There are many who share the honor you’ve shown me. My partners at the AFL-CIO, Rich Trumka and Arlene Holt Baker. Our talented and committed staff. So many others.
Whatever I’ve been able to contribute is owed in large part to the love and support of my family, some of whom are here – my wife Maureen, my daughter Trish, my granddaughter Kennedy, my brother Jim, my sister Cathy Hammill and her husband Greg, my nephew Bob Kinnally, a Georgetown graduate, my nephew and niece, Tom and Lara Sweeney. I thank you all for your inspiration.
I’m indebted to my mother and father who worked so hard to carve out the immigrant’s dream for their children, who instilled in me the values that have guided my life and made sure I always got to school and church on time.
I’m obligated to the Christian Brothers who patiently tutored me in the wonder of Catholic moral and social teachings, to the janitors of New York City who showed me the relevance of those lessons, to the millions of working families who continue to inspire me through the work they do every day to make our country a wonderful place to live.
My faith has been the bedrock of my life, and for my work to be recognized by this university – which is a center of our faith and of the Jesuit corner of that faith – is a tremendous thrill. It even nudges out being selected some years back to be the Grand Marshall of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
These are not easy times for the 11 million union families I am so privileged to represent or for tens of millions of other working men and women. Their wages have been depressed for 30 years while the corporate profits generated by their labor and the wealth of their bosses have skyrocketed. These patient men and women have responded by putting in more hours, working more jobs, sending more family members into the workplace. Now their slim savings are being depleted by an economic collapse brought on by uncontrolled greed. Jobs are being destroyed, homes auctioned off on the steps of county courthouses from Maine to New Mexico.
Fifteen million of our people are without work, 50 million have no health insurance. Our unemployment compensation funds are running out, our food stamps program is bursting with new enrollees.
The poor and the out-of-work are no longer invisible or abstract figures. They are our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, friends and neighbors.
The American labor movement has been working fiercely to stop this slide into inequality and we are gaining traction in our struggle to turn around our economy and make it work for the many, instead of the privileged few.
We’ve campaigned publicly – and with considerable success – to reform health care so every family can have affordable care.
And we’ve generated tremendous enthusiasm for updating and strengthening our labor laws so all workers can have the unimpeded opportunity to lift up their families by joining a union.
Last year, we brought those reforms to the forefront by electing a champion of working families and our unions — the first African American president in our history — and by seating a progressive majority in the United States Congress.
This year, those successes have kindled a firestorm of meanness that is being fanned by an ugly movement born of racism, nativism, envy and greed.
And so, the issue this summer of the social encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” – by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI – was a timely tonic for my spirit.
The encyclical pulls no punches in setting out stronger standards for our behavior in confronting economic realities in the 21st century.
It exposes the evils of unfettered globalism, shattering the notion that markets can be counted on to regulate themselves or that built-in quotas of poverty and underdevelopment are acceptable ways to make markets work.
Of great importance to me as leader of the American labor movement, the Holy Father reaffirms our belief in government as a legitimate tool for correcting injustice and inequality, and for regulating business. He writes: “The market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak.”
He also reinforces the spiritual teaching that society should honor work — work is a way of worshipping God and participating in God’s ongoing act of creation. Honoring the dignity of work is the core of our shared support for free labor unions, for the absolute right of workers to join together and bargain collectively, and the absolute obligation of corporations to honor those rights and hold themselves to higher standards of social responsibility.
And at the core of the encyclical is Benedict’s point that there is a direct line running from God’s love of each of us to our moral responsibility to do justice and work for justice.
“Caritas in Veritate” is a deepening addition to the more than 100 years of encyclicals that have shaped our enduring values.
Our unions try to live these values — and have put them into action campaigning to enact great social legislation — civil rights, voting rights, equal employment opportunity, the minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Today, our values call us to bring even greater good to society with universal health care, job creation, stewardship of our planet’s resources, stronger regulations governing our financial industry, trade laws respecting workers rights’ around the globe, new protections for today’s immigrants and federal legislation to restore workers’ freedom to form unions.
We are grateful that the Church has worked with us over the years to guarantee this freedom to all workers, importantly including men and women who labor in Catholic health care institutions. And we are especially thankful for the work of this university on behalf of workers and their unions, supporting the efforts of campus employees and subcontracted employees to lift up their families.
We applaud the creation of your wonderful new initiative for labor and the working poor which puts the considerable influence and resources of Georgetown University behind our shared commitment to just workplace relations, especially on behalf of low-wage and immigrant workers.
And we ask that you continue to support our labor movement as we raise a reasoned voice to counter the angry shouts of those who want to deny what Benedict calls “clear proof” of the “pernicious effects of sin” in our economic life.
Last week, we all mourned the passing of our brother Ted Kennedy, whose public leadership on these issues was well known. What was not as well known, but emerged, were the details of his personal efforts to help so many people — daily demonstrations of the obligation we share to care for the sick and the poor, to comfort the bereaved and the downtrodden, to offer a hand up to the less fortunate.
The media characterized his private acts of kindness and concern, as well as his public political record, as the work of the “liberal lion of the Senate.” To me, they were the accomplishments of a man trying to live his life as a dedicated Catholic guided not so much by “liberal” values but by Christian values.
While I can never match Teddy’s contribution to our country, the values I learned from Catholic social teachings have likewise guided my work and my life.
I take the honor you’ve bestowed on me this evening as a mandate to continue that work and I thank you for your remarkable support.
Thank you so much.
