Thank you, Brother Vince [Beltrami], for that kind introduction. And thank you for inviting me to your convention. It’s good to be back in Alaska.
Let me tell you something, Alaska is a beautiful place. I’ll be honest, I love my job, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world—but I wouldn’t mind having an office up here. I have a ridiculously good time in Alaska, and not just when I’m out fishing. You are truly living in God’s country, so thank you all for bringing me back.
I’ve got some good stuff to talk to you about. I want to thank you and congratulate you for being one of the few state federations of labor to successfully endorse, fight for and work with Democratic and Republican leaders. That’s political independence. I’m not saying things are perfect today, but your record in that department is strong. Alaska provides a working model, and I commend you for it.
Here’s another piece of good news. The people of Alaska have warmed to our community affiliate Working America in a big way, and you should all be proud of that. In just the last few months, Working America up here has gained 5,000 members. That doesn’t happen by accident, and so I want to thank everyone who has been involved with the growth of Working America.
Okay, now as you know, Alaska is not a cheap place to live. Hell, heating oil in Fairbanks is outrageous. I don’t know how some of your working families here can keep the house warm.
Every worker in Alaska needs a raise, and I know a good place to start. A higher minimum wage will lift more working families toward a living wage and put upward pressure on all wages. You’ve done great work to get a higher minimum wage on the ballot this fall, and you’re a step ahead of the pack because you’ll index the wage to inflation. But I’d also encourage you all to look a step further to think about how solidarity, how a union on the job, could lift Alaska’s workers that much more.
I’d like each and everyone here to think hard about the people you know, your friends and neighbors, family members and just those people you see around town on a regular basis.
And I want you to think to yourself, could solidarity help your neighbor? Could it help relieve energy costs in Fairbanks so our young families and elderly parents on fixed incomes can live more securely?
Brothers and sisters, we aim to help working families use unionism to build a better life. I’m not saying that because I like the sound of the words. I’m saying it because it’s true. Unionism works. Solidarity builds strong careers, strong families, strong communities and a strong future for the United States of America.
The best way to fair pay, is a union contract.
The best way to retirement security, is a union contract.
The best way to a better tomorrow, so you can give your family a decent life and a strong future, it all comes back to a union contract.
Yet politicians can rob us of the right to have or keep a union on the job. Politics matter.
Anchorage politics matter. Fairbanks politics matter. You’re on the top of the list for the right-wing and its right-to-work scam. They’re coming after us in city councils. They’re attacking working people at the state level. But if we build power, and we build it right, we can win what we want and need, so more hard-working Alaskans can bargain together for a decent life.
A decent life is not too much to ask, because we’re the workers of America, from the railroad tracks to the overpass, from the hotel to the high school, we lay the foundations and teach the classes. We bake the bread and build the roads. We lift the loads and answer the call. We do what it takes, no matter the cost. We wake our country up every single day, and we tuck her into bed at night. We won’t be turned aside. We won’t sit down or back up or shut up. We won’t be faced down, and we will not be denied. This is our country. This is our time. Right now. We’re taking back our country, so she works for the people who work!
Sisters and brothers, in the past few months, I’ve spoken to workers all across the United States, and to be perfectly honest with you, the people I talk to are confused and angry, frustrated and scared. They tell me they’re worried about the future. They’re concerned about the life their kids are going to lead. And they’re wondering why, this long after the financial collapse of 2008, too little has changed.
I want you to know I understand that frustration, fear and confusion. Let’s consider what’s happened over the past 40 years, how productivity rose while wages froze, which meant virtually all of the wealth created by our growing economy has gone to the richest 1%.
All across this country, as union men and women do the work of representing our members, we’ve seen the hardship. We’ve seen how corporations sometimes rig themselves to fail, so executives can break pension promises, and walk away with millions. And we’ve seen profitable companies use the struggles down the street to justify their own health care cuts and take-back contracts.
And when a factory or plant closes, or moves its production to China or somewhere else, all of us have seen the ripple effects move across our communities, from half-empty classrooms and “For Sale” signs in the front yards to restaurant closures and vacant storefronts.
And it hits home, doesn’t it? When you lose a job it’s not a number. It’s stressful. There are fights over finances. Worn out clothes that just have to be worn anyway. Nothing much for the kids at Christmas. Stuff that counts. Stuff that hurts.
The corporate right wing aims to extend this story for another 40 years, and make it even tougher on all of us.
We’ve got another plan. We see a different opportunity. You see, this whole situation has given workers everywhere a hard-won education in real economics. And here’s why I’m telling you this: The biggest story in America is the great wealth divide, and what we’re doing to make it right!
Here’s some good news. The time is right. People everywhere are starting to understand themselves as workers. People all across this country, and around the world, are beginning to see collective action as a solution to our troubles. From Atlanta to Alaska, and everywhere in between, more and more people are talking about economic inequality, people who never spoke those words before. The public is debating big issues, like a living wage and collective bargaining. We’re talking about raising wages, and we like the idea.
And I can tell you this, people who like that idea, are going to love the reality of raising wages a whole lot more. You see, household expenditures make up 70% of the American economy. That’s how raising wages will create jobs, because when workers do well, America does well. We buy goods and services to improve our lives. We create demand, and then corporations hire more workers to meet that demand. It’s what you call a virtuous cycle. It’s the opposite of a race to the bottom. It’s the foundation of a strong economy built on raising wages, not credit card debt and asset bubbles.
We’re spreading the word. At the AFL-CIO we’ve got a new program called Common Sense Economics. Have you heard of it? We intend to teach 1 million regular working people how raising wages works. That’s just one way we’ll use information to continue to build momentum for working people. We’ve got other initiatives, too. We’re strengthening our state federations of labor and local labor councils. We’re joining together with community partners and allies, in ways we never have before. We’re a mainstream movement, and we’re acting like it.
America is tired of losing middle-class jobs. From Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, from Maine to the California coast, we’re done with the downward spiral. In poll after poll after poll, we hear Americans say, “We want an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”
Our values are mainstream values. You see, more than 70% of the American people want minimum wage to go up to $10.10 an hour, and 72% say federal investment in American infrastructure to create jobs should be a top national priority, 82% of the public wants good American manufacturing jobs, not more bad trade deals. That’s an idea that unites us, and 90% of the American people want an end to Chinese currency manipulation, 90%, that’s an idea that unites almost every single one of us! You see, working people may embrace a range of philosophies, religions and political points of view, but we are still united by the circumstances of our lives, and by the vision and the hopes we share.
And so it is up to you and me, to each of us, to help bridge the gap for the workers who share our values, but who don’t yet see how our interests come together.
That’s why we’re reaching out to all workers, even if they fly the Tea Party flag, I won’t write anybody off, because when it comes to economic issues, we must stand together with anybody who will stand with us, so the voices of America, our America, can be heard in the workplace and in our national life.
Working people share a lot more than most people think. In our research, we’ve found what we’re calling Tea Party populists, and we’ll stand with them. Together, we can turn cynicism into stubborn action.
Work should never hold us down and trap us in poverty. Work must lift us up. We want our country to work for the people who work!
Power and hope are rising.
We’re on the right path, brothers and sisters. A groundswell is growing, and it keeps getting bigger. It's strong, and it'll get stronger. It's a movement to raise wages, so all of us can live a better life.
We’ll stand together to raise wages for all. We’ll fight for athletes and car wash workers, for Harley workers and security guards, nurses and teachers! We’ll march together! For working families! For good pay. We’ll stand together! For a strong future. For each other! We won’t back down, or back up, or step down, until we win a new day for the American Dream. We’ll shout here in Fairbanks and all across America. And we’ll show how much good raising wages can do.
Well, listen, that all sounds good, right? But believe me, I know how hard it is to unite a movement. I know how tough it is to mobilize and motivate a membership as diverse as ours, as broad and strong and varied as the workers of the Alaska AFL-CIO.
Yet we can bring ourselves together. We’ve already started, and it’s working. It’s time for us to believe in ourselves again, believe in the power of our movement, believe in the progress that’s possible in our democracy!
You see, we’re building power, the hard way. We’ve learned some mean political lessons about the red-blue divide, hard political lessons, but I want you to listen very closely to what I have to say, we’re stronger because of those lessons. We’re more independent because of those lessons. We’re more focused, more disciplined, more creative, and more powerful.
We’re asking hard questions of every single candidate who wants our support, we’re asking questions like, do you support America’s workers? Do you support our right to bargain collectively for a better life? Do you support good jobs? Will you grow our economy, not shrink it? Will you raise wages?
You see, we’re not working for any candidate. We’re not building power for any political party. Not the Democratic Party. Not the Republican Party. We’re building power for working people, pure and simple. We’re looking at the long view. We’ll work for anybody who works with us, and we’re not afraid of holding anybody’s feet to the fire. Working families need results. Period.
Yet I promise, I swear, nobody will work harder, or smarter, or longer, to elect the leaders who make the right commitments, and nobody will work harder, or longer, to defeat those who don’t, regardless of party.
Right now, I want you to commit to fighting for Mark Begich to stay in the U.S. Senate. This leader has a 98% AFL-CIO lifetime voting record. He stands with us, let’s stand with him!
And if you can win for endorsed candidates in Anchorage, you can rebuild a bipartisan coalition that can work for working families. I know it’s possible. It’s more than possible, but it’s going to take something like 10,000 more votes.
And let me tell you, if the Fairbanks city council doesn’t motivate us, I don’t know what will. I read in the paper a few weeks ago that they voted 4-1 to reject the ruling of an arbitrator telling them to pay $60,000 in health care premiums to the city firefighters. That’s unbelievable. Let me tell you, those firefighters put themselves on the line for this city every single day. That’s public service. That’s integrity. But the council members who cast those four votes? They wouldn’t know public service from a hole in the ground. Those council members don’t know a thing about integrity. It’s time for us to put them out of a job.
This electoral season, I want you to work like never before. You have to be the leaders who lead by example. Be the first to knock on the doors. Make the first phone call at the phone bank.
You’ll motivate your volunteers. You’ll strengthen your activists. You’ll help us all connect with more working-class voters, get more working families to the polls, because if we want the policies we need, if we want fair communities, fair states and a fair country, we need the right leaders in every corner of America. We’ve got to engage and turn out our people.
When I say, “our people,” I mean union members and families but also like-minded folks in our neighborhoods and communities.
We’re changing lives. We’re scrambling and reaching for a little more hope. We have a vision. And we’re going to make it real, because when all of us pitch in, that’s shared responsibility, shared sacrifice.
So get off your seat and on your feet, sisters and brothers. When we stand together, we win together. And we’re gonna win together!
We’ll work for it. 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. Standing together. Fighting together. Voting together. Winning together.
Thank you!
