GOP Platform a ‘Vicious Attack’ on Workers: AFL-CIO
Unions and America are better off than they were when Obama took office, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO told CNBC’s "Closing Bell."
Trumka expects a major recession should Mitt Romney prevail in November. Romney’s “policies are to go back to George Bush’s policies — to give more tax breaks to the rich, to regulate Wall Street and everything else,” Trumka claimed in an interview on Tuesday.
Trumka also called the Republican platform “a vicious attack on workers.” He called it “the most anti-worker, anti-union platform of any party in the history of the United States.” (Read More: Democrats Play Defense as Convention Opens.)
Trumka said the GOP wants to do away with all the things workers depend on, including collective bargaining rights.
Under Obama, Trumka said the country is better off than it was when he was elected. (Read More:Obama Poised to Lay Out His Vision.)
“We’re creating jobs, we have a guy who enforces health and safety laws, we have a guy who supports the Made in American' label,” he said. Trumka also said Obama supports bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
In his speech before the Republican convention last week, Romney said that the country needed "jobs, lots of jobs" and promised to create 12 million of them. (Read More: Romney: 'What America Needs Is Jobs, Lots of Jobs'.)
The AFL-CIO boss also sees room to raise taxes on corporations and the rich. Both have been getting by on the cheap, Trumka said, and should pay more in taxes so the government can rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
“If they pay a little more we can actually build these roads and bridges. That puts people back to work that pay taxes and they give not take from the economy,” Trumka said.