What I Do
Deborah Cannada, Librarian - West Side Elementary School, Charleston, WV.
Deborah Cannada, Librarian - West Side Elementary School, Charleston, WV.
Thank you, Mike [Goodwin], for that generous introduction. And thank you for inviting me to your convention.
Before I begin today, I’d like to say a few words about your president and offer a few ideas about solidarity and then talk about where we, as trade unionists, stand in the world today.
Mike knows about solidarity. He knows how to build union power. He’s not afraid of a head-on, old-fashioned labor fight like the powerful Las Vegas taxi workers strike that ended last month. That was a long and hard struggle, and it was the right fight.
I want to acknowledge how tough those struggles can be. But we can never forget that every time we stand up for ourselves and for each other, we stand for every working person who wants to share in the value we create, we stand for every person who wants -- just like we all do -- a piece of the American Dream.
I agree with your effort to rebuild your strike fund—so it’s there when you need it. All of us need a cushion, some insurance so to speak as we continue to push for fairness, for dignity, for security and respect. And I don’t want to stir up the water, but we all need to be prepared for the worst as your members seek a fair deal at BlueCross/BlueShield and Red Cross and every one of the diverse industries where you work.
Brothers and sisters, we may have many different lines of work, different talents and skills, but all of us share a basic core belief in the value of the work we all do -- not some of us -- all of us.
And, to be perfectly frank with you, all across our labor movement, we’re focusing on our central vision, our basic values, because at the end of the day, our vision and our values are held, embraced and cherished by the vast majority of us in America.
We’re not a fringe group with narrow interests. We’re the mainstream, and it’s time we acted like it.
Quite frankly, I think you’re going to see, at the AFL-CIO convention this September, a labor movement that looks a lot more like a winning movement than maybe you’ve seen in the past. We’re taking on the issues. 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 next four years that will dramatically improve our ability to make a difference in the lives of everyday working people.
America is ready for us. You’re starting to see the signs all over this great nation. More and more people have begun to understand, and to take seriously, the idea that we can stand together, for a voice in our democracy and on the job for decent wages, workplace safety, health care and retirement security.
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. Those are just a few examples. We’ve been seeing sparks of solidarity even in the most anti-union environments. And the unions of the AFL-CIO have been organizing and winning traditional drives as well.
At the same time, we have an unprecedented push for true immigration reform with a realistic and workable path to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring citizens who live and work right here in San Diego and in every community in America today.
I’m talking about a true movement for justice for people who pay taxes, buy groceries and raise families, who share the same basic vision as the rest of us -- that each of us, if we play by the rules and work hard, if we do our part -- we can expect to build a decent life. That’s the American Dream.
That’s not too much to ask.
And, by God, just as immigration policy is always truly work policy, so the immigration movement is a movement of working people for working people, and I believe it’s part of the same big movement that we’re building to see to it that America works for working people again.
Sisters and brothers, we’re going to take our country back, because we make America run! We drive the taxis and make the roads. 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. We’re the American labor movement, and we will not be denied!
I want to be absolutely straight with you. A moment ago, I said our values are mainstream values, and I meant exactly what I said, but don’t believe for a minute I think all’s right in the world of labor.
America’s working people need a strong labor movement, like no time since the Great Depression.
I’ll take that one step farther: The American economy needs a strong labor movement, like no time since the Great Depression.
And the hard and bitter truth is our labor movement today has a long ways to go before we can be all the movement America needs.
Union density in the private sector is less than 7 percent, lower than any time in the past century. And the attacks on us just keep coming. You know it. I know it. Politicians across America are constantly launching more assaults on our ability to form strong unions. I’m talking about the right to work for less laws, and paycheck deception, attempts to cripple the NLRB -- a whole raft of anti-worker actions.
We’re faced with a choice. We’re either going to make excuses, point the finger of blame, or we’re going to take the responsibility on ourselves to do something about it.
Yes. Wall Street is a problem. It’s run by short-sighted CEOs who would tear down our country for a dollar, but we’re not going to waste time waiting for them to see the error of their ways. If we do, it’ll be a long, long wait. I can promise you that!
Yes, not just our political opponents—but our political allies can be frustrating, too. As our membership numbers drop, so does the legislative support our movement once took for granted.
The truth is, the labor movement today is vulnerable. Some people think it’s a mistake to say that out loud, but I’m not so worried about that.
Working people and labor unions have been vulnerable for years. And no amount of bluster or head-in-the-sand insistence that everything is fine will change that reality.
You see, it’s our job to fix the American economy, to rebuild the world’s greatest middle class. We’re not going to wait for our opponents to stop coming after us. That’ll never happen. We’re fighting back right now, and we’ll use our so-called weaknesses as an advantage.
You know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention.
We’ve got all the necessity we need, and we’re full-throttle in invention-mode.
We’re looking at ways to meet the needs of workers who have been shut out of the labor movement by inadequate laws and ruthless employers. We’re going to do better. We have to do better. And if you want to see political power, wait until we have 20 million members instead of 12 million!
Our goal must be to use the institutions of our unions to continue to build genuine movement of working people—inside unions, outside unions, never heard of unions, private-sector and public-sector, white collar, blue collar and green collar, so we can bring all of us together.
That’s what my union, the United Mine Workers, did under John L. Lewis with the organizing committees that also built the other great unions of today, the Laborers, the Communication Workers, and OPEIU. Our goal must be to take the tools of unionism and use them every way we can.
The growth of unions in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s didn’t come about by accident, but as a result of hard work, of creative and relentless work. And that’s what it will take to bring it about again today.
You’ve got a witness to history, right here at this convention, and he’ll tell you the same thing. I’m talking about Charlie Ponti, who helped build OPEIU from the ground up.
Charlie will tell you the secret isn’t rocket science. It’s a lot of hard work, and you’ve got to take it day by day, and always believe that what seems impossible can be possible, if we hold the absolutely 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.
It’s time for us to stop wishing the world were different. It’s time to make it different.
And when people ask you about the state of the American labor movement—and I know they do—don’t sing them a sob story of decline, or how hard our struggles are. Tell them we’re on it. Tell them the labor movement has a lot of fight in it. Tell them we have no intention of going quietly into the night. We’ve got clear eyes and a goal in sight.
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 change. Expect a day soon — it won’t happen by itself, we’ve got to work for it and fight for it — when the income gap between the richest and the rest of us stops getting wider and begins to shrink.
Expect a day soon — we’ve got to work for it — when America starts creating the good jobs again, and wages and benefits begin to climb.
Expect a day — it’s coming — when workers are recognized again for the contributions we make to our society, our economy and our communities.
We’ll work for it. We’ll fight for it. We’ll stand together! We’ll win together! Shoulder-to-shoulder, 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, I promise you, we will keep going, keep marching, keep fighting, until we restore our solid track record of winning!
Brothers and sisters, working people in America today are motivated. We’re activated. We’re energized. Quite frankly, we don’t have a hell of a lot of choice.
And I absolutely do believe the labor movement will come out on the right side of these fights, stronger than ever before, bigger than ever, broader and tougher than we have been for generations, with more allies, more partners, and no regrets, no excuses.
A common thread runs between the members of all our unions, between working people everywhere, and between all of our issues -- issues like transportation, education, energy and jobs, issues like protecting Social Security and Medicare, expanding health care, and immigration reform, and collective bargaining rights.
What we can’t achieve alone, we can achieve together. We will unite not as partisan political activists but as people who share a belief in the dignity of work, all work, who cherish our faith in basic American principles -- like the spirit of democracy, and that old idea that we’re stronger together.
Sisters and brothers, these values and principles connect us all, and they have been a winning combination in American history since before the founding of our great nation.
Working people want and need progress in America today, and that’s what we aim to achieve.
We’ll 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, for our grandchildren. And we will never, ever, give up. We will always, always, go forward. And together, we will win, for our children, for our families, for our future, for our country. That’s how we’ll go forward. That’s how we’ll win. Together! Together!
Thank you! And God bless you!
