By John J. Sweeney
Thank you. I’m thankful to everyone who made those kind comments in the film—Vice President Joe Biden, Cardinal McCarrick, my charming sister Cathy. She’s part of the most caring and supportive family anybody could ever hope for. Cathy’s here this afternoon with her husband, Greg, and their family; my brother Jim is here; my sister Peggy, her husband, Ted, and their family; my wife, Maureen, our son, John, our daughter, Trish, and our granddaughter, Kennedy. Will the Sweeney family stand and take a bow?
I also owe so much to my union family—my partners Rich Trumka and Arlene Holt Baker, members of our Executive Council, our international, national, state and local leaders, our entire staff—especially my executive assistant for nearly 30 years, Bob Welsh—and my administrative assistant for just as long, Liz Maiorany. I owe so much to all of you, my union brothers and sisters.
I’ve loved our labor movement all my life. There is no greater honor than the opportunity to serve working people, and the best thing about this job has been all of you. You are the magic of our movement, the source of my spirit and the iron will that moves us forward.
We are many but you have made us one, and I salute you—thank you so much.
Brothers and sisters, this week isn’t about what Sweeney has done, it’s about what you have done. When we started down this road together, I said it wasn’t about who headed the AFL-CIO but where the AFL-CIO was headed. Thanks to your commitment, your personal sacrifice and your hard work, we’ve taken our Federation in a new, positive, progressive direction.
In 1995, I also said I was going to put myself way out front and then ask you to push me. I did—and you did—and together we changed the course of our country. We transformed the debate over globalization and helped redefine the global labor movement as a champion of workers’ rights.
We increased the minimum wage. We took on the Enrons and the Exxons. We called the hand of the greedy corporations that sent our jobs overseas, scammed our mortgage markets and nearly destroyed our economy. We brought health care and labor law reform to the top of our national agenda. We seated a pro-working-family majority in the U.S. Congress.
We elected a champion of working families as the first African American president in the history of our country—and what a thrill it was to watch him last week as he took on the ugly forces that are ripping at the right of every American family to have health care—health care as a right, not a privilege.
With him out front, we’re restoring government as a force for ensuring individual opportunity, eliminating special privilege, and promoting the common good. Those are his values, those are our values and they are America’s values.
Yes, we changed the direction of our country and we should be just as proud of how we changed our movement.
We built the strongest grassroots political operation in our country and brought hundreds of thousands of union volunteers into the fight to protect the dreams we share. We stopped just listening to politicians and started insisting they listen to the voices of working families. We made organizing the responsibility of every national union, every local union, every state fed, and every CLC.
We knew we were faced with building a movement on changing ground and we reached out to organizations and workers outside our walls. As Jenn Jannon said in the film you just saw, we threw open the doors of the house of labor to everyone who shares our values.
We created Working America and added the power of 3 million families who don’t have a union where they work. We tapped the energy of 4 million of our retired brothers and sisters with the Alliance for Retired Americans. We revived our state federations and central labor councils and what a job you have done.
We forged beyond our traditional boundaries and created historic partnerships with worker centers, independent unions and the National Education Association. We pulled our allies together in vibrant coalitions and made our federation the action center of the progressive movement. Now we’re making sure our doors stay open by bringing more women, more young people and more minorities into our leadership.
I often say I was lucky to be escorted into the House of Labor through the front door by my father, who was a foot soldier for Mike Quill and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. Now we have to continue our march toward diversity, inclusion and full participation—and make sure no one ever has to knock at our back door again.
As we begin our convention today, I’m filled with optimism. We’ve helped create one of those rare moments when history invites dramatic improvement in the human condition. And we’re about to elect a new and exciting leadership team who will help us seize that moment.
But the excitement over our possibilities is tempered by the realities of our times. We’re seeing glimmers of an economic recovery, yet nearly 20 million of our brothers and sisters are still without work. The poor and the out-of-work are no longer invisible or abstract figures—they’re our friends and neighbors, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters.
We’re on the cusp of the greatest advance in labor law reform in 70 years, but we’re taking heavy fire from the corporate captains of deceit.
We’re closer than ever to winning our long struggle for universal health care, but our success has kindled a firestorm of meanness stoked by politicians playing on fear, racism, nativism and greed.
Every one of our achievements represents unfinished business—and the tasks we’re challenged with are daunting.
But if there is one thing we’ve learned over the past 14 years it is this: Miracles present themselves on the shoulders of commitment, unity and action.
At the center of these is unity—the solidarity that flows through the marrow of our movement.
For us, solidarity is more than just a strategy, it’s a way of life. We believe in helping each other. We care about our brothers and sisters.
Solidarity is what gives workers the collective courage to form a union, to fight back against a greedy employer.
Solidarity is what compelled thousands of first responders and construction workers to risk their lives at Ground Zero eight years ago last Friday.
Solidarity is what saved 155 airline passengers who could have drowned in the icy waters of the Hudson River.
Solidarity is what compels a firefighter to dive into an inferno to save a stranger, a teacher to refuse to give up on a child or back off from a battle with a school board.
Your solidarity is what pulled us through when our federation split apart—you cared more about our common purpose than your own self-interest—and proved that, “we are many, we are one.”
Now it is up to you to bring even more solidarity behind Rich and Liz and Arlene as they fight to bring our movement back together.
With your commitment and unity and action behind them, we will revive our economy and make it work for everyone. We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act and help millions of America’s workers lift their lives and realize their aspirations. We will guarantee every family in America health care when they need it. And we will be true to our enduring mission of improving the lives of working families, bringing fairness and dignity to our workplaces and securing economic and social equity in our nation.
That’s our mission, that’s our job—let’s get at it.
Thank you, God bless all of you and your loved ones, and God bless America.
