Thank you, Ken [Rigmaiden], for your truly over-generous words of introduction. And thank you for your friendship and your solidarity. I’m proud to call you my friend, and I’m glad to call you my brother. Thank you for all you are and all you do.
You know, I don’t think there’s any union that fights as well as, or as far above its weight class, as the Painters and Allied Trades. Your strength and power offer a testament to activism, and credibility, because every time the IUPAT says something, you back it up with action.
And, let me just say how much I admire the work your members do. I see it every day. Literally. At the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, we’re wrapping up a major project, a top-to-bottom energy retrofit.
We had an outstanding crew of glaziers in there to replace every window in the building, to make the whole place more energy efficient. We had them for the better part of a year, and you’ve never met a more charming group of workers, sometimes colorful, sometimes a bit off-color, wonderful people.
That project really brought home to everybody who works at the AFL-CIO headquarters how critical good jobs are, and how important it is for all of us to find every way possible to put people to work, and to strengthen our pension funds with strong investments that create good jobs. We’re not just sitting back, telling bankers to invest their money. We’re doing it, too.
Whether your members hang dry wall, apply auto paint or install floor coverings, whatever the job is, the quality of work is always the same, the very best. The Painters and Allied Trades deliver, because of your top-of-the-line training, your innovation, your skill and your tireless work ethic.
You did a great job at the AFL-CIO headquarters. I’ve been hearing some other good news about IUPAT. Your hours are increasing. People are getting back to work. We’re not where we need to be, but we’re headed in the right direction, especially if we can convince Congress to start funding American infrastructure on the scale we need, so we can rebuild this great country and get members at work on the bridges and overpasses and pipelines. That’s how we’ll create 30,000 new jobs to get IUPAT numbers up to, and then above, pre-recession levels.
We’ve got a long way to go, to turn America around. But the conversation in America is changing. All over this country, people are talking about economic inequality, people who never spoke the words before.
The public is debating big issues, like wages good enough so we can really live, and raise a family if we want to. The public is debating collective bargaining. We’re talking about rights on the job.
We’ve been wanting this conversation for a long time, and guess what? We’re winning. People like the idea of raising wages.
Let me tell you something, it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to turn the tide, because, you see, we’re all about raising wages. We’re about unionism. We honor the dignity of labor when we stand together, for a share of what we create. That’s how we’ll build a movement big enough to lift up America’s working families, big enough to rebuild the American middle class. We did it once. We’ll do it again.
Unionism works. The IUPAT 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 health care and a good education, it all comes back to a union contract.
And a decent life is not too much to ask, because we’re the workers of America. From the warehouse to the factory floor, we do it all. We paint the bridges and the ships. We carry the load and answer the call. We do what it takes, no matter what 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 be faced down, and we will not be denied.
Sisters and brothers, we’re all too familiar with the story of the past 40 years. We know how productivity rose while wages froze, which meant virtually all of the wealth created by our growing economy has gone to the richest 1%.
Our economy doesn’t work when work doesn’t pay.
Household expenditures make up 70% of the American economy. That’s how raising wages will create jobs, because when we do well, America does well. We buy goods and services to improve our lives. We create demand, and 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.
America is tired of losing middle-class jobs. We’re done with the downward spiral.
People are starting to understand the connection between good jobs and a strong economy. More than 70% of America’s voters support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
You know, it’s been so long since the minimum wage last went up, that was in 2009, Sarah Palin was still governor of Alaska, that’s true. That’s how long it’s been. And the last time the minimum wage went up for tipped workers, back in 1991, Bill and Hillary Clinton still lived in Little Rock, Arkansas! We’re going to fight to raise the minimum wage, because work should lift us from poverty, not trap us in it.
Poll after poll shows a powerful majority says growing inequality is bad for America. At the AFL-CIO, we do polling, too. Recently we asked a group of voters if they agreed with this simple statement: “We need to make sure that all of us, not just the CEOs get our fair share in our economy.”
When we asked those making less than $50,000 a year, two out of three voters agreed, 66% said, yes, that’s right, we need to make sure all of us, not just CEOs get our fair share.
Here’s the kicker. Guess who we asked? Registered Republicans. That poll was of voters registered with the Republican Party.
Here’s what this means. It means a solid majority of working people of every stripe share the same basic challenges, and the same hopes and dreams, and we recognize economics are at the heart of our problems.
You see, some of us might have different philosophies, we might look different, or sound different. Or even think differently, but in important ways we share the same values. We all need a job to pay the bills. We are united by the circumstances of our lives.
This is where the programs of the Painters and Allied Trades are breaking ground, because you’re building powerful connections between like-minded people. You’re talking to all kinds of people, union members, non-union, never-heard-of-unions. And whether we’re talking about CORE -- Community Organization for Real Economics -- in St. Louis, or about your charitable outreach in places like Baltimore, or your electoral and political work just about everywhere, we’re talking about the same thing, about building power from the ground up, about bringing working people together.
You get things done. At IUPAT, your political action is like a well-oiled machine. And now you’re building out your presence all across your communities.
I know you brought together in Washington all your local leaders who do grassroots organizing. They work-shopped plans and priorities, then you sent everybody back to tap into your motivated membership, so you could build and grow your spirit of activism even stronger. That’s how unionism works. That’s doing it right.
And I want you to know, your caliber of activism is spreading across our entire labor movement. At the AFL-CIO we’re strengthening our state federations of labor and central labor councils. And believe me, that one by itself could completely transform our movement. We’re joining together with allies, in ways we never have before. We’re a mainstream movement, a growing movement, a powerful movement, and we’re acting like it.
It’s up to you and me, to each of us, to help make the voices of America, our America, heard in the workplace and in our national life. And we’re doing it.
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. This isn’t something we cooked up in Washington, D.C. It didn’t come from Wall Street. We hear it at the mall in conversations between security guards and sales people. We hear it among Walmart workers who connect on Facebook and see how power grows when we stand together. We see it with the postal unions’ boycott of Staples. We saw it on Long Island where rail workers said, we don’t want to strike, but we will if you won’t come to the table. 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 painters and day laborers, bakers and security guards, drivers 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 shut up, until we win a new day for the American Dream. We’ll shout here in Florida and all across America. And we’ll show how much good raising wages can do.
Sisters and brothers, we have big things to do as a country—put our people back to work, restore our democracy and build 21st century infrastructure. We’ve got ideas on how to build American manufacturing, to strengthen our communities and build our tax base. We’re going to invest in American jobs, not throw them away.
And we want labor law reform, so all workers can stand together to bargain for a better life.
Listen, I know when we talk about labor law reform, it brings up a sore subject. Let me tell you something: as labor leaders, we have learned some hard lessons, really hard political lessons.
Yet I want you to listen very closely to what I have to say, we’re stronger because of the lessons we’ve learned. We’re more independent because of the lessons we’ve learned. We’re more focused, more disciplined, more creative, and ultimately more powerful because of the lessons we’ve learned.
All across our labor movement, we’re looking to fight for our values, not for any political party.
You see, we don’t work for candidates. We are not building power for 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 with anybody who will work with us. And we’re not afraid of holding anybody’s feet to the fire. Working families need results. Period.
And I tell you, we’ve got a long memory, and we will not hold our nose and endorse Democrats, just because they have a D next to their name. That’s not good enough. It won’t happen.
We’re looking close and asking hard questions of every candidate who wants our support, and one question we want every candidate to answer is, do you support America’s workers? Do you support our right to bargain collectively for a better life? Will you grow our economy, not shrink it? Will you raise wages?
And 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 political party.
This electoral season, I have a big ask for you. I want you to do this with me. I want you to lead with me. I want you to work like never before. Be the leaders who lead by example. Be the first to knock on doors. Make the first call at the phone banks. I’ll be doing it, too.
We’ll motivate our volunteers. We’ll strengthen our activists. We’ll help each other connect with more working-class voters, get more working families to the polls, because if we want the policies we need, if we want all of us to get our fair share, we need the right leaders in our states and for this country. 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.
And here’s the best part, after the polls close on Election Day, we’ll have a stronger network of activists and local leaders, ready to mobilize and pressure our local, state and national leaders for the policies we need, and we’ll stand ready to support our organizing for the union members of tomorrow.
Standing together, working people will change this country, our country, America the beautiful!
We’re lifting up lives. We won’t settle for less. We want a bold future, and that’s what we’ll get. 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. We do what it takes.
What we want is simple. It’s what everybody wants, the chance to work hard for a decent life, and to give a better life to our kids. We’ll stand together, because we’re strong together.
We’ll work for it, sisters and brothers. We’ll stand for it. Together. Each of us. Painters with teachers. Letter carriers with hotel workers. Taxi drivers with mine workers. 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. To raise wages. To grow together. To bring out the best in ourselves, to bring out the best in each other. To bring out the best in America. For the America we can have, and must have, and will have. Keep fighting. Keep winning.
Thank you. Thank you, and God bless you!
