Thank you, Sister Becky [Moeller], for your kind words of introduction, and thank you for inviting me to your convention. It’s great to be back in Texas.
I want to tell you here in front of your delegates how much I appreciate all the work we’ve done together over the years. You’re the best kind of fighter, because you find ways to win.
This is a bittersweet moment for me, to be perfectly frank, because I’m happy for you that you’re retiring, but I’ll miss your voice, your advocacy and your passion.
Congratulations to you, and I wish you the best down in Corpus Christi.
Brothers and sisters, make no mistake. The labor movement in Texas is growing, even though it’s one of the toughest states for workers to organize. Your labor movement under Becky’s leadership has lifted up thousands more families. You’ve made a difference in regular people’s lives, and you’ve done it despite ironclad opposition and one of the worst political climates for working people in the country.
So once again, congratulations to you, Becky, on a long and successful career, and congratu-lations to all of you, and also to John Patrick for stepping up to head the state AFL-CIO here in Austin. I look forward to working more with you.
This is an important time in Texas politics. Last year, Democrats in this state took one of the worst beatings on record, despite a real effort to register new voters and talk about working family issues. Moving the needle for working families in Texas is a challenge, and it’s going to be hard. Texas is one of the few states where you can actually still go to jail just for trying to register someone to vote.
Changing the political climate in Texas is difficult, but we have to find a way to win anyway.
Right here in this room, we’ve got a lot of union experience, and a lot of political experience. You know how important and difficult it is for working men and women to stand together, not just in election years and during contract fights, but day in and day out. You know how tough it is to follow every organizing lead. Some of them don’t pan out, but taking up each lead is the only way to find the ones that do. You’ve done the hard work. You’ve made your unions work, and you’ve made your communities and your state stronger.
Make no mistake. America is turning once again toward the core values of unionism. It’s not happening on its own, and it may not happen as fast or in exactly the way as we’d like, but it is happening. National polls show the portion of people who approve of unions is rising, and those who disapprove are falling.
The power of the collective voice in America is rising. Texas AFT organized new members in Waco in September. Two more locals will likely come online next spring, one north of San Antonio and another down in the Valley. And there are two more organizing committees making plans. Teachers across Texas are standing together for a better life. That’s powerful.
This year, we’ve seen Texas Steelworkers stand up and stand strong for safety and fair treatment on the job.
You’re showing Texas and America how solidarity can lift all of us up. Not just some. All.
This year, all across America, 5 million working people in America are bargaining together for better wages and benefits. It’s one of the biggest years for contract bargaining on record.
And listen, it’s not just workers with unions who are standing together. In Texas and across America, 2 million retail workers stood together and won raises from Walmart and Target and Marshalls and TJ Maxx, and that’s just the big stores.
When Ikea raised wages, the results were so good they raised wages again. This just happened a few weeks ago.
Raising wages is how we lift up our families and our communities. Raising wages is what we do. And raising wages will kick-start the greatest engine of economic growth the world has ever seen -- a well-paid American workforce!
Raising wages comes from activism and the collective voice. That’s big. Those are wins!
And if some is good, more is better!
We want more! We want better! We want raising wages!
You know we’ve been battling over international trade in the past few months. I appreciate the hard work you’ve done fighting Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I know you’ll keep fighting, and I know you’ve made a difference in your delegation. You turned yes votes into no votes.
I’d like to thank the Congressional Democrats from Texas who stood with us in this fight. I’d like to particularly thank Lloyd Doggett for his leadership. Lloyd is a true champion for working families and an important voice on trade.
The sober truth is that the corporate traders barely won the battle for fast track trade authority. They pulled strings and jumped hoops and won by a hair, but we’ve only been picking up steam. We’re not stopping. Members of Congress are reconsidering this issue, and coming to our side. More are on the way.
That’s happening because you held elected leaders accountable. You turned out in person, looked them in the eye and told them your priorities. You were the very best of democracy.
Democratic, Republican, Independent, whatever, working people are tired of these damn bad trade deals full of corporate entitlements. They’ve been killing jobs and weakening our country for far too long.
The American people don’t like bad trade, and we are making our voices heard. Fast Track may have squeaked by, but we have forever changed the trade debate in America—and that is going to help us fight the TPP. Mark my words. We are building very real, permanent power for a new America, and we’re not stopping.
We saw this power in your successful work here in Austin against the overreach of the corporate right-wing. I’m talking about bad ideas that died but should never have been brought forward in the first place, like Senate Bill 1968. In the last session, you also fought off attacks on prevailing wages and PLAs.
Win, lose or draw, we can gain power in these fights. When you stand up publicly for a higher minimum wage, the lawmakers in charge might throw it down, but low-wage workers across the state can see and hear you fighting to improve their lives.
That’s important, because Texas is a national leader in low-wage work. If the minimum wage rose to $10.10 an hour, almost 2 million Texas workers would see a pay increase. That’s as many workers as 20 other states combined. And if you look closer at those minimum-wage earners, you’ll see that here in Texas, 65% are women -- two out of three workers who earn the minimum wage in Texas are women.
You know that the minimum wage is only one part of the fight to raise wages. When you speak for immigration reform, when you speak for prison reform, when you speak for equal pay for equal work, you’re working to raise wages—and you’re building bridges to allies and partner organizations.
That’s how, even in a loss today, we can build a bridge to win tomorrow.
To win we need fair work schedules. We need safe working conditions. We need higher wages, better benefits, and more rights at work. All of us, teachers and building and construction workers, and domestic workers.
This is how we rise. This is how we bring with us all the workers, all the families and all who believe in the American Dream!
We’re part of a powerful movement at an historic moment, and you are on the front lines. After this convention, when you go back home, you’ll be better prepared with what you gain here, to push our movement forward.
The next election cycle is just around the corner. It’s time to think hard about our priorities, and to start to build toward them.
The corporate right-wing will challenge us at every turn.
But we’ll fight to win anyway. We’ll fight to build power. That means more internal organizing. More conversations and listening sessions with members, more face-to-face meetings with community leaders and allies.
Because nobody and nothing can match the breadth and scope of the American labor movement. When we unite with allies and partners, the numbers are on our side. When we stand together with those who share our vision and our values, the numbers are on our side.
This is our day, our time, our rights, one voice, one power, one country. We will do better. Together.
So declare with me today that we’ll march for it. We’ll fight for it. We’ll organize for it and mobilize for it. We’ll keep building and winning, winning a better future for us and for our kids and their kids. Together today. Together tomorrow. Together for as long as it takes to win a country that works for all workers!
Thank you! God bless you, and the work you do!
