Remarks of AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka 29 th New Jersey State AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention Atlantic City, New Jersey June 21, 2016 Thank you, Brother Charlie [Wowkanech]. I appreciate you and Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan tremendously. Your commitment to working families across New Jersey is unmatched. You lead a powerful and sophisticated movement. I m proud to call myself your brother. Here in New Jersey, your values are in exactly the right place. You support an expansive progressive political and legislative agenda. And you get results. The story of your last four years is about goals achieved and objectives met. All of us should recognize wins when we get them. Your successful record is a credit to each and every leader here, from your diverse and united grassroots movement on up. Your record is no accident. You can see the breath of unionism in your coalitions. Working Families United for New Jersey counts more than 250 organizations among its members. This is a coalition that advocates for and wins good jobs and better pay, like the 2013 ballot initiative raising the minimum wage. You see, together, we re changing the debate. We re not just talking about jobs. We re talking about good union jobs that pay enough to support yourself and your family. That s a union idea. That s our vision. The American labor movement is leading the way, and New Jersey is out front. God bless you for it! Your amazing political education program grows out of that strength. You re the first in the entire country to go paper-free. That s incredible. Just look at how many union members you ve elected to public office! Your program, by the way, is a model for the entire labor movement. It has worked 874 times. You ve accomplished real victories: project labor agreements, investments in infrastructure, education and job training, paid family leave and so much more. Your future is bright. The New Jersey labor movement is growing younger and more diverse. You have built a solid core of women leaders and expanded the scope of what our labor movement fights for. You re building our democracy by helping hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants become citizens and voters with your We Are One New Jersey program. In New Jersey and up and down the east coast, CWA and IBEW members took on Verizon and won. And just last week, thousands of members of Unite HERE Local 54 voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike at casinos here in Atlantic City, including the Trump Taj Mahal. I have a message for each and every worker who makes these casinos profitable: the AFL-CIO has your back. We are going to stand with you in the fight for good pay and health care and retirement security. It is time to raise wages in Atlantic City, throughout New Jersey and across America. That s the union vision. It starts with the absolute truth that each and every one of us should be decently paid for the work we do. 1
And we define what decent means! No one should make less than the minimum wage, everyone should make a living wage, and collective bargaining should be available for all workers. That s not all. Raising wages is about more than dollars and cents. It s about dignity, no matter who we love or how we worship. It covers everything we care about. Fair trade. Just immigration. Equal pay for equal work. And more. Our vision will unite this country and build a better future. New Jersey is hungry for it. America is hungry for it. We can do it, because we re the ones who drive the buses and run the trains. We build the bridges and lift the loads. We clear the roads and load the ships. We do America s work. We make America go. And we want our share of the American Dream, brothers and sisters. So let s stand for it, let s march for it, and let s win it! So maybe you ve heard, this is an election year. To say it has been an interesting campaign season would be quite an understatement. Your esteemed Governor, Chris Christie, got a grand total of zero delegates. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, they didn t do much better. Ted Cruz named a running mate, and then promptly dropped out of the race. Quite honestly, the Republican primary would be funny if it weren t so ugly. And no one embodies that ugliness more than Donald Trump. Through his actions, his words and his ideas, Donald Trump is profoundly unfit to be president. And it s not just me saying that. It s Republican leaders and conservative columnists. It s Mitt Romney and George W. Bush. It s 70 percent of Americans who view Trump unfavorably. His rise didn t happen in a vacuum. For years, moderate pro-labor Republicans have been pushed to the side in favor of extremists like Trump. Make no mistake, a broken Republican party paved the way for his nomination. Ever since Barack Obama was elected, the Republican vocabulary has been reduced to one word: no. No to creating jobs. No to raising wages. No to investing in infrastructure. No to expanding unions. No to equal pay. No to a vote on the President s Supreme Court nominee. In their obsession with defeating President Obama, Republican leaders refused to work with him. So we haven t been able to make the big changes working people need. Everyday Americans are fed up. And who can blame them? They think Washington is broken. By refusing to govern, Republican leaders have left working families behind. And their inaction created the monster that is Donald Trump s candidacy. It s our job to explain that Donald Trump won t solve America s problems. He is the problem. Name any core American value, and Donald Trump is against it. Freedom of religion. Freedom of the press. Responsibility. Equality. Unity. Integrity. He stands against everything we stand for. 2
During this campaign, Donald Trump claimed that thousands of Muslims in Jersey City cheered as the Twin Towers fell on 9-11. His statement is false. It s offensive to America. It s offensive to New Jersey. And he should be ashamed of it. His speech after the Orlando massacre showed that Trump is always eager to stoke the flames of fear and division. Can you imagine him in the White House during a major national crisis? As president, he would tear this country apart. What about Trump s claim that he is a great businessman? Well sisters and brothers, take a walk down to Atlantic Avenue. Stand on the boardwalk and look at what this great city has become. We will not let Donald Trump do to America what he did to Atlantic City! Donald Trump talks a big game about making America great. He says he s a friend of workers. But Trump doesn t have our backs. He wants to break our backs. Here are the facts. Trump says our wages are too high. Let me repeat that. He says our wages are too high. Trump wants to destroy labor unions. His position on right to work is 100 percent. He refuses to bargain with workers at his hotel in Las Vegas. Trump is prooutsourcing. He has consistently shipped American jobs overseas to line his own pockets. Here is all the proof you need: Donald Trump actually rooted for the collapse of the housing and real estate market two years before it happened. Trump bet on himself and against America. I don t have to tell you about the impact of the crash here in New Jersey. People lost their homes, their jobs, their life savings, their livelihoods. And Donald Trump was profiting every step of the way. Sisters and brothers, Donald Trump is nothing more than a billionaire who made himself rich by making the rest of us poor. And come November, we re gonna say, loud and clear, Mr. Trump, You re fired! Fortunately, we have a pro-worker, progressive candidate who understands that politics and paychecks are tied together. Last week, on the heels of her big win here in New Jersey, the AFL- CIO proudly endorsed Hillary Clinton. Sisters and brothers, Hillary is a proven leader who is going to make a great president. Time and again, she has listened to working people and stood with us to win positive change. She is tough. She is smart. She is committed. And she understands that to truly make America great, unions must lead the way. She s with us. And we re with her. Clinton is traveling the country this week talking about raising wages. She believes in a basic bargain where everyone who works for a living is able to get ahead. She s with us on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She said and I quote: We need an entirely new trade policy that creates jobs in this country, not more low-wage jobs abroad. She s with us on infrastructure and has put forth a bold plan to rebuild our nation, create jobs and revitalize the middle class. 3
She s with us on equal pay for equal work and fair overtime rules and labor laws that level the playing field. Hillary Clinton will be our champion in the White House. She s with us. And we re with her. I must also say a word about Bernie Sanders. The Democratic primary was one of the most productive and positive in recent memory, and Bernie played a big role in that. I m proud of his run, and I know his impact has only just begun. Sanders elevated critical issues like income inequality and strengthened the foundation of America s labor movement. I have no doubt he will stand with us to keep Donald Trump out of the White House, and put Hillary Clinton in it. Working people have been the greatest force this election year, and our activism is poised to move America forward. Our agenda drives our politics, not the other way around. We re going to keep building our political independence. We ll keep our issues front and center. We ll stand for the candidates who stand with us. Candidates like Republican Congressman Frank LoBiondo, by the way. We have the power to change America! Our economy isn t like the weather. It doesn t just happen to us. Hurricane Sandy didn t blow pensions into the Atlantic. Corporate CEOs are taking them. America s middle class jobs aren t just vanishing into thin air. Bosses have been working overtime to drive down wages and ship American jobs overseas, because our trade and tax policies encourage them to. What we do in New Jersey this year can transform the economy for those of us who count on a paycheck. We ll keep fighting. Keep marching. Keep building. To win a new era of good jobs, strong unions and raising wages. This year, America s labor movement will unleash the most comprehensive electoral program in our history, with a massive effort here in New Jersey. It starts with each local designating an election point person. We have to be united: big unions and small, public sector and private. Raising wages is what we re all about. And we know the single best way to raise wages is with a collective bargaining agreement. Good old-fashioned unionism will always be our top priority. That s why it s so important to engage in collective action. That s why organizing must be our daily mission. We re building a movement. It s a movement where unions grow and inequality shrinks. It s a movement where you can grab onto the American Dream no matter what you look like, where you come from, how much money your parents have, or who you love. When it comes to doing right for working people, we define that vision. We embody those values. We will fix what s broken in our country. We have unity. We have solidarity. And we are ready to win justice and jobs today, and a better tomorrow. In the words of Bruce Springsteen, we take care of our own. So we ll work for it, sisters and brothers. We ll stand for it. Together. Each of us. With solidarity. Real solidarity. Where your picket line is my picket line. And my picket line is your 4
picket line. Shoulder to shoulder. Arm-in-arm. All day. Every day. As long as it takes. To win together. To grow together. To bring out the best in ourselves and each other. To bring out the best in America. To build the America we can have, and must have, and will have. Thank you, and God bless you! ### 5