Good morning, everyone.
Thank you Brother Danny [Bauder] for that kind introduction, and I’d like to thank you and Jim [Gardler] and Ken [Washington] and the entire team for your commitment to the labor movement and dedication to Philadelphia’s working families.
I also want to thank Angela [Ferritto] and George [Piasecki] for their leadership of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. Together you do such a terrific job advocating for all working people—and engaging with every community.
I know how hard you’ve worked over the past couple of years through one of the most challenging times in our history.
But this labor movement has battled and continues to build power for workers—at the bargaining table, in our cities and communities and in Washington, D.C.
And now we have the momentum. Unions and the American labor movement have never been more popular.
71% of Americans support unions. 88% of adults under the age of 30 support unions.
The BLS released its annual report on union density last week and despite the intimidation and harassment and union-busting campaigns workers have to endure to form a union, we added 139,000 members last year, with a majority of new members under the age of 45.
And that’s just the beginning. Because workers across the country are still looking for a better quality of life and they’re still looking to unions as a solution to low wages and unsafe workplaces, to discrimination and growing inequality.
This surge of interest in unions—our momentum—didn’t just happen overnight. It’s the result of years of your hard work and dedicated effort. It’s because you stood together, you fought together and you won together.
And how do we keep building that power for workers? We have to grow our ranks—to help our affiliates serve their members and to organize future members.
Organizing has to be at the center of everything we do. It’s our muscle to run an effective political program. It maximizes our influence on member-to-member campaigns. It gives us more power on the picket lines and at the bargaining table.
And this labor council is leading the way…You have been engaged in our local union organizing program and your support of affiliate organizing efforts have made our entire movement stronger.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a unit of five, 50 or 5,000. Big or small, these organizing campaigns build our power and improve the lives of workers who now have a good, union job.
Workers at coffee shops and cannabis shops…at museums and orchestras…at universities and healthcare systems…they’re finding out the difference a union makes.
Even doctors and attorneys are organizing.
You are proving that we can organize workers in every sector of the economy. And these campaigns lay the groundwork for more success. On other organizing campaigns, at the bargaining table and on the picket lines. It builds our collective power and the force we need to pressure corporations to deliver the contracts workers want and deserve.
And it builds our power at the ballot box so we can elect leaders who care about the needs of working people—leaders who care about good jobs and stand up to corporate greed.
These leaders don’t just magically appear.
It takes hard work. It takes vision and dedication. It takes a strong political program to elect leaders up and down the ballot who will advocate for us and deliver legislative wins for working people and create an economy that works for all.
Your hard work—the doors you knocked. The calls and texts. All of the conversations you had with your members and with union families. It made the difference in 2020 and again in 2022…sending Fetterman to Washington in a crucial election. Electing Shapiro for governor…and flipping the House back to democratic control for the first time in more than a decade.
Now we’re in a better position to advance policies and legislation that bring about real and meaningful change for working families.
That’s because we focused on the issues and the values we share as trade unionists. We engaged and listened to our members. And the grassroots approach we used in the Labor 2022 program is something we can use year-round.
We saw how this approach made an impact in the municipal and judicial races last November.
We showed up for Daniel McCaffery and now have another ideologically sound judge on Pennsylvania’s high court. This was a huge win. Because how he decides on cases in the years to come—on election disputes…on conflicts over separation of powers…on fights over reproductive rights—could be the difference.
We need that kind of effort and impact this year too.
Now look, I know it seems that every election of late has been called the most important election of our lifetime.
But this year it’s true.
There’s a lot at stake. Our rights, our freedom, our democracy.
Progress in the fight for racial and economic justice. That’s at stake.
And all of the momentum we have right now as a movement could disappear overnight.
The 2024 election is the key to keep our momentum going.
It’s key because I believe the future and success of America hinges on the future and success of the labor movement.
Because I believe that the labor movement is the most powerful force for progress in every community and for our country.
We have a president in Joe Biden who truly believes in the rights of workers. In American jobs. In civil rights and economic and social justice, President Biden and his administration are doing everything in their power to reverse years of damage and make social and economic progress—as he likes to say, from the bottom-up and middle-out.
Joe Biden is the most pro-union, pro-worker president we’ve ever had. Period.
In his first weeks of office, President Biden strengthened workers’ rights by revoking Trump’s attacks on collective bargaining, due process and workplace representation rights for federal employees.
President Biden tightened Buy American rules to revitalize U.S. manufacturing.
Created the first Made in America office to make sure federal purchases bolster U.S. manufacturing and domestic supply chains and support good, union jobs.
Delivered a bipartisan infrastructure law—hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs to repair our roads and bridges and upgrade our water and sewer systems.
Historic investments in clean energy and education.
It all adds up to jobs…13.2 million new jobs. And nearly a half a million jobs here in Pennsylvania.
And by strengthening federal prevailing wage rules and ensuring federal projects use project labor agreements, the Biden administration is making sure these jobs are high-road, good-paying jobs.
Joe Biden proudly calls himself a union guy and he is a union guy.
He fought to protect workers’ pensions. Lowered the cost of prescription drugs. And is making sure the wealthy and large corporations are paying their fair share in taxes.
He talked about needing to strengthen workers’ rights during the State of the Union address.
In short, President Biden has our backs, and Joe Biden is the key to keep our momentum.
We cannot afford to take a step backward…because that step could send us into a free fall.
I’ll be honest, we might not be able to survive another four years with Donald Trump.
Our right to vote is under attack in nearly every state.
And it’s clear the Supreme Court is willing to roll back rights and freedoms that have been taken for granted.
Voting rights. The right to affordable health care and a quality public education. The right to privacy. The right to clean air and water. The right to organize and collectively bargain.
Our members need to hear from us. We need to lay out the issues. We have to make sure our members know who truly is delivering for workers and who is just delivering hot air.
Our worksites give us unique access to workers where they come together every day. There is no other institution in this country that has our infrastructure and reach. No party has that, no candidate. So, we need to make the most of that access and continue to build trust.
And our state feds and CLCs are how we build that trust.
Your work is so critical: working with affiliates to organize new members and mobilizing our members to support collective actions and the issues and campaigns that put workers first. You’re out in the community, fostering relationships and building the alliances that make our movement more powerful and effective.
The national AFL-CIO will make sure you have the resources you need to be a force for change…We’ll be there to help coordinate your efforts and maximize your impact for working people…for your communities.
So we can be as strong as possible when we take on the issues and campaigns that cut across the entire labor movement.
So we can elect pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot…and pass the legislation and policies that matter to working people.
So we can continue to be a force for racial and economic justice.
So we can keep showing workers in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and in every corner of this country, that the labor movement is for all people.
Keep showing the nation what grassroots power looks like.
Keep showing the nation what we can achieve when we stand together.
Keep organizing and mobilizing.
Keep being a force for working people, and a force for progress.
Together we can build a society that is just and fair, and a future that works for all of us.
I know we can. Because when we’re together, there’s nothing the labor movement can’t do.
Thank you.