Speech | Civil Rights

Trumka to Nevada AFL-CIO Delegates: This is More Than Just an Election

Las Vegas, Nev.

Thank you, Brother Danny [Thompson], for your truly generous introduction. I love coming to Nevada. You have some of the strongest unions in America. And you have an absolute giant in Harry Reid. On behalf of the 12.5 million members of the AFL-CIO, I want to thank Senator Reid for his incredible service to the labor movement, to Nevada and to our nation.

Listen, nobody needs to tell working people in this state about the union advantage. Collective bargaining transformed Las Vegas, and lifted up the entire entertainment industry. Across Nevada, each and every one of you continues to show us how unionism works. You do it in the building trades. You do it in our schools, hospitals, grocery stores, factories and too many places to name.

When we stand together, wages go up. Consumers have more money to spend. Employers feel competitive pressure to do better for their workers. That’s the strength of collective bargaining and collective action. We have the power to set off a race to the top.

We raise the bar in politics, too. When you and your members get onto the front lines, we build momentum for our issues and elect candidates who share our working family values.

In 2016, we need a strong and united effort. As you know, Nevada is one of our priority states. We need every single local union to take part in the AFL-CIO’s shared campaign. Big and small. Public sector and private sector. To make it work, every worksite should have a point of contact, someone who can be plugged in with the latest information.

You’ve got key races up and down the ballot. If we work together, if we stand united, if we all have skin in the game, we will elect candidates from the state house to the White House who are ready to change the rules of our economy.

We can build a future where wages are high and inequality is low, where work is safe and workers are strong, where retirement security is actually secure. It’s all right there in front of us. We just have to reach out and grab it.

We have tremendous candidates this year. We’re going to send Jacklyn Rosen and Ruben Kihuen to Congress. And of course there is Catherine Cortez Masto who will make a fantastic Senator and build on the legacy of Harry Reid. That’s not all. We have a real chance to win a pro-worker Nevada legislature that will protect prevailing wage and stand up for our rights.

You are part of a national movement. In every corner of this country, working people are leading the debate. We are putting the focus on good jobs with strong and growing wages. We’ve made it clear. We intend to grab a fair piece of the wealth we help create.

Our activism has 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 all working people.

This progress has been possible because our agenda is driving our politics, not the other way around. We’ve invested in our own capacity and focused on building our own power, and now we’re using that strength to win for our issues and the candidates who support us.

Working people are winning the debate. Now it’s time to win some elections!

We can do it, if we stand together. We need each other. We need your mobilization and groundwork.

We know unity. We practice solidarity. When we stand together, no one can turn us aside.

We built the middle class once, and we’ll do it again.

We build the bridges and the factories. We bake the bread and serve it, too. We drive the rigs and carry the loads. We do it all. We do what it takes. We answer the call. 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.

Thank you for your unionism and your activism. We've been fighting for decades to make the debate about the rules of the economy, so they can be changed. And we’ve done it. These rules are now front and center.

Our economy isn’t like the weather. It’s man-made, and if it doesn’t work, we can and should fix it.

A couple weeks ago, I was in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. It was truly inspiring. Democrats nominated a ticket that opposes the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership, is committed to raising wages for working families and understands that when workers are strong, when unions are strong, America is strong.

I’ll have more to say about the Democrats shortly, but I can’t let another moment pass without addressing Donald Trump. Where do I even start?

In just the last month, he dishonored the memory of a fallen hero by criticizing a Gold Star family. He said he always wanted a Purple Heart. He called President Obama the founder of ISIS. He said the best way for working women to deal with sexual harassment is either “be strong” or find another job. He called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants.

Sisters and brothers, these moments reveal Donald Trump for who he really is, not just as a candidate but as a man.

Donald Trump is not only dangerous, he’s blatantly dishonest. A recent study showed he tells a whopper every five minutes. Don’t believe a thing he says. He pretends to love our cause, but he’s a fraud.

Trump has made a career of shipping our jobs overseas, failing to pay us for the work we do, devastating our communities and treating us like second-class citizens.

Trump 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 likes nothing better than killing our jobs and taking our benefits—would make a good Treasury Secretary.

If you want to know where Donald Trump really stands, ask the brave men and women at Trump Tower in Las Vegas. First, Trump hired a union-busting firm to discourage workers from organizing. The workers won anyway. Then, Trump refused to recognize the union. He dragged his feet. He filed an appeal. He did everything except bargain a first contract. Sisters and brothers, if you actively block our fundamental right to speak up together for better wages and benefits, you will never, ever, ever get our support.

Donald Trump is profoundly unfit to be president. That’s why on November 8, 2016, working people are going to turn the tables, and tell him, “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, most progressive and most unifying vision in a generation. And Hillary Clinton is rising to meet the challenges of tomorrow with a strong agenda of shared prosperity.

Hillary is tough. She is smart. She is prepared. And she listens. When she accepted the nomination and talked about “love of country and the selfless passion to build something better for all who follow,” it was clear she heard our call. And she picked one hell of a running mate. Tim Kaine has always had our back. While Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence was repealing his state’s prevailing wage law, Tim was working with us to invest in infrastruc-ture and education and new technology.

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are ready to rewrite the economic rules. That begins with stopping the TPP and reforming or killing our failed corporate trade deals. The Democratic ticket has an aggressive plan to rein in Wall Street. They will make the largest investment in infrastructure, public education, workforce development and manufacturing since World War II—to the tune of 10 million new jobs!

And finally, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine know that the single greatest tool for economic mobility and a growing middle class is collective bargaining. They will protect and expand the freedom of every worker in America to join or form a union—including those at Trump Tower.

Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters: America is waking up to unionism. This is our chance. This is our moment. To bring out the best in America. To bring out the best in ourselves, and each other. We won’t back up or back down. We’ll stand tall. We’ll register. We’ll vote, and we’ll win!

My friends, I want to tell you something personal. Two weeks ago, 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 the backyard with my son 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. And the economic rules remain skewed toward the wealthy few.

We have the power to change that.

In the end, this is more than just an election. It's about where our country is going. It's about what kind of nation we're going to be, an America that says you are mine and I am yours, or one that governs by dividing and fanning fears.

By standing together, and defining American values for the ages, we’ll defeat the misguided, petty and unnecessary politics of division and disunity. And we’ll send a message to every Republican who made the rise of Donald Trump possible: change course or face extinction.

America’s labor movement is unleashing the most comprehensive and sophisticated electoral program in our history. We need your help. Talk to your members. Ask them to volunteer and turn out at the polls. I want to see union members vote at unprecedented levels.

When your membership gets involved in the ground campaign, nothing can stop us. When working people speak the truth about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, when we fight for our issues and our candidates, great things happen.

So it’s time for us to stand up strong, brothers and sisters, and stand together. It’s time to mobilize and organize. This electoral season is all about raising wages. 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!

And after the ballots are counted and the elections have been won, we’ll be in a better position to organize in the workplace, and win strong contracts and better pay.

Together, we will create a better tomorrow. 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. Ironworkers with UFCW. Steel with Teachers and Taxi Workers. Culinary, Painters and Electricians. All of us together. 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!

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