Thank you, Brother Leo [Gerard], for that kind introduction. Thank you for inviting me to your convention. It’s good to be here with this important, ground-breaking, and powerful union. This is truly, as your theme says, a union that works.
I’ve got some good stuff to talk to you about. I want to congratulate you all for being a union that doesn’t give up, that takes a refinery off the chopping block, for instance, and keeps it from closing by finding a new buyer. You’ve got a million examples and each one is incredible in its own way. This is definitely, a union that works.
And, I also have some hard subjects to discuss, about the unity of our movement, about Democrats and Republicans, and about where we stand in the middle of it all.
First, I want to say, there is no union like the USW. Just the sheer width, and depth, of your membership, sets you apart. So does your activism. Nobody fights as hard against illegal foreign subsidies, Chinese currency manipulation and job exporting as you do. Nobody struggles as hard to save and revitalize American manufacturing as you do. Nobody has presented and won more trade cases than the USW. And year after year you break new ground in your organizing, and I congratulate you, and thank you for all of it.
You look at the world with an eye of opportunity, and I appreciate that. You carry on the best traditions of a man I was proud to call my friend and brother, the late Lynn Williams.
I want to tell you a story. Back in May of this year, I went to Pittsburgh for the convention of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. Maybe some of you were there. At the convention, we had a panel with workers who were in the middle of organizing drives.
One of those organizing workers was a woman named Rebecca Taksel, who teaches English at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. She’s been an adjunct professor for about 20 years, and she said something to me that I’ve been thinking about ever since. She said she still only earns about 20% of what a tenured faculty member makes. Think about that, 20 years and 20%. She brings in something like $6,700 for the semester. That’s what she lives on. She’s got no job security to speak of. She has developed college courses on her own time and with her own money, only to be told at the last minute, “Sorry! No need for that course after all.”
Adjunct teachers like Rebecca Taksel make up a majority of university faculty in the United States—about 75%. And those teachers work hard. Rebecca gives her students a quality education.
Rebecca told me she sometimes asks herself, “Why am I doing this?” And this is her reply. She said, “I was trained to do this. I love to do this. I’m a teacher. And I would just like to get a little respect for the work I do. Just a little respect.”
Well let me tell you, brothers and sisters, Rebecca is going to get more than just a little respect from me, and from her employer, too, because she and her co-workers at Point Park voted to form a union with AFA-USW this summer, and a union is the best tool to win respect, to turn a bad job into a good job, one with good pay and benefits and a chance for a secure retirement, because when we stand together, we’re powerful. We earn respect. There’s no denying it. It works. Unionism works.
Brothers and sisters, we aim to help working families use unionism to build a better life. I’m not saying that because I like the sound of the words. I’m saying it because it’s true. Unionism works. The USW builds strong careers, strong families, strong communities and a strong future for the United States of America.
The best way to fair pay, is a union contract.
The best way to retirement security, is a union contract.
The best way to a better tomorrow, so you can give your family a decent life and a strong future, it all comes back to a union contract.
And a decent life is not too much to ask, because we’re the workers of America, from the foundry to the freeway, we forge steel and smelt aluminum. We mine ore and store the slurry. We build turbines and make paper, we bake bread and teach classes. We lift the loads and answer the call. We do what it takes, no matter the cost. We wake our country up every single day, and we tuck her into bed at night. We won’t be turned aside. We won’t sit down or back up or shut up. We won’t be faced down, and we will not be denied.
Sisters and brothers, in the past few months, I’ve spoken to workers all across the United States. I don’t get to Canada as much as I’d like, but I’ve talked to Canadian workers, too, and to be perfectly honest with you, the people I talk to are confused and angry, frustrated and scared. They tell me they’re worried about the future. They’re concerned about the life their kids are going to lead. And they’re wondering how, this long after the financial collapse of 2008, sometimes it seems like too little has changed.
I want you to know I understand that frustration, fear and confusion. Let’s consider what’s happened over the past 40 years, how productivity rose while wages froze, which meant virtually all of the wealth created by our growing economy has gone to the richest 1%.
As union men and women who represent your members, you’ve seen the day-by-day toll this trend has taken on workers. You’ve seen how corporations sometimes rig themselves to fail, so executives can break pension promises, and walk away with millions. And we’ve seen profitable companies use the struggles down the street to justify their own health care cuts and take-back contracts.
And when a factory or plant closes, or moves its production to China or somewhere else, all of us have seen the ripple effects move across our communities, from half-empty classrooms and “For Sale” signs in the front yards to restaurant closures and vacant storefronts.
And it hits home, doesn’t it? There are fights over finances. Worn out clothes that just have to be worn anyway. Nothing much for the kids at Christmas. Stuff that counts. Stuff that hurts.
This is the story of the past 40 years, and it’s been tough on all of us because our economies don’t work when work doesn’t pay.
This situation has given workers everywhere a hard-won education in real economics. You see, a lot of people—especially some with college degrees—haven’t thought of themselves as workers. A lot of people didn’t understand the connections between their neighbors and themselves. They didn’t have to, because generations of strong union contracts kept us in pretty good shape. But that’s not the case anymore, and so workers, like Rebecca Taksel up in Pittsburgh, have begun to say things like this: We are going to call ourselves workers, because that’s what we are, and we’re going to change things!
Here’s why I’m telling you this: The biggest story in America is the great wealth divide, and what we’re doing to make it right. That’s the new story in America!
People everywhere are starting to understand themselves as workers. People all across this country, and around the world, are beginning to see collective action as a solution to our troubles. From fast food to forged steel, and everywhere in between, more and more people talk about economic inequality, people who never spoke the words before. The public is debating big issues, like a living wage and collective bargaining. We’re talking about raising wages, and we like the idea.
And I can tell you this, people who like that idea, are going to love the reality of raising wages a whole lot more. You see, household expenditures make up 70% of the American economy. That’s how raising wages will create jobs, because when workers do well, America does well. We buy goods and services to improve our lives. We create demand, and then corporations hire more workers to meet that demand. It’s what you call a virtuous cycle. It’s the opposite of a race to the bottom. It’s the foundation of a strong economy built on raising wages, not credit card debt and asset bubbles.
We’re spreading the word. At the AFL-CIO we’ve got a new program called Common Sense Economics. The USW has a similar project. Together we’ll teach 1 million regular working people how raising wages works. We’ll use information to continue to build momentum for working people. We’ve got other initiatives, too. We’re strengthening our state federations of labor and local labor councils. We’re joining together with community partners and allies, in ways we never have before. We’re a mainstream movement, and we’re acting like it.
America is tired of losing middle-class jobs. From Montana to the Gulf of Mexico, from Ontario to the California coast, we’re done with the downward spiral. In poll after poll after poll, we hear Americans say, “We want an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”
At the AFL-CIO we asked a group of voters if they agreed with this simple statement: “We need to make sure that all of us, not just the CEOs get our fair share in our economy.”
When we asked those making less than $50,000 a year, and two out of three voters agreed -- 66% said, yes, that’s right, we need to make sure all of us, not just CEOs get our fair share.
Here’s the kicker. Guess who we asked? Registered Republicans. That poll was of voters registered with the Republican Party. Even a majority of conservative working-class Republicans share our values.
Here’s what this means to me. It means a solid majority of working people of every stripe share the same basic challenges, the same hopes and dreams, and economics are at the heart of our problems.
You see, working people may embrace a range of philosophies, religions and political points of view, but we are still united by the circumstances of our lives, and by the vision and the hopes we share.
And so it is up to you and me, to each of us, to help bridge the gap for the workers who share our values, but who don’t yet see how our interests intersect.
That’s why we’re reaching out to all workers, even if they fly the Tea Party flag, because when it comes to economic issues, we must all stand together, so the voices of America, our America, can be heard in the workplace and in our national life.
Work should never hold us down and trap us in poverty. Work must lift us up. We want our country to work for the people who work!
Power and hope are rising.
We’re on the right path, brothers and sisters. A groundswell is growing, and it keeps getting bigger. It's strong, and it'll get stronger. It's a movement to raise wages, so all of us can live a better life.
We’ll stand together, to raise wages for all. We’ll fight for athletes and car wash workers, for Harley workers and security guards, nurses and teachers! We’ll march together! For working families! For good pay. We’ll stand together! For a strong future. For each other! We won’t back down, or back up, or step down, until we win a new day for the American Dream. We’ll shout here in Vegas and all across America. And we’ll show how much good raising wages can do.
Well, listen, that sounds good, but believe me, I know how hard it is to unite a movement. I know how tough it is to mobilize and motivate a membership as diverse as ours, as broad and strong and varied as are the workers of the USW and the AFL-CIO.
I’ve talked to workers who say to me, Rich, why don’t we start a labor party? And then they complain about our leaders who haven’t done enough, or the do-nothing right-wingers in Congress who oppose progress and run down our great country, and here’s what I tell them, I say, America has never been more polarized in my lifetime, and that goes the same for some of our members.
Here’s what I say, there is no secret formula to carry unionism into every part of this country, to bring together those who have been divided by cynicism and the vain idea that we’re better off alone than together.
Yet we can bring ourselves together. We’ve already started, and it’s working. Working people share a lot more than most of us think. In our research, we’ve found what we’re calling Tea Party populists, and we’ll stand with them. Together, we can turn cynicism into stubborn action. It’s time for us to believe in ourselves again, believe in the strength of our movement, believe in the progress that’s possible in our democracy!
We all care about the same things -- 82% of the public wants good American manufacturing jobs, not more bad trade deals. That’s an idea that unites us.
If Congress won’t take action to support American jobs and end bad trade deals, it’s our responsibility to continue to build a movement, one that cannot be ignored, so we get a Congress that will. The pundits and politicians in Washington have never understood the power of movements. They’re always looking to the past. But we’re the future. Ninety percent of the American people want an end to Chinese currency manipulation; 90%, that’s an idea that unites America.
And yet the corporations that benefit from China’s cheap currency still rule the day in Washington. They think their deals cannot be stopped.
But we know better. They’re looking to the past. We are the future.
We’ll fight from town halls and county commissions to state houses all the way to Capitol Hill! We’ll fight in Ottawa and San Juan, Puerto Rico!
Nobody controls our destiny but us. We do! In the history of this world, working people have always had to fight for every single inch.
That’s what we’re doing. We’re building power, the hard way. You see, we’ve learned some mean political lessons about the red-blue divide -- hard political lessons, but I want you to listen very closely to what I have to say, we’re stronger because of those lessons. We’re more independent because of those lessons. We’re more focused, more disciplined, more creative, and more powerful.
We’re asking hard questions of every single candidate who wants our support, we’re asking questions like, do you support America’s workers? Do you support manufacturing jobs? Do you support our right to bargain collectively for a better life? Do you support good jobs? Will you grow our economy, not shrink it? Will you raise wages? Will you?
You see, we’re not working for any candidate. We’re not building power for any political party. Not the Democratic Party. Not the Republican Party. We’re building power for working people, pure and simple. We’re looking at the long view. We’ll work for anybody who works with us, and we’re not afraid of holding anybody’s feet to the fire. Working families need results. Period.
And I tell you, we will not hold our nose and line up behind any Democrat, just because there’s a D next to his or her name. That’s not good enough. It won’t happen.
Yet I promise, I swear, nobody will work harder, or smarter, or longer, to elect the leaders who make the right commitments, and nobody will work harder, or longer, to defeat those who don’t, regardless of party.
This electoral season, I want you to work like never before. Be the leaders who lead by example. Be the first to knock on the doors. Make the first phone call at the phone bank.
You’ll motivate your volunteers. You’ll strengthen your activists. You’ll help us all connect with more working-class voters, get more working families to the polls, because if we want the policies we need, if we want all of us to get our fair share, we need the right leaders in every corner of America. We’ve got to engage and turn out our people.
When I say, “our people,” I mean union members and families but also like-minded folks in our neighborhoods and communities.
After the polls close on Election Day, we’ll have a stronger network of activists and local leaders ready to mobilize and pressure our leaders and support our organizing for the union members of tomorrow.
We’re changing lives. We’re scrambling and reaching for a little more hope. We have a vision. And we’re going to make it real, because when all of us pitch in, that’s shared responsibility, shared sacrifice.
From the paper mill to the refinery, full-time, part-time, anytime, from the car wash to the tire plant, we win together when we stand together. So get off your seat and on your feet, sisters and brothers. When we stand together, we win together. And we’re gonna win together!
We’ll work for it. We’ll stand for it. Together. Each of us. With solidarity. Real solidarity. Where your picket line is my picket line. And my picket line is your picket line. Shoulder to shoulder. Arm-in-arm. All day. Every day. As long as it takes. To win together. To raise wages. To grow together. To bring out the best in ourselves, to bring out the best in each other. To bring out the best in America. For the America we can have, and must have, and will have. Keep fighting. Keep winning.
Thank you. Thank you, and God bless you!