New AFL-CIO Task Force to Tackle Diversity, Police Reform Issues

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced the creation of a new racial justice task force, part of an effort to bridge a widening divide in the labor movement over police unions.

The roughly dozen members of the task force, representing several different unions, will seek to roll out a series of recommendations adopted by the labor federation’s general board last month. But the notable absence of police unions—which have criticized Trumka’s response to Black Lives Matter protests—raised fresh doubts about Trumka’s ability to work with police on reforming their practices instead of expelling them from the labor movement entirely.

In a ...