Speech | Civil Rights

Trumka to Florida AFL-CIO: Working People Must Write the Economic Rules

Orlando, Fla.

Thank you, Brother Mike [Williams]. I appreciate your leadership and your commitment to working families across Florida. You’re a powerful leader of a strong and growing movement. I’m proud to call you my brother.

Good afternoon, sisters and brothers. I want to take this moment to recognize the good work all of you have done here in Florida over the past few years. Your political activism has been impressive. You’ve had to endure a Republican governor, a Republican legislature and the embarrassments that were Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio’s presidential campaigns.

Well not only are Bush and Rubio long gone, you defeated every anti-union, anti-worker bill that came your way. Every, single, one! You did that! Give yourselves a hand!

One of your most powerful tools in the Florida labor movement has been your member-spokespeople. Union officers like Mike and I have an important role to play in getting our message out there. But there is no better messenger than a teacher or nurse or firefighter or janitor or ironworker. These are the faces and the voices of the real people who together form our movement.

Your commitment to lifting up these activists and building political strength for working families is evident all around us, and I’m here to applaud your efforts on behalf of the entire AFL-CIO, and encourage you to do more.

Listen, on the national stage, it’s been all politics all the time, but the truth is we’ve still got our lives to lead. Your members still have jobs to do and families to raise. We’ve all got contracts to bargain, communities to mobilize and workers to organize.

This year, we’re going to bring it all together, so we can empower our members and all working people across America.

With her wins in California and New Jersey on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton took a major step toward the Democratic nomination. She is on a collision course with Donald Trump this November, and next Thursday, the AFL-CIO General Board will meet to make our endorsement decision.

As the primary season comes to an end, let’s remember one important fact: We set the tone for this presidential election year with our Raising Wages campaign. Nearly two years ago, working people put forth an agenda that has defined the presidential debate.

It starts with the absolute truth that we should be decently paid for the work we do. And that we should define what decent means! No one should make less than the minimum wage, everyone should make a living wage, and collective bargaining should be available for all workers. Raising wages is about more than dollars and cents, though. It covers everything working people care about. Fair trade. Just immigration. Equal pay for equal work. And so much more.

We’re going to keep these issues front and center today, tomorrow, through the election and beyond.

You see, we can unite this country and build a better future. Florida is hungry for it. America is hungry for it. 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 clear the roads and load the ships. We mine the coal and generate the power. We do America’s work. We make America go. And we want our share of the American Dream, brothers and sisters. So let’s stand for it, let’s march for it, and this fall, let’s vote to make it a reality!

To get what working people want and need, working people have to be in charge. We have to write the economic rules.

That’s what we intend to do, but it won’t be easy.

As leaders in the labor movement, you know your members. You know your communities. You know how hard it is in today’s economy for working families. Flat wages. Growing inequality. Diminishing opportunity. And a political class that has fallen badly out of touch with everyday Americans.

The truth is, the power of the working family message can be seen in the number of people who are trying to ride our coattails. The number one imposter is Donald Trump. He talks a big game about making America great. He says what’s easy and popular. But Donald Trump doesn’t have our backs. He wants to break our backs.

Donald Trump is a fraud. He is one of the most anti-worker presidential candidates in American history.

Here are the facts. Trump says our wages are too high. Let me repeat that. He says our wages are too high. You can’t support workers if you want to lower our pay.

Trump wants to destroy labor unions. His position on right to work is “100 percent.” He is refusing to bargain with workers at his hotel in Las Vegas. And he said he wouldn’t mind doing away with unions all together. You can’t support workers and be against unions!

Trump is pro-outsourcing. Don’t let his rhetoric fool you. He has consistently shipped American jobs overseas to line his own pockets. You can’t support workers and be pro-outsourcing.

Here is all the proof you need: we recently learned that Donald Trump actually rooted for the collapse of the housing and real estate market two years before it happened. In 2006, he said and I quote: “I’m excited. I’ve always made more money in bad markets than in good markets."

Trump bet on himself and against America. I don’t have to tell you about the foreclosure crisis here in Florida. People lost their homes, their jobs, their life savings, their livelihoods. And Donald Trump was cheering all the way to the bank.

Sisters and brothers, Donald Trump is nothing more than a billionaire who made himself rich by making the rest of us poor. And come November, we are going to kick his ass.

Working people are going to come out of this election year far stronger than we were before.

We’re going to keep building our political independence. We’ll keep our issues front and center. We’ll stand for the candidates who stand with us.

We have the power to change America!

Our economy isn’t like the weather. It doesn’t just happen to us. The wind doesn’t blow pensions into the Gulf of Mexico. Corporate CEOs are taking them. America’s middle class jobs aren’t vanishing into thin air. Bosses have been working overtime to drive down wages and ship American jobs overseas, because our trade and tax policies encourage them to.

And what we do in Florida this year can transform the economy for those of us who count on a paycheck. We’ll keep fighting. Keep marching. Keep building. To win a new era of good jobs, strong unions and raising wages.

To make that happen, America’s labor movement must unleash the most comprehensive electoral program in our history, with a focus right here in Florida. It starts with each local designating an election point person. We have to be united: big unions and small, public sector and private. We know how to run these campaigns. We know how to win. We know how to connect with regular working people, both in unions and outside of them. Quite frankly, the most powerful tool in the union tool box is our members’ conversations with each other and their neighbors.

Elections matter. And so does every single vote. You know that better than anyone. George W. Bush beat Al Gore here—if he even actually won—by less than 600 votes. And working people are still suffering from that disastrous presidency. By the way, even George Bush thinks Donald Trump is nuts.

How we lead matters. How we mobilize matters. So listen to your members. Empower new activists. When working people stand up and speak out, we win. We have a great opportunity in front of us, to stake out new ground instead of getting stuck on defense year after year.

The corporate right-wing is going to throw everything at us. They’ll fight hard, but we’ll fight harder. We have the power! When we stand together, the numbers are on our side!

We’ll stand together today, tomorrow, and as long as it takes to win for Florida’s working families, and for America!

Sisters and brothers, we are on a mission to raise wages. That’s our agenda, and our agenda drives our politics, not the other way around.

Raising wages is what we’re all about. And we know the single best way to raise wages is with a collective bargaining agreement. Good old-fashioned unionism will always be our top priority. That’s why it’s so important to engage in collective action. That’s why organizing must be our daily mission.

And that’s also why we will continue to grow our political power. With it, we’ll win new investments in infrastructure, education, technology, medical research, job training, you name it. And we’ll build a level playing field for every worker who wants a voice on the job.

We’re building a movement. It’s a movement where unions grow and inequality shrinks. It’s a movement where you can grab onto the American Dream no matter what you look like, where you come from, how much money your parents have, or who you love.

When it comes to doing right for working people, we define that vision. We embody those values. We will fix what’s broken in America. We have unity. We have solidarity. And we are ready to win justice and jobs today, and a better tomorrow.

We’ll work for it, sisters and brothers. We’ll stand for it. Together. Each of us. 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 grow together. To bring out the best in ourselves and each other. To bring out the best in America. To build the America we can have, and must have, and will have.

Thank you, and God bless you!

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