WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Thursday that longtime AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has died.
Schumer was an ally of the 72-year-old man who had been AFL-CIO president since 2009 after serving as the organization’s secretary-treasurer for 14 years.
Schumer said Thursday, “The working people of America have lost a fierce warrior at a time when we needed him most.”
President Joe Biden called Trumka “a close friend” who was “more than the head of AFL-CIO.”
Biden apologized for showing up late to a meeting with Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander civil rights leaders, saying he had just learned Trumka had died.
Further details of Trumka’s death were not immediately available.
The AFL-CIO did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
