Thank you, Doris [Crouse-Mays], for that warm introduction.  And thank you for the role that you play as a leader of the Virginia labor movement.

I also want to thank Ray Davenport for the warm hospitality, and thank you for your leadership as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Virginia State Fed.  

Virginia, they say, is for lovers, and today, that's absolutely true because I love the Virginia labor movement.  

I'm excited to be in the state where workers at the only U.S. Ikea factory voted overwhelmingly to join the Machinists and to be part of our movement.  Congratulations to them and to everyone who helped them gain a union voice on the job!   This has been a pretty good two months for workers who want to join the labor movement and have a voice at work.  I see that AFGE is in the house.  Congratulations to AFGE for their victory in last month's campaign to give a voice to over 40,000 transportation service officers.  

It's wonderful to be out of Washington, D.C.   I have to tell you, in the past month I've been as disgusted as I have ever been.  

Are you as sick and tired as I am of being held hostage?  Of having the future of working families in the immoral, irresponsible hands of people like Eric Cantor?  

I would never try to hold this group accountable for Rep. Cantor ‑‑ you all sure didn't elect him.  But did you hear what told the Wall Street Journal about the sacred promise of Medicare to the American people?  He said we just have to "come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept."  

Just this morning, I was listening to MSNBC when Jim Cramer tried to pin Cantor down on whether or not he would extend unemployment insurance benefits.  Typically, Cantor tried to dismiss it and basically admitted that he would not support the extension.  

Did you hear what he said during the debt ceiling mess?  He said, quote:  "The President spent a lot of time talking about millionaires, billionaires, things that have nothing to do with the debate right now."  

What?  Are you kidding me?

Mr. Cantor, we can tell you what millionaires and billionaires and hedge fund managers and Wall Street bankers should have to do with the debate right now ­­‑‑ they should be told they're going to have to pay their fair share, starting now!  But Cantor and Boehner and McConnell and that whole crop of hostage-taking Republicans is willing to tank America's entire economy to protect them.  

They're also willing to put almost 1,500 Virginians out of work on airport modernization and safety construction by refusing to fund the FAA ‑‑ unless they can take away airline and rail workers' right to a fair, democratic vote in union elections.  

Because of the FAA shutdown, we have 4,000 FAA employees directly impacted and nearly 80,000 construction workers out of work.  Tell me how this makes sense when Congress should be trying to put people back to work and not take away work?  

Sisters and brothers, we've been seeing the Wisconsin attack on workers on steroids.  And union members and all our community allies across the country have been making their voices heard, demanding that Congressional Republicans start acting like adults ‑‑ adults who are in office to serve the public ‑‑ and do their part to take care of this debt ceiling mess.  

Without sacrificing our senior citizens. Without ripping apart the safety woven by generations of thoughtful, responsible Americans. With big corporations and the super-rich paying their fair share.  With the means to create jobs and get this economy on its feet again.  

And put the FAA back to work, too!  

Sisters and brothers, could there be a better incentive than Republican hostage-taking to get our members mobilized for political action?  

You all know what you're doing, and you do it well.  This year, when workers' rights and unions were under such widespread assault, you managed to turn back the most damaging attacks on working families ‑‑ attacks that sought to bury right-to-work-for-less deep in the state's constitution.  

I congratulate you for that.  

But you know what?  I think it's time for us, in Virginia and everywhere, to be able to do more than defend ourselves.  

Do you know what time it is now?  

It's jobs time!  

Time to push back and push back hard on these politicians ‑‑ we sent them to Washington to create jobs and fix the economy for hard-working Americans.  Instead, they stood firm to protect billionaires, and the most profitable companies in America ‑‑ oil companies.  They stood up for hedge fund managers and Wall Street bankers ‑‑ and left working people to fend for themselves!  

America wants to work!   

This fall, I want you to join me in as massive America Wants to Work mobilization.  We'll kick off on Labor Day and build to a National Week of Action in early October to show all the politicians just how much America wants to work!  We're going to shift the national debate away from deficits and austerity and towards good jobs and workers' rights!  

You're going to be at the center of this effort.  We need you to mobilize and educate your members, your friends, your neighbors ‑‑ starting now ‑‑ about the need for good jobs and about the corporate and political interests that are blocking the road we need to get them.  

What we've been doing isn't enough.  We need to do more.  

But how are we going to make any real progress for working families?  What is it going to take to make sure our mobilization and political action really pays off for working women and men?  If what we've done in the past has gotten us here, what are we going to do differently now?  

Sisters and brothers, we are going to build a truly independent movement of working men and women.  

Our job is not to elect any special individual or any political party. Our single job, our sole mission, our only priority, must be to represent the interests of men and women who work, who bring home wages—and to represent them honestly every single day.    

Sometimes our elected officials will walk with us, but other times we must walk ahead to lead the way forward. Certainly, as our national political conversation remains a captive of the hard right-wing, we must show a path toward jobs, toward shared prosperity ‑‑ and out of disparity.  

President Obama and the Democrats have done a great deal ‑‑ but not enough.  We need a lot more.  And we will not be quiet about it.  

But let's be clear about who has been relentlessly attacking working families this year.  The Tea Party Republicans again, and again, and again have been a united front against working people, doing all the harm they can.   

If they had their way, Virginia wouldn't have 4 percent union density.  It would be 2 percent.  Or none.  And the only seats at the table would be reserved for super-rich corporate cheerleaders who fund the Tea Party, and ALEC, and Americans for Prosperity.

You all remember Americans for Prosperity, right?  They're the ones who poured resources into Virginia to unseat your true champions like Tom Perriello, one of the best, most courageous legislators I've ever met.  

And you know ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has a Pandora's box of model legislation ready to unleash again in Virginia's next legislative session.  

So right now, I believe the most important political action we can take is strengthening ourselves ‑‑ our unions and our movement ‑‑ to speak out for all working people, for young people, and veterans, for unemployed workers, and families, for people losing their homes, for public workers, and immigrants, for all workers.  

It will take hard work, but I know the power of what we can do together.  

This doesn't mean we'll stop fighting against injustice ‑‑ the injustice of smaller paychecks, weaker benefits, stolen rights and vilification of public workers.  

We must never stop fighting the injustice of laws like the so-called Save Our Secret Ballot ‑‑ or like the new poll taxes states are imposing in the form of voter ID requirements and voting restrictions.  

No, we will not stop fighting injustice until every worker who needs a job has a job, a good job.  

America wants to work!  

So let's educate and mobilize working people for good jobs ‑‑ our members and other working women and men.  

Let's mentor and raise up young people, and build and strengthen our community partnerships.  

And let's put the political process you know backwards and forwards to work for working families.  

That takes strength in numbers.  So I want you to recruit your members.  Where you had five volunteers last year, I want you to find 10 volunteers this year.  

I know that Saturdays are precious, but everybody has to step up the pace this year.  This is our future at stake!  

The coming elections are our chance to create champions for working families, and to stop others in their tracks.  And you'll be strengthening your unions in the process and building the movement we need.  

Our movement for jobs.

A movement big enough for every worker who wants to form a union to bargain for a better life.  

A movement for an economy that honors the dignity of all workers and our fundamental freedoms every single day.  

A movement for the day when corporations and the rich honor work and reward workers ‑‑ and pay their fair share of taxes ‑‑ instead of poaching off the middle class and the poor.  

We'll work for it.  We'll stand for it ‑‑ together.  To bring out the best in Virginia, and in America.  To bring out the best in ourselves, and each other.  

And we will never, ever back down.  

Thank you, and God bless you and the work you do.