It’s a great honor to appear here in Cleveland with you and our new leadership team of the AFL-CIO
At our convention in Pittsburgh this week we laid the groundwork to build a new progressive economic agenda focused on working America creating jobs, health care reform that works and opportunity for everyone
And we need your help to create the groundswell that will revitalize America , grow our economy and guarantee justice for all
We came straight to Ohio from our convention because so many working families are hurting here
You are a microcosm of our nation a true political barometer.
Ohio has been especially hard hit 11.2 percent unemployment among the highest in the nation
But behind the numbers is the sad very sad situation in which entire communities have been wiped out
Right here in Cleveland in Slavic Village and other communities hit hard by the foreclosure crisis
Last year back in January 2008 John Sweeney was here to inaugurate a new union hotline through our Union Plus benefits to help homeowners weather the foreclosure storm
The labor movement is always here to help our members and to offer encouragement and model community programs that work for everyone
We’re all in this boat together that’s why we are union.
Cleveland means a lot to us in the labor movement because there’s so much labor history here you are one of America’s great union town
And your entire state once a proud industrial center has also borne the brunt of the corporate desertion to foreign shores from Cleveland to Dayton from Warren to Wilmington
In Wilmington DHL Express abandons its Ohio operation and thousands of people lose their jobs
You could say the same thing at Warren and Severstal the steel mill that has been shuttered since last October almost a year and a thousand workers idled
Severstal is Russian-owned and Germans own DHL and there’s nothing wrong with that we support multinational companies investing in American communities
We want jobs!
The labor movement will do everything in its power to help create good jobs that’s our most important goal
But when you buy into a community, you become part of the family you have an obligation
Too many corporations today want to walk away from their communities even companies that were nurtured right here in these same communities
That’s the real tragedy of globalization that corporations have lost their sense of community they’ve turned their backs on America.
Brothers and sisters that’s just one reason this economy doesn’t work for America’s working families
We see it now in this recession but it’s nothing new
Except for a few years at the end of the Clinton administration workers real earnings have been steadily declining since 1972
The system is broken
And yet there is hope
Hope rode in on a white charger America’s first African-American president a man who we believe can be a real agent of change
Barack Obama is a man we fought for and who we believe in
We may have some policy differences but they’re just drops in the bucket compared with the broad agreement we have on so many issues
I look forward to working with him on critical issues for working families for years to come
I am standing here today in front of this beautiful windmill that’s symbolic of the vision that we share with the president
Members of the IBEW Liz’s union built this tower which supplies seven percent of the power to the Science Center
But it stands for so much more the promise of a clean-energy industry and clean-energy jobs
We can thank President Obama for a stimulus bill that blunted the effects of the recession particularly in the building trades
But also because that bill dedicated funds to nurture new industries that will lead to new green jobs
There is much more to be done and President Obama certainly understands this
We need a dedicated annual amount of public investment for promoting green jobs and we need it now
The Chinese already have set up production facilities for solar and wind components that are flooding the American market production owned and subsidized by their government
We are hopeful that the Obama administration will reaffirm its commitment to stimulating the clean energy industry and creating new green jobs
But to restore American competitiveness we need a broader public investment strategy that boosts the health and education of our workforce repairs and expands our infrastructure including broadband Internet and stimulates U.S. manufacturing overall
Part of the solution is addressing the mounting U.S. trade deficit which has made us the world’s largest debtor nation
On the full range of trade issues we expect the president to consider worker issues particularly jobs and fair competition
He was right to impose tariffs on subsidized Chinese tires and he will be right when he insists on border adjustments for carbon emissions
Trade must be fair and that means having an honest broker in the Oval Office
Likewise we expect the president to be an honest broker in ensuring that any health care reform plan that passes Congress includes mechanisms to control costs
This is the single most important factor in health care reform
Yes everyone must be covered and quality care must be assured
But if we do not control the ever-rising cost of care we cannot have real health care reform
That is why we are strongly supporting the public option
Most of our members are happy with the care they have they bargained hard to get it and often gave up wage gains to keep it
And they will continue to have it in the reform measures we’re supporting without having to give up wage gains to cover its runaway costs.
But for those who do not have employee-covered insurance and who cannot afford the high-priced premiums offered by private insurers they should have a public option
They should have someplace to walk they shouldn’t be held captive by poor insurance service and high rates
You know we lost a great hero of working people last week Crystal Lee Sutton the real Norma Rae who helped organize the J.P. Stevens plant in North Carolina
Crystal Lee died of brain cancer that she fought for months without medical treatment because her insurance company would not approve it
That’s right a matter of life or death and the insurance company takes two months to decide whether it is worth the risk
Crystal was quoted in the Burlington North Carolina newspaper:
“It is almost like, in a way, committing murder” she said
No I say it was exactly like committing murder
And insurance companies are making these kinds of decisions every day
When lives are on the line
And their profits are on the line
Brothers and sisters I make no apologies for my belief that America should have a single-payer health care system Medicare for All
I know millions of Americans agree with me let’s take profit off the table and put care back into care giving
But we’re not going to get Medicare for All through Congress this year or next year
So we see the Obama health care plan as a step in the right direction particularly if it includes a public option
That is how we keep the insurance companies honest so that they MUST compete
Opponents of a public option in the health insurance exchange are being disingenuous at best
We already have several excellent public options
Medicare is a public option for seniors who have no retiree coverage or who need to supplement that coverage
Along with Social Security Medicare is one of the most successful public options in the history of our Republic
So it is ironic when we have seniors misguided by the high-octane lie-fest on Fox News who appear at town hall meetings to denounce the public option and yell, “keep your hands off my Medicare”
Yet another public option Medicaid was created in 1965 to provide coverage for the very poor and for elderly living in assisted living
Another public option created in 1997 through the tireless legislative efforts of Sen. Ted Kennedy and expanded this year provides coverage for children who otherwise do not have care
That’s three public options that work very well
And that’s not counting the VA which gives many veterans a quality public option
Why not create a new public option to ensure that every American has an option?
That’s what government ought to do and we’re going to keep insisting on it
In an economy that works for working families the government also has an important role to regulate public trusts particularly the financial system
That’s what has brought Ohio’s families to this low economic point brothers and sisters
It is our global financial system so shot up with corruption and greed and now public money
The situation we’re in right now with families being thrown out of their homes lost jobs shattered lives
We need this administration to rectify the damage done by the Bush-Paulson Wall Street bailout
They plundered the U.S. Treasury to feed the bonus-baby mentality of high finance
Unfortunately that beat goes on Goldman Sachs is getting ready to dole out $700 million in bonuses to its Wall Street elite
And working families are being thrown out on the street
We will not accept this disgraceful imbalance between the rich and the rest of us
It’s an assault on any sense of fairness
This is not our America
We need an economic system in this country that rewards work as well as it rewards investment
We need an economic system that gives everybody a fair opportunity to work hard and succeed
We need an economic system that encourages and empowers collective bargaining and union representation
Yes sisters and brothers our nation must change
And the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act would be the best change we could have
It’s about time we had real choice in the workplace
Where you can choose to have a union without the company subjecting you to threats and intimidations and subtle psychological pressure
We have to change a system that violates basic worker rights as international labor bodies consistently have said
U.S. labor laws are among the world’s worst for protecting the rights of workers
They must change
The labor law reform we must have achieves three goals:
It must allow employees to freely form unions without employer harassment and intimidation
It must allow workers who have unionized to get an initial contract from their employer without delays
It must impose meaningful penalties on employers who violate the law
The Employee Free Choice Act will help us achieve those goals and it is the best way to address the inequity in our system
We’re going to fight for meaningful change in our labor laws so that employees can engage employers on a more level playing field
Right now the game is rigged against them
Like so many other aspects of our nation’s economy workers are not treated as the important player that they are
We need an economy that works for working families and I intend to fight for it along with Liz and Arlene and millions of motivated union members
We’re going to fight for economic and social justice in our nation
That’s what unions are all about
That’s what labor has always done
We’re going to raise the voice of millions of Americans who have been left out or pushed aside
We’re going to fight for them
And with your help we’re going to win
God bless you all and God bless America
