Brothers and sisters, thank you!
We’re doing it right now. We’re doing it right now. We’re building solidarity. We’re broadening our movement. We’re reaching out to each other. We’re standing together.
And it feels good! This is what unionism looks like!
Thank you, Brother Rick [Bloomingdale]! Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for being my union brother. We’ve been through a lot together, and we’re not done yet.
You see, the landscape of work here in Pennsylvania is changing. Not long ago, most union members looked like me, and you and you and you. And most of those union members did something like what I used to do, which was to work in a coal mine, or a steel mill, or on the railroad, or somewhere along the supply line, from the mines to the manufactured goods we built for America.
Well, the face of labor is changing right here in Pittsburgh and all across America.
But the complexion of the face doesn’t matter, because the principles remain the same.
It’s about solidarity. It’s about togetherness. And unionism.
The problems we face in America are great, and each of us alone may have more questions than answers, but we can have faith in unionism and democracy, because I know we can find the answers together. We can find the solutions by standing shoulder to shoulder. We can show workers across Pennsylvania and America unionism works. And we can reclaim our American democracy for the people who work.
Brothers and sisters, solidarity works. I’m not saying so because I read about it. I know it from personal experience. And I want you to know, and tell your friends at work who couldn’t make it here today, I want you to know we will stand with you while you organize. I will stand with you while you organize at Duquesne, at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, at the Three Rivers Casino.
And if you’ve got to walk a picket line to get a fair contract, I’ll stand on that line like it’s my line! I don’t say this lightly! I mean it. I will be here when you need me. I’ll stand with you when it’s easy, and I’ll stand with you when it’s hard -- especially when it’s hard!
Look around yourselves. We are Pennsylvania workers! This is ground zero for solidarity. The American labor movement sprang up out of the rocks and dirt right here! The American middle class grew right here!
We’ll do it again, brothers and sisters, by the grace of God!
We do it with solidarity. Real solidarity! I’ll stand with you! You’ll stand with me! We’ll be shoulder to shoulder. We’ll get it done. Get off your seat and on your feet. We’ll rally and fight and march in the street, because we are America’s working people, and we will not be denied!
Sisters and brothers, in his State of the Union remarks this year, President Obama spoke about the outrage of inequality in America. Across the board, everyone from pundits to the pope, and even some CEOs! all say the same thing: Great and rising inequality is the biggest problem in America today.
It’s really no surprise. And we’ve been living it, and fighting against it for years -- decades!
You see, over the past 40 years the richest 1% has taken a larger and larger share of our national income, leaving very little for the rest of us. Between 1997 and 2008, before the crisis hit, all the income gains in our economy went to the top 10% of households. Not some, not a lot—all. The wages of the lower 90% of the workforce fell.
That hurts. We know this story all too well. We’ve been living it.
So think about this: If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be $10.75. If it had kept pace with productivity, it would be $18.67 an hour. Not bad, right? If it had kept pace with the top 1%, it would be $28.75. I think we could handle that.
Work should raise people out of poverty, not trap people in it.
Too many of us today feel trapped by the work we do. It’s wrong. It’s un-American. Three words describe the overarching strategy pushed by right-wing CEOs and embraced by the Republican leadership, leaders like Gov. Tom Corbett. Those words are, push pay down!
We might also choose some different, more colorful words.
You know the problems with Tom Corbett. Do I have to go down the list? You know them. So do I. What in the hell is Gov. Corbett thinking? Right-to-work-for-less in Pennsylvania? He must not want his job anymore.
Let me tell you something. Corbett is a Republican—but Democratic politicians aren’t automatically good, either. Sometimes they drive me up the wall. And in my lifetime I have seen some solid working-family Republicans from Pennsylvania who I’m proud to call friends. Corbett is not one of them.
But from House Speaker John Boehner to Rep. Paul Ryan to Gov. Tom Corbett, and most all of the hard-right Republican politicians in between, everything they put forward just pushes pay down for everybody who works for a paycheck.
Why does Corbett want to privatize state wine and spirits stores? To push wages down. Why does he want to voucherize public schools? To push wages down. How about privatizing the Turnpike? The lottery? Mental health services? Same reason. To push wages down. It’s the same story every time, everywhere you look.
Gov. Corbett talks about austerity, so why’s he giving billions in your tax money to profitable corporations and millionaires? I think Corbett and his friends can have all the austerity they want. We don’t want any of it. Working people want prosperity!
You see, Mr. Corbett, we have a better idea, two words: raise wages.
If you look at everything we do in the labor movement, everything from these organizing drives, to our support for American manufacturing, to our call for $4 trillion to fix America’s aging and out-of-date infrastructure, all of it contributes to our broad effort to raise wages.
Our state federations of labor and central labor councils have opened our doors to like-minded community allies. We’re ready to plan with and stand with anyone who shares our values, and wants to stand with us.
You see, we’ve got a single focus. I want you to think about what I’m going to say. Look at our work to promote comprehensive immigration reform, with a reasonable and workable path toward citizenship. Look at our partnerships with worker centers and day laborers and domestic workers—these are the right things to do. These campaigns are strengthening working people, so all of us can together pursue for the same goal -- raising wages!
We’re building our campaign capacity, so we can elect more working family candidates, and, when they are in office, watch them like hawks to make sure they stand with us to fight to raise wages!
We want to raise wages, we want to raise the federal minimum wage—to at least $10.10 an hour. That vote is coming up in the Senate in a few weeks, and we need your help? This bill includes the federal tipped minimum wage, which has been stuck at the outrageous level of $2.13 since 1991!
Brothers and sisters, sometimes after taxes, a tipped worker’s paycheck reads zero dollars and zero cents! How is that possible in America?
And right here in Pennsylvania, you’ve got some courageous leaders who want to lead the nation by raising the minimum wage—including tipped workers—to $12 an hour! That’s more like it! That’s a step in the right direction. You know what the next step is? It’s called forming a union. Unions work!
That’s what we’re about. Raising wages is our top agenda item. It’s the purpose behind all our political campaigns in 2014. Our agenda is driving our politics. We’re not putting politics first anymore, sisters and brothers. Raising wages will not take a back seat, not to any political party, or any candidate.
We say, “Raise wages!” because good jobs build America.
America has a weak recovery, and we had an economic crisis because working people can hardly afford to buy anything, except on flimsy credit! Consumer spending is the lion’s share of our economy. If we raise wages, we can support our communities. We can pay our bills. Raising wages will make our economy strong! And we want everyone to know it. So this year we’ve launched a program called Common Sense Economics. Worker to worker, we want to reach a million people with this clear, simple message: Raising wages works!
Common Sense Economics will teach each and every one of us how to spread this message everywhere.
Listen, if you work for a living, if you work hard and play by the rules, if you create value, you should never have to take a second job, or go to the food bank, or raise your kids in poverty. America is better than that. We work harder than that. America is richer than that.
Because, you see, when we do our jobs, we make a paycheck for somebody. We give somebody a raise. Somebody's getting rich. Somebody else, not us! So let’s turn America right-side-up, so work will pay the people who work.
My friends, we’re going to save America from the false patriots like Tom Corbett, who tear apart the foundations of our economy, to push pay down, to destroy good jobs.
And we’re spreading the word: Workers are the solution! Good jobs are the solution. Union workers are secure workers and confident consumers, and confident consumers are what make the American economy grow! It’s more than right. It’s essential. The right of workers to organize, to bargain collectively and raise our voices together in solidarity is just as important to our great nation as the right to vote!
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 groundswell to raise wages, so all of us can live a better life. And today this groundswell is right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and we carry a simple message: Unite for a better life!
History will show that the Pennsylvania labor led the way!
To get it done, our activism must extend from the ballot box to the city streets, from the public space to the workplace. I know you’ll do it. That’s how we’ll rebuild the American Dream, with activism!
We’ll stand together, to raise wages for all. We’ll fight for firefighters and hotel workers and casino workers, for public workers and private workers! We’ll march together. For working families. We won’t back down, or back up, or shut up, until we win a new chance for the American Dream. We’ll shout here in Pennsylvania and all across America. And we’ll show how much good raising wages can do.
America hungers for unity, my friends. America wants real progress. Sisters and brothers, the strength of our movement is our solidarity, the connections between us. We’re strong because of our trust and shared responsibility. Our word is our bond. That’s something I take seriously.
These are the values that we share.
So let me talk about my vision for what comes ahead. Unions across America in the coming weeks and months will be talking to candidates and making endorsement decisions. You’re doing it right here in Pittsburgh. It’s a critical process in the labor movement before every election season.
And I want to share with you my thoughts about how we will retain our political independence while fighting for the candidates who will fight for us.
From city and county races on up, you’ve got a lot of work to do here in Pennsylvania, but it’s all good work, because need it to build strength for working families.
All across America, we’re strengthening our labor movement. We’re building capacity and strong alliances with like-minded organizations and community partners. We’re finding those issues that unite us, that truly bring us together. And we’re mobilizing around those issues. We’re registering voters. We’re gearing up our programs.
As we talk to candidates, as we talk to voters, we will prove to our endorsed candidates that broad prosperity is a good issue to campaign on. We’ll prove that raising wages is a winning issue to campaign on.
We will prove to our candidates that collective bargaining is not a dangerous word, so when our candidates go to City Hall, or Harrisburg, or Capitol Hill, or the White House, we can always be confident that broad prosperity, raising wages, and collective bargaining, will be out in the open, and right at the top of the agenda!
And where we have to fight back, like right here against Gov. Corbett, let’s fight back hard! Let’s take these fights and throw them back at those who want to push pay down. I want us to help lift more working people toward the middle class, so more workers have good pay and benefits, and a secure retirement. So more workers have good union contracts. I want to push for the things we want, not just holler about what we don’t want.
What we want is simple. It’s what everybody wants, the chance to work hard for a decent life, for health care, for a better life for our kids. We want the American Dream, brothers and sisters, and we’ll stand together to get it. Together. We’ll go forward, and ain’t nobody going to turn us around!
Thank you! God bless you and the work you do!