What I Do
Christy McGill, Art Teacher - Divide Elementary School, Lookout, WV.
Christy McGill, Art Teacher - Divide Elementary School, Lookout, WV.
Thank you, Becky [Moeller]. It’s always good to be with you. It’s always good to be in Texas.
You know, Becky, you are one hell of a trade unionist. You’re a good friend and a great leader who knows how to always, always, find a way forward, and you know how to win.
I’m proud to be here in this hall with so many leaders for working families in Texas – with labor leaders and activists and with our guests. Thank you all for coming. We share a passion for justice and the American Dream. And when it comes to the future of working people in Texas and America, we’re marching arm-in-arm, shoulder-to-shoulder, and I know that what we accomplish will be won together.
Sisters and brothers, Texas is a huge state. It’s a one-of-a-kind state. I doubt there’s anything about Texas that’s ordinary. And let me tell you this: There’s nothing ordinary about the gains working people have been making in Texas either, and the potential for progress is Texas-sized, right here for working people, for progressives and people of color and everybody who believes, as we do, in the promise of our democracy, the possibilities of good people working hand-in-hand. And there’s nothing ordinary or typical about the possibilities for the elected leaders of Texas who stand bravely with us on the right side of history.
And right now, I want to name one of the legislators who comes foremost to mind: a courageous Texas State Senator named Wendy Davis! This is a leader who has been re-districted out of her seat now twice, and she continues to defy the odds and prove that hard work and a stiff backbone is what it takes to win. And let me say this – what the Texas legislature did despite her principled and remarkable opposition is a signal to fair-minded people across Texas – and my prediction is Wendy’s stand will be seen as a defining moment in ushering in a progressive new day for Texas.
I want to mention a few other champions for working families: Sens. Kirk Watson and Jose Rodriguez; Reps. Chris Turner and Yvonne Davis; and Roberto Alonzo. I know I’m leaving out more, too many, but I wanted to give you a few names of the leaders who fought to include “Buy American” provisions, who pushed relentlessly for Equal Pay for Women, who helped shape last session’s leadership and who carried off some incredible rescues against an onslaught of anti-worker laws.
My friends, I will recognize and applaud any elected leader who stands with working people, whatever their political party. We do not discriminate based on party affiliation. We look at votes. We look at records.
And let me say this. Every piece of destructive legislation stopped by elected leaders in Texas, and there has been more than I can easily count in this last session alone, was stopped with a bipartisan effort.
And every good infrastructure bill, every powerful law to improve the lives and work of your fellow Texans and people all across America, was supported by and pushed through with bipartisan alliances.
You see, quite frankly, we don’t all have to see eye-to-eye on every issue, but we must find common ground where it exists, and do the right thing when we can.
That’s the example you set in Texas. That’s the lesson America stands to learn from you. That’s how we’ll build a true movement of everyone who shares with us the basic vision that each of us, if we play by the rules and work hard, if we do our part, can expect to build a decent life. That’s the American Dream.
And that’s not too much to ask.
And with that vision to unify us, we will take our country back, because working men and women make America run! We drive the taxis and teach the children and build the roads. We care for the sick and fly, maintain and attend to the jets. We keep the lights on and the public services humming. We’re high tech and low tech and everything in between. We answer the call. We rise to the task. We do what it takes, no matter what the price, no matter how high the cost. Because this is our America!
And let me tell you, we have come too far to be turned back now. We won't back up. We won't back down. We won't be turned aside. Working people built this country. Together, all of us -- we’re the American labor movement -- and we will not be denied!
Brothers and sisters, there is poverty in America. There is want. There is discrimination. There is second-class citizenship in America. It goes by ugly terms—terms like “illegal immigrant.” All over our country, mothers and fathers work hard for next to nothing, while a tiny portion of our population grows ever more rich and wealthy at our expense. All over America, regular people struggle to hold onto our democracy, while the titans of Wall Street spend hundreds of millions, even billions, to twist and distort our political culture.
And it is a rare thing to find someone who will stand up for what’s right, someone who will listen to others, and truly hear them. It’s a rare thing to find people who will allow their own views to evolve in the face of new evidence, new ideas, and who will then push ahead to seek change in a world that resists change with the strange strength of ignorance and self-righteousness.
And yet, today in America’s labor movement, and among our friends and allies, we find extraordinary people who possess those rare characteristics. And I believe that everyone with the courage to stand up and do right will find themselves not isolated, but with like-minded companions.
We see examples of those extraordinary men and women today involved in the effort to bring about true and decent immigration reform—reform with a workable path to citizenship for the millions of people in this country who are Americans in every way but on paper. A good bill has passed the Senate, and now it's time for that bill in its entirety to be passed by the U.S. House.
I want to be perfectly clear on this point. Our current immigration system is wrong. It is time we stopped tearing mothers and fathers apart from their children with senseless deportations. It is time we stopped letting ruthless employers use the threat of enforcement as a weapon against the rights of working people on the job. This has to stop. And it has to stop now!
Listen, some people want to blame immigrants for America’s problems. We’ve all heard that. But it won’t work. Working people aren’t the problem—no matter where we were born or what language we speak. We never have been.
And extreme politicians who think the clock can be turned back and the will of the American people can be turned aside will find themselves utterly wrong in the court of the ballot box.
Mark my words. America is changing!
We see that change in the building and construction trades, where Texas is the most dangerous place to work in the country. Texas building trades workers have been bucking the odds to raise safety standards for immigrant building trades workers and all workers in that critical industry.
Right here in Texas, we see extraordinary men and women who are organizing in the face of an entrenched anti-unionism that most of us in America could hardly imagine. What I’m talking about goes far beyond right-to-work-for-less. It’s a deep antipathy among some in the business community toward the very idea of collective action, of economic fairness and of the idea that each of us -- every single one of us -- should be able to have what federal law says clear as a bell, be able to have a voice on the job, a voice in our community, and a voice on Election Day!
Well, I believe a majority in Texas doesn't want discrimination, poverty and unchecked private enterprise. Texas is ready for a better day. America is ready. We all see the signs. More and more people understand, and take seriously, the idea that we can stand together for a voice in our democracy, and stand together on the job for decent wages, workplace safety, health care, and retirement security.
Just look at the taxi drivers in Austin, and the teachers and federal workers all over Texas. Just look at the strikes by fast food workers in New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Seattle and Milwaukee. Look at the WalMart walk-outs, and the Target actions last fall. Everywhere, we see a growing and strengthening movement to make work pay for workers.
It won't be easy. There are no guarantees. Working people everywhere face tremendous obstacles, enormous pressures from without, and yes, even within our movement, there is resistance to innovating and making the changes that are essential to the future.
Some of our brothers and sisters want to follow the familiar paths, the paths that have led us to where we are today.
Well, I'm here to say that what we have done until now is not enough for the future. It's not the road we must chart for ourselves.
Like it or not, we live in a time of change. A time of political danger and economic uncertainty.
But this is also a time -- more than any time I’ve seen in my lifetime -- when men and women in towns and cities large and small all across America are ready to take action together, the public is open to the energy and creativity of our labor movement, and any other movement that will help us all to mobilize and organize to lift ourselves up.
Because it is not our opponents, or their actions that define us, but how we respond.
And it is from the heat of these conflicts, the crucible of our struggle, and the iron strength of our resolve that we will fashion a new labor movement, a movement to rebuild America’s working families for years, for generations to come.
None of us can see the future. It is beyond our vision. But it is certainly not beyond our control.
Nobody else can shape our vision and our values. That responsibility is ours.
Nobody else will transform our visions into reality. That will be the work of our own hands, working together, united in purpose.
Ours will not be a small coalition. We’re not a fringe group with narrow interests. We’re the mainstream. And it’s about time we acted like it.
And come September, I think you’re going to see at the AFL-CIO Convention in Los Angeles, a labor movement that looks like a winning movement.
We’re taking on the issues. We’re ready for change. We’re gathering together the best and most creative ideas from inside and outside our movement, from our allies and partners, and we’re putting together an agenda for the future that will dramatically improve our ability to make a difference in the lives of everyday working people.
Our challenge is to use the proud institutions of our unions to build the movement of working people of the future -- inside unions, outside unions, never heard of unions, private-sector, public-sector, blue collar, green collar, white collar -- all of us together!
Why should employers be able to tell us who can and who can't form a union? Why shouldn’t anyone who wants to join our movement be able to? Why shouldn’t we throw the doors open?
There is no secret to success. No silver bullet. It’s not rocket science. It takes hard work. You’ve got to take it day by day, and always believe that what seems impossible can be possible, if we hold the absolute and certain belief that every worker -- every single worker -- deserves a voice on the job, and a chance to improve his or her life through collective action.
America needs that now -- today.
And when people ask you about the state of the labor movement in America today, and I know they do, don’t sing them a sob story of past glory and decline, tell them we’ve got a golden age ahead of us. Tell them unions in Texas grew by 10 percent last year, and tell them you’re going to do it again. Tell them the labor movement is full of fight. And tell them we have no intention of going quietly into the night. We’ve got clear eyes and a goal in sight. And we won’t quit until America works for all who work.
What we want is not too much to ask, a good chance for a decent life, fair wages, health care, a secure retirement, education, and a better life for our kids and grandkids.
Here’s what I want you to tell people: Expect wins! Expect wins! Expect us to win!
Expect change! Expect a day soon, when the income gap stops getting wider and starts to narrow.
Expect change! Expect a day when the wages of America’s workers stop falling and start rising.
Expect a day soon when workers are again recognized for the contributions we make to our society, our economy and our communities.
We’ll stand for it. We’ll fight for it. We’ll stand together with solidarity, real solidarity, the kind where your picket line is my picket line, and where we pick each other up when we fall, and we all march on together.
And I promise you, we will keep marching, keep fighting, until we restore a record of winning!
Sisters and brothers, I’ve heard a lot of talk about the growing power of the Latino vote, and what that means for our two main political parties. I've seen the demographics that show Texas, with its large and growing populations of young people, Latinos and African Americans, to be ripe and receptive to the labor movement. But listen to me closely: people are not cord wood. Voters are not cord wood. Voters are people who make decisions. We cannot be stacked by color and type for an easy win at the ballot box, in any legislative chamber or in the court of public opinion.
And we have to show each worker in Texas how a voice on the job is still the best way to make work pay and to build a better life. It's the stepladder to the middle class. And it works.
The labor movement and our allies will have to work hard for every win in the workplace, and we'll have to work hard every election cycle to tell our story and build our movement. It’ll take time. It’ll take commitment. It’ll take struggle. We’ve got to build the kind of infrastructure that labor has never had in the Lone Star State. And we can’t expect to see across-the-board wins overnight. We have to be ready for years of struggle, years of hard work with little reward.
This year, in the face of an unprecedented wave of terrible bills: against civil rights, voting rights, public pensions and so much more, you helped stop the worst bills and actually pass some great bills, like the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was vetoed by Gov. Perry, and your water development bill, which put into law one of the strongest “Buy America” provisions in the history of Texas.
Take nothing for granted. Not victory. And certainly not defeat.
But always, always, keep reaching. Keep fighting. Energize. Organize. Mobilize.
Those are the keys. That’s the strategy we need to bring out the best in our country, and in ourselves, to build the future we know we can have, we must have, for each of us, for our children and grandchildren.
And we will never, never give up.
We will always, always go forward.
And together we will win, for our families, for each other, for our future, for our country. That’s how we’ll go forward. That’s how we’ll win. Together.
Standing together. Fighting together. Organizing together. Voting together. Winning together.
Thank you, and God bless you!
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