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Thank you Steve Yokich for your introduction, your leadership and your
unwavering commitment to America’s workers. I also want to thank and
acknowledge Secretary Treasurer Roy Wise and Vice Presidents Ernie Lofton
and Carolyn Forest who are all retiring after decades of service and
achievement to the UAW. We wish you all the best.
Let me just say, it’s great to be in Las Vegas--the hottest union
city in the country. And it’s great to be with the UAW--because you
literally keep America on the move.
You know, on my flight here this morning, I was thinking about the work
and the history of the UAW--and I couldn’t help but recall a story
that my friend former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall once told me. Ray
was my old boss at the Labor Department when I worked there 20 years ago.
And as Secretary he would often visit our nation’s schools to talk
with students about their education and its relationship to work. Well,
one day while visiting a school, a young girl ran up to Secretary
Marshall--and she could hardly contain her excitement. She said: “Mr.
Secretary, I want you to know I’ve been elected ?Labor Secretary’
of my 4th grade class.”
Secretary Marshall said: “Well, what do you do?” And she said:
“Well...I wash the blackboard. I clean the erasers. I pick up all the
mess. And on Fridays, everything that’s in the wrong place, I put
back in the right place.”
Then she said: “Mr. Secretary, what do you do?” And he just
looked at her and said: “That pretty much describes it.”
The fact is, for over 60 years, the UAW has fought to put things in the
right place--and keep our nation on the right track. You not only build
the best cars in the world, you have kept America’s engine of
economic and social justice running strong.
And you’ve helped move our country further down the road of
progress and dignity for working families.
From the struggle to form the UAW in the 1930s...to your calls for equal
pay for equal work in the 40s...to marching for civil rights in the 50s
and 60s...the UAW has led the way.
It was the UAW that worked to protect pensions and win the passage of
ERISA in the 1970s--remembering the words of Walter Reuther who said we
must remember those who were “too old to work and too young to die”.
The UAW made sure in the 1980s that workers had advance notification of
plant closings. And I especially want to thank you for all we’ve
achieved together inh the 90s under the leadership of President Clinton.
Family and Medical Leave. The minimum wage. Lower taxes for working
families. The largest boost in education and children’s health care
in over a generation. The American people have it because you fought for
it.
Quite simply, the history of the UAW is the history of American progress
and social justice in the 20th century--and you should be very proud of
that.
We know that change never comes easy. Almost 40 years ago, Martin Luther
King, Jr. spoke to a UAW Convention like this and said “Social
progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability. Men and women all
over the nation must work for it.”
And that’s why all of you are here at this Constitutional
Convention. To work for social progress and to chart a course to a new
century.
I can tell you that as I travel our country as your Labor Secretary, I
am reminded time and again of how vital the labor movement is to people’s
lives and their hopes for a better future.
And as we face that future together, this Administration will continue
to stand up and say: We are proud.
We are proud to wear the pro-worker, pro-family, pro-union label.
And it’s no accident that our Administration has a pro-labor record
while our country has a record strong economy. Because the two go hand in
hand.
Our economy is the healthiest in a generation. Unemployment is at a 28
year low. Inflation is at a 30 year low. Over 16 million jobs have been
created since President Clinton took office. After nearly a decade of
decline, we have over 150,000 new auto jobs. America’s auto industry
is number one-- and our budget deficit is zero. That’s not a bad
deal.
But you and I know these numbers hide another truth. Because too many
families are not part of that prosperity. Too many Americans are getting
left behind--young people in our inner cities and rural
communities...those struggling to reach the next rung on the ladder of
opportunity...families working full-time but living paycheck to paycheck.
And we know prosperity that is not broadly shared is false prosperity.
I am proud that our national unemployment rate is 4.3%. But it’s
not 4.3 % in far too many of our neighborhoods and communities.
And, of course, the challenge is not just about getting jobs. We need to
lift wages. We need to close the gap between rich and poor. We need to
grow together.
This is a time of opportunity--but it’s also a time of challenge.
Look at what’s happening all around us. Our workforce is literally
changing before our eyes. We are becoming more skilled and more diverse
than ever before.
Our workplace is also changing. We are becoming more global. Technology
is a growing part of our lives--at work and at home.
Times like these are not times to rest. As the President has said, these
are times to build. And all of us in this room know that in order to build
you need a strong foundation.
And, to me, the labor movement has always been about keeping the
foundation of American values strong as we build America’s future.
That’s the legacy of the labor movement.
Leading the way, giving voice to the values that define who we are, the
values that built the American middle class.
Because you know that our world changes. Our work changes. Times change.
But values don’t.
So the work we do and the fights we wage are not about protecting laws--
they really are about protecting values.
What do I mean by that?
We as Americans believe in the value of responsibility and that means
the right to a safe workplace. That’s why together, we’ve fought
for a strong OSHA--one that can do its job by protecting workers in
theirs.
I’m proud that last year was the safest on record in the American
workplace. But one worker killed or injured on the job is one too many.
And that’s why I can assure you that the President, the
Vice-President, and your Secretary of Labor will fight to protect OSHA as
it protects America’s workers. Our bottom line is this: No worker
should have to sacrifice their life for their livelihood.
So when you go back home, you can tell your union brothers and sisters:
Legislation to weaken OSHA may pass Congress--but it won’t pass the
President’s desk.
That’s what we mean by responsibility.
We as Americans believe in the value of free speech. We were proud to
stand with you in California to defend the rights of union members to
participate in the political process.
Working together, we now have defeated the so-called Paycheck Protection
Act in the House, in the Senate, and on the ballot in California. Because
we know it is simple. A bill that purports to protect your paycheck at the
cost of your freedom to speak is no bargain at all.
We as Americans believe in the value of democracy--and that democracy
doesn’t end when you start the workday.
When it comes to firing or refusing to hire union organizers--the
so-called salting issue--some people are trying to say that it’s OK
to punish a worker for exercising a fundamental democratic right. They are
wrong.
Let’s talk straight. The issue here really isn’t salting in
the workplace, it’s assaulting worker rights. No worker in this
country should be forced to choose between their union and their job.
Freedom of association is a fundamental American right and it is the
backbone of the labor movement.
I remember my own tutelage at the hands of my mentor a great labor
leader A. Phillip Randolph. It was Randolph who said “At the banquet
table of life there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take and
you take what you can hold. And you can’t hold anything without
power. And power comes from organization.”
And that is, my friends, I stand here to say to simply and with no
reservation: I will always protect and always respect the rights of
workers to organize and bargain collectively. Period.
And let me just say I know that strikes are never easy. Layoffs aren’t
easy. And as your Secretary of Labor, I can tell you, I am concerned for
workers, concerned for families, concerned for communities.
But I am also confident. Confident in our nation’s collective
bargaining process--and confident in your 60-year tradition of resolving
differences at the table. That’s your history. And as long as the
collective bargaining process is working--I am confident that workers at
GM will be, too. That is the American way.
That is why we as Americans also believe in the value of competition.
That competition must be fair.
And rest assured that as Labor Secretary I will not shrink from the
fight to see that the rights of American workers--and those around the
world--are protected...that they can form unions, and that discrimination,
forced labor and intolerable child labor are abolished once and for all.
We as Americans believe in the value of justice. It is very basic. If
you work full-time, you shouldn’t live in poverty. Everyone should
have a fair shot and a fair share in our nation’s prosperity. And
that’s why we need to reward work and raise the minimum wage.
But it’s not just wages, it’s benefits. So we must keep up the
fight you helped lead on health care. That is why the President now is
calling for a Consumer Bill of Rights. Because all Americans should have
the information they need about quality of care. No American should be
denied emergency room care. And no American should fear losing health care
when they need it the most.
Lastly, we as Americans believe in the value of opportunity. We have to
make sure that when any American shows up to work--they have the
opportunity to compete.
That they don’t face barriers because of their gender or their
race.
You know, I’ve spoken at a number of commencements this spring. And
I tell the story about when I graduated from college. I remember being
turned down for job after job sometimes because I was a woman...sometimes
because I was black.
One employer in my hometown of Mobile, Alabama looked at me and said: “Ms.
Herman, you can be a clerk. You can be a typist. Perhaps you can be a
secretary.”
Well, Steve, I often wonder where that employer is today because I would
like to be able to turn to him and say: “Sir, I did become a
Secretary”.
That was some time ago. But the point is this. We still have work to do
when it comes to lowering the barriers, opening the doors, and leveling
the playing field for all Americans.
And the labor movement knows the doors of opportunity--the doors to
better jobs and higher pay--are through education and training. Through
lifelong learning and skills development.
Higher skills lead to higher productivity to better jobs, higher
profits, and higher pay.
That’s why the President has made education and training pillars of
his economic policy. That’s why we are working hard to cut class
sizes in America’s schools...to put 100,000 new teachers to work...to
make college more affordable for working families...and to pass the
President’s GI Bill for America’s Workers.
Now, I know I don’t need to tell you about the importance of
education and training to getting the good jobs of today and tomorrow. But
history shows something else. And I will end on this note.
Unions are key to ensuring the average worker not only has access to
training, but access to rewards. Unions raise pay. Unions increase
benefits. Unions keep workers safe. Unions help make sure more workers can
share in our nation’s prosperity. Unions improve the lives not just
of organized labor, but for all who labor.
So as I conclude, let me thank the UAW for keeping America’s engine
revved up and running. Thank you for taking our nation down the higher
road.
This is a time of challenge. But it’s also a time of tremendous
opportunity. And I know that if we keep hold of our values, we will take
hold of the future.
And I am confident that with your vision, your vigor and your values,
the UAW will do in the next century, what you have done throughout this
one: You will keep America moving.
Thank you and God bless you for all you do.
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