Thank you, Brother Mike [Langford], for your kind words of introduction, and thank you for inviting me to your convention.
Before I start, I want to commend you on becoming a charter member of the Union Sportsmen Alliance. As you know, I am also a proud supporter of the USA, so this is an exciting development.
It’s great to be with you today. The Utility Workers always fight for what’s right. And you always know how to win.
This is a big year for the Utility Workers. You have been lifting up lives and empowering America for 70 years. You have built one hell of a strong record. You are a cornerstone of the American economy. You literally keep the gas flowing, the lights on and the water running. We count on our utilities, and you deliver, always. Your jobs are good jobs, with good pay and benefits and a secure retirement. Those are the basic ingredients of the American middle class. Congratulations! Keep up the good work.
So listen, a couple years ago, I went out to a Utility Workers rally at a power plant in southeast Ohio. It was good to be there, because I come from a coal-mining family in Southwest Pennsylvania. It felt a little bit like home. I saw your work ethic. I listened to what your members had to say, and it reminded me how important our work is, whether it’s in the plant, in the union hall, or in our communities.
Your members are independent people, and that’s true across our labor movement. We don’t want someone telling us what to feel or how to think, but we share common values. We have a common vision. We want work to pay. We want fairness. We want to provide for our families and our future.
That’s why the AFL-CIO has taken such a strong stand up in Washington for political independence. That’s why we pledged to freeze our political spending this spring, while we campaigned against bad trade deals full of corporate entitlements. I don’t care who wants that deal. I’m against it. We stand against it. Our labor movement belongs only to us, not to any political party.
We support President Obama when he does the right thing, like making sure more workers get overtime pay, or appointing straight-forward and fair people to the National Labor Relations Board. But when he wants to take America in the wrong direction, we will stand against him. His push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership is wrong. It’ll hurt the American economy. It’ll hurt working families. And we’re going to beat it.
It’s true that the corporate forces won the battle for fast track trade authority. But just barely. They pulled strings and tricks and still only won by a hair. That kind of maneuvering is a show of weakness, and stands in stark contrast to the movement we are building. Our strength is growing, and we’re not stopping. Smart members of Congress are reconsidering this issue, and changing to the right side. And more are on the way.
Earlier this month, the AFL-CIO sent letters to 28 Democrats in the House and 13 Democrats in the Senate, all who voted the wrong way on Fast Track, letting them know they still have a chance to do the right thing by voting against the TPP. The TPP is full of stuff that is bad for working people, bad for the environment, bad for food safety, and the list goes on.
Democratic, Republican, Independent, whatever, working people are tired of these damn bad trade deals. They’ve been killing jobs and weakening our country for far too long.
Fast Track squeaked by, but our labor movement has forever changed the trade debate in America—and that is going to help us win. Mark my words. We are building real, permanent power for a new America.
We know what we stand for. We believe in fairness and the freedom to live a good life. And we know what we stand against, and we’re not afraid to hold accountable any politician who harms working families.
This is how we rise. With political independence. With action for working people. By standing together. Today, tomorrow and as long as it takes. This is how we win. This is how we all rise. Together. With all workers, all families and everyone who believes in the American Dream!
Brothers and sisters, this is an important time in American politics. We are at a turning point.
For forty years, working people have been torn apart, and our middle class has been torn down. For the first time in a long time, working people have started standing together again. I want to thank you for helping to make that happen, and I’m asking you to do more. There are many ways to be involved, in your union, in your neighborhood, in politics. We need it all!
All across America, the story is the same. Corporate power is consolidating. CEOs have long since grown reckless and greedy. Just look at the utility industry. We have allowed relatively small companies to merge into giants that have become too big to regulate. The last time the industry was this bad was in 1932, when only three utility holding companies controlled half of America’s investor-owned utilities.
That kind of concentrated power isn’t sustainable. It’s unstable.
That’s why the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 was passed to limit the damage unregulated utilities could do. Ten years ago, it was repealed, and we’re starting to see the consequences.
The biggest mergers yet are still coming down the pike. If they go ahead, it won’t be good for the public, and it won’t be good for your members. These CEOs want to tear you down, destroy your pay and wreck your healthcare and retirement. These CEOs put profit ahead of service. They didn’t come up in the industry. They don’t even know how to turn a wrench.
Brothers and sisters, we’re not waiting for the utility giants to swallow our country. That’s not how we do it in America. We’re standing up. We’re fighting back.
America needs your activism. Power plants are closing. Clean coal technology isn’t coming forward fast enough. We’re going to change that. America will need a base load of coal-fired electrical generation now and for the foreseeable future. We know we can capture and store carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, and the AFL-CIO is committed to making sure this technology comes into the marketplace.
That’s not all. What you do for a living is important, and your work can and should provide good jobs for generations to come. The key is programs like Power for America, which teaches skills that can’t be gained any other way. This is how Utility Workers will have a future in America. We’re going to fight to make sure it’s a good future, the kind you’d want for your children and your children’s children.
It’s simple: You are working for a better life.
Your training program and our efforts to win strong infrastructure investments all fit into the top priority we have at the AFL-CIO.
We’re working for a better life in 100 ways, and they’re all tied together. They build on each other, but it all comes back to raising wages.
We know the single best way to raise wages is with collective bargaining agreements. The labor movement remains the backbone of the American middle class. We never shrink from that fact, and we always know who stands with us and who stands against us when we speak loud and proud about being union.
This year 5 million union workers are bargaining contracts. This is the biggest year for collective bargaining in American history. We helped our employers pull through in the hard times. Profits are up. Stocks are climbing. We want our fair share.
That’s not all.
Minimum wages are climbing in cities and states across the country.
And across America this spring, 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.
Our work for raising wages has helped galvanize the unprecedented fight against Fast Track trade authority. It has opened the eyes of millions of workers who have seen the collective voice in action, and millions of workers have won raises as a result. People are getting bigger paychecks, and you know how good that feels!
Now the White House has put forth overtime rules that will allow millions of people to get paid for the overtime they are already working! And for the first time since the 1970s, overtime pay will account for inflation. It’s about time!
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.
And if some is good, more is better!
We want more! We want better! We want raising wages! We want a better life!
Brothers and sisters, it’s incredibly important for us to do everything in our power to raise wages. That’s how we will literally reclaim, retrain, repower and repair America.
We’re building collective power in the workplace, in the economy and in politics. We have opened our movement to new partners. This is one reason why it’s so critical for more Utility Workers to get involved in member-to-member organizing and with your central labor councils and state federations of labor. Lead by example. Make sure your members see you and hear you.
We are fighting for what America needs. We want massive investments in America’s infrastructure. I’m talking trillions with a T. We’re going to need a broad and bold coalition to win this kind of legislation. We’ll get it by teaming with partners and allies. Mark my words.
We’re part of a powerful movement at an historic time, 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 reclaim an America that works for all workers!
Thank you! God bless you, and the work you do!
