Good morning, everyone! It’s great to be with you all in this great union state. It’s an honor to join you for this year’s convention.
I would like to recognize Ed [Hawthorne] and Shellye [Davis] and the entire leadership team for being such amazing advocates for Connecticut’s working families. This federation does such a terrific job engaging every community and lifting up all workers.
And to the staff and the union leaders and activists who wake up every morning and go to bed every night thinking about how to build worker power and grow the labor movement across the state…thank you for your dedication…for your solidarity.
I know it hasn’t been easy. We’ve had our work cut out for us these past few years.
But the Connecticut labor movement is resilient. You’re tough and you’re not afraid to meet challenges head on. And that’s what you do. You keep building power for workers at the bargaining table, in Hartford and in Washington D.C.
And how do we keep building that power for workers? By organizing workers and increasing our density, which Connecticut did last year and was only one of a few states to do so.
Let’s make that a trend. Organizing workers and growing our movement gives us the muscle to run an effective political program. It maximizes our influence on member-to-member campaigns. It gives us more power on the picket lines and at the bargaining table.
It makes our entire movement stronger.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a unit of five, 50 or 5,000. Big or small, these organizing campaigns build our power and improve the lives of workers who now have a good, union job.
Workers at cannabis shops…at museums…at universities…like the ones right here in New Haven…they’re finding out the difference a union makes.
The Yale graduate students union…this has been a long time coming…three decades of activism and effort…overcoming resistance and legal challenges…ratified its first contract late last year.
Higher pay, improved health care and protections…Dignity and respect…they’re experiencing the union difference.
So are the workers at the front desk of this hotel. They said Union Yes and joined their fellow union workers here as proud members of UNITE HERE Local 217!
I want to thank you and to everybody whose efforts are making this convention possible. It takes a lot of work but it’s important work. It’s an opportunity to come together and strengthen our bonds as trade unionists…so we can take on the work ahead of us…and protect the values we hold dear and the labor movement we love.
As trade unionists, we know the power of solidarity. And the power of solidarity has a way of extending beyond a specific organizing campaign…or beyond a fight for a good contract.
The power of solidarity can go beyond our bargaining unit or local…beyond our state or district or the international union…it can stretch to reach all workers…to include all workers.
It doesn’t matter your sex or gender or the color of your skin…or where you live or where you were born…or how you choose to worship or who you choose to love…because solidarity is above all of that. That’s what makes it so powerful.
That all workers deserve the political and social freedoms that arrive through economic justice.
That we’re all in this together and we can achieve great things when we work together.
Solidarity is a powerful idea. And this idea is gaining traction.
Unions are more popular than ever.
Working people are organizing to have a voice in the workplace. And workers already in unions are sticking together…rejecting unfair contracts, and going on strike to secure better pay and benefits and a voice on the job.
They know the labor movement is the solution to low wages and unsafe workplaces, to discrimination and growing inequality.
That we are the best and strongest force to counter the unchecked greed of corporations and the corporate elite.
But all of this momentum…the progress we’ve made organizing and at the bargaining table…the strides we’ve made toward racial and economic justice…
Workplace rights. Collective action. Our contracts. The very things we hold dear could all disappear in a blink of an eye.
Walter Reuther—the great president of the UAW—said something back in 1960 that I often think about. He said that “labor’s victories at the bargaining table are threatened every other year at the ballot box.”
That was true then and that remains true today.
Now look, we know what’s at stake this November.
Democracy is on the ballot.
Voting rights. Reproductive rights. Access to affordable health care. Medicare and Medicaid.
All that labor movement values and has fought for is on the ballot.
And I’m not just talking about the top of the ticket, but every single election up and down the ballot.
From the White House to the State House to the Court House. Every election matters.
The votes we cast, it’s not about who we like or don’t like. Their personalities, or how they project themselves. It’s not about their name or the letter beside their name—the D or the R or the I or whatever.
This election is about us…about workers and unions. It’s about the American labor movement. And it’s about voting for the candidates who share our values and who will move our legislative agenda…candidates who prioritize workers and our right to organize.
And who better to fight for working people than union members!
The Connecticut AFL-CIO doesn’t just mobilize union members to get out the vote…you encourage and provide support to union members running for office every step of the way.
Because there’s no one better on our issues than us. And no one fights harder for working people than us.
I know how hard you all worked with the union member electeds in the state senate and state house on the UI bill for striking workers…got it to the governor’s desk. And even though we didn’t get the result we wanted this time around…we can build on this momentum and get this bill across the finish line, and continue to drive the legislative agenda for Connecticut’s working families.
That’s why we’re here. To build a better and more effective labor movement. To build our power and increase our influence so more people can know the life-changing power of a good union job.
Now look, I know some voters aren’t looking forward to a Biden-Trump rematch.
Some voters are fatigued. They’re tired of the divisiveness.
I’m sure you have family or friends or colleagues who are tuning out this election.
They may be thinking their vote won’t matter because they don’t see the difference between the two…or that it won’t make a difference.
We know there’s a difference and we need to lay it out for folks so that we—America’s workers—are at the center of the discussion.
Just as we did in 2020 and in 2022.
We have the opportunity to cut through the noise. To give our members the facts…to encourage voters to vote in their economic interests…for the candidates who share our values and our vision for the future.
We have the opportunity to determine the outcome of this election, and what we do—or what we don’t do—between now and Election Day is going to determine the future of working people and the future of this labor movement.
And we need to do everything we can so we can keep advancing our workers-first agenda…
This moment demands our full attention. It demands our focused effort. It demands our unity.
Let’s communicate with our family and friends and members of our community about our vision for the future…about the importance of this election…
About the progress we can continue to make by re-electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot…
About the progress we can continue to make toward racial and economic justice…while protecting our rights, our freedom, and our democracy.
Let’s build on our progress.
Let’s be the authors of our own future.
Let’s show the nation what grassroots power looks like.
Let’s show the nation what we can achieve when we stand together.
And let’s build a future that works for all of us—for generations to come.
Thank you.