Richard Trumka

Richard Louis Trumka (born July 24, 1949) is an organized labor leader in the United States. He was elected President of the AFL-CIO on September 16, 2009, at the labor federation's convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009, and prior to that was President of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to December 22, 1995. Trumka was named one of Esquire Magazine's 2011 Americans of the Year.

Life and career

Trumka was born in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, to an Italian American mother, Eola Elizabeth (née Bertugli), and a second-generation Polish American father, coal miner Frank Richard Trumka. He is a Roman Catholic. He went to work in the mines in 1968. He received a bachelor of science degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1971 and a law degree from Villanova University in 1974. He married Barbara Vidovich in 1982. They have one son.

National labor career

From 1974 to 1979, Trumka was a staff attorney with the United Mine Workers 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 United Mine Workers in 1982.