He’s renewed our commitment to organizing.
He’s restored our voice in government.
And, in the process, he rekindled the hopes of millions of American workers.
And he did something else, too: he reminded us that organized labor isn’t just an institution; we are a movement.
John, you’ve walked us through some of our toughest times.
Now, before too long, you’ll be able to walk your granddaughter to school!
John, this movement – and this nation – will forever, forever be in your debt!
There are a lot of special people here today, but the most important are right over there: my family.
You’ve always been the core of my life, my greatest joy, and my shelter from the storm – you taught me family values and what solidarity is all about
And I will never be able to thank you enough for always being there for me.
And then there’s my extended family: my brother Cecil Roberts and the men and women of the United Mine Workers of America.
From my first day working in a coal mine to my last day as its International president, I have been in awe of the courage and compassion – and the unbreakable solidarity -- of my UMWA brothers and sisters
And I want you to know that just as you have always stood with me, I will always stand with you.
Of course there are some other people I’d like to thank – and I’m looking at them.
It’s you.
You’re the men and women who bargain the contracts.
Who lead the organizing drives.
Who mobilize our members to elect good candidates – and to hold them accountable after we do.
You do the heaviest lifting and the deepest thinking.
But as grueling as it can get, still, you get up the next morning and do it all over again.
You know, it’s easy for people who work in Washington to fall into the trap of believing that, maybe they’re a cut above everyone else.
Well, I want to tell you right now that Arlene and Liz and I know better than that.
Because we understand that we’re not the American labor movement; you are!
And the AFL-CIO doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to you!
I’m assuming that, by now, a lot of you have been able to make your way around Pittsburgh.
And with the G20 Summit coming here next week the local business community has really been laying it on a little thick about the city’s economic transformation.
And those of us who grew up in southwest Pennsylvania know that much of it is true.
But the other day I read something on a website promoting the G20 summit that really caught my eye.
It was intended to be a brief description of this area’s history and it said, “The ‘Golden Triangle’ as it's called, has drawn generations of people from around the world to form its diverse neighborhoods.”
Now, that’s true, but they left out the reason why people were drawn here.
It was that, long before anyone ever talked about a Golden Triangle, there was another Pittsburgh.
It was a place where the whistle of the coal trains pierced the night.
It was a place where men with names like Esposito, and Kowalski, and O’Hara and Friedman worked 12-hour days standing in the glow of molten steel.
Where black men worked in the coke ovens doing the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs of all.
And where women washed other people’s laundry and cleaned other people’s homes and cooked other people’s meals – anything to have enough money so their kids wouldn’t have to work.
They spoke Polish and Italian and English and Yiddish and Spanish and more.
Most of the time they couldn’t understand a word of what the other was saying – but they all spoke the language of hope.
The hope of better lives, good lives, for themselves and their families.
The chance to own a home and to give their kids something more – something better – than they ever had.
And they also knew that there was only one way they’d ever be able to make that happen.
It wasn’t by pleading for it, or begging for it, or praying for it.
No! It was by joining together and fighting for it.
It was by mobilizing, together!
Organizing, together!
Standing tall and proud and union together!
And telling the companies in one, clear, strong voice that you may own the iron,
you may own the coal,
you may own the banks,
and the newspapers, and the politicians –
but you don’t own me, you don’t own my family, and you will never, ever own my union!
It was organized labor!
That’s who built the middle-class in this city, this state, and across this country.
And, today, our message to America is that just as unions built the middle-class once before, if you give us the chance, we can build it again!
Now, we all know, a lot’s changed since those early days.
Today our members work in every profession and every workplace imaginable.
We’re Seafarers facing down pirates in the Indian Ocean …
And we’re CWA members battling corporate pirates at Verizon.
We’re Teachers – members of the AFT – and classifieds working to rebuild the school system in St. Louis.
And we’re the skilled tradesmen and women who built this incredible convention center.
But even though the face of the American labor movement has changed, one thing hasn’t:
It’s that the surest, the fastest, most effective way to lift workers and our families into the middle-class is with the strength, that can only, only come with a union contract!
And, sisters and brothers, that fundamental truth hasn’t been more critical to the future of this country than it is right now because, today, the American middle-class isn’t being squeezed … we are being crushed!
The mirage of prosperity through borrowed money has dissolved—and now we’re left with the reality of a hollowed-out economy and a broken financial system.
And middle-class people who once hoped of living the American Dream are today living in chaos.
We’re losing health care!
We’re losing our pensions!
We’re losing our jobs!
And we are losing our patience!
Well, I’ll tell you something, it wasn’t organized labor that was calling the shots at Bear- Stearns, and Lehman Brothers
I can tell you for a fact that no one at AIG ever picked up the phone to ask our advice ...
But, even though it wasn’t the labor movement that got us into this mess, we are the people who are going to lead America out of it!
But we can only do it if we seize this moment – we can only do it if we act now – we can only do it if we provide the leadership working Americans are demanding!
Well, today I’m telling you that we will seize this moment!
We will act, we will lead, and, by God, we will win!
The American labor movement can turn our country around – and together that’s exactly what we’re going to do!
But to do it, we need a new kind of labor movement – one shaped to meet the needs of Americans in a changing economy.
We need a labor movement that’s not afraid of new ideas – and understands that nostalgia for the past is no strategy for the future!
We need a unionism that makes sense to the next generation – young women and men who either don’t have the money to go to college; or are almost penniless by the time they come out.
And what happens when they enter the job market?
They’re trapped in the twilight world of the contingent economy.
They’re working as temps, as contractors, and as on-call labor.
They’re telecommuters.
They’re in every industry and there are more of them every year.
Women and men who are walking a lifelong tightrope without a net.
Low wages.
No health care.
Forget job security.
And pensions? Many don’t even know what they are!
These women and men need a strong voice.
But when they look at unions they don’t see themselves, only a grainy, faded picture from another time.
That’s not the way it has to be.
The labor movement can’t ask the next generation of workers to change how they earn their living to fit our model of trade unionism.
No! We have to change our approach to organizing and representation to better meet their needs.
And we will!
By the end of the first quarter of 2010, we will organize a summit of these new generation workers to discuss their struggles and craft an action agenda that responds to their needs not ours.
What kind of labor movement do we need to become?
A movement that’s mobilized to create the jobs our members need, and that the future demands.
We know that a $500 billion dollar investment in a renewable energy economy can create 5 million new jobs.
This isn’t a pipe dream.
Talk to the IBEW members in Nevada who helped install the largest photo-voltaic power system in North America.
Talk to the Steelworkers who are building wind turbines right here in Pennsylvania.
Sisters and brothers, it’s high time to debunk the myth that we have to make a choice between good jobs and a clean environment; because the truth is we can have both!
And if we build an alliance with the environmental movement we will!
What kind of labor movement do we need?
A labor movement that understands that, in a global economy, we have no alternative but to build truly global unions.
Unions with the ability to confront corporate power wherever it rears its head.
Whether it’s a call center in Bangalore.
A shoe factory in Vietnam.
Or a coal mine in Colombia.
Brothers and sisters, the corporate agenda doesn’t end at the water’s edge – and neither can ours!
And we need a labor movement that doesn’t only win strong labor laws, but that knows how to take advantage of them once we do.
We’ve been working hard to win the Employee Free Choice Act – and I swear to you that, come hell or high water, we will win.
But that’s not enough: we need to hit the ground running with a strike force of 1,000 professional organizers whose only goal is to see that every worker who wants a union contract gets a union contract!
And I’m not only talking about the private sector.
Right now, 40,000 TSA employees are on the verge of winning their collective bargaining rights.
Our sisters and brothers in AFGE are going to organize them and, John Gage, I want you to know that the AFL-CIO is ready to back you up!
And it doesn’t end there.
Today, there are 7 million Americans working in state and local government who don’t have the legal right to collective bargaining.
They’re teachers and firefighters.
Social workers and sanitation workers.
They truly do make America happen (note: this is AFSCME’s new slogan).
Sisters and brothers, first-rate public employees aren’t second-class citizens – they deserve the right to organize and we’re going to fight to see they get it!
But, you know, the question we face isn’t just where we organize; it’s who.
And I want to talk about that for a moment.
We need to finally come to terms with the fact that union halls that should have been meeting grounds for understanding have often been breeding grounds for bigotry.
And millions of people of color – and millions of women – have paid a staggering price.
We have a moral responsibility to take the benefits of union representation to those who the labor movement turned its back on in the past.
That means organizing poverty-wage African-American, Latino and Asian workers.
It means reaching out to women: women are 50 percent of the workforce … they earn only 77 percent of what men do … and it’s time we made a 100 percent commitment to organizing them!
And it means something else, too: organizing immigrants.
I know there are always going to be some people who are going to buy the line that immigrants are coming over here and stealing everyone’s jobs.
But you know something?
When a company looks at its balance sheets, they don’t distinguish between workers who are born here and those who aren’t.
All they see are numbers.
Well, sisters and brothers, let me ask you a question: if employers are able to look at us and only see workers, shouldn’t we be able to do the same?
It’s time to build a labor movement that leaves no worker behind!
Now, am I suggesting that we abandon all our traditions?
No, but what I am saying is that while tradition should always have a vote, it must never have a veto.
And one arena where we’re going to build on tradition is political and legislative action.
Part of John Sweeney’s legacy is an AFL-CIO whose voice is heard loud and clear from the courthouse to the statehouse to the White House.
Today, we’re not just winning sympathy – we’re winning elections.
And now it’s our job to use those victories to win better lives for Americans.
After our convention, Arlene, Liz and I are going to fan out across the country to begin a conversation and begin the work of crafting a progressive economic agenda for America.
An agenda that spells out our expectations of the men and women we support – and the consequences of turning their backs on working people whose votes put them into office
Now what’s going to be on that agenda?
That’s for our members to decide.
But we do know that we need to take on the problems that are robbing middle-class families of any hope for the future.
Problems like: Pensions. Education. Child care. Fair taxes.
Putting Wall Street on a tight leash.
And bargaining trade laws that create good jobs here at home.
But the cornerstone of any progressive economic agenda is health care reform.
And I want to talk about that for just a moment.
Yesterday, we heard from the man who, to my way of thinking, is proving to be the most pro-worker president in our time -- and he called on us to join him in the greatest moral crusade of our time.
He asked us to mobilize our members, their families, and working people all across this nation to join him in this crusade.
Well, today our answer to President Obama is: “Yes, we can … and yes, we will!
Yes, we will because, like you, we know we need to build a system that offers the care Americans need at a price America can afford.
And because, like you, we know that the way to make it happen is with health care reform that includes a public option!
And, Mr. President, so long as you stand for a public option we are going to stand with you!
Now, I know we’ve all heard those who’ve said that we ought to be satisfied with a health care reform plan that doesn’t include a public option.
They seem to think that we ought to settle for whatever bill a few Republicans will sign on to, declare it a victory, and go home.
Well, sisters and brothers, what they need to learn is that there’s a difference between declaring a victory – and actually winning one.
And they need to learn something else, too: a plan without a public option may be a lot of things, but it sure as hell isn’t reform!
And I’ll tell you why: It’s not because we lack faith in a free market.
No, it’s because we do.
It’s because we understand that the stranglehold the insurance companies have over today’s health care system has eliminated even the illusion of competition.
Even they admit it.
If you listen closely, what they’re saying is: “A public option? That would create an overblown, inefficient bureaucracy … plus it could attract so many of our customers it would put us out of business.”
Now, am I missing something here?
Sisters and brothers, if the Republicans really believe all their rhetoric about the miracle of the free market, they shouldn’t be fighting against us to stop a public option, they ought to be fighting with us to pass it!
We have to break the health insurance monopoly, and if you know people out there who don’t know why you just tell them about Maegen.
Maegen lives in Oregon.
She wrote to the AFL-CIO and said:
“My husband developed cancer in his jaw bone in 2000. As a result the left portion of his jaw was removed leaving him with a partition between the sinus area and his mouth.
He could hardly eat.
Finally, he was fitted for an artificial jaw.
It was a costly and painful process, but the insurance company refused to pay for it because they said it was a dental problem.”
And then there’s Mary in Indiana
She wrote: “In August 2005 my husband was given a prognosis of 6 months to 2 years after a diagnosis of metastatic ocular melanoma. With a research trial we were able to stave off the advance of the disease for 16 months. When there was new growth the insurance company denied new treatment, we appealed and they were overturned.
Things were better. Then, a year ago last July, the cancer began to grow again. Again we had it treated, and again the insurance company didn’t want to pay.
This year the growth was confirmed again.
And we’ve been in a constant battle with our insurance company for coverage.
My husband is in end-stage liver failure and, just today, began chemo to try to reduce pain.
He wants to survive long enough to see our daughter get married.
And the insurance company is still refusing to pay for the treatment.”
Now, I know that a lot of us would prefer a single payer plan.
I sure would.
But, brothers and sisters, it is fundamentally immoral to leave anyone’s life in the hands of the death panels of the American insurance industry –and we won’t!
We are going to fight for the President’s health care reform plan and, by God, we are going to win it!
What kind of labor movement do we need? A younger labor movement. A greener labor movement. A labor movement that can project its power – to defend workers anywhere in the world. A labor movement that’s organizing the unorganized.
A labor movement that’s winning health care for every family – and, yes, a labor movement that stands by its friends, punishes its enemies, and challenges those who can’t decide whose side they’re on.
Can we make it happen?
I know we can.
But I also know this: that to truly succeed we need an AFL-CIO that speaks for all union members – a movement that’s both united in name – and united in purpose.
Lane Kirkland once said: “All sinners belong in church (and) all unions belong in the AFL-CIO.”
Well, I don’t see any sinners out there; what I do see are sisters and brothers who share our passion for a strong, winning labor movement – and today our message is: come back, and we’ll build it, together!
From time to time a generation of trade unionists is called on to reshape organized labor to meet the needs of workers in a new economy.
Well, now it’s our turn.
It’s up to our generation – to those of us here in this hall – to build a newer, stronger labor movement –
And a unionism that speaks as clearly and boldly to the needs of Americans today, as it did to the men and women who stood up here in Pittsburgh so many years ago.
A unionism that understands that so long as there is pain borne of hardship and grief borne of greed our work will never be over.
George Bernard Shaw once wrote that poverty is “the greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes.”
Well, a movement that doesn’t challenge that crime is complicit in it.
What’s labor dream for America?
We dream of an America where men and women work at jobs where they’re treated with respect and paid what they’ve truly earned.
We dream of an America where workers have jobs they look forward to going to every morning – not the kind they can’t wait to leave every night.
We dream of an America where young parents tip toe over to the crib where their baby’s sleeping … and look down at that little boy or girl … and know, in their hearts, that the America they’ll leave to that child will be better and fairer than the America that was left to them.
What does labor want?
We want a nation where it doesn’t matter what your is the color of your skin or what sex or religion you are or whether you’re gay or straight or what country your family’s from because here, in America, we believe everyone ought to have their chance to step into the winner’s circle.
What does labor want? We want an America.
Where every man, woman and child who needs a doctor can see one!
Where every worker looking for a good job can find one!
Where every American who wants to have a union can join one!
What does labor want?
We want an America whose future will always, always be better than its past – where every voice is heard – and where every life matters!
Pilots and pipefitters …
Machinists and musicians …
Longshore workers and letter carriers …
The women and men who work in the hotel you’re staying!
All of us standing, together!
All of us fighting, together!
All of us winning, together!
All of us, taking our country back together!
Sisters and brothers, this is labor’s moment!
This is our time!
And we will not be denied!
God bless you … and God bless the American labor movement!
