Thank you, Frank Hurt (BCTGM President), for that great introduction. And thank you all for the great work that the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union does at the bargaining table, in communities across this country and in the political process.
You are one of the pioneers of the North American Labor Movement. In fact, your union was founded even earlier than the birth of my own home union, the United Mine Workers—four years before. So we are the heirs to more than twelve decades of struggle by working Americans to build our unions, to build our middle class and to build a better America. And we meet at a time that – for better or for worse – will be just as historic as the battles that those who came before us fought and won and left as their legacy.
Two years ago, working Americans had the courage to elect a President whose very victory gave new life to our nation's pledge to be "one nation, with liberty and justice for all."
Over the past 18 months, with our help, President Obama has continued to make history—fulfilling six decades of struggle for health coverage for all Americans; pushing through the most sweeping reforms of Wall Street since the Great Depression; maintaining America's tradition of providing extended unemployment compensation when times are tough and enacting an economic recovery plan with job-creating, trail-blazing, community-building investments in education and the environment, transportation and technology, clean energy and green jobs.
But not since Franklin D. Roosevelt told a trembling nation that we had nothing to fear has a President taken office in such terrible times.
Herbert Hoover left President Roosevelt the Great Depression. And George Bush left President Obama – and all Americans -- the worst economy since those terrifying days.
George Bush gave away trillions in tax breaks to the wealthy. George Bush let Wall Street and the Big Banks run wild. George Bush took a rare federal budget surplus and turned it into a record federal budget deficit. And George Bush left us with an even more serious deficit – more than 10 million jobs that have been lost since the Great Recession started in 2007. Even those who are fortunate enough to be working are living in fear of pink slips and givebacks, hollowed-out health care, foreclosures and pension freezes.
Nobody knows this better than manufacturing workers like the members of this union.
Now you may have noticed that I've been using two words over and over again – George Bush. To listen to our Republican friends and their allies in the mass media, George Bush is sort of like Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series – "He who must not be named." They don't want you to blame this economy on George Bush, they want you to blame President Obama and his allies in Congress.
But, think about it: Who do you blame for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? The workers who are cleaning up the oil from the wetlands and the beaches? Or BP, who made the mess?
Well, with this economy, the Obama Administration and our friends in Congress are the clean-up crew. And President Bush and his crowd in Congress are the ones who made the mess.
Don't ever forget it. And remember in November.
Disastrous as they were, we can't blame it all on George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their economic wrecking crew. The Obama Administration, our friends in Congress and our labor movement are working overtime to overturn three decades of bad decisions from Democrats as well as Republicans that let our manufacturing base rust away, that let corporate America bust many of our unions, that let Wall Street write its own rules and that left working Americans with a generation of stagnation.
Over the last decade, we lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs—a million of them professional and design jobs. We lost 20 percent of our aerospace manufacturing jobs. We're losing high-tech jobs—the jobs we were supposed to keep.
Instead of investing in making things, Wall Street speculated on simply making money -- from corporate takeovers that wiped out workers' jobs to subprime mortgages that bankrupted homeowners and tanked our economy. And the result was an economy that's as narrow at the top as those pyramids at the Luxor Hotel here in Las Vegas.
Some of you know a little something about baking pies. And, if you think of the American economy as a gigantic pie, then the pieces of the pie that Americans are receiving are becoming more unequal than ever.
Over the past 30 years, the yawning gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of us has grown into a Grand Canyon. The wealthiest 1 percent's share of the nation's total after-tax household income more than doubled, while the share of the middle class and poor slumped. The gap between the rich and the rest of us has grown greater than at any time since 1929 – which was when the Great Depression began.
With the worst inequality in 80 years, with unemployment hovering around 10 percent and with Washington paralyzed by partisanship and catering to corporate America, it is no wonder that so many Americans – including so many union members -- are so angry at our nation's leaders, from Washington to Wall Street.
We just need to focus that anger at those who richly deserve it. We need to tell our friends and family, our neighbors and coworkers: We know you're angry. We know you're disappointed. We know we haven't achieved everything we worked for. Let's be forceful with President Obama and his cleanup crew. But let's save our anger for the corporate conservatives who made the mess and the Republicans in the Senate who are blocking everything – and I mean everything – that would help working people.
Sisters and brothers, in just three months, there's going to be an election with an historic choice between the clean-up crew and the wrecking crew. As they say here in Las Vegas, the stakes are high: Will America go back to the Bush years – with rising unemployment, shrinking wages, disappearing health care and dwindling retirement savings? Or will we move forward to a future where we generate jobs that pay middle class wages and produce world-class products and services?
Make no mistake about this election: If you're a union member, a working woman or a member of a minority that has been overlooked, underpaid, and locked out, then our adversaries don't want to win your vote.
They just want you to sit this election out. They figure that if they can mobilize the rightwing radicals, the corporate conservatives, the Tea Party fanatics and the talk show fans, and if they can anesthetize the rest of us, then they can win this election in a walk.
It's up to us to mobilize the working Americans who have the most to lose from going backwards and the most to gain from moving forwards.
We have just three months. And we've got to get informed. We've got to get involved. And we've got to get real.
We've all come back from contract negotiations where we didn't get everything that we wanted, but we made great gains. And we can say the same about President Obama's first year-and-a-half. He had to dig the economy out of a deep hole. He had to face down determined opponents. In fact, every time, he told the American people, "Yes, we can," the other party told him, "No, you can't."
And, even in his own party, there were some who kept saying, go slow, play it safe, split the difference.
But, against great odds, President Obama saved the economy from a second great Depression and got it growing again. After losing 700,000 jobs a month under President Bush, the economy has been gaining jobs again.
That's progress, and we've got to keep it going.
By the end of 2010, the economic recovery program will save or create 3.5 million jobs.
That's progress, and we've got to keep it going.
The Recovery Act invests in aid to state and local governments to keep police, firefighters and teachers on their jobs, in child nutrition and school lunch programs that preserve and create jobs for members of this union, and in broadband, a smart grid, weatherization, transit, high-speed rail and clean energy that will create high-skill, high-wage jobs with promising futures.
That's progress, and we've got to keep it going.
He fulfilled the dream of every progressive president since Harry Truman to provide health coverage for every family in this country.
And, before the big liars try to fool you, here is the truth about the health care reform: If you're a working family, your coverage can't be capped. If you get sick, you won't lose your coverage. If you have kids, they can stay on your policy until they're 26. If your kids have pre-existing conditions, they can't be denied care. If your insurance plan is negotiated under your union contract, you're grandfathered in. And, starting on September 23rd, your insurance company must cover your annual checkups and other preventive treatments.
That's progress. And we've got to keep it going.
That's the truth about health care reform.
Now here's the truth about Wall Street reform.
If you're applying for a credit card, a mortgage, or a student loan, you won't have to sign an application filled with doubletalk in microscopic print. We're going to call a halt to abusive lending practices, taxpayer funded bailouts and all the sleazy schemes that crashed the economy.
That's progress. And we've got to keep it going.
We're going to extend unemployment insurance for workers who are searching for jobs in this economy and have already used up their standard 26 weeks of coverage.
That's progress. And we've got to keep it going.
After eight years of Bush and Cheney, we have an administration that wants to work with working Americans and our unions – and not work us over.
At long last, we have a Labor Department that cares about working Americans, a National Labor Relations Board that believes in defending workers' rights to organize, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration that believes in protecting workers' health and safety, a wage and hour division that will make sure workers get the overtime pay that they have earned and a federal contracting policy that will insist on responsible employment practice.
That is progress – real progress – and we've got to keep it going.
On Election Day, we need to tell President Obama and his Congressional allies to keep up – and step up – the good work.
But this election isn't a referendum on this Administration.
It's a choice between the present and the past, between the wrecking crew and the cleanup crew.
In the labor movement, we evaluate public officials – and we endorse political candidates – based on their public records, not their party labels. But I'm sure you've heard the Republicans called the R's for short and the Democrats called the D's. And, when you're driving your car, you shift to R if you want to move back and to D if you want to move forward.
That has to tell you something.
We saw what's at stake in this election in the debate about unemployment compensation.
The Republicans wanted to extend President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. The Democrats wanted to extend unemployment compensation to those who -- after 6 long, jobless months -- are still looking for work.
We'll remember in November.
We hear what's at stake whenever we listen to the Republican leaders. They'll want to give us Speaker Boehner -- a Speaker of the House of Representatives who compared the financial crisis to an ant . A chairman of the House Energy Committee who apologized to BP. A chairman of their Congressional Campaign Committee who actually said he wants to go back to the Bush policies. And a tea-partying Senatorial candidate from this state who wants to abolish Social Security, Medicare and the Department of Education.
And we'll remember in November.
Sisters and brothers, that is the choice in this election – between going backwards and moving forwards. Between the wrecking crew and the cleanup crew. Between running this country for the top 1 percent and the American promise of "liberty and justice for all."
For the great majority of Americans, the choice is clear.
We just need to make sure that they understand what's at stake, that they don't let the perfect become the enemy of real progress and that they get informed, get active and get to the voting places or vote by mail by November 2nd.
You've heard the saying, "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas." Well, please don't let the lessons of this convention be forgotten. We have three months to keep America moving forward without those radical rightwing repo men foreclosing on our future.
So, when you go home to your homes, your jobs, and your communities, please tell your families, your friends and your coworkers:
If you want an America where work is rewarded, then work for it and vote for it.
If you want an America where we make things, then work for it and vote for it.
If you want an America with a strong and growing middle class, then work for it and vote for it.
If you want an America where we understand that good public schools and college opportunities are our moral responsibility to our children and grandchildren, and that Social Security and Medicare are our solemn responsibility to our parents and grandparents, then work for it and vote for it.
And, if you believe the American Dream is for everyone willing to work for it, not just for a privileged few but for all of us, then work for it and vote for it.
Sisters and brothers, we got America moving forward in the election two years ago. Let's do it again in 2010.
Work together. Vote together. Stand together. And no one – no one – can stand in our way.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
