has been years in the making as @RealDonaldTrump consistently spews venom, conspiracies, hate and lies to his supporters,” he tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “They are carrying out his wishes, and far too many Republican lawmakers have enabled and even encouraged this violent threat to our republic.”
Trumka, whose federal union represents 12.5 million Americans, said the actions of protestors “violate the constitutional rights of every law-abiding American and the labor movement.”
Trumka was appointed a member of the White House’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, created last year as part of the president’s efforts to reopen up parts of the U.S. economy during the coronavirus pandemic. He also worked with the administration to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, now known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
