Speech | Civil Rights

Trumka to Utility Workers: The Only Way to Go is Up

Washington, D.C.

Good morning, everyone. Brother Mike [Langford], thank you for that introduction. It is great to be here. If you don’t mind, I’d like today to be more of a conversation than a speech. For you, this is an executive board meeting. For me, it is a focus group of some of the best labor leaders in the country. I look forward to hearing your ideas and experiences.

The Utility Workers are a union of great heart and passion. You are a source of power for working people, both literally and figuratively. You are the first responders in times of crisis. You take on each challenge with courage and conviction. And you help families from coast to coast build better lives.

I have always felt a special bond with this union. As you know, I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania and followed my father and grandfather into the mines. We didn’t have a lot of money. But we were rich in the things that matter most: faith, family and community.

The work was tough. It was dangerous. But because my grandfather had the security of a union contract, he was able to give my father a better life. And my father was able to do the same for me. That’s what the American Dream is all about.

Sustaining and expanding this dream is what drives me every day. It’s why I got involved with the United Mine Workers of America. And it’s what brought me to the AFL-CIO. For those of us who have the honor of working in the labor movement, success is not judged by how much money we make. It’s about the difference we make in people’s lives.

Mine workers and utility workers have different jobs, but we share common values. Toughness. Grit. Sacrifice. Solidarity. Over time, each of our unions have endured setbacks in the pursuit of fairness on the job. But we have always emerged stronger and more united. Through blood and sweat, we helped create the greatest middle class the world has ever known.

Along the way, the corporate right-wing has never stopped trying to push us down. First, there were company unions. That gave way to goon squads and beatings. Taft-Hartley became the law of the land. And Ronald Reagan used his presidency to mercilessly attack working people.

Today our enemies are even more sophisticated. Under the guise of free markets, they are spending billions of dollars to ram through right to work, deregulation and other trickle down policies. Their goal is nothing less than the total destruction of the labor movement.

That’s what’s at stake in 2016. We are the last line of defense against billionaires and corporations taking over America.

The road ahead will be long. It will be hard. But we have no intention of backing down.

Working people are not asking for the world. We want to be paid well and treated with respect. We want to have some control over our schedules and working conditions. We want a fair piece of the profits we help create and every opportunity to live a better life. Not a life defined by our boss, but one we decide on.

Unfortunately, CEOs have profited from four decades of our rising productivity, leaving us with flat wages and financial insecurity. I’m sure you’ve seen the charts, but this is not an intellectual exercise. We feel it. We’ve seen it play out in the lives of our family and friends, union and non-union alike, white collar and blue collar.

Many Americans are upset. Who can blame them? Sixty-three percent say they don’t have enough savings to cover a $500 car repair or a $1,000 medical bill. A majority of workers are living paycheck to paycheck. We live in the richest country in the world, yet a growing number of us are struggling to afford basic necessities.

This anxiety has created an opening for Donald Trump, and it’s easy for him to tap into the very real and very justified anger people are feeling.

But we can’t be fooled. Trump isn’t interested in solving the problems he yells and swears about. He delivers punch lines, but there’s nothing funny about them.

Trump says he would make America great again, but in reality he would double down on a generation of broken economic rules. He is on record claiming that outsourcing creates jobs. He thinks corporate raider Carl Icahn, who made his fortune destroying pensions and union contracts, would make a good Treasury Secretary. And given Trump’s background, there is little doubt he would speed up consolidation of the utility industry at the expense of workers and consumers alike.

When it comes to unions, the picture gets even worse. Trump loves right to work. He cheered Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attacks on teachers and nurses. And he says our wages are too high. Let me repeat that: he says our wages are too high.

Brothers and sisters, we’ve got to expose Donald Trump for what he truly is: dangerous, delusional and a demagogue, racist, misogynist and anti-union. Someone with one of these characteristics, let alone all, has no business being president.

Holding Trump accountable is imperative, but we also must stay focused on our own agenda. Working people are the main event, and it doesn’t matter whether we are Democrats, Republicans or anything in between. We are shaping the debate and setting the terms of this election.

Our labor movement puts issues first. Our agenda drives our politics, not the other way around. In Washington, there is an assumption that unions and Republicans can’t work together. I reject that wholeheartedly. For decades, the party of Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower played a serious and constructive role on issues of work and family. And we’ve worked with moderate Republicans from Pennsylvania to Missouri to beat back anti-worker initiatives.

That’s why it is so disappointing that not a single Republican running for president supports our issues.

Let’s be honest, Democrats haven’t always been a picnic, either. But this primary has been different. With our encouragement, the candidates are putting forth real ideas for growing an economy that works for workers. Unions have been front and center as a key to raising wages and expanding opportunity. Issues of social and economic justice have been debated passionately.

We’ve got to keep that momentum up, because our opposition never rests.

For one thing, the right-wing Koch Brothers are copying our playbook. They aren’t just running TV ads anymore. They’re recruiting volunteers to knock doors and phone bank as if they were an actual grassroots organization. It’s up to us to beat them to the punch!

With utility workers on the frontlines, we are preparing to unleash the most comprehensive electoral program in our history. We know how to run these campaigns. We know how to win. One of the most powerful tools in the union box is the conversations we have with our members.

We’re going to talk to each and every one of them. At home. On the phone. And in the worksite. I want to encourage you to make these conversations a priority. Talk to your members before work, after work and on breaks. Use stewards conferences and other gatherings to drive the message home. And let’s make sure we lead with issues.

This is how we win a better life. And it all comes back to solidarity, real solidarity, where your picket line is my picket line. Where I stand with you, and you stand with me. When we stand together, we win together!

Brothers and sisters, we need that solidarity now more than ever.

We need it to make our workplaces as safe as possible. As you may know, last week Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was sentenced to a year in jail. I know Blankenship. He is a bad guy. Fifty-two miners needlessly lost their lives on his watch. One year for murder, that makes me sick. It’s only one week for every life lost. Let’s use this tragedy to strengthen our mine safety laws so no one dies in the name of corporate greed.

We need solidarity to stop corporate trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Supporters of the TPP thought it would be a slam dunk. But working people are winning the debate on trade.

We need solidarity to make long overdue investments in our infrastructure. Clean coal, broad-band, renewables, and yes, clean water. You know better than anyone what happened in Flint is just the tip of the iceberg. We need a massive federal commitment to rebuilding America. I’m talking trillions with a T.

And we need solidarity to help drive a sensible and fair national energy policy. Your president Mike Langford and I recently participated in a meeting of the International Trade Union Confederation which focused on this important issue. I wish you all could have been there. Mike did an incredible job advocating on our behalf.

When it comes to energy, Mike and I are in lockstep. We believe clean air is a public good that must be preserved for future generations. We believe public policy should benefit our economy and our environment. And we believe it is irresponsible to reduce carbon emissions on the backs of hard-working families.

The energy sector is undergoing a transformation. Done right, we get good family-sustaining jobs. We get growth in union membership, and the political power that comes with it. We get affordable, reliable energy, cleaner air and a healthier climate.

Done wrong, we get more bad jobs, more union busting, and more families wondering what happened to their standard of living. Let me be clear, we cannot let changes in energy become another excuse to push workers down.

We are going to fight for a concept called “just transition,” something I know you are familiar with. To me, just transition is a good job that can sustain a family. No more fancy funerals like Trade Adjustment Assistance. Instead, we should train workers for the jobs on the future and build on the strengths of local and regional economies—whether it’s a medical system or a university.

Above all, just transition must be defined by workers. If we are going to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing economy, we have to know what we want and how to get it. I am committed to working with you to make that happen.

You see, the future of America is not with the Wall Street or Washington elite. The future is in our towns, cities and communities. It’s in coal mines and power plants. It’s in the places where we live and work.

Brothers and sisters, we’re standing at a crossroads. Down one path is more corporate greed and the ruins of a once-great American middle class. Up the other is the solidarity highway. It’s built on integrity and unionism, and the deep truth that we are in fact created equal, born with certain inalienable rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We know the only way to go is up. This is a year for the labor movement to define America for the ages. So let’s do it! Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the work you do!

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