Thank you all.  I can’t tell you what an honor it is to have your trust and confidence, and I thank all of you for your support.

I deeply appreciate the kind things that were said about me by Ed McElroy, Elizabeth Bunn and Bill Burrus, as well as Ed Hill.  So many of you have gone out of your way to express words of support to me personally, and I appreciate them all.

Let me thank Rich and Linda again; they are great traveling partners on this historic road.  And thank you to all the members of our Executive Council.  So many of you have provided wisdom and patient guidance; you are great trade unionists and great leaders. 

I also want to thank my family for their support -- my sister Kathy and her husband Greg, my nieces Christine and Suzanne, my brother Jim -- who are all here today.          My son, John, Jr. couldn’t be with us because this is his busy season as a culinary artist, but my golfing partner is here -- my daughter Trish.          Of course, the person I depend on most is the New York schoolteacher I met when she volunteered to help me in my campaign for Democratic district leader.  We celebrated our 43rd anniversary this week -- my wife Maureen.

This has been a tough few weeks and I’m ready for the Jersey Shore and some family time; family is the most important thing in the world to me.        As many of you have heard me say, my parents were Irish immigrants -- my mother was a domestic worker and my dad was a New York City bus driver and a member of Transport Workers Union Local 1.

Each summer when we’d get to Rockaway Beach for our short vacation, my dad would tilt back in his chair on the porch and say, “Thank God for Mike Quill, and thank God for the union.”

My parents, like many parents today, had a tough life raising four children in the Bronx.  But we had our family, the church and my father’s union -- and the union allowed them to lift our family up.  I thought of them often over the past few months, and especially this week when things have been so contentious and stressful.

Through all the harsh words and the turmoil, I was actually thinking how very lucky I am, not only to have my supportive family at home, but to have the support of my union family -- and I say it to all of you, “Thank God for all of you, because you are the union.”

I also kept remembering a line from the speech I gave 10 years ago at our convention in New York when you first elected me president of our federation when I said, we have to “stick together without getting stuck together.”

I think that’s what we’ve done over the past year as we took a long look at ourselves and our movement, and what we’ve done this week in making so many monumental changes.

Despite the conflicts and even the divisions we’ve suffered, I think we all feel a new sense of clarity about our mission and new energy propelling us toward our goals.

The changes we are making this week are an ambitious blueprint.  What we do in the weeks and months ahead to move forward with focus and fight will determine whether we build the stronger movement we must have, that working families must have. 

As I said on Monday, making things work for working people is what has always mattered to me, and none of us should ever forget what our movement is all about — winning rewards for work and respect for workers.

Over the last eight months, we not only solicited big proposals for change from our affiliates, we asked for ideas and comments from our rank-and-file members and activists.  Over 9,000 of them responded.  And as we finish up the work of this convention, I hope we’ll remember the words of these workers about their unions -- they are the real genius of our movement.

Nelson Eisman, a member of AFT Local 4848 in Madison, Wisconsin said … “The strengths of the labor movement include democracy, fairness and treating everyone the same.”

Alan Melder, a member of the Steelworkers union said … “It has given me and my family a quality of life that I could not even begin to enjoy in southeast Arkansas.”

Wendy Weathers, CWA Local 9415 in Livermore, California had this to say ….  “I know for a fact that the benefits I have did not come from the kindness of AT&T executive officers’ hearts.”

And Joe Sullivan from Great Falls, Virginia said … “No union.  No middle class.  It’s that simple.”

Thank you, Nelson, Alan, Wendy and Joe. This movement belongs to you.  This movement belongs to all of us.  And don’t you ever forget it. 

Thank you to all of you for allowing me to serve you.  Thank you for allowing us to serve you.  God bless you all.