Thank you Sito [Pantoja] for that kind introduction. Hello Machinists! It is great to be with you today.
I am extremely proud of this union. You organize. You bargain good contracts. You stand up for what is right.
It is the Machinists who are fighting for a 10 hour rest period for flight attendants.
It is the Machinists who are demanding that the FAA stop aircraft maintenance from being done in foreign counties.
It is the Machinists who are working to make it easier for workers in the airline and railroad sectors to organize.
Working men and women have no better champion than the transportation professionals in this room. You are the best in the world. You help move our goods and our people. You take pride in your work at our airports and on our railroads.
You are the definition of solidarity. You know that working people, sticking together, built the greatest economic engine in the history of the world.
Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. CEOs are doing everything in their power to lower wages and gut benefits. They don’t want work to pay. They want work to hurt. They want to lower our wages, take our pensions and health care, squeeze every ounce of productivity out of us, and then toss us aside.
And they want to take away our right to organize, bargain collectively, and go on strike.
These CEOs want us to back down, back off, sit down, and shut up.
Brothers and sisters, we will never back down. We will never back off. We will never sit down. We will never shut up.
We have created an agenda for shared prosperity. It’s called Raising Wages. Raising wages is what we’re all about. It’s how we lift up our families and our communities. And it comes from activism and the collective voice.
This agenda is about much more than wages, though. It’s about what wages represent. It’s a philosophy, a vision, and a plan all rolled into one. It starts with the absolute truth that no one should make less than the minimum wage, everyone should make a living wage, and collective bargaining should be available for all workers. But it goes far broader and deeper than that.
Raising wages means trade policies that lift incomes in America and around the world. It means strong, modern labor laws that give everyone who works a real opportunity to bargain for higher wages without fear. It means allowing workers to demand and win fair work schedules, paid sick leave, and overtime paychecks.
Raising wages is why all of us in this room are standing strong against Norwegian Air.
We’ve seen it time and time again. Global companies try to find the cheapest labor possible to increase their bottom lines. But Norwegian Air has taken this low-road approach to whole new level.
The airline is registered in Ireland to avoid Norway’s labor laws, even though it does not service Irish airports.
And it is hiring flight crews from low-wage Thailand that are employed through a recruitment firm in Singapore.
Look how complicated they are making it. It’s like a 3 dimensional chess game, all to avoid treating workers fairly.
Make no mistake, Norwegian Air does not have the right to undermine fair competition by scouring the globe for the cheapest labor and weakest regulations.
And it certainly does not have the right to violate current trade agreements at the expense of our airline workers.
So as long as I have a voice, I will be using it to tell the Department of Transportation to stop Norwegian Air’s anti-worker scheme.
Raising wages is why we’re speaking out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I want to thank you for everything you did to defeat Fast Track. We could not have waged that fight—and nearly won it—without the leadership of the Machinists.
You helped move the dial because you brought pressure. You held elected leaders accountable.
Democratic, Republican, Independent, whatever, working people are tired of these damn bad trade deals full of corporate entitlements. They’ve been killing jobs and weakening our country for far too long.
The Wall Street and Washington elite always tell us that this time will be different. President Obama called the TPP “the most progressive trade deal in history.” That’s like calling Jeb the most progressive Bush in history. It sounds nice but could we possibly set the bar any lower?
The truth is these trade deals have ripped apart the fabric of our nation. You know it and I know it. We’ve seen the shuttered factories. We’ve visited the towns that look like they are stuck in the 1970s. We’ve talked to the workers who lost everything, only to be told they should retrain in another field.
And let’s be real, our trade policies are a bipartisan failure. For three decades, Democrats and Republicans have sold us down the river. From NAFTA to CAFTA to Korea and now the TPP, our elected officials have continually put profits over people. That’s why we fought so hard against fast track. We were fighting for the future of the American Dream.
Now I know we fell a little short. But we forever changed the trade debate in this country. Our opponents thought the TPP was a slam dunk. It was supposed to be finished by now. But as of today there is still no agreement.
Brothers and sisters, we did that. We slowed down the entire process. And if it comes up for a vote, we are going to kill the TPP once and for all.
Raising wages is our measuring stick for the 2016 election. I know your union recently endorsed Hillary Clinton. I respect Hillary. I especially admire the way she is standing strong in the face of all the crap being thrown at her by the right-wing and the media.
As you know, the AFL-CIO has not yet made an endorsement. But we are not sitting back. We are asking all of the presidential candidates what actions they will take to make our economy fairer for working families.
We are also crystal clear that we do not work for any political party or candidate. We work for working people, plain and simple, because we want the freedom to live better lives, to take care of our families and to improve our jobs and our communities.
Brothers and sisters, for too long we’ve worked for the Democratic Party. It is time to start making the Democratic Party start working for us.
A big part of our raising wages agenda is collective bargaining. And let me tell you, collective bargaining is on the rise. This year 5 million union workers are negotiating contracts. This is the biggest year for bargaining in American history. So why is this important?
In the first six months of this year alone, working people in all kinds of jobs have won an average pay increase of 4.3 percent the old-fashioned way—by demanding it. By standing in solidarity for it.
You are demonstrating that solidarity as we speak. I want to commend the Machinists and the Transport Workers Union for putting their differences aside and forming a joint association to bargain with the newly merged American Airlines. Instead of fighting each other, you are working together. This association brings together two great transportation unions and avoids costly and bitter representation fights. You put the members first and for that I say thank you.
You will soon begin joint contract bargaining for 30,000 ground workers at American. It will be the single largest negotiation in the airline industry. Next year, you will do the same for 28,000 ground workers at United. These negotiations will set the tone for years to come. I want you to know the AFL-CIO will have your back throughout this entire process. And my message to American and United is this: we helped you pull through the hard times. Profits are rising. We expect our wages and benefits to rise with them. We want our fair share.
Raising wages also means investing in our infrastructure. We built the interstate highways, the transcontinental railroads, and a vast network of transit and maritime systems.
Yet at a time when our roads and bridges are falling apart and public transportation is underfunded, at a time when our airports remain in desperate need of upgrades and Amtrak is operating on virtual bankruptcy budgets, Congress continues to tinker around the edges.
We need to go big. I’m talking trillions with a T. I want the best infrastructure in the world—and I want you to help build it. Investing in infrastructure is the smart thing to do. It will make your jobs better. It will create new jobs. And it will have economic benefits across the supply chain—what people in transportation like to call the multiplier effect. So it is long past time for our elected officials to get off their butts and do something about it.
Let me close with a story. I remember back when my son Rich was young—maybe three or four years old. His grandfather had gotten him one of those battery operated jeeps. You parents know what I’m talking about. He and his buddy Chad were driving around in the backyard.
I was out there too—talking on the phone about what else—the union. Rich must have overheard me because he drove up and said: “Dad what’s a union?”
So I told him to try to push his jeep up the hill in our backyard. He strained and struggled, but he couldn’t get it up the hill. Then I told his friend Chad to give him a hand. Working together, they got the job done. I looked right at my son and said: “That’s a union.”
Today working men and women are climbing up their own hill. Wages are too low. Benefits are too few. Retirement security is less than secure.
Working people are struggling to get by. Some have given up hope all together.
And the corporate right-wing is waging the most sophisticated anti-worker campaign we have ever seen.
But even in the face of these enormous challenges, I remain optimistic for one reason: you.
The Koch Brothers and Scott Walker can spend all the money in the world, but they do not have the men and women in this room.
They do not have the millions of union members and their families who are ready to stand up and fight for what is right.
I will take our might over their money any day of the week.
When we work together, there is no challenge too difficult, no obstacle too great, no hill too steep.
So brothers and sisters, pledge with me today that we’ll fight together. We’ll organize together. We’ll mobilize together. And we’ll win together.
Thank you! God bless you, and the work you do.