Speech | Civil Rights

Trumka to Letter Carriers Convention: Activism Works

Las Angeles, Calif.

Thank you, Brother Fred [Rolando]. It’s great to be with the Letter Carriers! Thank you for inviting me to your convention.

The National Association of Letter Carriers is a powerful union, and you should be. You perform a vital government service to our nation, one of the few required by the U.S. Constitution.

There is no union more disciplined and focused than the Letter Carriers. That’s a credit to you. The proof is in the success, for example, of the single-largest one-day food drive in America. It’s incredible. Your reach is universal.

Just the other day, I was talking to somebody about the Postal Service, and off the top of their head they knew two facts that surprised me. The first involved the pension prefunding crisis. I don’t think those exact words were used, but the idea was there. People get it. The second was about the success of the Postal Service in the digital age. Folks understand how e-commerce means more package delivery and a stronger service.

The Postal Service is critical for America, but your enemies are on the attack. You have reversed these damaging and false narratives recently, and you’ve done it the old-fashioned way. Your activists and members have been writing letters to the editor, lobbying your local elected leaders and talking to friends, neighbors and anyone else who will listen, and you’ve changed the national conversation about the work you do.

After Election Day, that activism will help change federal law to finally end the manufactured crisis at the post office. We’ll return the Postal Service to solid footing, and we’ll do it without any poison pills. Nobody’s talking about cutting Saturday delivery anymore, and I love the fact that seven-day-delivery is now an idea. That’s progress.

Look what a difference four years makes. Back in 2012, the Republican platform called for the privatization of the Postal Service and the Democratic platform didn’t mention you. Well, this year, the Republicans were silent on the post office, and the Democratic platform included key priorities like postal banking! Activism works, sisters and brothers. You did that.

You are part of a national movement. Working people are putting good jobs, raising wages and strong unions front and center, and we intend to keep them there. We are winning the debate. Now it’s time to win the election.

Your mobilization and your groundwork are absolutely critical. Nobody pounds the pavement like the Letter Carriers. You’re in a league by yourself. When your members turn out, you change hearts and minds. You convince undecideds. You move the needle. In every single race, from the state house to the White House, your voice and your vote for working family candidates, will be among the most influential in America.

You know unity. You practice solidarity. You are there every time America calls. You are trusted. You are reliable. You get the job done.

That’s what working people do. We do what it takes, no matter the cost. We wake our country up every single day, and we tuck her into bed at night. We don’t mind hard work. We do it with pride. We won’t be faced down or pushed around, and we will not be denied.

Brothers and sisters, it’s time to get serious. This is an unprecedented election. There’s never been someone as unqualified, unfit, unprepared and unhinged as Donald Trump. Electing Trump would be a national disaster and an international catastrophe. America truly stands at a crossroads. This isn’t about Democrats and Republicans or progressives and conservatives. The 2016 presidential election is a choice between sanity and insanity.

Donald Trump is dangerous for our country, for our communities and for our children.

Trump has talked about shooting people multiple times. That’s not a gaffe, not a misunderstanding. It’s who he is.

Trump said he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody without losing any votes. He said the “Second Amendment people” might have an answer for Hillary Clinton if she wins. I won’t be coy. He was talking about assassination.

Trump advocated treason, actually suggesting that the Russians should commit espionage on American soil. He said he would order our military personnel to commit war crimes. He called President Obama the founder of ISIS.

These are Trump’s words. He’s not like Mitt Romney, who I disagreed with, but who I respect. He’s not like John McCain, who I campaigned against and yet admire as a great American.

Donald Trump has misled millions of Americans into thinking he has the answers. He doesn’t.

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.

The good news is that working people have real solutions to real problems. It’s called the Raising Wages agenda. It starts with the absolute truth that each and every one of us should be decently paid for the work we do. And we define what decent means! It says no one should make less than the minimum wage, everyone should make a living wage, and collective bargaining should be available for all workers. It covers everything we care about. Fair trade. Just immigration. Equal pay for equal work. And more.

We have a champion for this agenda, and her name is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary is tough. She is smart. She is prepared. And she listens. When she accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, when she talked about “love of country and the selfless passion to build something better for all who follow,” it was clear she heard our call. Hillary is the right candidate at the right time, poised to lead us away from the darkness of inequality and trickle down and toward the light of raising wages and shared prosperity.

Sisters and brothers, America is ready for Hillary Clinton. And Hillary Clinton is ready to move America forward. When working people talk, she listens. I’ve seen her do it. I’ve seen her take in our ideas and then put them to action. It’s a wonderful thing to see. She is running to change America, and we intend to help her do just that.

Hillary is ready to rewrite the economic rules by reforming or killing corporate trade deals and saying no to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She has an aggressive plan to rein in Wall Street, and she supports a tax on financial transactions so we can make massive investments in infrastruc-ture, public education, workforce development and manufacturing. She will make the largest investment in jobs since World War II, and that’s exactly what America needs. Moody’s, the same credit rating firm that gave Trump’s economic plan an F, gave Hillary Clinton an A+, because she will create over 10 million jobs!

And finally, this is the icing on the cake, Hillary Clinton knows that the single greatest tool for economic mobility and a growing middle class is collective bargaining. Hillary will protect and expand the freedom of every worker in America to join or form a union.

This year, the AFL-CIO has launched the largest, most sophisticated and comprehensive electoral program in our history. Our goal is to advance a working family agenda. Period.

Our strength grows from our unity. It comes from our activism. It’s up to us to motivate each other. We need the Letter Carriers. I’m asking you to talk to your members. Encourage them to volunteer and turn out like never before. If you haven’t done it already, talk to your Central Labor Council. Name a coordinator for each branch, so we have someone to communicate with.

The change we need, is so close. It’s right there in front of us. All we have to do, is reach out and grab it. All we have to do, is get more people off the sidelines and onto the front lines.

When the Letter Carriers hit the streets, nothing can stop us. When your members speak the truth about Donald Trump, he will crumble like a house of cards.

We’ll fix what’s broken in our country. Together, we’ll create a better tomorrow. It won’t be easy. We’ll have to 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, Letter Carriers! And God bless you!

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