What I Do
IBEW keeps San Francisco's cable cars running.
IBEW keeps San Francisco's cable cars running.
Thank you, Paul, for that great introduction. And thank you all for inviting me here and for coming here tonight.
I could spend all night recognizing distinguished leaders and old friends. But then you’d never invite me back.
I do want to thank two representatives of the Republic of Ireland: Mr. Phil Hogan, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, and Mr. Michael Lonergan, the Consul General for Boston.
When I read your invitation, one number leaped off the page. This is your 276th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner. That means that the Irish have been in Boston longer than some of the snobs who hung out those signs that said, “No Irish need apply.”
I also read that the Charitable Irish Society organized the first celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in the 13 colonies, back when July 4th was just another sweltering summer day.
Now, as a proud New Yorker, Boston’s historic first just plain hurts. You know, I’ve served as grand marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Manhattan. And I’ve marched in many more. And I never knew that, when it came to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, Boston beat us to it.
From recent reports from the Vatican Conclave, it sounds like Boston almost achieved another huge first—as being the home diocese of the first Irish-American pope.
Before I go any further, though, I have to acknowledge one other thing that sets the Charitable Irish Society apart from many other Irish American organizations. I’m talking about your diversity.
After all, this dinner isn’t only bringing together Democrats and Republicans, and labor and management. I understand that, from its founding, the Charitable Irish Society has also included Protestants as well as Catholics. You aren’t only bipartisan – you are ecumenical. And I admire you for it.
But that did create a problem for me. When I got dressed for this occasion, of course I made sure to wear some green. But this is the first St. Patrick’s Day in my life when I had to wonder whether I should also wear something orange.
On a more serious note, I want to express my admiration for the great work that the Charitable Irish Society has been doing for more than two centuries.
As waves of Irish immigrants came to this country, you opened your hearts and offered your hands. I am happy to join you in raising funds to provide aid, assistance, and hospitality to recent Irish immigrants as they adjust to and assimilate into their new country.
That tradition of mutual aid – and looking out for “the least among us” – is at the heart of our heritage. And it is the core commitment of an American institution that the Irish have done so much to build.
You have asked me to discuss how the American labor movement reflects our roots as Irish Americans.
Well, just look around this room. From the look of things, almost all of us are prosperous. Some of us seem to be very prosperous.
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t hold anyone’s good fortune against them. As Vice President Joe Biden would say, “God love you.”
As many of us learned growing up, you should go as far as you can– as long as you don’t forget where you came from.
One reason why we’ve been able to get ahead can be spelled in only six letters: Unions.
Even if you never belonged to a union yourself, chances are that one of your parents or grandparents belonged to a union. Almost all of us have a construction worker, a longshoreman, a nurse, a teacher, a police officer, or a telephone worker somewhere in our families.
And, because they earned union wages and had secure health and retirement plans, they were able to put something aside for the next generation.
Unions also help build strong families and communities. As we learned when we were growing up, we should work to live, but we shouldn’t have to live only to work. Unions won the 40-hour week, allowing us time to spend with our families, be of service to our communities, and worship our Creator in our churches – the things that make us fully realized human beings.
And it’s not just what unions win at the bargaining table. It’s what we’ve won in politics.
You know, one thing New York does have over Boston is that three of the five presidents of the AFL-CIO have been Irish Catholics from the Bronx, where I grew up.
One of them was a plumber named George Meany. In front of my old office in the AFL-CIO building, we have a display of the pens that President Johnson gave George Meany after he signed Medicare, college student aid, the civil rights law, the voting rights law, and other landmark legislation.
Labor put its muscle behind these laws, not only for the sake of union members but all Americans.
And the fight for workers’ rights is also part of the freedom struggle in Ireland. Tonight we’re celebrating not only St. Patrick’s Day but also another great event. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the historic Dublin General Strike of 1913.
One hundred years ago, the working people of Dublin had enough of poverty, exploitation and colonial rule. Workers walked off their jobs. Soon, many of their employers locked them out.
By the time the strike ended, the workers of Dublin had begun to build the Irish labor movement. And they had taken a giant step towards the independence of Ireland.
Two leaders of the Dublin General Strike – James Larkin and James Connolly – also lived and worked, organized and agitated for workers’ rights here in America.
They found a ready audience among Irish Americans, who were already among the founders and leaders of American unions.
In fact, there’s a lively debate about who originated Labor Day, although everyone agrees it was an Irishman who produced his name “Maguire.” Many believe that P.J. McGuire deserves the credit.
But some historians believe Matthew Maguire, a machinist and the secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York, first proposed the holiday.
As with many of you, I didn’t learn Irish history – or working class history -- from a book. I learned it growing up in an immigrant family.
My parents were born in Ireland, in County Leitrim. Facing hard times in Ireland, they came to this country in 1929. Unfortunately, that was when the Great Depression began in America.
They met in New York City, where my father worked as a bus driver, and my mother as a domestic worker. They married in 1933, and had four children --- me, my brother, and two sisters.
I grew up in the Bronx, in St. Joseph’s Parish.
Three things were central to our lives – family, church and union.
Without the family, there would have been no love.
Without the church, there would have been no hope of redemption.
And, without the union, there would have been no bread on the table.
My father was an early member of the Transport Workers Union – the TWU. Its leader was Mike Quill, an Irish immigrant and a disciple of James Connolly.
Quill spoke with an Irish brogue. His accent got heavier when he had to inspire the members or intimidate management.
Growing up, I saw what the union meant for my father. The union won him the wage increases that let him save up $5,000 to buy a home – outside the city, in a promised land called Yonkers.
Earning money to attend Iona College, I worked summers at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Westchester County, New York. I picked up my first union card as a member of the Service Employees International Union – SEIU – the union I later led as national president.
Over the years, I studied Catholic social teaching, which put into words the lesson that my parents had taught me by example – the timeless truth that there is dignity in all work, and there must be dignity for all workers.
Inspired by those teachings, I quit my first job after college, as a market researcher at IBM, in order to take a pay cut and go to work for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union – the ILGWU.
There weren’t many members or staff at the ILGWU with names like Sweeney. Many more were Jewish, Italian-American, African-American, or Latino.
But it was at the ILGWU’s massive rally in New York’s Garment Center in 1960 that I first heard John F. Kennedy – who would become our first Irish Catholic President – inspire a crowd. His election tore down the religious barrier to our nation’s highest office.
And it set in motion the historic changes that would result in the election of our first African-American President Barack Obama. I couldn’t help but laugh appreciatively when President Obama returned from an official visit to Ireland, saying he had searched for the missing apostrophe in the name Obama.
Tearing down the barriers to opportunity. Lifting Americans up. And bringing Americans together.
That is what our labor movement – at our best – is all about.
We’re working with a new generation of low-wage workers, many of them immigrants, including domestic workers, taxi drivers, cleaning workers, and hotel workers.
And we’re also working with young Americans with advanced educations who are having trouble finding their footing in this unstable new economy. From adjunct instructors in our colleges to techies in cutting-edge companies, we are helping these professionals work together for permanent jobs, stable benefits, career advancement, and the opportunity to do their best work.
From generation to generation, unions are part of the American story.
Not long ago, I went back to Yonkers. I stopped by the house that my father had bought our family more than a half century ago.
The woman who lived there was an Irish immigrant, like my parents. Her husband was at work, and her kids were at school.
Walking around the neighborhood, most of the families seemed to be working class. My guess is, there were more African Americans, Italian Americans and Latinos than Irish Americans.
But their stories are much like my parents’. Hardworking families, living paycheck to paycheck.
They’re the families whom the labor movement – and the Charitable Irish Society -- serve.
I’ve been a union member all my adult life. And now I’m proud to be an honorary member of the Charitable Irish Society, as well.
Thank you all for inviting me here, and for the honor of being one of you.
