Good morning brothers and sisters. It’s great to be with all of you. Thank you Brother Danny [Thompson] for that kind introduction.
Almost one year ago, the AFL-CIO hosted a national summit to launch an agenda for shared prosperity. We call it Raising Wages.
Raising wages is our path forward. It’s how we, together, change the rules, so every person who counts on a paycheck can do better this year, next year, and the year after that.
Raising wages is what we’re all about. But it’s not something given to us. It’s something we win. It rises from our activism and our collective voice.
It starts with the absolute truth that we should be decently paid for the work we do, and that we define what decent means. No one should make less than the minimum wage, everyone should make a living wage, and collective bargaining should be available for all workers.
Raising wages is about more than dollars and cents, though. It’s a vision and an agenda that covers everything working people care about. Let’s take trade policy, for starters. We’re fighting hard against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, because it’s another corporate giveaway that would cut wages and kill jobs. That’s why it’s a bad deal for working people, and together we’re going to stop it once and for all.
And how about the tax on our health care? You know, the one that would take money out of our pockets? We’ve worked hard at the bargaining table to negotiate quality affordable health care. We shouldn’t be penalized for success. This is a solidarity tax, plain and simple. Late last year, we were able to win a 2-year delay. But we will not rest until this unfair tax is fully repealed so working people can keep the health care we have earned.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that could fundamentally undermine the rights of working people. It’s called Friedrichs versus California Teachers Association and it’s the latest attack on our ability to stand together. The Koch Brothers and their allies are spending billions of dollars to destroy us. But we will not let the corporate right-wing silence our voice. We will stand up, we will speak up, and we will fight back!
We’re hungry for raising wages, and we’re starting to make progress. We’re winning fair scheduling reforms at the local level, and paid sick leave and other bread-and-butter policies that lift up working families.
I’m telling you, raising wages isn’t pie-in-the-sky. It’s happening. Just look at the numbers: 5 million union workers across America bargained contracts in 2015, winning pay increases in the first six months alone the old-fashioned way—by standing in solidarity for them. Millions more will head to the table this year—and we are committed to ensuring all workers have collective bargaining rights, including those in the emerging on-demand economy.
Workers have also been winning minimum wage increases at the ballot box and in city halls. And two million retail workers stood together and won raises from Walmart and Target and Marshalls and TJ Maxx.
Some of that collective action has turned into union growth. Look at IKEA. Workers there stood together and won two raises in 2015. They experienced the power of the collective voice firsthand. So now they have decided to form a union.
We’ve seen organizing victories all over America. Autoworkers in Tennessee. Journalists in New York and Washington, DC. Adjunct professors in Pennsylvania. Airline workers in Texas. With contracts we solidify our gains, and build on them. We’re turning collective action into collective bargaining, and we’ll keep doing it, by using the momentum of 2015 to organize even more workers into unions. This is our moment.
Just down the street from us, 500 hard-working men and women at Trump International Hotel recently voted to join the Culinary Workers Union and the Bartenders Union. How do you like that?
The victory at Trump will raise the standard of living of every one of those working people, and it will also apply upward pressure on wages throughout the local and regional economy. That’s why a collective bargaining agreement is the single most powerful tool to create a raising wages economy in America.
Let’s hear it for raising wages! We’ve started. We’ll keep it up. If some is good, more is better. We want more. We want better. We want raising wages!
It feels good to celebrate the union victory at Trump, and I urge management to start bargaining a fair contract immediately. Yet today I’m asking you to consider another very important piece of the Trump victory and the Raising Wages agenda, and that’s the rights of immigrant workers.
Today, two out of every five hospitality workers in Nevada lack legal work status, which means speaking up on the job requires a double act of courage. An immigrant worker risks everything, from economic security to separation from family, every single time he or she goes to work, and especially when they join an organizing drive.
Even when they win a contract, too many of our brothers and sisters can’t fully enjoy its benefits, because they lack basic rights and protections and face the very real threat of deportation.
Eleven million men, women and children who work and dream in America live every day with legalized discrimination and criminalization. It’s a betrayal of our values, of the shared belief that all of us are vital to the well-being of this country, which has for hundreds of years been built and sustained and renewed by immigrants and refugees who come here in search of a better life.
Today I am redoubling the commitment of the AFL-CIO and the American labor movement to end the era of mass deportations and to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.
Just over a year ago, President Obama took executive action to protect millions of immigrants from the looming threat of deportation. We stood with brave immigrant workers to push for this long-overdue relief and remain ready to put it into action. But from the moment the president signed the order, obstructionist politicians and partisan judges have used every possible tactic to stall progress.
Republican presidential candidates have made matters worse, shouting dangerous and irresponsible charges that stereotype and scapegoat people from entire countries and faith traditions. These politicians propose racial profiling, wholesale deportations and even ethnic and religious litmus tests. Make no mistake, this is racism and bigotry in its most fundamental form.
We expect this from our political enemies. But America’s deportation crisis is a bipartisan failure. The Obama Administration’s recent decision to send women and children back to dangerous Central American nations, often without proper due process, is shameful. All over our country, those who fled violence and poverty to come here for a better life are being forced to live in fear. This is wrong and today we say once again: enough is enough.
In the shadow of this ugliness, the real crimes that hurt too many working people are going unaddressed. Wage theft. Discrimination. Deadly disregard for health and safety. Sexual harassment and assault.
Immigrant workers are by far the most likely to face this gross exploitation on the job, and we must all stand together to change that. When one worksite is dangerous, the standards for working people everywhere get worse. When one group of workers is targeted, wages are lowered across the board. Our immigration system should be a pipeline to prosperity, not to prison. It must be a tool for justice, not systematic oppression.
We will take the lead in stamping out all forms of worker exploitation. Part of that work involves reviving a proven practice to help build worker power. It’s an initiative called “We Rise.” For a century or more, America’s union halls have provided the setting for countless working people to become naturalized U.S. citizens.
Today, our unions are stepping up again. We are training literally thousands of shop stewards and community volunteers to help people gain rights and status, and to join in the fight for more and better protections. We are helping immigrant workers and families naturalize, as well as navigate President Obama’s deferred action programs. We aren’t waiting for the courts. We are holding dozens of community workshops to help ensure that eligible workers are ready to apply on Day One.
Our unions have a moral imperative to help end the routine abuse immigrant workers face. We stand on the shoulders of people who spoke with thick accents, who were called names and discriminated against. We are a movement of immigrant workers, and we will fall or rise together.
This time next year, a new president will be preparing to take office.
We need a president who will stop the criminalization of immigrant workers and communities by reigning in federal enforcement agencies and standing strong against radical state and local governments.
We need a president who will prevent immigration raids that target workers for legal union activity.
We need a president who will honor our proud tradition of providing refuge to families who seek protection in a dangerous world.
And we need a president who will lead by example, stop mass deportations, and get just immigration reforms across the finish line.
Our collective action and activism will dictate who the next president is, and more importantly what he or she does once elected. The coming year, 2016, is our chance to set the agenda.
For years I have said, and I mean it, that we do not work for any candidate or political party. Our agenda comes first. It drives our politics, not the other way around.
Any candidate who wants the support of the AFL-CIO must explain how they will make our economy better for working families. We refuse to accept a “less-bad” candidate. We don’t want the lesser-of-two-evils. That’s what we said at our Raising Wages Summit one year ago, and it’s what we’re saying here in Nevada today.
Raising wages is our standard. It’s how we write new rules and transform our economy so all working people can build better lives. It means more money in our pockets, more time with our families, and more dignity and respect on the job. Raising wages will help all working men and women—immigrant and non-immigrant alike—grab their well-earned share of the American Dream.
Brothers and sisters, let’s stand together for raising wages, for a better America and a better tomorrow. Let’s march together. Let’s organize together. Let’s mobilize together. Let’s naturalize together. Let’s vote together. And let’s win together.
