Thank you, Stuart [Appelbaum], for your truly over-generous introduction. And thank you for your friendship and your solidarity. I’m proud to call you my friend, and I’m glad to call you my brother. Thank you for all you are and all you do.
Four years ago, you held your last convention here in Florida. I was not able to attend, but not for lack of trying, I can promise you that. I did record a video expressing my great support for the strike at the Motts plant in upstate New York.
It was a powerful strike, and it achieved important immediate goals—goals relating to maintain-ing good wages, benefits and retirement security.
Yet it achieved another, larger goal as well. Our brothers and sisters took a long stand in Williamson, New York, to stop the managers of a profitable plant who sought to slash wages just because they could, because of high unemployment from the recession.
Our brothers and sisters took a stand against those who tried to take our dignity and turn us into commodities. The executives at Motts actually used those words. They said workers are a commodity, just like soybeans or oil. They said when the price of a commodity goes down, like when unemployment is high, wages should go down.
That’s wrong. That’s ugly. We are not a commodity. We’re a community. We’re working people, who do our jobs, who raise our families, who love our country, who built the American middle class with our own hands, by creating wealth for those corporate executives. We do all these things, and we will not allow ourselves to be used up and spat out. We’re not soybeans. We’re human beings.
And that’s one thing I love about RWDSU, you work hard every single day for the dignity of regular working people, and I appreciate it. I know about your organizing. I know how well you engage your communities. I know your work for immigration reform. I know about the Retail Action Project, how you talk to all workers about life on the job, and how to make it better. That’s powerful. That’s visionary.
And let me tell you this: The fight for against Bain Capital and Ares Management for fair pay and decent health care for the Guitar Center workers is what the labor movement is all about. I’ve been following that fight, and the dirty tactics of Bain and Ares have been shameful and ugly. I want every Guitar Center worker to know the entire AFL-CIO and every one of our affiliates stands behind them in their efforts to win a fair contract! We’re going to fight, and we’re going to win!
Listen, workers everywhere are tired of feeling like we’re just a commodity, expendable, replaceable.
The conversation in America is changing. All over this country, people are talking about economic inequality, people who never spoke the words before. The public is debating big issues, like wages good enough so we can really live, and raise a family if we want to. The public is debating collective bargaining. We’re talking about rights on the job.
We’ve been wanting this conversation for a long time, and guess what? We’re winning. People like the idea of raising wages.
We’re going to turn the tide, because, you see, we’re all about raising wages. We honor the dignity of labor by standing together, for a share of what we create. And that’s how we’ll build a movement big enough to lift up America’s working families, big enough to rebuild the American middle class. We did it once. We’ll do it again.
Unionism works. RWDSU builds strong careers, strong families, strong communities and a strong future for the United States of America.
The best way to fair pay, is a union contract.
The best way to retirement security, is a union contract.
The best way to a better tomorrow, so you can give your family a decent life and health care and a good education, it all comes back to a union contract.
And a decent life is not too much to ask, because we’re the workers of America. From the warehouse to the hothouse, we do it all. We work in factories and on the highways. We package meat and sell it, too. We lift the loads and answer the call. We do what it takes, no matter what the cost. We wake our country up every single day, and we tuck her into bed at night. We won’t be turned aside. We won’t be faced down, and we will not be denied.
Sisters and brothers, we’re all too familiar with the story of the past 40 years. We know how productivity rose while wages froze, which meant virtually all of the wealth created by our constantly growing economy has gone to the richest 1%.
Our economy doesn’t work when work doesn’t pay.
Household expenditures make up 70% of the American economy. That’s how raising wages will create jobs, because when we do well, America does well. We buy goods and services to improve our lives. We create demand, and corporations hire more workers to meet that demand. It’s what you call a virtuous cycle. It’s the opposite of a race to the bottom. It’s the foundation of a strong economy built on raising wages, not credit card debt and asset bubbles.
At the AFL-CIO we’ve got a new program called Common Sense Economics to teach 1 million regular working people how raising wages works. Programs like this and the Retail Action Project will help turn things around by building power for working people, with information. We’ve got other initiatives, too. We’re strengthening our state federations of labor and central labor councils. And believe me, that one by itself could completely transform our movement. We’re joining together with allies, in ways we never have before. We’re a mainstream move-ment, a growing movement, a powerful movement, and we’re acting like it.
We’re crystal clear about what we stand for, and what we stand against. We stand against anything and everything that hurts working people, that endangers us and our families, that makes our lives harder. All across this country, short-sighted executives are bent on profit at all cost. Here’s what they say: “Do more with less.” Here’s what they say: “Work more. Cook more. Clean more. Stock more. Sell more.”
And here’s what they offer in return: Less money. Worse benefits. No retirement security. And about that work schedule, you gotta be flexible. We don’t, but you do.
Does it sound familiar? What do you think?
I think it stinks.
I think we’re ready to fight! And one way is by supporting the Schedules That Work Act from Representatives Rosa Delauro and George Miller in the U.S. House.
You see, we’re ready to make a difference, and the rest of America is, too. People understand the connection between good jobs and a strong economy. Good jobs at the factory, good jobs at the mall, good jobs at the Motts plant, good jobs at Tysons, good jobs in Georgia, Florida, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Massachusetts—all those good jobs support local businesses.
America is tired of losing middle-class jobs. We’re done with the downward spiral. In poll after poll after poll, we hear Americans say, “We want an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”
At AFL-CIO, we do polls, too. Recently we asked a group of voters if they agreed with this simple statement: “We need to make sure that all of us, not just the CEOs, get our fair share in our economy.”
When we asked those making less than $50,000 a year, two out of three voters agreed. Sixty-six percent said, yes, that’s right, we need to make sure all of us, not just CEOs, get our fair share.
Here’s the kicker. Guess who we asked? Registered Republicans. That poll was of voters registered with the Republican Party.
Here’s what this means. It means a solid majority of working people of every stripe share the same basic challenges, and the same hopes and dreams, and we recognize economics are at the heart of our problems.
That’s one of the beautiful things that connects all working people. We all need a job to pay the bills. We are united together by the circumstances of our lives.
This is where RWDSU organizing and outreach among car wash workers, and at processing plants, and in retail is breaking ground. The car wash work in particular is difficult. There’s no two ways about it. But it’s good work. It’s essential work. You’re not just talking dues and sample contracts. You’re experimenting with new ways to organize, reaching out to immigrants, reaching out to nontraditional workers. You’re digging deep into the community. You’re joining together with like-minded allies. You’re building powerful alliances. Other unions are on the same path. This is the definition of a growing movement -- gaining momentum.
This isn’t something we cooked up in Washington, D.C. It didn’t come from Wall Street. It’s rising in conversations on the bus between security guards and sales people at the mall. It is growing among crossing guard workers, and at Subway restaurants in truck stops, and among Walmart workers who connect on Facebook and see how power grows when we stand together. It is rising with the postal unions’ boycott of Staples. It rose on Long Island where rail workers said, we don’t want to strike, but we will if you won’t come to the table.
And it is up to you and me, to each of us, to help make the voices of America, our America, heard in the workplace and in our national life.
Work should never hold us down and trap us in poverty. Work must lift us up. We want our country to work for the people who work!
Power and hope are rising.
We’re on the right path, brothers and sisters. A groundswell is growing, and it keeps getting bigger. It's strong, and it'll get stronger. It's a movement to raise wages, so all of us can live a better life.
We’ll stand together, to raise wages for all. We’ll fight for farm workers and day laborers, bakers and security guards, drivers and teachers! We’ll march together! For working families! For good pay. We’ll stand together! For a strong future. For each other! We won’t back down, or back u, or shut up, until we win a new day for the American Dream. We’ll shout here in Florida and all across America. And we’ll show how much good raising wages can do.
Sisters and brothers, we have big things to do as a country—put our people back to work, restore our democracy and build 21st century infrastructure. We’re going to strengthen and grow American jobs, not throw them away.
We know what America needs, we’ve got proposals to fix what’s broken, like real immigration reform with a path to citizenship, like raising the minimum wage, like bankruptcy reform to protect workers and retirees instead of Wall Street bankers. These are popular mainstream ideas, bipartisan ideas. More than 70% of voters want immigration reform, including most Republicans. More than 70% of America’s voters support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. And most people say our growing inequality is bad for America.
You know, it’s been so long since the minimum wage last went up. Sarah Palin was still governor of Alaska, that’s true. And the last time the minimum wage went up for tipped workers, back in 1991, Bill and Hillary Clinton still lived in Little Rock, Arkansas! We’re going to fight to raise the minimum wage, because work should lift us from poverty, not trap us in it.
And we want labor law reform so all workers can stand together to bargain for a better life, so we can bargain together for a fair share of what we make.
Listen, I know when we talk about labor law reform, it brings up a sore subject. Let me tell you this: labor leaders have learned some hard lessons, really hard political lessons. Yet I want you to listen very closely to what I have to say, we’re stronger because of the lessons we’ve learned. We’re more independent because of the lessons we’ve learned. We’re more focused, more disciplined, more creative, and more powerful because of the lessons we’ve learned.
You see, we are not working for any candidate. We are not building power for any political party. Not the Democratic Party. Not the Republican Party. We’re building power for working people, pure and simple. We’re looking at the long view. And we’re not afraid of holding anybody’s feet to the fire. Working families need results. Period.
And I tell you, we’ve got a long memory, and we will not hold our nose and endorse Democrats, just because they have a D next to their name. That’s not good enough. It won’t happen.
We’re asking hard questions of every candidate who wants our support, and one question we want every candidate to answer is, do you support America’s workers? Do you support our right to bargain collectively for a better life? Do you support good jobs, full-time jobs? Will you grow our economy, not shrink it. Will you raise wages?
And I promise, I swear, nobody will work harder, or smarter, or longer, to elect the leaders who make the right commitments, and nobody will work harder, or longer, to defeat those who don’t, regardless of political party.
This electoral season, I want you to work like never before. Be the leaders who lead by example. Be the first to knock on doors. Make the first call at the phone banks.
You’ll motivate your volunteers. You’ll strengthen your activists. You’ll help us all connect with more working-class voters, get more working families to the polls, because if we want the policies we need, if we want all of us to get our fair share, we need the right leaders in every corner of America. We’ve got to engage and turn out our people.
When I say, “our people,” I mean union members and families, but also like-minded folks in our neighborhoods and communities.
After the polls close on Election Day, we’ll have a stronger network of labor activists and local leaders, ready to mobilize and pressure our leaders for the policies we need, and ready to support our organizing for the union members of tomorrow.
Standing together, working people will change this country.
We’re lifting up lives. We’re scrambling and reaching for a little more hope. We have a vision. And we’re going to make it real, because when all of us pitch in, that’s shared responsibility, shared sacrifice. We do what it takes.
What we want is simple. It’s what everybody wants, the chance to work hard for a decent life, and to give a better life to our kids. We’ll stand together, because we’re strong together.
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 raise wages. To grow together. To bring out the best in ourselves, to bring out the best in each other. To bring out the best in America. For the America we can have, and must have, and will have. Keep fighting. Keep winning.
Thank you. Thank you, and God bless you!