- The Washington Times - Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Labor leader Richard Trumka said Tuesday that workers can’t trust President Trump to lead the country back to work safely, saying employees need more coronavirus testing and massive supplies of protective equipment before returning to their jobs.

“President Trump made this crisis worse,” said Mr. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. “Instead of science, he’s chosen politics. Instead of unity, he’s chosen division. And now he wants us to trust him with our lives and our livelihood. The answer is, we can’t. There’s too much at stake.”

In a conference call with reporters, Mr. Trumka outlined big labor’s demands for safely returning to work, including a massive deployment of personal protective equipment in workplaces and a big increase in “rapid and reliable” testing.

“The greatest mistake we can make is reopening the economy too soon,” he said. “Too many people, including President Trump, are asking ’when.’ That’s the wrong question. We need to be asking how a rush to open without the proper protection for workers will lead to an explosion of the disease, many more deaths, and another shutdown. It’s a surefire way to increase the death count and plunge our economy into a second Great Depression.”

Many states, especially in the South, are preparing to ease restrictions on work and travel this week or next week. The White House has issued guidelines for reopening but said the decision rests with individual governors.

Some major companies with union workers already are returning to work. Boeing, for example, has restarted manufacturing operations with tens of thousands of workers back on assembly lines.

• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.

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