Thank you, Brother Mark [Dimondstein]. It’s great to be with the Postal Workers! Thank you for inviting me to your convention.
The American Postal Workers is a powerful union. You perform a vital government service for our nation, one of the few required by the U.S. Constitution. Nobody is more patriotic. Nobody is more disciplined and focused. Nobody has an impact like yours on every single community in America. 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 and your brothers and sisters in the Grand Alliance 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. That’s a win, and I love it 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 on 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.
When we fight for union candidates and union values, we’re fighting for justice!
We stand for justice at the ballot box. We want every eligible citizen to be able to cast a vote. That means saying NO to discriminatory voter ID laws and YES to universal vote by mail.
We stand for justice in the workplace. Everyone who wants to join or form a union should be able to do so, free from interference. And employers who violate that right should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
We want justice for our families and communities. That means good schools, safe roads, affordable health care and quality public services—whether it’s Social Security for our seniors or health care for our veterans.
And we want equal justice in our workplaces, our streets and our courts, no matter who you are, who you love, where you were born or how much money your family has. These are our priorities, brothers and sisters!
We can win it, if we work for it!
Your mobilization and your groundwork will make the difference. 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 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 insulted the parents of an American war hero. He called President Obama the founder of ISIS.
Sisters and brothers, these moments reveal Donald Trump for who he truly is, not only as a candidate, but as a man. 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.
Even if you overlook Trump’s shocking and 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.
Trump says he’d be good for workers. But remember, he is an Olympic-level liar. Fact checkers have looked at it. He tells a whopper every five minutes.
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 has spent his life killing our jobs and benefits—would make a good Treasury Secretary. It is no wonder that the business firm Moody’s says Trump’s economic plan 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 Clinton is tough. She is smart. She is prepared. And she listens. When Hillary Clinton 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.
We've been fighting for 30 years now to put the rules of the economy up for debate. This is our opportunity. Hillary is calling for a new direction on trade and opposes the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. We’ll hold Hillary and all of our elected leaders to that pledge. And by the way, we’re prepared to kill the TPP if anyone tries to push it through during the lame duck session.
Hillary has an aggressive plan to rein in Wall Street. She’ll tax financial transactions so we can make massive investments in infrastructure, 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 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 Postal Workers. 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.
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.
We are still one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. But that promise is not self-fulfilling, sisters and brothers. We have to work for it. So let’s get to work.
When the Postal Workers 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, Postal Workers! And God bless you!