Thank you so much, Bill [Lucy] – there is no brother or sister in our movement that I respect more than you and so your special words this morning have so much meaning for me.  I accept the recognition Bill affords me today only with the recognition that all of you made it possible for me to lead our movement toward genuine diversity, inclusion, and full participation.

    I want to thank the leaders of this effort — there are so many of you and especially our AFL-CIO Executive Council committee members.  And I especially want to thank the director of our program for making this daunting task look comfortable, and easy and achievable — we love you for it, Roz Pelles.

    When I was elected president of the AFL-CIO 14 years ago I said I was going to put myself out front and then ask you to push me further.  I did – and you did – and what we’ve done together will outlive this day and any memory of John Sweeney.

    In 1995, I pledged to you that diversity in our leadership and full inclusion of our membership would be a top priority and we went to work expanding our governing bodies and putting women and minorities in those seats.  And I worked to make the Federation itself a model of opportunity for staff – to strengthen our work by putting in place management staff far more diverse than ever before.
      
    In 2005 at our convention in Chicago we stepped up our commitment by passing Resolution 2 and setting concrete goals at every level of our movement.  It came at a time when several of our affiliates were leaving the federation.

      One of the reasons, they said, was that our Executive Council was too large and cumbersome and that it didn’t properly reflect the power of our bigger unions.  But I can tell you this:  Our Executive Council at long last was beginning to reflect the faces of our members and I was in no mood to turn back the clock.

    And I want you to know this:  The priority we put on diversity in our leadership may well become the biggest legacy of my years as president of the AFL-CIO.  We still have many miles to travel in fully achieving what we set out to do, but I believe we’ve turned the corner and we’re headed straight to our destination.

    I want you to know why this has been such a determined labor of love for me.  I believe – as our new president of the United States of America would say – that diversity, inclusion, and full participation are “moral imperatives” — and I wish I could say it as well as he does.

    If we are to have equal educational opportunity, and equal job opportunity, and equal economic opportunity in America, then we must also have equal union opportunity in America.

    We are motivated by our moral imperatives but we are also moved toward our goals by practical persuasions.  Simply put, we cannot expect more from our younger and women and minority members unless they can expect more leadership opportunity from our Federation.

    We have to move further and faster toward diversity and inclusion because otherwise we are cheating many of our members out of their dues dollars and cheating our movement out of their full participation.

    Last November, we had 250,000 activists in the streets the weekend before the election churning out and turning out voters from union households.  That needs to swell to 300,000 to 400,000 for the next election cycle.

    But we can’t expect women and minority members to join us out in the streets, and on the phones, and in our workplaces, if more of them are not helping govern our international and local unions, state federations, and labor councils.  They are paying full freight to be union members but we aren’t opening full leadership possibilities to them.

    Brothers and sisters, we don’t have one dues rate for African-American, or Hispanic, or Asian Pacific-American members, and another rate for the rest of our members.  Our women members don’t pay lower dues than our male members.  We don’t have lower dues for our gay and lesbian and transgender members or for members with disabilities.  So why should they get fewer opportunities to lead and to learn?

    We don’t have a two-tier dues rate and we cannot afford a two-tier leadership culture – it cannot and will not stand.

    And here’s another compelling practical reason why diversity and inclusion have been so important to me, first at the Service Employees Union and then in my time with the Federation.  We all know that workers of color and women and younger workers are the most ready to join our unions and when we pass the Employee Free Choice Act they will become essential to our future.

    How can we expect them to join our movement if they don’t see people like themselves in the forefront of our unions and in our organizing campaigns?  How do we give them the courage and confidence to act on their beliefs if we don’t have leaders and staff and organizers who are young and female and minorities?

    The enormous challenges faced by working families and our unions mean we have to go beyond the moral imperatives and put diversity on a faster track.  We simply cannot keep half our members sitting on the sidelines and at the same time turn off half the people we are trying to help organize.  We cannot win high quality, affordable health care for all without getting all of our members involved in the struggle.

    If we don’t win health care we cannot win back the freedom of workers to organize and bargain without risking their jobs to do so.  And if we don’t win health care and labor law reform we cannot win the even larger battle to turn around our economy and make it work for everyone.

    The health care battle has come down to working people against the giant insurance companies that are now calling the shots and we have to be together to have a chance to win – all of us together.

    The struggle to restore the freedom of workers to join unions pits us against the big corporations that are determined to keep their heels on the throats of working families and we cannot compete with their immense firepower without all hands on deck.

    And our campaign to turn around our economy and make it work for everyone will not succeed without every single one of us engaged and involved and putting our souls on the line.

    Can we do that?
      
      Can we overcome the massive resources that are being thrown at us?
      
      If we are divided in any way we fail.  But if we are working together and standing together and fighting together our answer is, “Yes we can, yes we can.”

    The bottom line on this summit today is that it must deepen our commitment to continuing the process of growth and change at every level of our movement.  We’ve come a long way together but we still have a long way to go.

    And although I’m stepping down as your president, I’ll be stepping up into a new role as a labor-warrior-at-large – and I can promise you that I am more determined than ever to reach the goals we’ve set out for ourselves.

    What we are doing together is building a new foundation for our movement and nothing is more important to our organizing, political and legislative success, and to our collective bargaining efforts, than the issues we’re discussing today.

    Our great new leadership team of Rich, Liz and Arlene share our commitment, and they are ready to push harder than ever.

    We will turn our country around – when we turn ourselves around – and I want to thank each and every one of you for keeping your shoulders to the wheel and your eyes on the prize.

    Thank you so much and God bless you and your loved ones, and God bless America.