Union
Members Will Rebuild America
I look forward every year to Labor
Day. In many ways, it’s a progress report on the American labor movement.
And it is a tribute to the
leadership and resilience of our movement that—even when the state of our Union
is in such disarray—the state of America’s unions is strong.
Union members have answered the call
of COVID-19. Every day and in every way. We’ve served. We’ve sacrificed. We’ve
healed. We’ve done it all. We’ve honored the country we love, the country
unions built.
And that’s why new research from
Gallup puts our approval rating at 65 percent, the highest since 2003 and one
of our best marks in more than half a century.
The problem—and more than that, the
clear and present danger—is that too many of our country’s leaders haven’t
honored us. They haven’t served us well. They haven’t protected us.
They’re letting our country crumble and our people suffer.
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are
at the top of that list.
Remember what Nancy Pelosi and House
Democrats did to make America whole. They passed the HEROES Act on May 15.
That’s SIXTEEN weeks ago tomorrow. More than a HUNDRED days. It would
protect our paychecks and pensions and public services. It would save
lives. But Mitch McConnell and his anti-worker colleagues in the Senate
have refused to act.
American workers are sitting awake
at night—worrying, suffering, mourning. Our bills are mounting up on kitchen
tables because that bill sits on Mitch McConnell’s desk.
Across America, some governors and mayors have tried to pick up the slack. They deserve credit—but they can’t do it alone. An unprecedented national crisis requires a plan from the top.
It requires vision and competence
and management skills. It requires humility, agility and perseverance. And yes,
compassion—compassion for everyone who calls this country home.
The crises we confront today would
challenge even America’s most revered presidents. Yet our lives depend on the
competence and compassion of Donald Trump. He is simply the worst president to
have at the worst time.
And the worst part about this
devastating moment is that it didn’t have to be this way.
In 2016, enough union members
defected from the Democratic Party to tip the balance in places like Michigan
and my home state of Pennsylvania. And when Trump was elected, I committed
to working with the president on issues where we might agree.
I owed that to every working person
out there, whether they voted for Trump or Hillary Clinton, or didn’t vote at
all. Because if working people are strong, America is strong.
At the time, trade, infrastructure
and manufacturing stood out as areas for common ground. But Donald Trump
failed. He failed to seek common ground with us. He failed to consult
common sense or demonstrate common decency.
He broke his promises on
infrastructure and manufacturing. The jobs he said were coming never came.
Instead of rebuilding America, he’s torn it apart. And his tax cut for the
ultra-rich accelerated the outsourcing of good-paying American jobs and
worsened inequality.
On trade, yes, working people made
some progress. But let’s get the facts right. Speaker Pelosi stood with us in
blocking the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement until Trump finally made it
enforceable. Never forget: working people rewrote NAFTA. The president
just rode our coattails.
But it’s more than the broken promises that have made Donald Trump such a reckless president for working people. It’s the relentless, reprehensible attacks. There are too many examples to name this morning, but let me point out just a few.
Donald Trump’s appointments, from
the Supreme Court to the National Labor Relations Board to the Department of
Labor, have made it their mission to undermine collective
bargaining. Every rule...every decision...every move...has made it harder
to live and work in America. Not since Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic
controllers have we seen this level of union-busting from the White House.
Donald Trump’s disregard for
workplace health and safety has been dangerous, delinquent and deadly. He has
never had a full-time director of the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. There are fewer OSHA inspectors today than at any point
since it was founded.
He’s weakened enforcement by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, forcing miners to work in hazardous conditions. As a former miner and as the son and grandson of miners, that offends me personally. And he’s halted new rules on combustible dust, construction noise, silica and even infectious disease.
Donald Trump inherited a pandemic
playbook from his predecessor and tossed it in the trash. He abandoned a
workplace infectious disease standard that would have protected our front-line
heroes from COVID-19. And even after the virus hit, he refused to issue a
national workplace safety standard, leaving millions vulnerable to infection
and in too many cases, death.
What have we learned from all of
this? We’ve learned that working people cannot afford Donald Trump. We’ve
learned that workers might not be able to survive another four years with
Donald Trump. Meanwhile, what has Donald Trump learned? Absolutely
nothing.
After months of pandemic politics
and generations of systemic racism, Trump is pouring gasoline on the
fire. It is a transparent, ugly, last-ditch effort to scare some people
into voting for him and scare others away from voting at all.
Our country is sick, and Donald
Trump is making it worse. Our economy is weakening, and Donald Trump is
making it worse. America is hurting, and Donald Trump is making it
worse. America needs healing, and he gives us division. America needs
hope, and he gives us tweets.
Here is the plain truth: For the
good of the country we love, working people gave Donald Trump every last chance
to prove himself. But it’s clearer than ever that for working people to
defeat the coronavirus, economic inequality and systemic racism, we’re going to
have to remove this dangerous president from the White House.
Working people are ready to keep
pushing America forward. We’re ready to organize and form new
unions. We’re ready to mobilize and pass the HEROES Act and the PRO Act so
workers can join a union freely and fairly.
We’re ready to elect Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris and union members and allies from coast to coast. We’re
ready to get out the vote and then protect those votes. There is still nothing
stronger than a united American labor movement!
In May of 1964, President Lyndon
Johnson shared his vision of a Great Society. It was a vision of health and
education and American community. But more than anything else, it was a vision
built on the idea that we have the agency to make our future.
LBJ said: “There are those timid
souls who say this battle cannot be won; that we are condemned to a soulless
wealth. I do not agree. We have the power to shape the civilization that we
want. But we need your will, your labor, your heart.”
This is a scary time. Donald Trump’s
America is a dangerous place. And there are those who right now are again
predicting our country’s demise.
But America’s unions know better!
America’s workers prove it every day!
This Labor Day, with our will and
our heart, we are ready to carry the nation we love through this dark day and
shape a greater society.
This fall, with our votes, union
members will secure the future we want and save the country we’ve built.