They overreached—it was fun to watch the Republican spin-meisters this morning stumble around—they kept trying to shift the focus to Issue 3 -- the health care initiative because they know this is a signal and they've awakened a sleeping giant for 2012.  

Especially after you do something like getting your governor's Smart Grid veto over-ridden. Now that's how we create good jobs! Congratulations!  

What is up with that governor of yours?  

Illinois is a great example to the rest of the country that no one can be complacent in the political era of serving the 1% at the expense of the 99%.  It's a reminder that the labor movement is in politics for one reason only: To represent the interests of working people. Our job and our commitment are to be an independent voice in politics—and in everything we do—for working women and men. It's a great reminder that we have to hold all politicians accountable, and not think for a minute that party affiliation alone makes someone a friend of working families. We've got to constantly keep the heat on our opponents—and on our supposed friends—to cast their votes and use their leadership to win on the issues that matter most in the lives of people who work. 

And today what matters most is jobs.

Look at any poll, any survey. Jobs are what America's working people care about. Not debt. Not austerity. And definitely not holding onto tax breaks for the rich and Wall Street and the Financial District in Chicago—the Occupy Wall Street movement is showing everyone just how people feel about that!

People in Illinois are suffering from the lack of jobs—our IBEW members sure know about that.

But politics in America is upside down.

Instead of making job creation their Number 1 priority, too many politicians in our states and in Congress are obsessively focused on stopping investments in the future, hacking the budget, and trying to convince us that we're too broke to afford teachers, retirement and a middle class.

America isn't broke—but something certainly is broken in America. 

Our politics is what's broken. 

The willingness to work together for the common good is what's broken.  The determination to lift our economy and create a competitive future for our country by investing in jobs—that's what's broken.  All because of political gamesmanship—aren't you sick of it?! 

Sisters and brothers, we have a jobs crisis, not a debt crisis—a jobs crisis!

Thankfully, President Obama is focusing on it and talking about it—and the parts of his American Jobs Act he's pushing are what we need to start job creation—and to require millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes to get this country working again. Don't get me wrong, we have our disagreements with the president, like you do with your governor. When he comes up short, we're the first to call him out.  On jobs, he's doing the right thing, the courageous thing. And now it's time for us to have his back.

So I'm asking you all to take part in the America Wants to Work campaign that's holding congressional feet to the fire all over the country, hosting tours of bridges and roads that desperately need repair in communities that desperately need jobs, putting the spotlight on people desperate to find jobs and get back to work.

Is everyone here committed to the fight for good jobs? I thought so. Are you on our jobs team? We need you to join up right now.  Literally, if you can, take out your phone and text JOBS to 235246. Did you catch that? One more time: text JOBS to 235246. You'll get messages about the campaign for good jobs and you'll hear when you can help get good jobs created here in America.

I won't spend more time talking about the dire shape of the economy—no one needs to tell you about job loss and stagnant wages, especially our brothers and sisters here in manufacturing and construction. No one needs to tell you about the challenge of negotiating contracts in times of austerity. Or about the housing crisis, the attacks on collective bargaining rights and benefits.  

But I do want to spend a moment on one reason our economy's in the shape it's in for working families.  

The movement we love so much is shrinking. Union membership, as a share of the workforce, has been in a steady decline for more than 30 years. In 1964, union members like us made up 29.3 percent. Now we're just 11.9 percent—and shrinking more.  Among private-sector workers, less than 7 percent are union members—that's about the same percentage as the share of Americans who believe that Elvis Presley is alive.  That's not me trying to be funny—that's a fact.  

I can't overstate how serious this is. You know how serious this is. It's about losing our leverage to bargain good contracts, our power to pressure leaders to create and retain good jobs, our capacity to win elections, our ability not only to make new gains for working families, but to hang on to what we fought so hard for in the past.  

It's a quiet crisis that the AFL-CIO is working to address in three main ways: (1) by fighting like hell for good jobs now—I talked some about that already, (2) by broadening our reach beyond the labor movement and beyond our traditional constituencies and (3) by re-introducing unions to the public.  

We're reaching deep into our communities and forming new alliances with workers who don't have unions—including some who are excluded from labor laws because they/re classified as "independent contractors."  

We're engaging the unemployed, and enlisting blue-collar nonunion workers in our community affiliate, Working America. We've just issued a charter making the National Taxi Workers Alliance our newest union. Carwash workers in LA just won the first-ever union contract at a carwash. We have new partnerships with domestic workers like housekeepers and nannies who have no legal protections on the job.   

These are some of the most vulnerable working people you can imagine, forced by unscrupulous employers to work too many hours for too little or no pay in dangerous conditions—in the shadows, outside the view of government regulators.  

We are partnering with them because they need us. They need the strength of the union movement behind them.  

But we're also partnering with them because we need them even more.  We learn from their determination. We are inspired by their energy and their courage.    

And if we're going to get our states and this country back on track, all of us need to be part of a bigger, stronger movement.  Bigger and stronger.  

Sisters and brothers, we've got to give our labor movement a future.  

That's why I'm so passionate about the AFL-CIO's work to engage young workers. I know we have a young workers group in Chicago—and we're working on getting one started in Southern Illinois.  

Is anyone here from Chicago Young Workers?  

Several weeks ago we held the AFL-CIO's Next Up Young Workers Summit in Minneapolis—which was three days of amazing energy and inspiration.  

Eight-hundred young union members and activists came together to talk about the effect this economy has had on their generation—120 were from the IBEW!– and instead of just sitting back—they are doing something about it—mobilizing actions; educating their peers; taking on leadership roles in their communities—and speaking out.  

There was so much happening all at once, between the plenary speakers, the workshops, breakout sessions, caucuses, the jobs march, a Verizon Action, the texting and tweeting and Facebook posts.  It was amazing how much multi-tasking was going on!  

I know it's not always easy to fully engage young people in our unions—and our leadership tracks. But it's worth it.  

The energy around jobs and creating a just economy that works for all was the focus of the summit—so it was no surprise that as the Occupy Wall Street movement was building and gaining momentum in New York, the Next Up delegates were inspired and decided to draft a statement of support that happened organically from the floor, and they passed it overwhelmingly on the final day of the summit. The initiative they took contributed to the momentum behind the AFL-CIO's public support of the Occupy movement.  

Occupy is an important opportunity to connect our labor movement to young people outside our ranks, who may not even know the labor movement exists. If our labor movement is going to survive, we have got to show young people why unions are relevant to their lives.  

And it's not just young people who are unfamiliar with or have misinformation about unions. It's the public. Period. One of the harshest stereotypes unions are branded with is that we belong to the past. That we're unwilling to change, past our prime, meant for another era—that we aren't needed in today's modern workplace. That's not all -- what else? You've heard them -- that we're lazy, that we are bad for business and forcing companies to ship jobs overseas.  

We know that's not true but, with our shrinking density, many people have no first-hand experience with a union at all. Some young people have never even met a union member. They have no clue what unions do for individuals, for working families, for communities, for our country.

That's why we're undertaking an initiative to "reposition" unions—re-introducing ourselves to the public. Telling our story—letting people know the benefits of what unions do and spotlighting the good work of our members. Most of the public only hears about unions when we're in some kind of confrontation—a strike or a political battle. And of course, we want everyone to hear our message to Verizon, for example.  

But the public rarely hears union members talking about the difference a new contract makes for their children, or what paid sick leave and good health coverage means to a parent. They don't hear about your amazing training programs.  They don't hear about those apprenticeships putting local young people on the road to middle-class jobs. They don't hear about the charitable work our locals do and how important our members are to communities in natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes.  

So we need to show the good that we do every day. But we have to make sure reality matches what we're showing. Sometimes that will mean changing our behavior—being more transparent, encouraging innovation and quality work. The IBEW is way out ahead on this because of what you've done to create and implement your Code of Excellence—again, that's a model for all of us. The partnerships you have forged with management.  

Repositioning unions probably sounds complicated little overwhelming—the research and data that go into it certainly are. So we're preparing training materials that will break it all down and turn it into something unions, state federations and local labor councils can get their arms around and put to use every day, and you can expect to see those soon—so this is a heads-up.  

At the heart of our repositioning is this simple concept: Work connects us all. The electrician relies on the autoworkers who made his truck. The autoworker relies on the teacher educating her child. The teacher counts on the firefighter when a kitchen towel gets too close to a gas burner. The firefighter relies on all of us to protect his collective bargaining rights when they're under attack by his governor.  

We're connected by the value we place on work in our lives. A job is a paycheck, how we take care of our families and get health care and retirement security. But it's a lot more than that, too. Work gives a special meaning to our lives—it's a source of pride, it's knowing we're giving something back, contributing. Work is what we do—and it connects us all.  

I am grateful for the deep connection of work I have with my sisters and brothers of the IBEW.  I owe so much to you, for believing in me, for sticking with me, for being a union that allowed me to work my way up.  

I'm grateful that I can always look to the IBEW and know that this union—my union—has the will, the commitment and the pride to take on the tough jobs and get them done. Whether it's over-riding a veto, keeping the power on, building a ship, wiring a building, editing a video—or taking back the economy for working families, the working men and women of IBEW can make it happen.  

You are the best—and I will always be proud that you're my home.   

Thank you.