Thank you, Joe [Hansen ].  It is great to be here with you in Chicago – it’s great to be here with all of you.

History is being made here.  Our labor movement is growing stronger today, and I am proud and honored and truly humbled to be with you, and with my great friend and brother, Ken Georgetti.

Brothers and sisters, the UFCW is a proud and powerful union, and, Joe you’re a proud and principled leader.  Bold and courageous, too.  And I’m proud to stand by your side. 

And I'm proud -- damn proud -- that the letters U. F. C. W. will be on the wall in the entrance hall at the AFL-CIO! 

On behalf of the 12 million working men and women of the affiliate unions of the AFL-CIO, I want to welcome you to the federation -- We’re stronger together.

But I want to add something: I want each and every one of you to know I believe the action you took in 2005 was about increasing your organizing and activism, and I think you’re doing the same thing today – and that’s what working people need.

And I want to compliment all of you on your creative organizing -- particularly your activism at Walmart, and your toughness.  And I admire the solid work of the Strategic Organizing Center.

My friends, Joe and I have been working together and standing together for a long time.  We came together as a couple of trade unionists, bent on navigating a tough political landscape, and helping to engineer some needed wins for working people.

We all fought side-by-side for Obamacare, and we'll keep fighting to make it better, and to make damn sure every American has access to quality, affordable health care. 

We fought side-by-side in the fiscal crisis, and to defend Social Security and Medicare, and we will fight for food stamps and other pieces of the social safety net, because we won't let the far right destroy America's moral center!

We fought for immigration reform, and we're not done, not until America has a true and workable path to citizenship for the millions of people who are American in every way but on paper.

And we stood together and won in our fight for a full National Labor Relations Board, and by damn, it feels good to win, and we're going to win again and again!
 
Sisters and brothers, we have done a lot of good work together, and we're going to do a lot more.
We stand together.  We struggle together.  And we're stronger together.

Sisters and brothers, I'm also proud to say UFCW's own Tefere Gebre of the Orange County Labor Federation will join my ticket for re-election this September -- as our candidate for Executive Vice President.

I couldn't be more excited about Tefere.  He's a true trade unionist.  He's an idea person.  He works hard.  He knows how to build power and he knows how to win.

Together – all of us -- we will transform the American labor movement into a forward-looking movement -- a winning movement.

We have a common vision and shared values, and it starts with the belief that each of us -- every one 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 with that vision to unify us, we will take our country back, because working men and women make America run!

We staff the stores.  We drive the taxis, teach the children, and build the roads.  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 the price.  Because this is our America! 

Brothers and sisters, America needs our labor movement now more than at any time since the Great Depression, and I take that responsibility very seriously.

You know the deal. You know how global free trade has emptied our factories and closed our mills.  Plants that used to produce television sets for households around the world today only produce dry weeds in an empty parking lot.

We all know the deal.  As the good jobs left, all our working families have suffered from financial insecurity, everybody except the CEOs, and the 1%, who have taken 84 percent of income gains since 1979!

The far-right has used that insecurity to divide us against each other, to attack our public education, as if teachers and firefighters and nurses are somehow enemies of the state.

Listen, to answer for America's problems some people want to blame public workers, and immigrants, and union workers.

We’ve all heard that.  But it won’t work.  Working people aren’t the problem—no matter where we were born, what we do, or what language we speak.  We never have been.

We know the real problem.  The corporate right-wing replaced an economy built on good jobs, with one built on real estate bubbles and financial crashes.

Well, we know the problem.  And we know who's going to solve it.  We are.  Because working people are the solution, not the problem.

It's time for all of us in America to look in the mirror and ask what kind of country we want to live in, because it's on us to fix it.

My friends, America’s workers -- all workers -- need a powerful labor movement, and together  we will build that movement -- together.

All across America, we see extraordinary men and women who are organizing in the face of entrenched anti-unionism.

What I’m talking about goes far beyond right-to-work-for-less, or other cute and deceptive code words used by the right.

What I'm talking about is a deep and poisonous 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 -- we must 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 America doesn't want discrimination, poverty, and unchecked private enterprise.

America is ready for a better day.  Our nation 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 New York City, and Austin, and just look at the car wash workers in Los Angeles and New York and right here in Chicago, and look at the growing strikes by fast food workers.

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.

And let me tell you, in the labor movement, we are committed to bringing our institutions up to speed, so we can be the powerful core of unionism we need to be.

I want you to know there has been change at the AFL-CIO and you can expect more change.

We're focused on transparency, and efficiency, and excellence -- from the national level, to our state federations of labor and central labor councils.

We're adopting innovative approaches to organizing.  We’re testing new models, right here in Chicago, and all over the country.

We have asserted a new independence in our political work.  The working men and women of the AFL-CIO will not be the tool of any politician, or any political party.  Not Democrats.  Not Republicans.  Not anybody.

My friends, when it comes to politics, we'll be an equal opportunity labor movement.

I will recognize and applaud any elected leader who stands with working people, whatever their political party.  We won't discriminate.  We'll look at votes.  We'll look at records.

Working people will fight and vote and win for working people.  No exceptions.

We will persevere by taking on the challenges one day at a time.  None of us can see the future -- it's true.

Sisters and brothers, it may be beyond our vision.  But it is certainly not beyond our control.

Nobody else can shape our vision and our values and our destiny.  That responsibility is ours, and ours alone.

Nobody else will transform our visions into reality.  That will be the work of our own hands, working together with common purpose, and a united dream.

I do know one thing: My friends, we are not a fringe group with narrow interests.  We are the mainstream.  We are the majority.  And we’re ready to act 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.

And let me tell you, we are serious about working closely with our allies, with those who share our vision and our democratic ideals.  We're reaching out to them in a fundamentally new way.

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?
 
Sisters and brothers, 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!  America needs that today!

What we want is not too much to ask: A chance for a decent life, fair wages, health care, a secure retirement, education, a better life for our kids and grandkids, a voice in our workplaces, and our democracy for all of us.

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, to put America back on the right track, until we are the movement we need to be, and until working people have a new record of winning!

Friends, like I said, there is no silver bullet.  The labor movement and our allies will have to work hard for every win in the workplace, every win in the economy, every win on Election Day.

It’ll take time.  It’ll take commitment.  It’ll take struggle.

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.  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!