From Today's AFL-CIO Daily Brief: Secretary-Treasurer Redmond Barnstorms Midwest, Hears from Workers on Dire Consequences of Federal Cuts

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond participated in two hearings this week as the Department of People Who Work for a Living continues its drive to raise the voices of working people on the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies and the many impacts already being felt in our communities. 

“Workers are the true experts in our society,” Redmond said. “We make the economy work. We run programs and services with dedication and pride. So it is important to tell our stories, to explain the work we do and its importance, and how these haphazard cuts reach far beyond the individual workers and their families, but ripple out and hit every segment of society.”

In Chicago, Redmond joined Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter and Secretary-Treasurer Don Villar for a hearing that received powerful testimony on worker safety and the deadly effects that cutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will have on workplaces across every sector. Testimony was offered by Department of Labor workers, firefighters, construction workers and NIOSH researchers. 

In Davenport, Iowa, Redmond was joined by AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride and Iowa Federation of Labor President Charlie Wishman for a hearing focused on agriculture and how cuts to the Department of Agriculture will affect the farming economy that sustains much of the heartland. Workers from farm machine manufacturing testified that job losses are inevitable after these cuts and this will reverberate throughout the economy. Federal workers and union members from the food processing industry echoed these sentiments as they explained the dire consequences of cutting programs that drive this sector of our economy.