Thank you, Brother Vince [Beltrami]. It’s always good to be with you. You’re a good, good friend and one hell of a trade unionist. I’m proud to stand beside you. Whatever you need, I’m here for you. And I’ll keep coming back to this great state every single time you ask. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll wait to be asked. I’ll book the tickets now.
There’s no place like Alaska, sisters and brothers. Your rivers are wild. Your salmon are huge. And when oil prices are high, the whole world can seem pretty flush. But responsible Alaskans know to enjoy the daylight while you’ve got it, because the days get short in the winter, and to sock away some of that oil money for the lean times.
Everyone in Alaska should thank the trade unionists in this room, because you mobilized to push your elected leaders to bank $18 billion in savings when oil was over $100 a barrel. That cushion has given you breathing room, and saved thousands of jobs.
Now it’s time for another big effort to counter the politicians whose answer to every question is to cut, cut, cut, to give away public money to millionaires, to roll back investments in our future.
There is a better way forward. You can save thousands of jobs in state services, education and the building trades, and begin to move away from the boom-and-bust cycle of complete dependence on oil. Every responsible idea should be on the table, and the free-market fanatics should get out of the way. It is time to kick-start Alaska’s economy and provide stability to opportunity to every single worker.
I know just the man for the job, his name is Vince Beltrami, and if we have anything to say about it, he’ll be leading from the Alaska State Senate after Election Day!
Brothers and sisters, you are part of a national movement. From Alaska to the Lower 48, working family values have been front-and-center this election year, and that’s where we’ll keep them. Union activism has been driving the debate in America. Thanks to your activism, and yours and yours, good wages have been on the agenda. Massive public investment in our infrastructure has been given new life.
And it all started with the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Two years ago, almost nobody thought these corporate trade deals could be stopped. But a groundswell of activism led by each of you slammed the brakes on the entire process. We changed the debate by focusing on trade rules, the structures that for too long have killed jobs and lowered wages. It worked! The TPP isn’t dead, but it’s on life support.
Think about what else we can accomplish if we bring that same energy and devotion in the weeks and months ahead. Massive investments in our infrastructure. Millions of good-paying jobs. A higher minimum wage. Equal pay for equal work. Labor law reform.
We can win everything we need to build a better life. We have beaten back the worst—now let’s demand the best.
Our vision will lift us all up. We can do it, because we’re the ones who drive the buses and run the trains. We build the bridges and lift the loads. We teach the classes and care for the sick. We build America, and defend her. We do America’s work. We make America go. We want our share of the American Dream, brothers and sisters, and we’ll stand for it. We’ll march for it. We’ll win it!
Thank you for your unionism and activism. We've been fighting for decades to make the debate about the rules of the economy, so they can be changed. And we’ve done it. Those rules are now front and center.
Our economy isn’t like the weather. It’s man-made, and if it doesn’t work we can and should fix it.
A few weeks ago, I was in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. It was truly inspiring. Democrats nominated a ticket that opposes the TPP, is committed to raising wages for working families and understands that when workers are strong. when unions are strong, America is strong.
I’ll have more to say about the Democrats shortly, but I can’t let another moment pass without talking about Donald Trump. Where do I even start?
In just the last month, he dishonored the memory of a fallen hero by criticizing a Gold Star family. He said he always wanted a Purple Heart. He called President Obama the founder of ISIS. He said the best way for working women to deal with sexual harassment is either “be strong” or find another job. He joked about killing his opponent. Then he said he was being sarcastic, but “not that sarcastic.”
Sisters and brothers, these moments reveal Donald Trump for who he really is, not just as a candidate but as a man.
Donald Trump is not only dangerous, he’s blatantly dishonest. A recent study showed he tells a whopper every five minutes. Don’t believe a thing he says. He pretends to love our cause, but he’s a fraud.
Trump has spent his career shipping our jobs overseas, failing to pay us for the work we do, devastating our communities and treating us like second-class citizens. He wants us to believe he will stand with working people and defend unions when he spent his entire life trying to cheat us and destroy us.
Here’s all you need to know about the Donald. He thinks our wages are too high, and he has stolen our pay time and time again. He said outsourcing creates jobs. He rooted for the housing collapse. He supports right to work 100 percent. And he thinks Carl Icahn—who takes glee in killing our jobs and benefits—would make a good Treasury Secretary. No wonder a business firm says Trump’s business plans would cost our nation 3.5 million jobs. That’s right, 3.5 million jobs. Donald Trump would make America unemployed again.
Trump only cares about one thing: himself. If you took the words “I, me and myself” out of his vocabulary, he’d be speechless.
Donald Trump is profoundly unfit to be president. That’s why on November 8, 2016, working people are going to turn the tables, and fire him.
Thankfully, the Democratic side has been a much different story. The primary contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton moved America in the right direction. The Democratic platform yielded the strongest, most progressive and most unifying vision in 50 years. And Hillary Clinton is rising to meet the challenges of tomorrow with a strong agenda of shared prosperity.
Hillary is tough. She is smart. She is prepared. And she listens. When she accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, when she talked about “love of country and the selfless passion to build something better for all who follow,” it was clear she heard our call. In Tim Kaine, she chose a running mate who has always fought for us. Just ask union members in Virginia.
Hillary is ready to rewrite the economic rules by reforming or killing corporate trade deals and saying no to the TPP. She has an aggressive plan to rein in Wall Street. She will make the largest investment in infrastructure, public education, workforce development and manufacturing since World War II—to the tune of 10 million new jobs!
And finally, this is the icing on the cake, Hillary Clinton knows that the single greatest tool for economic mobility and a growing middle class is collective bargaining. Hillary will protect and expand the freedom of every worker in America to join or form a union.
Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters: America is tilting toward unionism. This is our chance. This is our moment. To bring out the best in America. To bring out the best in ourselves, and each other. We won’t back up or back down. We’ll stand tall. We’ll register. We’ll vote, and we’ll win!
My friends, I want to tell you something personal. Two weeks ago, I welcomed my first grandchild into the world. My son Rich and his wife had a beautiful baby boy. Becoming a grandfather is a reminder that this movement is not just about us, it’s about building a stronger America for generations to come.
It seems like yesterday I was in my backyard with Rich when he was just three or four years old. His grandfather had gotten him one of those battery operated jeeps. He and his buddy Chad were driving around in the backyard.
I was out there too—talking on the phone about what else—the union. Rich must have overheard me because he drove up and said: “Dad what’s a union?”
So I told him to try to push his jeep up the hill. He strained and struggled and eventually got stuck. Then I told his friend Chad to give him a hand. Working together, they were able to do it. I looked right at my son and said: “That’s a union.”
Today, working people are climbing up our own hill. Wages are still too low. Benefits are still too few. Retirement security isn’t secure enough. And the economic rules remain skewed toward the wealthy few.
But we have the power to change that.
In the end, this is more than just an election. It's about where our country is going. It's about what kind of nation we're going to be, an America that says you are mine and I am yours, or one that governs by dividing and fanning fears.
By standing together, and defining American values for the ages, we’ll defeat the misguided, petty and unnecessary politics of division and disunity. And we’ll send a message to every Republican who made the rise of Trump possible: change course or face extinction.
America’s labor movement is unleashing the most comprehensive and sophisticated electoral program in our history.
I’m asking you to step up. I know you campaign hard every election year, but we need you to do more. Every local union in Alaska should designate an election point person. We have to be united: big unions and small, public sector and private.
And we have to be united around a simple but powerful idea: raising wages. It’s our agenda and our mission.
We know the single best way to raise wages is with a collective bargaining agreement. Good old-fashioned unionism will always be our top priority. That’s why it’s so important to elect leaders who will stand with us. When we win at the ballot box, we win at the bargaining table. When we win political campaigns, we win organizing campaigns.
We’re building a movement. It’s a movement where unions grow and inequality shrinks. It’s a movement where you can grab onto the American Dream no matter what you look like, where you come from, how much money your parents have or who you love.
When it comes to doing right for working people, we define that vision. We embody those values. We will fix what’s broken in our country. We have unity. We have solidarity. And we are ready to win justice and jobs today and a better tomorrow.
We’ll work for it, sisters and brothers. We’ll stand for it. Together. Each of us. With solidarity. Real solidarity. Where your picket line is my picket line. And my picket line is your picket line. Shoulder to shoulder. Arm-in-arm. All day. Every day. As long as it takes. To win together. To grow together. To build the America we can have, and must have, and will have.
Thank you. God bless you, and have a wonderful convention.
