Thank you for all for coming together here in Los Angeles, and thank you for that kind introduction. This is the right time for the Latino labor movement to hold a summit, because we are at a critical point for working people in America, and that goes double for Latino workers.
First, I want to tell you how important the work that you’re doing is. You’re the heart and soul of America’s labor movement. So many of you do your LCLAA work as volunteers, on top of your day jobs. And so I’d like to thank you for what you do, and what you are.
The truth is that America needs your efforts. We all know the economic and social life of working people in the United States has become hard, but we also know America has no equal opportunity hardships. The numbers tell us all we need to know. The workplace and economic challenges for immigrant workers, Latino workers, and especially Latinas, are some of the hardest.
Latina women work harder, earn less, endure more harassment, suffer more wage theft, higher unemployment and higher under-employment than any other demographic group in the nation. One in every three employed Latinas lacks health insurance. Latinas suffer twice the rate of workplace fatalities of the workforce at large, and half of those women who died were victims of assaults or violent acts -- half!
These numbers are unacceptable.
All this is happening on our watch! We bear the legacy of the men and women who built the American middle class with activism and unionism. And I ask you: Are we living up to that legacy? Have we done everything possible to offer a better and a stronger labor movement for Latinos? For America’s new immigrants?
My friends, at the AFL-CIO we have spent the better part of the last year planning for this convention by listening to friends and allies and each other – we held hundreds of listening sessions in which many thousands of people participated. We studied what we’re doing right, and looked for areas where we need to improve. Many of you have taken part in those conversations, and I thank you for it. But I want you all to know that the real work begins after this convention, because our movement truly needs to change. We need to make our labor movement fit the needs of working people today. It’s time for us to choose to change.
You see, we stand at a crossroads. We must begin to heal our communities. Latinos need the strength and solidarity of our labor movement, not just the 2 million Latino union members but all 55 million Latinos in America. We must commit ourselves to building a broad and deep movement of all working people, so all of us together can stand up for a voice on the job, and in our democracy, so we can win what we need from the worksite to Capitol Hill, and that includes true immigration reform with a workable path to citizenship, and so we can all live and work with dignity and respect.
Here, at this summit and over the coming days at this convention, I am asking you to dig deep and truly look for new and better ways the union movement can reach out to Latinos and Latinas, so we can work together to improve pay and win good benefits, so we can meet the needs of the Latino community, to protect our democracy, and our public institutions, and our workers, so we can pass on a better life to our children and grandchildren.
America needs hard work to be rewarded by fair pay. That's the ground level of the American Dream, and it's not too much to ask!
Together, we can turn bad jobs into good jobs. Together, all of us are building a forward-looking movement—a winning movement. That’s how we’ll take our country back, because working men and women make America run! We staff the stores and stock the shelves, we build the bridges and make the steel, we clean the streets and fly the planes. We answer the call. We rise to the task. We do what it takes, no matter the price. Because this is our America! And we’re taking it back!
America is changing, my friends. The workplace is evolving, and so is the American workforce. Latinos are the fastest growing segment of our population, and it’s on us to seize the opportunities presented by this change.
At no time in the past century has union density in the private-sector been as low as it is today. Our American labor movement is truly in crisis.
Yet there’s another way to look at the picture of American labor. At no time in the past century, or at least since the Great Depression, has the demand for workable solutions for working people been as high as it is today, and that, too, goes double for Latino workers.
The possibilities for growth are enormous. It’s our job to get ready to grow. That’s why, all across the labor movement, we’re looking hard at our local infrastructure. We’re professional-izing our central labor councils and state and area federations of labor. We’re looking at the ways we partner with allies and like-minded organizations. We’re trying to do better. We need to do better. And we will do better.
And I believe we have major opportunities to grow with LCLAA, and I want to commend you for putting an emphasis on building the strength and growing the capacity of your local chapters. That’s an absolutely critical element.
With stronger chapters, LCLAA will be able to create more bridges between labor and our communities. That’s absolutely crucial right now. That’s how we spread the word about what labor is really about. And when that happens, things start to click.
You see, there’s a lot of confusion in America about how our economy works. If you watch the news and listen to Congress, you’d think the economy changes like the weather, as if it’s out of our control.
To be honest with you, that’s partly our fault. We haven’t been educating people. We don’t explain enough that working people are the engine of America’s job growth. And it’s our responsibility to set the record straight with a clear-eyed discussion of how and why our economy works better when each and every one of us does better.
We can have those conversations, because each LCLAA chapter offers the labor movement a window into the Latino community, and an avenue through which Latino issues can be taken up and addressed by the entire community of working families in America.
My friends, the values of our labor movement are Latino values, just as Latino values are mainstream American values. We share a common and fundamental belief that all of us, no matter what we look like, where our parents come from, or how much money we have -- all of us deserve basic dignity and respect.
Sisters and brothers, collective action works, collective bargaining works. And when our movement begins to grow and wages begin to rise, we will build prosperity and economic growth—the kind of broad, sustainable prosperity that rises from a virtuous cycle of investment that fuels innovation, that fuels more investment.
We’ll stand for it. We’ll fight for it. We’ll stand together -- shoulder to shoulder. And I promise you, we will keep marching, keep fighting, until we restore a record of winning for the American labor movement, and for all working people!
Because we have come too far to be turned back now. We won't back up. We won't back down. We won't be turned aside. Working people built this country. Together—all of us—and we will not be denied!
And finally, brothers and sisters, history will not judge us by the resolutions we adopt at this summit or this convention, but rather by the action we take when we return to our homes and our workplaces.
It truly is time for us to change, to update and to take every chance to innovate. And if you take away one thing from my remarks today, and from this convention, I want it to be this: We’re done with “business-as-usual.” That’s not good enough anymore. We’re done with it. We’re ready for a new day.
My friends, we intend to win, because when we win, America wins! Every victory for working people supports the American middle class. And that’s the change we want to see!
Expect change! Expect a day soon when workers -- all workers -- Latinos and Latinas are recognized for the contributions we make to our society, our economy and our communities.
We’ll march for it. We’ll stand for it. We’ll stand together, with solidarity, real solidarity, the kind where you protect my right to vote, and I help you win the jobs you want and need, and we pick each other up when we fall, and we all march on together.
Let every working person in America and around the world know together we will honor the freedom to turn bad jobs into good jobs, let every working person know, if you stand with us, when you need us, we’ll stand with you.
We’re ready. We won’t back up, and we won’t back down.
Because we know how to win. We know how to last.
God bless you, and God bless America!