EditorAFL-CIO Boss Richard Trumka to meet with President-Elect Trump on Thursday while unions are purportedly backing #DisruptJ20
On Thursday, Richard Trumka, the head of the nation’s largest federation of unions–the AFL-CIO–will be heading to Trump Tower to meet with President-elect Donald Trump, according to the New York Times.
Although the topics of the meeting are under wraps, it is suspected that the topics may center around jobs and the potential overhaul of NAFTA.
What makes the meeting somewhat unusual is that the meeting is taking place against a backdrop that not only did unions spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat Trump during the campaign, but the unions’ continued efforts to hurt Trump’s presidency.
With Trump’s inauguration a little more than a week away, there are numerous efforts underway by a variety of groups to disrupt the inauguration.
One of those efforts, called #DisruptJ20, is attempting to shut the entire District of Columbia down during the inauguration.
“We are planning to shut down the inauguration, that’s the short of it,” says Legba Carrefour, an anarchist for the protest-organizing network DisruptJ20. “We’re pretty literal about that, we are trying to create citywide paralysis on a level that I don’t think has been seen in D.C. before. We’re trying to shut down pretty much every ingress into the city as well as every checkpoint around the actual inauguration parade route.”
According a video interview with Carrefour and a female cohort, when asked if they had other groups backing them (like “unions”), both replied yes [at 1:15 on part 2].
(1/2) interview w/ #DisruptJ20 organizers working to physically stop #DonaldTrump's presidency w/ counter-inaugural protest @legbacarrefour pic.twitter.com/y4JMSngnK7
— Alexander Rubinstein (@AlexR_DC) January 9, 2017
(2/2) interview w/ #DisruptJ20 organizers working to physically stop #DonaldTrump's presidency w/ counter-inaugural protest @legbacarrefour pic.twitter.com/HgMfaSZn1N
— Alexander Rubinstein (@AlexR_DC) January 9, 2017
That #DisruptJ20’s efforts are being supported by unions is not surprising. During the #Occupy movement’s peak, the AFL-CIO provided material support of the protesters.
However, it does seem rather odd that the AFL-CIO’s Trumka would meet with the President-elect whose inauguration is a mere weak away while, at the same time, may be quietly backing efforts to disrupt the inauguration.
Image credit.
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