Incoming AFL-CIO president Richard L. Trumka announced his agenda for the nation's largest union yesterday, citing the need to "rebuild the middle class" and help provide upward mobility for lower class workers. Trumka, who replaces retiring president John J. Sweeney next week, named health care reform and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act as the AFL-CIO's top priorities in the coming months, and stated that those measures would provide the springboard for low-wage workers to move up into the nation's middle class, particularly the right to collectively bargain.
See "AFL-CIO chief to focus on healing divisions, growth", Joe Napsha, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 9, 2009