Speech

Trumka on Labor Day: Work Lifts Us Up

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Happy Labor Day! It’s great to be in Pittsburgh!

Everything comes together on Labor Day. First, we’re here to celebrate work. Work lifts us up, gives us dignity, provides for our families. And Labor Day is all about lifting ourselves up, about raising wages, and that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what you’re doing in Pittsburgh, by putting organizing front and center.

Number two, as we celebrate work, we also appreciate the rights we have in this great country, the rights to free speech and free assembly, including the right to stand together on the job in a union to bargain collectively for a better life, so our economy can work for all of us, not just the wealthy few.

Number three is the responsibility that comes with those rights. Number three is our political action. Number three means we all register to vote, and we register others, too. Number three means we educate ourselves and each other. Number three means supporting leaders like your next governor Tom Wolf, because when he’s in office he’s going to work for working people, not the wealthy donors and extremists!

Number three means supporting leaders like Mike Doyle, and Tim Murphy, and Mayor Bill Peduto, and all our leaders in the Pennsylvania state house, and state senate, and on the city and county councils who support working people.

Number three means all of us are going to vote for candidates who stand with working people, who will invest in good jobs, schools, transportation, research and our future by closing tax loopholes on big corporations and the rich! They’ll stand with us to turn back right to work, and privatization, and pension cuts and education cuts!

On Labor Day, brothers and sisters, everything comes together. I see workers who want to organize, who want to raise wages. I see candidates like Tom Wolf who want to help, and I see a great big crowd of people here who will all stand together, to win a better future at Rivers Casino, at Duquesne University and UMPC, and a better future for Pennsylvania!

It’s going to happen! Power and hope are rising, sisters and brothers. We’re on the right path, and Pittsburgh is leading the way!

We’ll stand together, to raise wages. We’ll march together, for a better tomorrow! For working families! For good pay! For a strong future! For each other! We won’t back down, or back up, or step down, or shut up. We won’t be turned aside, or pushed back, or out-worked, and we will not be denied! Keep fighting! Keep winning! And keep leading the way!

Happy Labor Day! And God bless you!