Thank you, Mike [Sacco]. It’s great to be with you, my brother. Thank you for inviting me to speak again to your board meeting. It’s always an honor.
Brothers and sisters, welcome to Los Angeles, and welcome to the 2013 Quadrennial Convention of the AFL-CIO. This is an historic time in the American labor movement, and as leaders in our movement, we have a lot of work to do, a lot of work. And I am honored, and humbled, and gladdened, to do that work alongside this man right here, Mike Sacco! Some of you probably know this already, but Mike Sacco is the most senior vice president of the AFL-CIO on our executive council. This is a man who has seen a lot of the past and yet is always looking to the future.
The last time I spoke to you all, I spent a few minutes recalling the past, some of the victories that helped shape me and Mike, and my vision -- our vision -- for working people in America.
Well, we’re rolling up our sleeves. We’ve got a plan of action. And we’re ready to get to work. Brothers and sisters, I want you to know we are asking for some significant changes at the AFL-CIO convention this year. We’re looking at what we really need to do, at retooling our labor movement, on a fundamental level, both with our partners and allies, and within the big union we call the AFL-CIO.
As a movement, we need to change.
We truly need to become a movement by, and for, and of, working people -- not just some working people -- but all working people.
True solidarity is an art, and sometimes it seems there is no perfect route to achieve it. But we have to try. And our efforts at this convention represent the best ideas from a lot of sources, from the unions of the AFL-CIO, from hundreds of listening sessions involving many thousands of members and friends and allies and academics. It represents the sum total of a whole host of powerful visions for the way forward.
And let me say, sometimes good people disagree on tactics, some already have, and others will. That’s OK. That’s how we know the issues at stake are the right ones. We should have passionate arguments, even fights, as long as our struggles remain ultimately constructive. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal in mind.
And yet, my friends, there are no guarantees. I cannot promise that we’ll get everything we want. But, I can promise, I, and Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, together with each and every one of you, will work hard, and honestly, and with everything we have.
I believe history will look on this convention as a turning point -- not necessarily because of the work we do here, but because of what we do afterwards, when our tasks become real. I’m asking you to join me in that effort.
Sisters and brothers, we must answer America’s call. Our nation has been torn down and torn apart. We have to rebuild, almost from the ground up. We have to rebuild our middle class with good jobs, with union jobs, with smart investments, and hard work. There are no easy answers. No silver bullet. There never has been.
What we want is not too much to ask. A good chance for a decent life, for every single worker, every worker. Fair wages. Health care. A secure retirement. Education and a better life for our kids and grandkids.
That’s not too much to ask for the working people who wake America up every morning and tuck her into bed at night. That’s not too much to ask.
Brothers and sisters, we’re going to take our country back, because we dredge the harbors and pilot the ships, we load the trucks and build the roads. We will rebuild America, because this is our nation -- red, white and blue -- and we will do what it takes to lift our country up, no matter what the price, no matter how high the cost, 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. And we will not be denied!
When I look on the national political landscape, one of the biggest X factors I see is the reawakening of working people. And it’s about time.
Because we live under the very real threat that the America of today could become two Americas -- the super-rich and the rest of us. The wealth divide is greater today than any time in a century, and it’s growing by the day. Between 1979 and 2011, 84% of America’s income gains went to the wealthiest 1%.
Sisters and brothers, I ask you to think about the people not in this hall with us, but out there in America, working hard for next to nothing, for a minimum wage which doesn’t even come close to providing the minimum for life, for the people working and living the desperate reality of our dismal new economy.
Why doesn’t a young single mom have a voice in our economy? Who will stand with her as she looks for solutions? Who will stand with the former telecom worker who’s wearing the headset and taking orders at the drive-thru?
I’ll tell you who will stand with that single-mom, and with her children, and with laid off workers, and underpaid workers. We will! All of us together. And we’ll do it right now! We’ll join together with everyone and anyone who wants to stand with us. And we’ll raise our voices together, until our voices become one voice!
And with one voice we will demand that all work have dignity, that every worker has health care, every child a good education and enough to eat. We want every worker to have a job and fair pay and a secure retirement.
Here in Los Angeles, and in our nation’s capital, and here and there around the nation, our labor movement is reaching out to people who need the strength of solidarity, productive workers who want to get ahead, and are willing to rise above the petty and abusive tactics of bad managers and corporate CEOs.
And in Washington, we have gained some traction on Capitol Hill. We have held firm on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and we have five confirmed members on the National Labor Relations Board. But can we meet the needs of the future? Can we undo what the Tea Party has done to the politics of our nation?
My friends, the road forward won’t be easy, and we need solutions. History won’t wait. The work of the Panama Canal continues apace, yet our East Coast ports are not prepared. Our harbors need dredging. Our roads and bridges and railways need upgrades and repair. We’re not ready for the big ships that are coming! We need to modernize to be competitive.
We don’t have time for piecemeal solutions. We need big and bold answers to America’s problems. I’m talking about trillions with a T. Trillions!
We want business to succeed, so our young people can find work, good jobs, jobs to raise a family and build a career!
And my friends, to get it done, we’ll use the same tools that worked in the past. Activism! Activism works. Unity! We’ll stand with anyone who wants to stand with us. We’ll raise our voices with everyone who wants to raise their voice with us. We will stand together, at the workplace, and on Election Day. We’ll march together in Albany, Portland and Corpus Christi and everywhere we need to be.
We have a vision for the future, and it’s called the American Dream.
It was good enough for the men and women who built our labor movement, who built the greatest middle class the world has ever known, and it’s good enough for us!
It’s a simple dream, and it’s beautiful. And we won’t settle for anything less. It’s not too much to ask. It’s the basic idea that if you work hard, you can get ahead. You can save a little and raise a family if you want one, earn health care, and look forward to a secure retirement.
We’ll march for it. We’ll fight for it. We’ll stand for it. And by damn, we’ll win for it!
Sisters and brothers, we’re motivated. We’re activated. We’re energized. And, frankly, the time has come for us to act.
We will climb this hill and we will win -- together! We’re going to do what it takes, and keep doing it, until it works, and until America works for the people who work in America.
America’s labor unions and America’s working people are in a tough place. There will be no easy answers. If there were, we’d have done them by now.
The most important progress has never come easy. That’s why it’s the most important.
But we do have a vision to guide us. And a powerful movement to build. We have friends and allies all over this nation. We’re no fringe group with special interests. We’re the mainstream, my friends, and we’re ready to act like it.
A common thread unites our issues -- issues like comprehensive immigration reform and protecting Social Security and Medicare, and fighting for a functional National Labor Relations Board. These are issues that matter to the lives and jobs of regular working people. These issues matter. Our rights matter. Our people matter. And we will fight to protect our right to vote, and our rights on the job.
Like I said, it won’t be easy.
But to make it happen, we’ve got to want it, we’ve got to work for it.
We have to stand for it. We’ve got to fight for it.
We’ll bring out the best in our county. And in ourselves. To build the future we know we can have, we must have, for each of us, for our children, for our grandchildren. And we will never, ever, give up. We will always, always, go forward. And together, we will win, for our children, for our families, for our future, for our country. That’s how we’ll go forward. That’s how we’ll win. Together! Together!
Thank you! And God bless you!