Thank you, Mark [Ayers], for welcoming me here to be with the men and women responsible for building the American Dream -- from its concrete foundation to the peak of its roof.  And thank you for giving me the opportunity to join you, my brother, here at your convention.               

Let me say to all of you what you already know—your president is a man to be proud of, a leader of integrity and class, a leader for the BCTD, for workers in the trades,  for veterans through his leadership of the Union Veterans Council—and for all working men and women in this great country.                

And let me recognize the incredible building trades presidents who are here today—great leaders, real champions, every single one of them.              

It is an incredible honor to be here with all of you—the hardest-working men and women in America.  And we need you working.            

When you pull up to your worksite, America gets to work.  When you're idled—through no fault of your own—America idles.  That's wrong.            

And we're going to change it with one solution. It's called jobs!  Jobs!            

I know you're doing all you can to develop partnerships with private industry, with pharmaceutical companies, with manufacturing plants, with the auto industry and oil and gas companies.  Your efforts have brought more than $1 billion in private money for the support and maintenance of apprenticeship and training programs.            

That's good work. That's the future.            

So is the way you've built and maintained your membership by leafleting worksites and reaching out to tradesmen and women and employers alike.  No one is prouder of their unions -- of being in their unions -- than building trades workers.            

And you stand for quality.  You build a premium product.            

These days you have to compete with a lot of cut-rate contractors, but what owners and builders learn fast is that the cut-rate contractor, more often than not, ends up costing a hell of a lot more than his low, low sticker price.            

That's your competitive advantage.  A premium product.  Quality.              

You're head-and-shoulders more productive. You're highly trained. You're safer. You work harder, and any contractor, any owner worth his salt, will take notice.            

But I'm going to say this straight: There comes a point when our economy is so hollow from outsourcing, so weakened by Wall Street's recklessness, so flattened by low wages, that all the competitiveness in the world isn't going to ease what's hurting us.               

That's why we're taking on what's underneath this bad economy.  We're going to create jobs.  We're going to lift up our whole economy -- our entire nation.              

We need building trades men and women back on the job.              

Remember John F. Kennedy's line about the rising tide that lifts all boats?  He wasn't talking about a bubble economy or a Reagan economy. It's working people—working people—who are the tide.  Good jobs are the tide.  When working people rise, so does our economy.              

For 30 years, corporate CEOs have been waging war against workers, eroding our foundation, chipping away at us and at America's middle class.  They've been hard at work to low-wage us, to outsource our livelihoods, to pit us against each other.  And it's worked pretty damn well.              

We're up against a wall, brothers and sisters.              

Nationally, building trades workers have an official unemployment rate of about 20 percent. That's bad, but you know the truth -- it's over 30 percent in Chicago, Miami and Phoenix.  In Detroit, it's 45 percent!  And, you know as well as I do that the real rates are even higher.              

Numbers like that can't convey the sickness in your stomach, when it looks like only a miracle can save your home, or your car, or your marriage.              

Brothers and sisters, you have to know that our entire union movement is behind you.  We're with you.  We're fighting alongside you.              

I know you're frustrated.  I know you're angry.  I am, too.  I'm angry as hell!                                                                                                           

We've won a lot this year—historic victories that the power of our unions won -- that working families won.  But that didn't put your members, your brothers and sisters to work—at least not enough of them.  That didn't put a paycheck in their pockets.  It's just not enough.              

I want to talk for a minute about the Obama administration: Without the Obama recovery plan, we'd be in a full-blown depression.  The Obama administration has already created more jobs — even in this weak recovery — than were created during the entire eight years of George W. Bush.              

Many of your members are working today on bridges, highways and other projects funded by recovery dollars.  Let's not forget the jobs in clean energy and school construction, and Obama's executive action to reverse the Bush ban on PLAs, and to prohibit federal contractors from using funds to block union organizing.              

Let's not forget the great work by our new Secretary of Labor to stop the misclassification of employees by those cut-rate contractors.              

That's a record, a real foundation.  It's something to build on.  But it's not enough.  It's nowhere near enough.               

To be frank with you, a lot of us anticipated that Congress would have moved faster.  That maybe, by now, we would have seen some serious job growth, major investments to rebuild our crumbling schools, bridges, highways and rail systems.  These are the essential investments we've called for to rebuild America.            

But let's be clear about why we haven't seen more.  Most of what we see is Republicans fighting Democrats -- and sometimes they're joined by a few Democrats --and we're living the fall-out.            

Here's the problem.  Every time the Democrats and President Obama have proposed jobs legislation, they've been blocked by crass maneuvers from the most politically motivated Republican minority we have ever seen – and I really do mean ever.               

At every attempt to solve America's most urgent issues, their answer has been, No.  Just no.  The Party of No doesn't want the recovery to work for one reason—because they don't want President Obama to succeed—and that is insane, it's disgusting.               

The Party of No doesn't want workers to have the freedom to form unions and bargain for better lives—because they don't want us to succeed.            

And the Party of No doesn't want the union vote -- the working family vote.  They want us all to stay at home out of frustration.  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 thoroughly disgust the rest of us, then they can win this election in a walk.            

Well, I have news for them.  We're not quitters.  We're going to win jobs.  We're going to win for each other, and we're going to win for you by fighting to keep strong majorities in Congress and in the states who will invest in jobs.              

Right now, across this country, there are key proposals in the works to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in transportation and green energy manufacturing.              

In Los Angeles, we're fighting for the 30/10 Initiative – I was out there pumping for it last Friday.  It would build in 10 years a 30-year planned expansion of the metro rail line.  By itself, the 30/10 Initiative would create 166,000 jobs for 10 years.              

In Georgia, peak construction at two new nuclear power plants will employ 10,000 workers.  Road, rail and tunnel construction on Long Island will get tens of thousands of construction workers back on the job.              

We've seen good projects in the works from coast-to-coast.  Right here in Minnesota, in Oregon, in Colorado, Missouri, Florida. You name it.              

Right here on American soil, scientists and engineers are developing technology for wind turbines and even – can you believe this? – a kind of sophisticated electrical engine powerful enough to propel a hybrid passenger airplane – that Boeing says could be market-ready in a decade.              

It's not enough for us to develop those technologies -- if the products are built in China, or Vietnam, or Germany.              

We've got to manufacture those products right here in America -- and we need you to retrofit and maintain those factories.  And we need federal dollars to kick-start the process.              

And none of this -- none of this -- will come to pass if we stay home for the next 76 days.              

That's why I'm asking you to commit to Labor 2010, to get your members on the walks, on the phones, talking to one another at the worksites.  Nobody does it better than you.               

Help your members get over their frustrations, get them hyped up and fighting back.  Pull out all the stops.  We need leaders in Washington and in the states who will be steadfast friends to workers, friends to families, leaders who will fight for good jobs in America.              

Big Business is going to spend a lot of money to defeat our champions.              

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pledged to spend upwards of $300 million to stop our progress.  It's not hard to guess their playbook.  They think if they can confuse us with a blame game, frustrate us with Washington gridlock, keep us angry at immigrants and each other, that we won't come to the polls.  We'll sit home and, what? Mope around and cry?  Give me a break!              

Here's what they don't understand.  We're union!  That means we know how to work.  No one's better.  They can spend all the money they want, but we've got people power!  We are people power.            

No man, no woman, is an island.  But you get enough of us together, and we can build an island!  And in 76 days, on Nov. 2, I think we're going to have to throw some opponents of working families off the island!               

Every one of us -- every one of our members -- has a choice to make.  Do we want House Speaker Pelosi?  Or do we want Speaker Boehner?  Do we want candidates whose only answer is "No," or candidates who fight for good jobs and an economy that works for everyone?              

We have a choice between saving and improving the jobs that Americans need now more than ever, or telling our communities – Starve, you're on your own.  Between building things again in America, or continuing to export jobs instead of goods.              

But your union brothers and sisters won't understand that until after you've done your work, cutting through the confusion, educating and mobilizing, hitting the streets, ringing the doorbells, talking to working families, talking to veterans, young people, and making sure everybody gets to the polls to vote.            

And let me tell you this: When we win these elections on November 2, it'll strengthen us to fight for jobs on November 3, and the next day, and the day after that.            

It's not going to come easy, and the Party of No stands in the way.   But if we're going to get building trades workers back on the job, we've got to work for it.               

If you believe in returning America to a country that makes things again, we've got to work for it.              

Work for it.  Stand for it.  Stand together.  March together.  Fight together.  Win together.  And don't let anyone—anyone—stand in our way.             

Thank you.  And God bless you.