Getty Editorial AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told representatives of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates that "both parties" are to blame for the current economic system.

The president of the AFL-CIO labor federation spoke at a closed meeting with representatives from the entire field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates ahead of Wednesday’s debate in Detroit. His message was straightforward: “It’s time to do better.”

Richard Trumka told attendees that while President Donald Trump is enacting bad policies for workers, Democratic leaders need to reckon with their own role in creating an unfair economy. He said “both parties” are to blame for a system that caters to the rich.

“We are caught in a web of century-old labor laws that prioritize unchecked corporate greed over all else,” Trumka said. “We can blame this White House all we want. But this isn’t new.”

Trumka went on, “More often than not, the Republican Party is bad for workers. This president is bad for workers. But let’s be honest about the Democratic Party’s record.”

He singled out the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership as Democrat-backed trade deals that were tilted against the working class.

In attendance at the Detroit meeting was Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, who, as former President Barack Obama’s labor secretary, promoted the TPP deal. (Trump pulled the U.S. out of the pact and it hasn’t been ratified.)

“It’s time to do better,” Trumka said. “I believe you can. I believe you will. And working people are hungry for it. But you can’t offer campaign rhetoric or count on workers’ votes simply because you have a ‘D’ next to your name.”

The meeting included other labor leaders and AFL-CIO executives, as well as rank-and-file workers from a handful of unions. Those workers also spoke to campaign representatives to convey their own concerns about the election. The meeting took place at a local union hall of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Detroit.