'A tireless fighter for the right to organize': AFL-CIO president dies following heart attack

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka recently died at the age of 72 of a heart attack.

Trumka worked with AFL-CIO, one of the largest labor organizations in the world, for more than a decade and was a close ally of the Biden administration, according to Politico. Under his leadership, the organization represented more than 12 million members.

"Richard Trumka will be remembered as a tireless fighter for the right to organize and the fight for dignity in our work," U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Houston) wrote in an Aug. 5 Twitter post. "His contributions, from fighting for his family of miners' ability to organize to helping shape the USMCA, will live on."

According to AP News, President Joe Biden delivered a eulogy for the labor leader and "dear friend" at the White house and said that Trumka died of a heart attack while camping with his son and grandchildren. 

"Perhaps the most important trait I valued in Rich is that he was never afraid to speak truth to power, even if the power was held by people he helped elect – myself included," Biden said in a statement, according to Politico.

Trumka served as AFL-CIO president since 2009, and also served as the organization’s secretary-treasurer for 14 years before taking up the mantle of president.

“The labor movement, the AFL-CIO and the nation lost a legend today,” the AFL-CIO said in a statement, according to AP News. “Rich Trumka devoted his life to working people, from his early days as president of the United Mine Workers of America to his unparalleled leadership as the voice of America’s labor movement.”

Born in 1949 in the Pennsylvania town of Nemacolin, Trumka was descended from a line of coal miners, and worked as one himself before earning degrees from Penn State and Villanova.

Trumka eventually became a lawyer and the president of the United Mine Workers of America in 1982.