Good morning, brothers and sisters. It is great to be here in Williamsburg. Doris, thank you so much for that introduction. I am proud to call you my sister. Friends, let me just come out and say it: Doris Crouse-Mays is one on the finest trade unionists in the entire country. She works hard. She fights hard. She’s there for us in good times and in bad. Doris is proof positive that good things happen when you elect a pro-worker, progressive woman as your president. Take note, America.
I know Doris will agree with me—she is privileged to lead a strong and powerful labor movement here in Virginia.
I see it with my very eyes. I feel it in this room. Working people are on the rise, from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach, from Richmond to Fairfax.
For a long time, conventional wisdom told us Virginia was a conservative stronghold. Home to Liberty University, the National Right to Work Foundation and Ken Cuccinelli.
A place where unions were few and far between and progress was nowhere to be found.
But something changed here in Virginia, brothers and sisters. And we helped change it.
Let me talk a little bit about what Virginia looks like today.
Verizon workers across Virginia, fed up with cutbacks and the threat of outsourcing, went out on strike. For six weeks, CWA members and IBEW members stood strong. And we stood with them. In the end, workers won a new contract with substantial raises and enhanced job security.
Workers at Kroger were rightly insulted by a contract that offered a 25 cent raise and one personal day that couldn’t be used until 2019. Meanwhile, the CEO of Kroger had just gotten a 17 percent pay increase—to $11.2 million a year. So UFCW members took the lead. They taped quarters to their name badges to call attention to the company’s outrageous proposal. They authorized a strike. Guess what? In the end, Kroger workers won a new contract that included higher pay, more personal days and retirement security.
And we’re not done with Kroger yet. We will not rest until workers at Kroger’s emerging marketplace stores have a voice on the job and a seat at the bargaining table.
These victories are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Steelworkers won an organizing campaign at Nestle in Danville and negotiations on a first contract are underway.
The Machinists organized shipyard engineers right down the road in Newport News.
The UFCW won its battle against Giant, saving 8 union grocery stores in the process.
BCTGM members in Richmond are standing up to multinational conglomerate Mondelez.
The APWU used a boycott of Staples to highlight the importance of protecting local post offices.
And AFGE is fighting to give TSA agents better pay and benefits.
You see, in every corner of Virginia workers are experiencing the power of collective bargaining and collective action. It’s a beautiful sight to see.
They say Virginia is for lovers. But I’d like to make an amendment. Virginia is for unions!
The union 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 clean the schools. We build America and defend it. 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. And we’ll win it!
Obviously, I couldn’t come here today without talking about politics.
This year, working people are leading the national debate. We’ve put the focus on good jobs with strong and growing wages. We’ve made clear that workers should be sharing in the wealth we help create. We’ve shifted the conversation on trade. Instead of continuing to get run over by corporate trade deals, we’re leading the fight to write new global rules that lift up our families and communities.
I want to thank each of you for your ongoing work to defeat the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. Two years ago, almost nobody thought these corporate trade deals could be stopped. But the entire labor movement stood together and slammed the brakes on the TPP. As you know, some of our friends voted against us. And now they are asking for our endorsement. The decision of whether or not to endorse is yours and yours alone. I can report to you that the overwhelming majority of your brothers and sisters in other states have declined to endorse any candidate that voted in favor of fast track and has not yet declared their opposition to the TPP. As I said, the decision is yours. But I personally believe our agenda should drive our politics, not the other way around. No matter what you decide, I am confident that we will leave this convention strong, united and ready to kill the TPP once and for all!
I recently returned from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. It was a truly inspiring week. Democrats nominated a ticket that opposes the TPP, is committed to raising wages for working families and understands that when workers are strong, America is strong.
I’ll have more to say about the Democrats in a bit, but I can’t let another moment pass without addressing the orange-haired elephant in the room.
From the beginning, I said Donald Trump was unfit to serve as president of the United States. In the last two weeks, he has left no doubt.
Where do I start? First, he dishonored the memory of a fallen soldier by criticizing a Gold Star family. Then, he said he always wanted a Purple Heart, as if a military award is something that can be bought or sold without service or sacrifice. Can you believe this guy, Doris?
How great was my friend Will Fischer, by the way? I hope you got the chance to see his video about what it means to get a Purple Heart. It is really powerful stuff.
Now if insulting America’s military heroes wasn’t enough, Trump suggested the best way for working women to deal with sexual harassment is either to “be strong” or find another job.
And on Monday, he joked about killing his opponent. Inciting violence is dangerous. But coming from a presidential candidate, it’s disqualifying.
Sisters and brothers, these moments reveal Donald Trump for who he truly is, not only as a candidate, but as a man. Make no mistake, we can never, ever, ever let him get anywhere near the White House.
Donald Trump is not only dangerous. He’s dishonest. He pretends to love our cause. But he’s a fraud.
If you took the words “me, myself and I” out of Trump’s vocabulary, he’d be speechless.
Even if you overlook Trump’s racism, sexism and other disgraceful behavior, you’d still have a con man who spent decades shipping our jobs overseas, failing to pay us for the work we do, devastating our communities and treating us like second-class citizens. And now Donnie-come-lately wants a spot on our bandwagon?
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 just eliminated 3,000 union jobs at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City—would make a good Treasury Secretary. It is no wonder that the credit rating firm Moody’s says Trump’s plans would cost our nation 3.5 million jobs. That’s right. Donald Trump would make America unemployed again.
Since day one, Trump has disrespected President Obama. But he sucks up to dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin. He praises terrorists like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. Trump can’t control himself on his own Twitter feed, so can America really trust him as commander-in-chief?
The answer is no. Not now. Not ever. That’s why on November 8, 2016, working people are going to send Donald Trump this simple message: you’re fired.
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 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.
And I am thrilled that she chose Tim Kaine as her running mate. We’ve had a relationship with Tim here in Virginia for 20 years. He fought to pass a living wage as mayor of Richmond. As Governor and now Senator, he has always given labor a seat at the table—even appointing former Virginia AFL-CIO President Danny LeBlanc to his cabinet. While Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence was repealing his state’s prevailing wage law, Tim was working with us to invest in infrastructure and education and new technology. And in a phone call last week, he told the AFL-CIO that he would proudly campaign against the right to work ballot initiative here in Virginia.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will move America forward. They share our vision and our values. In the end, they are running to change America, not just manage it. And we intend to help them do just that.
This is our moment. To bring out the best in America. To bring out the best in ourselves, and each other. We’ve come too far to be turned back now. We won’t back down. We won’t back up. We’ll stand tall. We’ll march. We’ll fight. We’ll vote. And we’ll win!
Let me tell you something: This year, America’s labor movement is unleashing the most comprehensive electoral program in our history.
And it all starts in Virginia.
We’re going to defeat the misguided, petty and unnecessary right to work ballot initiative here. This amendment is a distraction from real issues like raising wages, creating good jobs and rebuilding the middle class. And the constitution should be a place where we expand rights, not take them away.
In 2008, Virginia helped elect the first black president of the United States. And hasn’t Barack Obama done a wonderful job? In 2016, this state is going to make history again by electing Hillary Clinton the first woman president. And we’re going to send Virginia’s own Tim Kaine to follow in the footsteps of Joe Biden.
We won’t stop there. We are going to win a pro-worker U.S. Senate that will confirm a progressive Supreme Court majority. And maybe, just maybe, we will win back the House of Representatives so our dear friend Bobby Scott can become a chairman, unless of course a better offer comes along.
Finally, we will continue to lay the groundwork at the state and local level here in Virginia. That means winning school board seats and county commissions and electing state legislators who will work with Governor McAuliffe on workers’ rights and voting rights and civil rights.
It’s time for us to stand up strong, brothers and sisters. It’s time to mobilize and organize. We’ll hit the worksites. We’ll talk to members. We’ll walk the streets and knock the doors. This is what a unified labor movement does. This is what it looks like when working people stand together, union strong!
Last week, 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 perhaps more than any moment before, I am confident we can reach the mountaintop. Because two is stronger than one. And three is stronger than two. And together is better than alone.
So we’ll fix what’s broken in our country. We’ll work for it, sisters and brothers. Together. Each of us. With 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. Voting. Fighting. Winning. Together. To bring out the best in each other and ourselves. To bring out the best in America. To build the nation we can have and must have and will have!
Thank you! And God bless you!