海角大神

Dear Reader,

So much has happened since our last in-person Monitor Breakfast 鈥撀燦ov. 21, 2019, with Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee. The pandemic sent us into lockdown. The street in front of Washington鈥檚 St. Regis Hotel, where we hold our breakfasts, erupted in violence following the murder of George Floyd. Joe Biden was elected president.

Down the street from the St. Regis, AFL-CIO headquarters had suffered damage during the riots of 2020. Now, employees at the nation鈥檚 biggest labor federation are back at the office. And they have a new leader, Liz Shuler, after the passing last month of their longtime president, Richard Trumka.

President Shuler picked right up where President Trumka had left off, appearing at our breakfast Tuesday in what has become an annual pre-Labor Day tradition. Ms. Shuler spoke of legislative efforts to help workers unionize, the role of unions as a source of 鈥渢rusted information鈥� during the pandemic, and her own pride at becoming the first female president of the AFL-CIO.

鈥淲omen are half the workforce,鈥� said Ms. Shuler, who became a union organizer at age 23 and hasn鈥檛 looked back. 鈥淚t鈥檚 incredibly important to signal that the labor movement is a movement for women.鈥�

My Q&A from the breakfast is聽. The C-SPAN video can be viewed聽. Monitor reporter Story Hinckley wrote a聽聽Thursday on the changing job market.

For more on Ms. Shuler,聽聽back in 2016, when she was the AFL-CIO鈥檚 secretary-treasurer. She spoke about sexual harassment, mentors, and why women are often more solution-oriented than men.

At our Tuesday breakfast, there were also memories of Mr. Trumka, a bear of a man who didn鈥檛 shy from a fight.聽

But maybe just as important as the content of the breakfast discussion was the fact that we gathered at all. Reporters and guests alike marveled at how special it was just to mingle 鈥� in person. Turns out everybody鈥檚 pretty Zoomed out.聽