DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS

Richard L. Trumka ’71

To Richard Trumka for his lifelong Trumka assumed his new role just down use of non-violent civil disobedience, Trumka’s high-profile positions in the commitment to workers and 30 years of river from his hometown, Nemacolin, in Trumka received in 1990 the Labor UMWA and AFL-CIO resulted in his leadership in two high-profile labor the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. It Responsibility Award from the Martin appointment by President Bill Clinton organizations: the United Mine Workers was there that Trumka worked as a coal Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent to the Bipartisan Commission on of America and the AFL-CIO. miner, just as his father and grandfather Social Change. Other accomplishments Entitlement and Tax Reform (1993). had before him. During his seven years in during his three terms as UMWA presi- President Barack Obama recently named As president of the American Federation the mines, he worked his way first dent include passage of the federal him to the President’s Economic of Labor and Congress of Industrial through Penn State and then through COAL Act (providing guaranteed health Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by Organizations, better known as the Villanova University School of Law. After care for retired miners), bringing the former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka deftly balances law school, Trumka worked on the legal union back into the AFL-CIO, and rallying Volcker. honoring labor unions’ history while staff of the United Mine Workers of support for the anti-Apartheid movement embracing the need for innovation and America (UMWA) for four years before in South Africa. Trumka’s numerous awards include the change. In his biographical YouTube returning to mine work in 1979. When Gompers-Murray-Meany Award from the video, he charts his future by saying, not mining, he provided pro bono legal In 1995, Trumka was elected the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the 2003 “We’ll keep the traditions that need to work for families in the Nemacolin area. youngest secretary-treasurer in AFL-CIO Humanitarian Award from the Sons of be kept, and we’ll move away from those Trumka has often said his time in the history. As secretary-treasurer, he led the Italy Foundation, and the Jewish National that don’t or we’ll modify them so that mines humbled him and taught him the creation of the AFL-CIO Capital Fund Tree of Life Award. In May, he they’re relevant today.” Even before he true meaning of solidarity. Stewardship Program, aimed at safe- received the Medallion Award and served became AFL-CIO president, Trumka guarding and maximizing returns on the as commencement speaker for Villanova gained YouTube fame when he boldly Trumka, at 33, was elected the UMWA’s nearly $500 billion in assets in AFL-CIO University School of Law. He also served addressed the racial issues underlying the youngest president in 1982 and was member unions’ pension and benefit as a member of Penn State’s Board of 2008 presidential election in a speech to sworn into office by his father. As funds. During the past 15 years, Trumka Trustees from 1983 to 1995. steelworkers that has had more than UMWA president, he led the successful has also served on the AFL-CIO 550,000 hits on the video website. nine-month strike against the Pittston Executive Council (chaired the Strategic Trumka and his wife, Barbara, live in the Coal Company in West Virginia over Approaches Committee and the Finance Washington, D.C. area. Their son, Richard Jr., AFL-CIO members elected Trumka preserving health and pension benefits Committee), and the China Currency is a graduate of Cornell University (2006) president of the federation of 57 national for retired workers and widows. More Coalition (co-chair of the Alliance of and Georgetown University School of and international unions–representing than 4,000 workers submitted to arrest Organizations Supporting U.S. Law (2009). more than 11 million workers from airline during what current UMWA President Manufacturing). pilots to writers–in September 2009 at Cecil Roberts called “one of the best-run the group’s convention in Pittsburgh. strikes in the country.” For his consistent