Good MORNING, Illinois labor family!! Brothers, sisters, siblings—how’s everybody doing?
How does it feel to be the center of the political universe right now?
As I speak…I know we have folks all over this city working around the clock to set up what’s gonna be an amazing DNC Convention. Can we give it up for them?
Bob Reiter/Don Villar—thank you…
And I just wanna say: We have *800* union delegates ready to join you here in Chicago in a couple of weeks—20% of the overall workers from every state, industry, background…cat lady workers, dog lady workers. This Convention is gonna be JD Vance’s worst freaking nightmare, I promise you.
NOW…I wanna get to all the incredible work you all have been doing here in Illinois…but can I just say first: What a year the past 10 days have been.
I’ve been in the labor movement for a little while now. A few years; I won’t say how many. But the honest truth is: I’ve never seen a moment like this. Where every day you’re just sitting there on the couch…and your phone blows up with some game-changing political news we haven’t seen in like 60 years.
And to come out of all of that…with this energy, this enthusiasm…I’ve never seen anything like that, either.
The best way I can sum it up came when I was watching the Olympics last night.
And it’s great to see those big wins—a lot of union members…our soccer teams, our basketball teams dominating, our swimmers…they’re incredible. But the person I kept coming back to was Simone Biles, the gymnast.
Who a few years ago…had that tough moment in Tokyo. She came out of there and people were talking like she was done. Like she was past her prime.
What did she do? She went home, did the work and wrote an amazing comeback story!
Here we are four years later…watching her absolutely crush it. Coming up with new moves gymnastics has never seen before. Better than ever, winning the gold.
And as I watched her…I couldn’t help but think of our labor movement.
The people who wrote *us* off, all those years ago we’re outdated. But we put *our* heads down, and kept doing the work. And now we are writing our comeback story and winning!
This moment is unlike any we’ve seen in decades…people in this country are seeing unions in a new light because they’re fed up.
People I talk to say, my paycheck doesn’t go as far as it used to. My rent is out of control. I worry whether I’m still gonna have a job in a few years. I don’t feel *good* about my future.
For a long time, workers in this country have been living on the edge.
We’ve watched corporate profits skyrocket and CEO pay is off the charts. Jeff Bezos makes in seven seconds what an Amazon warehouse worker makes in a year! He has enough money to rocket himself into space…while half this country lives paycheck to paycheck!
Elon Musk…these rich and powerful people have been running the table and stacking the deck against us—
Janus; right-to-work; laws that give these companies unlimited power—to make us sit there in captive audience meetings, and listen to a bunch of lies and propaganda.
Workers have felt powerless until now…
But if you look around right now…something absolutely amazing is happening.
All over this country…workers are reclaiming their power.
Workers are realizing: There *is* a way to fight back.
And it’s not complicated. It’s the exact same way we got the five-day work week…and the eight-hour workday…and sick leave and paid family leave, and vacation time.
We fight back TOGETHER. We fight back IN A UNION.
People see us out there fighting for them and they’re connecting the dots…they see what the Illinois AFL-CIO is doing under one of the best leadership teams in the country, Tim Drea and Pat Devaney—the Jordan and Pippen of Illinois labor. I’m not gonna say who’s who and start a fight!
But when you have leaders like that at the top…and an incredible Executive Board and local leaders and activists who are all in it together…it just shows us what’s possible.
You see workers who are unafraid to take on the big fights—like the nurses at Howard Brown who fought and clawed for 18 months and two strikes…and just won their first contract and like the workers at Shedd who aren’t backing down!
Workers in new industries, in places we’ve never been before, joining this movement. Workers saying: It doesn’t matter if I’m at the Field Museum, or at Portillo’s, or teaching at Illinois State…I WANNA BE IN A UNION.
You see our labor movement getting candidates elected up and down the ballot—having a legislative agenda that actually changes people’s lives.
A Workers’ Rights Amendment? DONE.
Paid Leave? DONE.
A Temp Workers Bill of Rights? DONE.
Tightening child labor laws while neighboring states loosen? DONE.
And I can’t wait to add one more in just a few minutes…when Governor Pritzker comes out here and shuts down captive audience meetings in Illinois, once and for all!
Illinois is showing the entire country what’s possible.
If every labor movement in every state was delivering like you are here in IL—imagine what we could win!
Modernizing The Movement, we knew this Federation was gonna step up.
So we could keep innovating. Keep empowering our local bodies, right here, who are getting the work done on the ground. Keep setting the tone for the entire movement.
NOW…we *need* to keep pushing ourselves.
Because those forces that want to drag us backwards…they’re not going away.
Let’s talk for a second about this election we have coming up. Let’s make this comparison really, really clear.
We have one side…who wants to eliminate the labor movement as we know it. Let’s be honest about Project 2025. That’s what it is. The blueprint for Trump’s second term—Heritage Foundation 100 + former Trump staff.
No more public sector unions. Gone.
Company union’s ‘in’—JD Vance’s Team Act.
No consequences for companies sending workers out to get hurt or even die because it would cut the OSHA enforcement and penalties abolishing the Department of Education; eliminate protections against discrimination for LGBTQ+ workers.
No protection for our right to organize, or strike, or have any say in our own future.
States being able to opt out of overtime and minimum wage laws.
Let’s talk about this ticket that’s owning that agenda.
A real estate billionaire…and a venture capitalist. Standing up without a hint of irony and saying to working people: We’re your champions. And it’d be one thing if the guys advancing this agenda were your standard, run-of-the-mill villains. It turns out they’re also some of the weirdest damn people on the planet.
We all know the guy at the top. The guy who cannot shut up about Hannibal Lecter for God knows what reason.
Let’s talk about JD Vance.
Let’s talk about the guy who is so desperate to make himself a working-class hero.
The guy who’s gone from Hillbilly Elegy to Career Ending Elegy in about two weeks.
The guy who has a 0% labor voting in the Senate.
Who is obsessed with demeaning women whether it's calling us childless cat ladies or having the gall to tell women: Stay in abusive relationships. And that we really should not work outside the home at all.
If you want to insult half the people in this country on both sides of the aisle…be my guest, JD. But those aren’t the *values* of working people.
On the other side…we have a champion in Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris walked our picket lines back in 2019…when JD Vance was still giving TedTalks to billionaires at the Aspen Institute and Donald Trump was crossing a picket line.
Kamala Harris who has been instrumental in this historic record we’ve achieved over the past three-and-a-half years. Who has actually taken on fraudulent companies—like the ones Donald Trump runs—and delivered justice for workers.
Stakes of this election couldn’t be higher and labor will make the margin—talk to your members.
I’ll tell you one story as I close out.
Back in 2021, when our former president and our brother, Rich Trumka passed…we found ourselves in our own really difficult moment of transition. I was sitting there, still grappling with everything…and my phone rang. It was Kamala Harris. She called to offer support…and to me personally, knowing how hard it would be to leave while grieving.
She was compassionate, she was kind.
But most of all…she talked about having our back. And how sometimes, just by chance, we find ourselves in these historic moments—and how we have to be there for each other…she showed up unannounced for Rich’s viewing at our headquarters to comfort us.
10 days ago…that call came full circle. The Vice President called that Sunday, July 21 when the news became official. We talked about Joe Biden and what he meant to us. And she told me, really simply: She’s ready to keep fighting for our unions and our workers. And I said, you had our back through crisis, and we have yours!
So what I need to know right now is…are you ready to make HISTORY?
Are you all ready to send the first WORKING WOMAN to the White House?
Are you ready to organize and fight like hell these next three months?
Let’s get to work! Thank you!!