Trumka Economics Speech

Today I want to talk to you about the labor movement’s vision for our nation.

A Generation of Stagnant Wages, Collapsing Benefits

Working people want an American economy that works for them—that creates good jobs, where wealth is fairly shared, and where the economic life of our nation is about solving problems like the threat of climate change rather than creating problems like the foreclosure crisis.

We know that growing inequality undermines our ability to grow as a nation – by squandering the talents and the contributions of our people and consigning entire communities to stagnation and failure.

If we are going to make our vision real, we must challenge our political leaders, and we must also challenge ourselves and our movement.

Workers formed the labor movement as an expression of our lives— a chain of responsibility and solidarity, making millions of people here in America and around the world into agents of social change – able to accomplish much more together than as isolated individuals. That movement gives voice to the hopes, values and interests of working people every day. But despite our best efforts, we have endured a generation of stagnant wages and collapsing benefits—a generation where the labor movement has been much more about defense than about offense, where our horizons are shrinking rather than growing.

But the future of the labor movement depends on moving forward—on innovating and changing the way we work, on being open to all working people and giving voice to all workers, even when our laws and employers seek to divide us from each other. And that is something we are working on every day.

The AFL-CIO is building new ways for working people to organize themselves, and new models for collective bargaining. We have created Working America, a 3 million member community-based union growing in working class neighborhoods—that is one of the signal accomplishments of my predecessor John Sweeney, who I’m so happy is here today.

Giving Voice to All Workers

We are very proud of our alliance with the workers’ center movement that links the unions of the AFL-CIO with hundreds of grassroots organizations. We are also working with community allies to strengthen the voice and bargaining power of low-wage workers in Los Angeles’ car washes – some of the worst-paid and worst-treated workers in this country.

Next week, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will lead the labor movement’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina – continuing the great work she has done over so many years on behalf of the most vulnerable in our society.

Not far from Greensboro, we have been working with unemployed African American day laborers and their workers’ center, desperately trying to keep alive the dream launched in those sit-ins.

Staving Off Unemployment, Homelessness

In San Diego last week, I visited a pre-apprenticeship program formed by the local labor movement to create career paths for at-risk youth. In Los Angeles, I saw a remarkable community-based labor-management training program created by the Electrical Workers that is focused on green jobs. These programs demonstrate the tremendous benefits that are possible when labor and business come together to solve problems jointly.

I met people who had been homeless who were about to become journeymen electricians. A young man named Nakayah said to me, "The union gave me a chance to go from no life to the hope for a middle-class life. It didn’t just teach me to get a job, it taught me how to be a man."

As I talked to hotel workers—members of Unite Here, many of them immigrants—on strike to keep hotel jobs from falling back into poverty and to union members with PhD’s fighting to prevent California’s budget catastrophe from cratering not only their jobs but the education of their state’s children, I thought of my father on strike in the coal fields when I was a boy.

And I was reminded of this basic truth: A job is a good job because workers fight to make it one—it doesn’t matter if the job is in a coal mine or a classroom or a car wash. And that is why unions are needed today, more than ever.

(See Profile of Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President.)

View the original article here

Richard Trumka Profile

Richard Trumka is the outspoken, energetic President of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, representing more than 11 million workers.

Trumka was elected AFL-CIO President in 2009 after serving since 1995 as secretary-treasurer. Trumka spent 1982 to 1995 as President of the United Mine Workers of America union, an AFL-CIO member.

Richard Trumka hails from an immigrant family of Pennsylvania coal miners. He labored in mines while working his way through college and law school. Trumka has proven to be a bold, intelligent, hands-on leader and activist visionary who supports nonviolent change methods.

Starting at age 19, Richard Trumka worked in Pennsylvania coal mines while pursuing a B.S. at Pennsylvania State University and earning a law degree at Villanova University.

Trumka worked for four years on the United Mine Workers' legal staff, leaving in 1979 to return to mine work and pro bono legal services for coal mining families.

In 1982, Trumka was elected President of the United Mine Workers of America, a member of the AFL-CIO. As the youngest UMWA President at age 33, Trumka was sworn into office by his proud father.

In 1995, Trumka was elected AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, and was elected president in 2009.

Richard Trumka's paternal grandfather immigrated from Poland, settling in Nemacolin in southwest Pennsylvania where he labored as a coal miner. Trumka's father, Frank (1916-1999), worked in coal mines for 44 years and passed away of black lung disease. Both grandfather and father were union activists who embraced a strong work ethic.

Richard Trumka's mother, Eola Bertugli (1921-2009), was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child. Eola married Polish-American Frank Trumka in 1941.

Like most coal miner families, the Trumka family struggled for generations with poverty and mine-related health issues.

On Greed-Driven Economic Policies

"We built our middle class in the 20th century through hard work, struggle and visionary political leadership. But a generation of destructive, greed-driven economic policies has eroded that progress and now threatens our very identity as a nation."

----- On January 11, 2010

Wrong to Raise Social Security Retirement Age

"My dad worked 44 years in a coal mine. Retired the day he turned 62 because he couldn’t go another day. If you had told him you have to go to 68, my dad would have died. It would have killed him.

"There are millions of people like that. When we work in an air-conditioned office, it’s a whole lot different than people who work on a construction site, in a hospital, teaching in an inner city school, in a coal mine, in a steel mill."

----- On November 11,2010

U.S.: A Beacon of Hope in Divided World

"Government in the interests of the majority of Americans has produced our greatest achievements. The New Deal. The Great Society and the Civil Rights movement -- Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage and the forty-hour work week, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. This is what made the United States a beacon of hope in a confused and divided world.

"But too many people now take for granted government’s role as protector of Wall Street and the privileged. They see middle-class Americans as overpaid and underworked. They see Social Security as a problem rather than the only piece of our retirement system that actually works. They feel sorry for homeless people, but fail to see the connections between downsizing, outsourcing, inequality and homelessness."

----- On January 11, 2010

On the Need to "Create Good Jobs that Support Families"

"While millions go without work, some people are talking about 'recovery'--as though numbers on Wall Street or profits at the big banks are the same as the real economy for working families. Wrong. We're still in crisis--and if we don't create jobs now, we will slide even further.

"We have to put America to work--at good jobs that support families. We've tried out the everything-must-go, trickle-down, bubble economy for the past decade, and it's been a disaster. If we're really going to have a recovery--not just a recovery on Wall Street or for the big banks, but for real people--we absolutely must create new jobs."

----- On November 17, 2009

View the original article here

Richard Trumka Profile

Richard Trumka is the outspoken, energetic President of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, representing more than 11 million workers.

Trumka was elected AFL-CIO President in 2009 after serving since 1995 as secretary-treasurer. Trumka spent 1982 to 1995 as President of the United Mine Workers of America union, an AFL-CIO member.

Richard Trumka hails from an immigrant family of Pennsylvania coal miners. He labored in mines while working his way through college and law school. Trumka has proven to be a bold, intelligent, hands-on leader and activist visionary who supports nonviolent change methods.

Starting at age 19, Richard Trumka worked in Pennsylvania coal mines while pursuing a B.S. at Pennsylvania State University and earning a law degree at Villanova University.

Trumka worked for four years on the United Mine Workers' legal staff, leaving in 1979 to return to mine work and pro bono legal services for coal mining families.

In 1982, Trumka was elected President of the United Mine Workers of America, a member of the AFL-CIO. As the youngest UMWA President at age 33, Trumka was sworn into office by his proud father.

In 1995, Trumka was elected AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, and was elected president in 2009.

Richard Trumka's paternal grandfather immigrated from Poland, settling in Nemacolin in southwest Pennsylvania where he labored as a coal miner. Trumka's father, Frank (1916-1999), worked in coal mines for 44 years and passed away of black lung disease. Both grandfather and father were union activists who embraced a strong work ethic.

Richard Trumka's mother, Eola Bertugli (1921-2009), was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child. Eola married Polish-American Frank Trumka in 1941.

Like most coal miner families, the Trumka family struggled for generations with poverty and mine-related health issues.

On Greed-Driven Economic Policies

"We built our middle class in the 20th century through hard work, struggle and visionary political leadership. But a generation of destructive, greed-driven economic policies has eroded that progress and now threatens our very identity as a nation."

----- On January 11, 2010

Wrong to Raise Social Security Retirement Age

"My dad worked 44 years in a coal mine. Retired the day he turned 62 because he couldn’t go another day. If you had told him you have to go to 68, my dad would have died. It would have killed him.

"There are millions of people like that. When we work in an air-conditioned office, it’s a whole lot different than people who work on a construction site, in a hospital, teaching in an inner city school, in a coal mine, in a steel mill."

----- On November 11,2010

U.S.: A Beacon of Hope in Divided World

"Government in the interests of the majority of Americans has produced our greatest achievements. The New Deal. The Great Society and the Civil Rights movement -- Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage and the forty-hour work week, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. This is what made the United States a beacon of hope in a confused and divided world.

"But too many people now take for granted government’s role as protector of Wall Street and the privileged. They see middle-class Americans as overpaid and underworked. They see Social Security as a problem rather than the only piece of our retirement system that actually works. They feel sorry for homeless people, but fail to see the connections between downsizing, outsourcing, inequality and homelessness."

----- On January 11, 2010

On the Need to "Create Good Jobs that Support Families"

"While millions go without work, some people are talking about 'recovery'--as though numbers on Wall Street or profits at the big banks are the same as the real economy for working families. Wrong. We're still in crisis--and if we don't create jobs now, we will slide even further.

"We have to put America to work--at good jobs that support families. We've tried out the everything-must-go, trickle-down, bubble economy for the past decade, and it's been a disaster. If we're really going to have a recovery--not just a recovery on Wall Street or for the big banks, but for real people--we absolutely must create new jobs."

----- On November 17, 2009

View the original article here

Trumka on 2012

Labor leader Richard Trumka boldly declared a three-step process to counter "powerful political forces (that) are seeking to silence working people," in his remarks on May 20, 2011.

In direct threat to Congressional Democrats and President Obama, Trumka thundered:

"Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. It is to improve the lives of working families and strengthen our country...

"If leaders aren't blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families' interests, working people will not support them. This is where our focus will be—now, in 2012 and beyond."

Also see Profile of Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President.

Remarks by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka

National Press Club, Washington, DC
May 20, 2011

Good morning. Thank you all for joining me here, and thank you to the National Press Club for inviting me to speak.

Friends, how can we make sense of the spectacle that's been unfolding across the American political landscape?

Politicians in Wisconsin, Ohio and a dozen other states are trying to take away workers' right to organize and bargain for a better life.

Politicians are attacking voting rights

But that's not all. In state after state, politicians are attacking voting rights by imposing ID requirements, shortening early voting periods, blocking young people from voting because they're too "liberal" and even levying criminal penalties and fines for breaking arbitrary rules in the voter registration process.

So it will be harder for people to vote—especially the least privileged among us. Just in Wisconsin, listen to the list of who doesn't have state-issued photo IDs that will be needed to cast a ballot under legislation that Gov. Scott Walker will sign next week: 23 percent of elderly Wisconsinites; 59 percent of Latina women; 55 percent of African American men overall; and 78 percent of African American men who are 18 to 24 years old.

A canvas of cruelty against working Americans

Budget proposals unveiled in Washington and state capitals across our country this year revealed a despicable canvas of cruelty: In Michigan, a state senator thinks foster children should be required by law to purchase second-hand clothes. In Maine, the governor thinks more children should go to work. In North Carolina, the legislature thinks we should balance the state budget on the backs of autistic children. In Arizona, the state Senate president floats the idea of locking up protesting public employees in desert tent city jails. In New York, a billionaire mayor proposes to fire 5,000 teachers rather than tax the bonuses of the Wall Street executives who brought down the American economy.And not just meanness. Destructiveness. A willful desire to block the road to the future.

How else can you explain governors of states with mass unemployment refusing to allow high-speed rail lines to be built in their states?

How else can you explain these same governors' plans to defund higher education, close schools and fire teachers, when we know that without an educated America, we have no future?

Here in Washington, the Republicans in Congress have defunded housing counselors and fuel aid for the poor, and they are blocking worker training and transportation infrastructure.

$4.2 trillion in tax cuts that benefit wealthy individuals and corporations

But the final outrage of these budgets is hidden in the fine print. In state after state and here in Washington, these so called fiscal hawks are actually doing almost nothing to cut the deficit.

The federal budget embraced by House Republicans, for example, cuts $4.3 trillion in spending, but gives out $4.2 trillion in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit wealthy individuals and corporations.

Florida is gutting aid for jobless workers and using the money saved to cut already-low business taxes. At the end of the day, our governments will be in no better fiscal shape than when we started—they are just being used a

Think about the message these budgets send: Sacrifice is for the weak. The powerful and well-connected get tax cuts.

This is a moral challenge, not just political challenge

All these incredible events should be understood as part of a single challenge. It is not just a political challenge—it's a moral challenge. Because these events signal a new and dangerous phase of a concerted effort to change the very nature of America—to turn this into an "I've got mine" nation and replace the land of liberty and justice for all with the land of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.

You see, I believe the United States is not a place as much as it is an idea. For working people, the United States of America has offered, from its foundation, a promise that everyone can be full participants in national life.

Hard work should be rewarded with economic security

A promise that we the people make the rules so that hard work is rewarded with economic security and a fair share in the wealth we all help create. That promise has always been a work in progress.

This year we commemorate the 150th anniversary of our bloodiest war – a war that resulted in the extension of the American promise to the African Americans who did so much of the work of creating the United States.

We were the first country in the history of the world to embrace the idea that you don't have to own land to vote—that citizenship comes from where you live, not what you own or who your parents were We were the first country to make land available to those who would work the land—in the Homestead Act.

And in the modern era, when giant corporations dominated our economy, we pioneered the idea that we had a right to a voice on the job—a right made real when we came together to form unions and bargain collectively.

And while Boeing and the Chamber of Commerce may not like it, the law of the land protects working people who exercise that right against any retaliation by their employers.

View the original article here