Apr 21, 2017 2 min read

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a Greene County native, will address the audience during this year’s commencement at Penn State-Fayette’s Eberly Campus.

Trumka will address the 113 graduates May 6 during the 47th commencement ceremony at the Fayette campus near Lemont Furnace, where Trumka began his undergraduate studies before graduating from Penn State.

“His story is a great example of how education positively affects individuals,” said Charles Patrick, chancellor and chief academic officer at Penn State-Fayette. “Mr. Trumka’s start at Penn State Fayette has helped carry him far beyond southwestern Pennsylvania, to a career and life that are not just successful, but noteworthy and impactful.”

The Nemacolin native followed his father and grandfather into the coal mines and worked his way through college, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and a law degree from Villanova University.

He then joined the legal staff of United Mine Workers of America. After a few years of working for the union, he returned to mining while also performing pro bono legal work for Greene County residents in his spare time.

Trumka quickly rose through the ranks of the UMW, and in 1982 was elected as the union’s youngest president at age 33.

He later joined the AFL-CIO, which has 12.5 million members and is the largest organization of labor unions in the country. In an insurgent campaign, he was elected as its secretary-treasurer in 1995 and president in 2009.

His leadership is focused on building an economy that works for all and ensuring that every worker has a good job and the power to win better wages and working conditions.

The event is closed to the public.