THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

INTRODUCED BY DeWEESE, SOLOBAY, McCALL, EACHUS, D. EVANS, COHEN, DERMODY, P. COSTA, M. SMITH, STURLA, BELFANTI, GERGELY, GERBER, WATERS, BISHOP, D. COSTA, WANSACZ, FREEMAN, BRENNAN, PETRARCA, PARKER, SIPTROTH, R. TAYLOR, PRESTON, KULA, GIBBONS, READSHAW, KORTZ, DePASQUALE, GOODMAN, WALKO, HARHAI, SANTARSIERO, WHITE, GEORGE, WAGNER, M. O'BRIEN, HOUGHTON, DALEY, BUXTON, CURRY, J. EVANS, CONKLIN, ROEBUCK, GRUCELA, McILVAINE SMITH, VULAKOVICH, MARKOSEK, SANTONI, MILLARD, PASHINSKI, REICHLEY, SABATINA, LONGIETTI, SAINATO, MAHONEY, CALTAGIRONE, STABACK, HORNAMAN, MANDERINO, PALLONE, DONATUCCI AND CASORIO, SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, SEPTEMBER 14, 2009  

A RESOLUTION

Honoring Richard Louis Trumka as he assumes the presidency of

the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial

Organizations.

WHEREAS, Richard Louis Trumka, originally from the environs

of Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, was recently elected president of

the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial

Organizations, most often known as the AFL-CIO; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Trumka, who descended from a family of coal

miners and vowed at an early age to stand up for miners and

other workers and their families, has spent his life fulfilling

that mission, first attending and graduating from The

Pennsylvania State University while working in the mines, then

earning a law degree at Villanova University and, while

returning to work in the mines, doing pro bono legal work for

families during his hours away from the mine; and

WHEREAS, As a member of the United Mine Workers, Mr. Trumka

learned from his father and grandfather the meaning and value of

work, what is owed to an employer and what is owed to one's

fellow workers, especially to fellow workers in the humbling and

dangerous work of the mines, which lessons Mr. Trumka inculcated

in other mine workers in his years with the United Mine Workers;

and

WHEREAS, Mr. Trumka, who most recently served as the

secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO and now serves as its

president, has eloquently explicated through his public actions

the universality of the dignity of work and of the workers'

responsibility to demand recognition of and respect for that

dignity wherever work takes place; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Trumka's elevation to the presidency of the AFL-

CIO gives him ever greater capabilities and opportunities to

reach out to workers and communities to educate them to the

nuances of public policy that in operation may work for or

against them, and thereafter, to marshal their informed support

for or disapproval of such policies, so that workers may better

spend their energy on behalf of the common good and may

subsequently rest from those labors assured that their

contributions to building a just society are appropriately

valued and protected; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives honor Richard

Louis Trumka as he assumes the presidency of the American

Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations,

wishing him success in his endeavors, rendering his membership,

the working men and women of the nation, active, aware and

participating, not only in the American Federation of Labor and

Congress of Industrial Organizations, but also in their

national, state and local communities.