Thank you, Brother Richard [Lanigan]. I appreciate your leadership and your commitment to working families across America. You’re a powerful leader of a strong union, and I’m proud to call you my brother.
Good afternoon, sisters and brothers. I want to take this moment to recognize the importance of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. You’re so diverse, in so many industries, from podiatrists to insurance agents, credit union workers to higher ed employees, you’re everywhere, and you organize. It’s wonderful to see. Keep up the good work.
Activism in America has been increasing, thanks in no small part to your union. I’m thinking specifically of when I stood with OPEIU cab drivers in Las Vegas. You showed us how it’s done! That was a powerful picket line, and together we won!
That was a special victory. It’s a big deal when we use our collective strength, when a central labor council and a state federation of labor coordinate dozens of unions to stand together, honor a picket line and achieve a hard-won victory.
And this just happened. Working people stood together and won together in the bargaining fight between 40,000 CWA and IBEW members and Verizon. OPEIU members were there. I saw you. Those were some powerful picket lines, too. We stood strong. We marched. We demanded better. Day after day.
And then, after we held the picket line for well over a month, America’s Labor Secretary Tom Perez called both sides to the table.
I’ll be perfectly clear. Secretary Perez didn’t take our side. He was fair. That’s all we need: Fairness. Verizon executives got a seat at the table. We did, too. Our union workers stood toe-to-toe and came away winners, with better-than 10% raises, protection from layoffs and outsourcing, and thousands of new wireless members.
All we want, brothers and sisters, all we need, is a fair chance.
With a fair chance, we can walk away winners. I don’t know what OPEIU’s next contract fight will be, but I know you will set a high bar. If you need help, I’m only a phone call away, and I know 40,000 fired up and thankful CWA and IBEW members who are ready to join us. Let’s use our CLCs, our state federations of labor and the entire AFL-CIO! That’s how we build the middle class!
But we can’t stop there. We have to connect the dots between our organizing, our bargaining, and right now, our electoral activism. Each of these things affects the others.
This year, we will lay the groundwork for raising wages as we elect our union-endorsed candidates!
We have to start with a simple truth: our economy isn’t like the weather. It doesn’t just happen to us. We can transform our jobs with activism. And we can shape our economy with the leaders we elect.
At the ballot box and the bargaining table, let’s go toe-to-toe. Let’s mobilize. Let’s win.
We can do it, because we do America’s work. We make America go. And we want our share of the American Dream, brothers and sisters. So let’s stand for it, let’s march for it, let’s fight for it, and this fall, let’s vote for it!
The final shape of the presidential campaign is becoming more and more clear. Democrats are winding down a powerful primary that has captured our ideas and our agenda. The party and the country are better for it.
With her wins last night in California and New Jersey, Hillary Clinton took a major step toward the Democratic nomination. Everything indicates that she is on a collision course with Donald Trump this November.
As the AFL-CIO goes forward, I promise you one thing: We will unite America’s working people to elect a working family candidate to the White House. We will connect the dots for workers from coast to coast. We will empower union members and our friends and neighbors with an electoral program unprecedented in scope and sophistication. We intend to turn out the vote in key states for working family candidates. It’s a critical part of our larger strategy to rebuild the American middle class with a robust Raising Wages agenda.
Our agenda has set the terms and conditions of this election. The campaign has been framed by union ideas, union policies and the union difference.
On trade, for example, for the first time in more than a generation, we changed the rules of the debate. Instead of “yes” or “no” on trade, we made it about trade that works for working families, and trade that doesn’t. And instead of just talking about jobs, we made the conversation about the quality of jobs.
In addition, we began to shine a light on the real villains behind flat wages and disappearing jobs. Greedy CEOs. Bought and paid for politicians. Wall Street profiteers.
We have a tough fight ahead. As leaders in the labor movement, you know your members. You know your communities. You know how hard it is in today’s economy for working families. You know how anxious and frustrated people are. And you know how badly out of touch many politicians are with the lives and concerns of everyday Americans. Even worse, there are those who are trying to play on our anxiety for their own personal gain.
It’s our responsibility to expose these frauds, and there is none bigger than Donald Trump. Trump is as bad for workers as Trump University was to the poor folks who took his classes.
Here’s the truth: Donald Trump got rich by making us poor. He is one of the most anti-worker presidential candidates in American history.
Trump says our wages are too high. Let me repeat that. He says your wages are too high. And yours. And yours. You can’t be for workers and want to cut our pay. That’s insane.
Trump wants to destroy labor unions. His position on right to work is “100 percent.” He is refusing to bargain with workers at his hotel in Las Vegas. And he said he wouldn’t mind doing away with unions all together. You can’t be for workers and against our right to organize.
And you know how he claims to be against outsourcing? He’s not. He has sent American jobs all over the globe, all in pursuit of his own profit. You can’t be for workers and against job security.
But Donald Trump is not only bad for working people. A Trump presidency would tear America apart.
Trump hurls threats, lies and racist comments like a schoolyard bully. He seems to hate women. Any one of those things would disqualify him from holding America’s highest office. Donald Trump offends the very idea of the White House. He is unfit to serve as dog catcher, let alone president of the United States.
Sisters and brothers, Donald Trump will say and do anything to get elected, but we know better. On November 8, the labor movement is going to send Trump this simple message: you’re fired.
We’re going to treat this election like the biggest organizing battle or contract fight you’ve ever seen. Every one of you is a leader. Lead by example. Empower new activists. We’re encouraging each of your locals to designate an election point person to coordinate with the state and local AFL-CIO, and our national campaign team. We are going to win by working together.
Donald Trump and the corporate right-wing will throw everything at us. They’ll fight hard, but we’ll fight harder. We have the power! The truth is on our side. We’ll stand together today, tomorrow, and as long as it takes to win for America’s working families!
Sisters and brothers, we will beat Donald Trump and the right-wing agenda, but that’s not all. We are on a mission to raise wages. That’s our agenda, and our agenda drives our politics, not the other way around.
Raising wages is what we’re all about. And we know the single best way to raise wages is with a collective bargaining agreement. You showed that in Las Vegas. Verizon workers proved it up and down the east coast. And millions of Americans are ready to join us.
We’re building a movement. It’s a movement where unions grow and inequality shrinks. It’s a movement where you can grab onto the American Dream no matter what you look like, where you come from, how much money your parents have, or who you love.
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 grow together. To bring out the best in ourselves and each other. To bring out the best in America. To build the America we can have, and must have, and will have.
Thank you, and God bless you!