Thank you, Debbie [Dingell], for inviting me to speak with all of you. I’m glad for the opportunity. I’m always happy to be in the same room as my good friend Nancy Pelosi, as well as Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, and so many others. Thank you.
I don’t call you my friends lightly. We have relationships based on shared values and good work accomplished together over years, decades, generations, even. The folks in this room, and members of your party who are not with us today, have accomplished incredible things for the American people. Raising the minimum wage again and again over the years. Funding our nation’s infrastructure and our children’s schools. Enacting the Family Medical Leave Act. And now you’re championing Chris Van Hollen’s proposal to re-balance taxes to put more money in the pockets of the middle-class with the Financial Transaction Tax. We call it the Wall Street speculation tax, an idea whose time has come. For all you have done, and for all we will do together, thank you!
Yet our accomplishments cannot be summed up with any list, no matter how long, because our work has always been an expression of our shared values, our belief that everybody deserves dignity and a shot at a decent life, that working people should share in the wealth we create. That’s our vision. It must also be the basis for a coherent economic message built on real plans. We at the AFL-CIO laid out just such a vision in a report called ‘Prosperity Economics,’ written for the AFL-CIO by Yale Professor Jacob Hacker, and we’re promoting those same ideas with our Common Sense Economics program being rolled out to union members and allies across America this year. I want to see a similar message from each and every one of you.
It’s time. You see, we’re all coming off a tough year politically. We’ve seen friends, good friends, lose office and people who aren’t friendly replace them. And remember: This last year has been tough for everyone in America who counts on a paycheck to pay the bills. We polled swing-state voters on Election Day—54% said their families’ income had fallen in real terms. Only 8% said it went up. Income for everyone else was flat. As I see it, these numbers tell you everything you need to know about the 2014 Election, and why so many people are losing faith in politics.
This year, 2015, offers us a chance to answer skepticism with real vision, a strong and broad economic plan. We need that now—voters need that now—before the 2016 elections.
Frankly, Democratic leaders have a problem, a big problem. Our polling shows that a lot of union voters—about one-third—don’t see much of a difference between the two parties on issue after issue after issue. They tell us both parties side with the wealthy over working people and are too close to big corporations. And neither party, they say, cares deeply enough about creating jobs, or raising wages, or even protecting Social Security or Medicare, for that matter.
In fact, 80% of Democratic and Republican union members alike say politicians of both parties do far too much to support Wall Street’s financial interests, and not nearly enough to help average folks.
That’s what people think. It’s a perception. Some might call it a skewed perception, but it’s not enough for us to tell people to feel differently. We have to show them, clearly and plainly and again and again and again, with a powerful economic plan for shared prosperity.
America’s voters have been asking for this for years. We heard it on Election Day last year. By a margin of two to one, voters want to increase Social Security benefits; voters want to tax companies on overseas profits by three to one and increase funding for public schools by the same overwhelming margin—75% to 25%—three to one! Voters want public investment in infrastructure and a dozen other things. Those same voters didn’t hear that loudly enough from enough Democrats.
Listen, it’s time for you to show America who you really are. It’s time to draw a sharp distinction, a clear and bright line, between you and the party on the other side of the aisle. And the Number One working family issue today is the need to raise wages. Start with the minimum wage, and then let’s make sure everyone gets paid for the work they actually do, including the extra work. Over the past 35 years, the rules protecting the 40-hour week have collapsed. Raising wages means restoring the 40-hour week, and making sure President Obama’s Department of Labor makes overtime rules strong again.
Overtime protections are important. So is respect for public workers. It’s time to end the attacks on the people who teach our kids, plow our roads, and make our city, county, state and federal governments work. Let’s acknowledge the importance of all working people. We need to raise wages all up and down the labor market—and that requires the ability to bargain.
I’m a political realist. I know what you’re up against in this Congress. We won’t get a lot of what we want this year. But now is to the time to lay the groundwork for a new progressive majority, and you must show us what you will do by taking action on the things you can do.
Take trade. Here is an issue that goes right to the question of what you will do for working people.
The body of evidence on bad trade deals has been building for years, and it says one thing: Our trade model drives down our wages, and increases inequality here and abroad. Do what America wants and oppose Fast Track. It’s nothing but a license to continue the same failed trade and economic policies that have emptied America of good jobs for the past 20 years. We can outcompete any workers in the world on a level playing field, but we can’t face the competitive challenge of China with a fast-tracked trade deal that fails to address currency manipulation—which has cost us 5 million jobs—or climate change, or that grants rights to corporations that people don’t have. That’s exactly what’s worst for America.
And can you think of anything less popular with the American people? Show America what you’re about. Show the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Oppose Fast Track.
Oppose Fast Track. Or keep blurring the lines between red and blue. Oppose Fast Track. Trade can raise working people up, or it can drive us down. American democracy is built on the idea that our elected leaders have the right to amend any piece of legislation that will affect us. Treaties almost more than any other kind of legislation need the full democratic process. Don’t allow Fast Track to be negotiated in the dark. It’s not right. It takes away your ability to create good trade laws. A vote for Fast Track now is giving up on working people without a fight. You cannot claim you are fighting for jobs and middle-class incomes if you walk away from this battle.
I’m going to say this one more time: Oppose Fast Track because it is the only leverage you have to insist that the president bring back a treaty that will raise wages and create jobs.
Now, on immigration, you are in the right place—ready to defend the president’s executive action and committed to real common-sense reform. We may not see a vote on comprehensive immigration reform this year—but Republicans will surely try to move H-1B guest worker bills to expand access to cheap labor. For years we have been telling families to send their kids to school to get a high-tech degree—and even though in America we have enough graduates, Republicans want to triple the H-1B program to turn those good middle-class careers into low-paying temporary jobs. This isn’t a fix. It’s more of the same. And we need your help to fight back.
Your opponents have their sights on other targets, too, like workplace safety and public health. No one should lose their life, or their parent or child, to a preventable death on the job. No one. You can help keep and make workplaces safer, and protect public health, but you’re going to have to stand up to the Republicans to do it. You’ll have to stand up to them again and again and again. America is hungry for a broad economic agenda to rebuild the middle class with raising wages. Give it to us.
We’re doing our part. This year, 5 million of us will be bargaining with employers over wages and benefits. One million in three unions alone—the Communications Workers, the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—will negotiate major new contracts.
As workers, we have been producing more and more while falling behind for too long. The vast majority of Americans saw no wage gains between 2000 and 2012, and at the same time our productivity increased by 25%.
We want what’s fair. Those CWA and UAW and AFSCME workers have been steadfast. They have taken their lumps during the hard times. Now we want what’s fair, and what works for America. You see, we’re ready to prove again that raising wages works. It’s the best path to sustainable economic growth.
Each and every worker in America must have that right to bargain for higher wages without fear. We don’t. We need real labor law reform, so we ourselves can provide upward pressure on wages, on all wages, by sitting down across the table with our employers. It’s fair. It’s right. And it’s good for America and our economy.
Let me give you an example of the problem today. Walmart is America’s largest employer—and the largest employer of people on Medicare and food stamps. Walmart workers have spoken up for better pay and fair schedules. Walmart’s response has been illegal firings and illegal retaliation. I want to know where you stand. It’s time to make a choice. Do you stand with the Waltons? The richest families in the United States? Who break American laws and crush our nation’s wages? Or do you stand with me, and with the men and women who stock the shelves and work the registers and who still live in poverty?
Workers in America produce value, and we want what’s fair. From McDonald’s to Boeing, from FairPoint to Amazon. We are bargaining where we can, and we’re turning out into the street where we have to. We will keep doing our part for ourselves and our economy. We want equal pay and paid sick days. It’s part of a broad economic agenda. But we need you to work with us, we want you to work with us, to do the rest, too, rebuild American manufacturing, balance our trade deficit, and make infrastructure investments that match the scale of our national needs in transportation, and modern communication systems, and education.
You know how to win for America’s hard-working families. You’ve done it many, many times. When Democrats stand up for a better future for the people who do the work, working people win and Democrats win. Do it again. Do it stronger. Do it now.
Think of when you ended the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest 2%. You stood firm. You refused to negotiate over a ruinous plan to bankrupt America, and, despite dire predictions from the right wing and big business, nothing bad happened. Ending those tax cuts allowed for real progress, more resources that we want and need, and there has been no downside. There was no tax-mageddon, no crisis.
Your opponents are desperate. They’ll do anything to convince you to use their economic playbook for the 1%, because they know how effective you can be for America’s families.
Don’t fall for it. If the other party tries to tear America down, make them do it alone. Instead, keep showing us a broad economic plan for raising wages. Show us we can still create shared prosperity. Show us again we are a nation that can take care of each other and provide for our families, a nation that honors our retirees and provides opportunity to those who need it. We can be a prosperous and a good nation. Show working people who you really are.
You do your part. We’ll do ours. You support America’s hard-working families, and we’ll be there with you. We’ll knock on doors with you. We’ll leaflet with you. We’ll mobilize and phone bank and register voters. We will turn out the vote in 2016 together, and then we’ll win together!
And now, I would love to entertain some questions. Thank you again for having me here. Who’s first?
