WOLFF: There is an ongoing conflict between the Vermont state AFL-CIO and the national
AFL-CIO based in Washington DC and led by Richard Trumka. I would like to ask you to
briefly, for our audience, describe that conflict and then I can ask a question or two about it.
Before you begin, I should mention that together with some other news and programming
organizations like ours we have asked the national AFL-CIO
if they would like to respond with their version. If and when they do,
I will let everyone know. The floor is yours. DEUSEN: Well, let me tell you. In November 2020,
as you recall, our democracy was entering a crisis. The election results were in. Donald
Trump lost. Joe Biden won. However, the steps that Donald Trump was actively taking at the time
to manipulate, trying to manipulate, the electoral college system, having the Proud
Boys standing by, gave us great concern. We were entering a crisis phase of democracy and there
were serious concerns that a political coup was in the making from Donald Trump and his cronies.
The Vermont AFL-CIO bottom line takes democracy very seriously. We saw these
warnings written on the wall, and we brought the question of what we would do if our democracy
fell victim to an attempted coup to our members at a duly warned annual convention
here in Vermont. After an hour-long discussion and debate our members, our rank and file,
did the right thing. 87 percent of them overwhelmingly voted to authorize a call for
a general strike from our elected executive board, which I serve on, in the event of a coup. This was
the right thing to do. We make no apologies whatsoever, and we would do it again.
Look, if our democracy is not worth protecting and defending, then I don't know what we're
doing here. However, Richard Trumka and the national AFL-CIO do not see it the same way
we do. They did not like that we allowed our members to vote on that authorization. They have
retaliated against us, opened an investigation against us for alleged misconduct simply for
allowing our members to have a democratic process to discuss and decide on what to do
if we had to defend democracy. And that's the situation we find ourselves in today. And look,
I am proud of the brave action and commitment to our democratic processes that our members
showed in November 2020. We should all be proud of that. That's the kind of leadership
we should have been seeing from Richard Trumka. And you know what, we're not out of the woods yet.
Just weeks ago former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn called for a military
coup in this country. And even Donald Trump himself is now saying he's going to be returned
to office in August. If it wasn't such a dangerous situation these actions,
these statements, would be insane. But look, we're entering a
phase where democracy is precarious, and organized labor must be ready to defend our
democratic republic should the call come, and should we need to.
WOLFF: David I'm not asking you for anything like inside information, but is it your sense
that there are other states in the 50 states of the United States in other state AFL-CIOs where
there are similar sentiments that might be looking to what happened in Vermont as a possible, I
don't know, inspiration? DEUSEN: Well, we had a number of significant
central labor councils and labor bodies around the country that were also preparing for a general
strike should a coup come into being. Let's look at the Martin Luther King Central Labor
Council in Seattle with well over a hundred thousand members. They passed a resolution in
support of a general strike. Rochester, New York, Troy, New York, Western Massachusetts
central labor councils, all within the AFL, did likewise. In Chicago unions such as CTU were
preparing to defend democracy through direct action and member engagement. This was something
that was building at the grassroots level. We were the only state federation to go against
the conservative wishes of Richard Trumka and ourselves as a state authorize a call for a
general strike if need be. But right now what we are
doing is not taking a step back. We're not going to be intimidated by Richard Trumka's tactics
to try to silence us. Instead, we are currently reaching out to state federations labor councils
and locals throughout this country to seek to build a progressive caucus within the national
AFL-CIO to change the way we do things, to turn towards social justice unionism, and to not
be afraid to use our most powerful tool, the strike, for political purposes when we need to do
that. So we see this as an organizing opportunity, a way for us to turn the corner, a way for us
to build rank-and-file power in such a manner where we could change the internal bylaws of
the national AFL-CIO, change their focus, make us more democratic, make us more
responsive, make us more committed to social justice in the United States of America.