Speech | Civil Rights

Trumka to Wisconsin AFL-CIO Delegates: Finish the Fight!

La Crosse, Wisc.

Thank you, Brother Phil [Neuenfeldt], for your warm words of introduction. I want to thank you, also, for bringing me to your convention. It’s good to be back in Wisconsin.

You know, the political dial in Wisconsin, and all across America, has moved so far to the right that it’s almost off the chart.

I believe it’s time to think hard, and remember, just exactly what Gov. Scott Walker stands for, not just in Wisconsin, but across America. He is the symbol of the anti-worker, the very worst of the right-wing extreme.

Gov. Walker stands for pushing every worker to the bottom, to a place with no unions, no prevailing wage, no decent public education funding, no federal student loans, no Social Security, no Medicare or Medicaid, no voting rights, no job safety protections, no gender equity and no food safety standards. That is his vision, a corporate welfare state paid for by you and beholden to no one. He’s not just willing for us to go to the bottom, he’s pushing us there!

The eyes of workers everywhere are on you. Think about what we all face, because of Gov. Scott Walker. Think of the attacks that have intensified from New Jersey and Maine to Alaska and all across the country. Think of what Gov. Walker’s re-election would mean for the anti-worker politicians. I’m serious. Gov. Walker gave Wisconsin’s working families a razor sharp choice when he tore apart public-sector bargaining, slashed funding for education, turned his back on additional federal Medicaid money and ran the state not for the good of your people but for his billionaire backers.

Let me ask you this: Is Wisconsin ready? Are you ready to finish this fight? Will we stand together?

Are you ready?! Are you ready!?

Brothers and sisters, Gov. Scott [Walker] wants to rig every game for the richest of the rich, and he wants nothing to blunt the cold, hard edge of the marketplace. If you’re too young, too old, too sick, too poor, too anything, it’s just tough luck.

This isn’t about partisanship. Not every Democrat is a champion of working families. Nor is every Republican an enemy. We count many as friends. But these days, too many Republicans are right-wing extremists.

They don’t govern, they rule. They run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with them. And so when Walker gets the call from the Koch Brothers. He’ll do what he did last time. He’ll keep cramming the right-wing agenda down Wisconsin’s throat, without so much as a “hello,” because he doesn’t give a damn about Wisconsin’s working families. He doesn’t give a damn about our vision for America, our vision of a nation where you and I can enjoy the fruits of our labor and the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.

And here’s the thing. These politicians like Gov. Walker, they know their values are not majority values, and that’s why they scheme to shrink our democracy, to cut back our ability to exercise our rights as Americans. That’s what the voter ID laws do. That’s what gerrymandering does.

Listen to this. Wisconsin voters came out for working family Democrats overwhelmingly in 2012, but right-wing Republicans won five of eight U.S. House seats. The gerrymandering of Wisconsin districts happened like everything else Walker does, behind closed doors and shrouded in secrecy. And the goal was simple, to rob Wisconsin’s people of fair representation. These guys don’t care about representing Wisconsin. They only care about winning elections, one way or another. That’s un-American. And it’s plain wrong.

Brothers and sisters, this isn’t business as usual. We’re seeing radical change coming fast. And the question we face is, will we meet the challenge? Or will it simply hit us, again, where we stand? Will it push us forward? Or will it knock us down?

Because we have a choice, and I don’t know about you, but I hate losing, and I hate to see workers on the bench, or voters turned away. When a factory closes because some billionaires shipped more of our jobs offshore, first it breaks my heart and makes me mad. When a politician targets vulnerable public workers, nurses and snow plow drivers and firefighters, first, it hurts, and it makes me angry. And then I get to work, because we can and will win when we build our power.

We are strengthening our unions, and growing partnerships with our community allies. I want to emphasize those last points to you. We’ve learned a lot these last few years. As a result, we’re better organized and more disciplined, more open, more accountable and more focused.

We’re strengthening our political program, so we can elect leaders who will stand with us, and then hold them accountable, so we can stand united for a better life.

It’s our job to make America work, because we are the workers of America, from the hotels to the high schools, we lay the foundations, teach the classes and weld the steel. We build the roads. We lift the loads and answer the call. 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. This is our country. This is our time. We’re taking our country back, to work for the people who work!

All throughout our communities, collective action is on the rise. Populism is on the rise, and it’s about a common future, not political parties.

Think about it. When Gov. Walker attacked collective bargaining, you fought back, hard! I can remember like it was yesterday. The crowds in Madison grew, ten thousand, forty thousand, fifty thousand, and then it swelled over 100,000! It was unprecedented, and it inspired our entire country to look again at this thing called “collective bargaining.” Your activism woke up America.

And since then, collective action has grown as a topic in the national conversation, and people are taking action, from fast food workers to Walmart workers. Working people want results, and, by the way, that includes some self-described Tea Party Republicans.

Three out of every four voters thinks we should raise the minimum wage. Nearly 70% of working class registered Republican voters say, “It shouldn’t be this hard to support a family.” More than 80% of all workers think America should stop shipping jobs overseas and support American manufacturing.

All across this country, in poll after poll after poll, we hear Democrats, independents and Republicans say, “We want an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest.”

This is all part of a new kind of populism, growing from our discontent and our hope, and not easy to define, yet it is very real, and it is reshaping America, and it gives us, over the next 43 days until Election Day, a prime opportunity to shape that change.

You see, working people may embrace a range of philosophies, religions and political points of view, but we are united by the circumstances of our lives, and by the vision and the hopes we share.

And so it is up to you and me, to each of us, to connect with the workers who share our values, but who don’t see yet how our interests intersect. It’s up to us to stand with the workers who need us most. Let’s join together, with everyone who wants to join with us.

Our labor movement is perfectly positioned to unite a massive movement, to raise wages and to lift up our communities. We have an opportunity to show every elected leader, from the White House on down, that those who stand proudly with working families, will win in November. It’s that simple.

Imagine the strength we could have. It’s closer than you think. We can raise wages. We can win a day when the gap between the rich and the rest of us, starts to shrink.

Look at the Communications Workers of America. Just last week, 14,500 passenger service agents at American voted “Union Yes” to bargain for a better life.

Imagine the boost raising wages will give American manufacturing, when millions of working people have the money, not the credit, but the money, to purchase the things we want and need, everything from paper to dishwashers, and everything else. You see, raising wages will fuel a strong cycle of growth, as companies invest and hire to meet demand.

Working people are making it happen right here in Wisconsin. Fast food workers striking for $15 an hour and Walmart workers standing up for rights on the job, they’re giving America a jump start.

We are starting the powerful cycle of progress, brothers and sisters. This is how we end the downward slide and start to rise. Power and hope are growing. We’re on the right path. Wisconsin moved America forward, and you can do it again. We’ve got to keep going. We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.

We’ll stand together, to raise wages. We’ll march together, for a better life! 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!

From where we stand, we can see down the race to the bottom, and up, to the cycle of fairness and justice and progress. Which way will we go? I can tell you one thing, the billionaires may be against us, but the American people are on our side. The people of Wisconsin are on our side.

Right now, and for the next 44 days, we can do something about it, and I know you will.

This isn’t about horse race politics. Don’t let poll numbers lift your spirits too high, or push them too low. It’s time for us to build power for working families. That’s what we’re doing. You see, by campaigning for Mary Burke for governor, we can advance our agenda and end the political career of the right-wing’s favorite poster boy. Mary Burke will be a great leader for Wisconsin, and she’s doing her part. She’s running a fantastic campaign, but we can push her across the finish line, and that’s exactly what we’ll do!

We can stand and fight for Gwen Moore for the U.S. House. She’s a leader and a winner. She will fight to raise the minimum wage. She’ll support workers’ rights and voting rights. She’s the real deal, and if we work hard, we can win.

We can campaign hard for Dean DeBroux. He’s a veteran and a teacher. He knows the importance of public education. He knows the power of the public good. Fight for Dean DeBroux for the Wisconsin Senate.

Fight for Martha Laning! She’s a businesswoman with proven leadership skills, and the same values you and I hold dear. Martha will work to raise the minimum wage. She’ll protect education and health care and the vital services working families and seniors depend on. She’ll be a powerful leader for the future in Wisconsin’s Senate!

And I want Penny Bernard Schaber at the top of your list for the Wisconsin Senate, too.

Your candidates are what Wisconsin needs for a fair deal and a strong future. Right now, with this much at stake, it all comes down to our political program. And so I want every single one of you, every single one, to be fully engaged in Labor 2014. Go back to your locals and adopt days to canvass. Adopt nights on the predictive dialer. Add to the buzz. Get more bodies in the doors. I want to see full participation, full buy-in.

Wisconsin is ready, brothers and sisters! I want you at the phone banks. Lead by example. Knock on the doors. We need the face-to-face conversations. That’s how we win elections. That’s how we build power. Personal contact works. I’m doing it, too, because our members do what our leaders do. You know it, too.

As we get more involved, we’ll motivate volunteers. We’ll strengthen activists. We’ll help connect with more working-class voters, to get more working families to the polls, to build power and elect as many of the best leaders as we can, not just in Wisconsin, but in every corner of America.

We’re changing lives—not small changes but big changes. We’re scrambling and reaching for a little more hope. We have a vision. And we’re making it real, because all of us pitch in, that’s shared responsibility, shared sacrifice.

So get off your seat and on your feet, sisters and brothers. We’ll stand together, and win together! That’s how unions work! That’s why the best way to a better tomorrow is still and always will be a union contract! We stand together! And we’re gonna win together!

We’ll work for it. We’ll fight for it. Together. All 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. Standing together. Fighting together. Voting together. Winning together. Winning for unionism! Winning for Wisconsin! Winning for America!

Thank you! God bless you!

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