I am delighted to be here with you once again. I bring you greetings from your 13 million brothers and sisters in the trade union movement. And I salute you for the contributions that the A. Philip Randolph Institute makes day in and day out to the cause of working Americans.

The topic you asked me to address -- "The Black Labor Alliance: Strengthening the Partnership for Economic Justice" -- couldn't be more important or more timely. We meet at a time in which the forces of reaction, privilege and greed have temporarily succeeded in gaining control of the Congress and of many of our state governments. They threaten to undo much of what we have accomplished together over the past thirty years or more. Our alliance is therefore needed today perhaps more than ever before.

We also meet at a momentous time in the history of the labor movement. The impending change of leadership of the AFL-CIO creates an occasion to reassess where we are as a labor movement and where we are heading. That is an exceedingly healthy process,
and one which I welcome.

There is now a generally shared recognition of the need to revitalize and reinvigorate our movement. The times demand a stronger, more self-sufficient labor movement. Such a movement requires strong national and international unions with a strong Federation at its core. That makes it incumbent upon the next president of the AFL-CIO to put forth a bold program of innovation that will capture the imagination of the labor movement and to build the breadth of support needed to propel us forward.

Certainly one of the first priorities of the next President of the AFL-CIO must be to strengthen our alliances and to rebuild our capacity for effective legislative and political action. The black-labor partnership is, of course, integral to that process.

Our alliance rests on two strong legs. First, our common interests. And second, our common values.

Our community of interests was eloquently articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King more than 30 years ago in addressing the 1961 AFL-CIO Convention. Some of you were no doubt there, and heard Dr. King's speech. Others of you have heard me quote the speech on other occasions. But Dr. King's words bear quoting again.

"Negroes," Dr. King said in the language of that day, "are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor's needs -- decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community."

Those remain the needs of African-Americans -- and of all working families -- today. And out of those needs arise our common values and our common mission: to create a society in which all of us -- black and white, male and female, Christian, Muslim and Jew -- are able to satisfy our basic human needs. A society which affords working people the dignity and honor they deserve and which lives by the democratic principles it professes.

Indeed, one of the great lessons that Phil Randolph taught us -- and that Norm Hill continues to reinforce -- is that there are really no distinctions between black issues, women's issues, or labor issues. They are all part of the seamless fabric of human issues -- of the quest for human justice.

Today, the values which we share -- and the interests we seek to advance -- are under siege. The right-wingers have targeted America's working families as well as children, the aged, and the infirm. They're out to destroy the government programs that assist them and the laws that protect them, including many of the employment laws we have fought so hard to secure -- from the Occupational Safety and Health Act to the 40 hour week.

Our unions are the last bastion of defense. And the African American-labor alliance is critical to that defense and to our shift to offensive strategy in our political work.

What, then, can we do to strengthen our alliance and to redouble our efforts to advance economic justice? And more particularly what can the AFL-CIO do to aid in that process?

Your focus is, appropriately enough, on the here and now -- on the legislative and political battles we face and will be facing in 1996 -- but let me begin by suggesting that in the long term the most important single step we can take to advance our cause would be to bring thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands upon tens of thousands more working men and women -- men and women of every race, creed, color and religion -- into our movement. When I joined the trade union movement, roughly four in ten workers in this country belonged to a union. Today, in the private sector, the number is closer to one in ten. Indeed, when I first had the honor of addressing this body thirteen years ago I was able to bring you greetings from 15 million brother and sister trade unionists. Today, you may note, I brought greetings from 13 million.

More troubling still, if present trends were to continue, within ten years only one in twenty private sector workers would be part of our movement.

The good news is that "present trends" won't continue -- they never do (which is why economists spend so much time alone). But more importantly, we cannot and we will not allow those trends to continue.

Some have suggested that labor unions are "no longer relevant" to today's workers. I couldn't disagree more. Even if union membership were ever to reach the end of the road, trade unionism still would be the most vital, most meaningful force in the work life of its last 100 members, assuring the recognition of their dignity and the decency of their working conditions.

But such a labor movement would no longer be a major force in our society. It would no longer help set labor standards. It would no longer be able to represent working families in the body politic.

We cannot allow that to happen. We all know the extraordinary obstacles that unorganized workers face in trying to create independent representation in their workplace. But we also all know that salvation will not come from on high. Things won't change until we make them change. We can't wait for a better law before we go about the task of organizing the unorganized.

We have all heard -- and given -- stirring speeches about the importance of organizing. But the truth is that no one and no institution -- and I include the AFL-CIO in this -- is doing enough. All of us can, should and must do more -- and I mean do more, not just talk more.

If words could organize workers, we'd be four or five times our present size. If the rhetoric about change could change us, we'd be reeling under its effects. It is easy to talk about these things -- a lot harder to make them happen. But rhetoric won't do it -- only hard work will. Let me tell. I know. I've been there, I've done it, as everyone in this room knows.

For the Federation's part, while we cannot do the critical front line work of organizing unorganized workers, the Federation must energize the organizing process and assist the work of our affiliates.

One way to do that is to continue to develop the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute which opened its doors in 1990 as a two-person operation and which I am proud to say we have grown into one of the largest programs of the Federation. Since 1990, the Institute has graduated nearly 400 organizers. This year alone we will graduate another 150 or more organizers. More than half of these graduatesare women or persons of color. These organizers are now involved in just about every large organizing campaign within our movement.

In my view, we need to expand the Organizing Institute until it can graduate enough organizers each year to meets the needs of every union in the Federation, and we need to push very union toneed them.. Whatever the cost, that is something we must find the way to do.

I also believe the Federation should create a multi-million dollar organizing trust fund to be used to stimulate and support organizing projects which are of strategic importance to the movement as a whole and to which interested unions make substantial commitments of their own. By leveraging our resources, the AFL-CIO can serve as the catalyst for a renewed focus on organizing.

The first group that I would propose we reach out to with this kind of organizing effort are the low-wage workers in this nation -- a disproportionate number of whom are immigrants, African Americans and other persons of color. The sorry truth is, for example, that more than one-third of all African American workers in this country earns less than $7.00 an hour. All these low-wage workers belong in our movement. And, tragically their ranks are expanding rapidly; the number and proportion of full-time worker whose earnings are below the poverty level doubled in the past fifteen years.

If we're going to organize these workers we must make sure that the representatives of our unions reflect the diversity of today's workplace. That commitment must begin with our organizers but cannot end there. Rather it must extend to all levels of the trade union movement.

We at the AFL-CIO have been working at this at the staff level and I am proud to say that in the past ten years almost half of the newly-appointed department heads have been women or minorities. Our staff clearly reflects the inclusion of women and people of color and I'm proud so many of them are here. And we've seen the beginning of change -- but only its beginning -- in our state federations and city central bodies.

Because I believe the time has come to make the same commitment with respect to the top leadership of the AFL-CIO -- and to give reality to what up to now has been promises -- I have asked Barbara Easterling, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Communication Workers, to be my running mate as the candidate for Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO. Barbara is one of the highest ranking women -- as well as one of the most able leaders -- in our movement. She's going to make an outstanding Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO and hold one of the two, mainstream leadership posts in the Federation. (Only my high regard for the incumbent keeps me from saying she will be the best in recent memory.)

I also announced last week that if, as I expect, the Executive Council elects me in August to fill the remainder of President Kirkland's term, I intend as one of my first act to appoint a special committee to reexamine the Federation's entire structure and its decision-making processes. We need to make sure that they are as open and inclusive as possible and are capable of decisive action.

It would be a mistake, in my view, to rush to make structural change in a time of partisan politics and without achieving the breadth of support on which Federation action must always rest. But I am confident that with strong leadership we can reach agreement over restructuring the Federation to make it more inclusive and more effective.

Barbara Easterling's election as Secretary-Treasurer and the revamping of our governing structure will, I believe, help to shatter any remnants of a glass ceiling in our movement holding back women, African Americans and other persons of color. We need the fullest participation of all of our members if we are to realize our full potential -- and to live up to our own ideals. Indeed, we created a special Committee on Full Participation last year which John Sturdivant is chairing; that Committee already has presented a partial report to the Council and will present a full report to the Convention.

But we cannot wait until we realize the ideal of full participation -- or until we succeed in reorganizing the workforce -- to mount our defense of workers' right and to wage our crusade for economic justice in this country.

You have been focusing at this conference on the many critical issues facing us, so I won't go back over that ground. You know what the Republican agenda means for working families, and especially for African Americans. Less money for the education of our kids. Fewer opportunities for college education. Drastic reductions in health care coverage for the elderly and the poor. Longer hours, lower pay, and unsafe and unhealthy workplaces. And the destruction of a real voice on the job.

To mount our defense -- and get back on the offensive -- we need to develop a grassroots mobilization effort that will put the Christian Coalition, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, to shame. The right wingers and the corporate interests learned political organizing from us and they've poured their millions into refining these techniques in the service of the privileged few.

We're never going to be able to match the other side dollar for dollar, although I believe we have to narrow this gap substantially. But I'll put the vitality of our trade union activists -- the men and women in this room -- up against them any day of the week, so long as we give our activists the tools.

We have finally reached the point where virtually all unions supply our COPE program with their membership lists so we can mount coordinated political efforts -- although there are still a few of our largest affiliates who remain outside this process and at the same time are somewhat critical of our political efforts. We have to continue to try to persuade them of the need for unity in these efforts and of the program-weakening effects of their abstention.

But with or without them, the AFL-CIO now needs to take the next step of building a movement-wide network of activists linked together electronically and capable of being activated on short notice, through the Federation, our affiliates, and our support groups. That, too, is something that must be done whatever the cost.

As important as our activists are, however, our ultimate task is to reach out to each and every rank-and-file member. The truth is we spend much of our time "preaching to the choir." In the meantime, too many trade unionists, especially among our newer and younger members, are members in name only. They joined ongoing unions as a condition of their employment and they have little contact with and sometimes even less understanding of trade unionism.

If we are to build an effective grassroots legislative and political operation, we need to attend to the task of unionizing the already organized. This is another area in which I think no one -- again, including the AFL-CIO -- has done enough.

Like all other organizing, the ultimate responsibility must rest with the individual unions. But here, too, the AFL-CIO can, and should play a strong leadership role.

That's what our campaign to Stand UP for America's Working Families -- which I am so pleased to note has been the focus of this conference -- is all about. In this campaign we have brought together our legislative, political, and communications operatives to develop a coordinate set of messages to explain to our members exactly what the stakes are for them in the Republican agenda.

But the messages of the campaign are just that -- messages. They are of no value unless they are heard, and understood, by our members. And that is where you, and every other trade union activist in our movement, comes in.

We cannot, we dare not, rest until each and every union member -- and each and every member of the public -- understands the threat facing working people and knows who it is that is "leading the fight for America's working families."

For our part, the AFL-CIO has assigned half of its field staff to this campaign. Next week, for example, while Congress is in recess and the Representatives are in their districts, we will have AFL-CIO and affiliate staff in 30, carefully-selected congressional districts to coordinate Stand UP activities from leafletting at plant gates to confronting Congressmen at posh estates. We will be supplementing our staff efforts with a half-million dollar radio and television buy, as part of our largest media buy since the NAFTA campaign which I was proud to lead and which you supported so enthusiastically.

We intend to continue this Stand UP campaign throughout the year, and into 1996. And we need the active participation of each and everyone one of you. We need you to be part of the legislative action committees which now exist in more than one-quarter of all congressional districts to serve as the focal points for an ongoing program of grassroots education. Even more than that, we need you to make sure that week in and week out, our members are aware of what is going on in Washington, and in your state capitols that affects working people. We need to make sure that their voices are heard by their elected representatives. And we need to assure that elected officials who vote against the interests of working people are held accountable by our members for their votes.

As we embark on this campaign to turn the tide in this country, we need to be mindful of what the forces of reaction will do in an effort to divide us. The oldest game known to politicians -- and to defenders of wealth and privilege -- is to divide working people along racial lines, persuading whites or blacks that the other is somehow an opponent.

We already have witnessed the first wave of this divisiveness in the attacks on the Davis-Bacon Act. Non-union construction companies want that law repealed for a very simple reason: they don't want to have to pay prevailing wages to their construction workers. Repealing Davis-Bacon would reduce the wages of all construction workers -- black, brown, yellow and white -- by almost $1,500 a year. That's the real reason why the Davis-Bacon Act -- and its sister, the Service Contract Act -- are under attack.

But the opponents of prevailing wage laws have cleverly sought to disguise their true interests by claiming that Davis-Bacon is an impediment to African-Americans getting training to become skilled craftsmen. That is, of course, patent nonsense. Worse than that,
it is a pernicious argument -- it assumes that blacks are somehow not "worth" the prevailing wage and will only be hired if they can be paid sub-standard wages.

The truth is, of course, precisely the opposite. The truth is that African Americans are more likely to have jobs and get training on Davis Bacon projects, and that in those states which repealed their "little Davis-Bacon laws" the minority enrollment in apprenticeship training dropped from 20% to 12.5%. Moreover, the truth is, as Norm Hill has stated, that because persons of color are most vulnerable and most exploited, "Black, Hispanic, Native American and other minority workers, as well as women and young workers, especially need this law." But the attempt to use the Davis-Bacon Act to drive a wedge between us is only the dress rehearsal for what we know is the coming featured attraction: the assault on affirmative action. That assault began with the right- wing in California which, as Newsweek recently put it, has "a knack for recognizing and speaking to the resentments of white suburbanites."

From anti-communism to anti-taxes to anti-busing to anti- welfare to anti-immigrant and now anti-affirmative action -- it doesn't matter how much or little merit those resentments may have. The California right knows how to play them like a violin -- how to advance the wedge issues that set worker against worker. And they're giving lessons to the rest of the nation's right wingers.

If we are going to respond effectively to this threat, we need to understand what fuels it.

Working families in this country are understandably nervous -- and they are angry. Who isn't? They are working harder and harder, for less, struggling to keep from falling behind.

Just last week the Labor Department reported that in the preceding twelve months -- in the midst of a widespread economic expansion -- average wages plunged by 2.3% and total compensation by 3%. That is the largest one-year decline since the 1840's.

It is all too easy in times like these for demagogues on the right to persuade white families that the reason they are struggling is because affirmative action is giving black families an unfair share of the pie.

We have got to make the case against this nonsense. White families are struggling for the same reason that black families and Hispanic families and Asian families are struggling: because this nation tolerates the most unfair, unequal distribution of income of any industrialized nation.

The Washington Post news article reporting on last week's Labor Department data tells the real story. It is headed "Profits, Markets at a High But Workers Earning Less." Let me read part of that article: "The stock market is at an all-time high, driven by corporate profits that are up 14% over the last year. Worker productivity seems to have reached a new, higher plateau. Businesses are so flush with cash that they are buying back their own stock ... But recent data show that surprising little of this bonanza has been passed on to workers."

Commenting on the data Secretary of Labor Reich said, "The owners of capital are registering huge gains while ordinary working Americans are seeing their incomes fall." This suggests "a major shift from earned to unearned income, from paychecks to dividends and capital gains. Things are simply way out of whack."

The villain is not affirmative action. It is a set of governmental policies that allow low-wage workers to be exploited, that allows our best jobs to be shipped overseas, and that denies
working men and women the right to organize a union and negotiate for decent wages and working conditions.

On affirmative action, the AFL-CIO's position is as clear as it can be. As I said to the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Institute in April, "We support true affirmative action, not the distorted image conjured up by right-wing propagandists, with their claims of quotas and of the hiring of incompetents and the disruption of seniority systems."

"We endorse the real thing -- a set of effective tools to help remedy the colossal injustice of discrimination, to give people an equal chance at good jobs and good education, to make sure that people have a ladder up, to open opportunity for people to use their talents and abilities."

Our movement defines itself by certain ideals: democracy, equality, fair treatment, and a commitment to economic and social justice. We believe that when there is injustice, when those ideals have been violated then there must be redress. That is what we are all about. That is what we stand for.

And so, we can't allow the demagogues on the right to set white against black, native-born against immigrant. We must stand and fight together. For as Phil Randolph taught us, "there are no reserved seats at the banquet table of nature. You get what you can take and you keep what you can hold."

Working together -- standing UP together for America's working families -- we'll be seated at the table. We'll get as much to eat as everyone else gets. And we'll make sure that no one goes hungry.

Working together, we can build the largest, most dynamic trade union movement this nation has ever had and we can make the nation respond. We can make the politicians create an economy with the people at its center -- an economy at the service of the people, not vice versa. And we can make life a whole lot better for the people we are privileged to serve.

Thank you.