Thank you.

Someone once said that speeches are like babies; they’re easy to conceive, but hard to deliver.

Well, that’s especially true this afternoon, because even though I now have the honor to work for 58 different unions, there is only one that I think of as family: and that’s our union, the United Mine Workers of America.

Brothers and sisters, I may now be president of the AFL-CIO, but I have always been – and will forever be – UMWA!

And I want to tell you that one reason I’m especially proud to be a member of this union right now is because of this man right here.

Over the course of this union’s history – from 1890 up to today – the UMWA has had 15 different presidents.

Each one changed our union.

A few changed the labor movement.

And John L. Lewis changed the world.

But I don’t think there has ever been one whose commitment runs deeper …whose vision is greater …or whose passion for justice burns brighter than that of Cecil Roberts!

Brothers and sisters, he doesn’t talk about change, he makes change happen!

And, Cecil, there isn’t a coal mining family that isn’t living a better life because of you … You are the embodiment of what the UMWA is all about.

You’re my friend!

You’re my brother!

And, Cecil, I am damned proud that you’re my president!

And then there’s Danny Kane.

It’s been 38 years since this man first went to work in a coal mine.

He’s been a drill runner, a roof bolter, a motorman – I don’t think there’s a job he hasn’t done.

Well, today he is, bar none, the best International secretary-treasurer the UMWA has ever had and, Danny, this union’s lucky to have you!

But, you know what?

I think that part of what makes Cecil and Danny the kind of leaders they are is they understand something that a few people in the labor movement don’t always remember – but that Mine Workers have never forgotten:

It’s that the true measure of any union’s strength isn’t the quality of its officers; but the solidarity of its members; and that good contracts may be written by the leaders sitting at the bargaining table, but they’re won by the workers who sent them there.

Workers who understand that the only time people like us ever get ahead is when we turn to each other; not on each other …

And that if you fight you may not always win; but if you run from a fight you’re certain to lose!

Brothers and sisters, that’s what the UMWA has always been about, and I’m here to tell you that what the American labor movement has is about, too!

That’s I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.

A couple of weeks ago I moved into the president’s office at the AFL-CIO.

And as I was unpacking a box it occurred to me that it was about 20 years ago that we voted to affiliate.

In fact, it was October 5, 1989.

I know Cecil remembers the kind welcome we got.

It was during Pittston and people were thrilled we’d decided to become part of the federation.

Why?

It wasn’t because they thought the UMWA ought to be more like the rest of organized labor.

No, it was because they thought organized labor ought to be more like the UMWA!

Well, you know something: they were right. And if there was ever a time for the labor movement to learn from the UMWA’s example it’s right now.

Let me tell you exactly what I mean.

We all heard the news that unemployment’s now at a 26-year high.

And we know that coalfield families are among those suffering the most.

That’s how it always is, isn’t it?

Go down to McDowell County and the official unemployment rate’s now over 14 percent.

And that’s only the official number.

You and I both know the reality is way worse than that.

After all, if you ask someone working 20 hours a week at a 7-11 if they’re employed they’ll tell you they are.

But that doesn’t mean they’re able to pay their mortgage or make their car payment.

And it’s a given that they can’t pay for health care.

Today, for every job created there are six people who need one!

Some people in Washington and on Wall Street are saying we’re in a recovery.

Well if this is how things are when the economy’s getting better I’d hate to hell to see what it’s like when it’s getting worse!

Now, some people would like us to believe that when jobs are so hard to come by people won’t join unions.

That they’d rather not make waves because even having a crummy job is better than having no job at all.

Of course, that’s what a lot of people said early on during the Great Depression.

And I don’t need to remind you how much worse it was then.

You know, at one point one out of every three people in West Virginia was on public relief.

In Lincoln County it was almost nine out of ten.

In one county (McDowell) there were 6,000 children who couldn’t go to school because they didn’t have clothes!

Well, in the UMWA we didn’t turn our back and say we couldn’t organize, we saw the chaos and the pain and the suffering and we knew what we had to do.

So, we stood with FDR to win the National Industrial Recovery Act – the first law that would guarantee the right to organize.

And once we saw it would pass, John L. Lewis sent a telegram to every UMWA leader informing them that the union was going to launch “vigorous organizing campaigns in each of the non-union districts at once.”

Not some, one after another.

But all of them at once!

Why?

Because he knew in his heart that when poverty wage coal miners had the right to organize they would use it.

And history proved him right.

And within two months of FDR signing that law – two months – the UMWA organized 300,000 new members!

Within a year 92 percent of American coal miners had joined the UMWA!

Over the course of ten years the union grew from 75,000 to more than 600,000!

And it was the same throughout the labor movement.

In the auto industry.

The steel industry.

Manufacturing. Retail.

The list goes on.

No TV ads.

No web sites.

No baseball caps.

Just organizers going from one jobsite to the next one home to the next … one worker to the next … and telling the truth: that, together, working people can achieve more than any of us could ever hope to accomplish on our own.

Of course, that was a long time ago.

It’s a different economy now.

The coal industry will never be as big as it once was.

What’s the biggest private sector employer in West Virginia today?

Wal-Mart.

It’s the same in Pennsylvania.

Two million workers all across America … and not a single store organized!

But, even though the economy has changed, one thing hasn’t – and never will:

It’s our yearning to give our children all the advantages, the opportunities, the options and the choices that we never had.

That’s why we’re fighting so hard to pass the Employee Free Choice Act – and that’s why me and Cecil and Danny, and the rest of us, are going to see to it that we take every advantage of it once we do.

Now, is it going to be easy?

Hell, if it were we would have done it a long time ago.

No, this isn’t a mission we accept because it’s easy, but because it’s right.

Because we know that building the labor movement is as much our responsibility today as it was John L. Lewis’s so long ago.

Because, to Mine Workers, solidarity isn’t some slogan – to us it’s a way of life.

Now, I know we’ve got a pretty full program today and I don’t want to take up much more of your time.

But, last month, at the AFL-CIO convention up in Pittsburgh, I was talking to a reporter who was asking me about my background and started talking about my qualifications to be president of the federation.

He asked about my being its secretary-treasurer, and we talked about that for a minute.

And then he asked about my being president of the UMWA, and we talked a lot about that.

And then he asked about my being a lawyer for the union – and we got into that, too.

But the more we talked the more one thought kept going throw my head: it’s everything I ever needed to know about the labor movement – everything I ever needed to know about what it means to be union – I learned in a coal mine in Pennsylvania.

I learned it from my friends and family – I learned it from my Dad – I learned it from men like Danny Kane and from one of the best teacher’s I’ve ever known – a man from Cabin Creek named Cecil Roberts.

And what they taught me still guides me today.

It’s that there’s only one way working people have ever won in the past; and only one way we ever will win in the future.

And, sisters and brothers, it’s not by begging for it.

It’s not by pleading for it.

And it’s not even by praying for it.

It’s by standing up and fighting for it.

It’s knowing that the only guarantee any of us will ever have of a better life is the power that can only come with a union contract!

It’s by having the courage to tell every single operator that you may own the coal, you may own the newspapers, and you may own the judges, but you will never own me … you will never own my family … and you will never, ever, own the United Mine Workers of America!

 That’s how we built the UMWA – and that’s how we’re going to rebuild the labor movement!

Brothers and sisters, we are out to take our country back and if we stand together and if we fight together we are going to win together!

This is our moment, this is labor’s moment, and we will not be denied!