Remarks by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, Battleground States Conference, Washington, DC
August 03, 2010

Thanks for coming to D.C. I'm excited to see you, because I know you're getting fired up to go all out.

When we talk about union power, about people power, about boots on the ground, we're talking about you. You're the power. Your union members are the power. We may come from across the nation, but we're united as brothers and sisters in the most important moment in the labor movement in 75 years.

In 2006 you did the heavy lifting behind gains in Congress that helped put the brakes on the Bush agenda, and two years later your work put President Obama in the White House and strong majorities in the House and Senate.

Your work in the AFL-CIO's political program is the main reason why Congress and the White House are focused on America's working families.

Union members trust what you say. You're the only voice that shares their motives, their concerns, and can speak to them clearly and honestly about their fears and insecurities.

Your states are going to swing this election, and you're going to swing your states. You're who's going to win for working families in November.

I want to speak frankly. There's been a lot of talk this summer about the "enthusiasm gap." You've heard it. I've heard it, too. What's happened? Have the people who were so charged up two years ago changed their minds about change?

Let's be clear-eyed about what's going on. 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.

Believe me, I know how frustrating it's been to watch a solid bloc of congressional Republicans throw up roadblocks on every single thing working families care about. Everything.

And it's been just as frustrating to watch some of the Democrats we thought were our friends join them—saying, Go slow, play it safe, split the difference.

But now it's 91 days before the election, and that means we have 91 days to change the frustration out there and turn the anger and hurt working people are experiencing in this economy into action.

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."

But, against these 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. Not enough. But gaining.

That's progress, and we've got to keep it going.

By the end of 2010, the economic recovery program will have saved or created 3.5 million jobs, and it created new investment 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.

President Obama fulfilled the dream of every progressive president since Harry Truman to move us down the road of providing health coverage for every family in this country and stop the worst abuses by the big insurance companies.

That's progress. And we've got to keep it going.

We've got tough new Wall Street reform that reins in the reckless Big Bankers—so 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 calling 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.

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' right to organize, an OSHA and a Mine Safety administration that believe in protecting workers' health and safety, a wage and hour division that will make sure workers get the pay they're due and a federal contracting policy that insists on responsible employment practices.

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—to step up—the good work. We need to keep the pressure on, and we will. But we have to remember who brought us the worst economy since the Great Depression, who got us into this.

President Obama didn't rob us of 11 million jobs any more than the workers cleaning up Gulf beaches caused the BP oil spill. It was a gang of elected officials that used to occupy the White House and Congress who used their votes for Wall Street, for health insurance companies, for coal and oil companies that kill, for CEOs who have greed in their bloodstreams.

We need to tell our union brothers and sisters: We know you're angry. We know you're frustrated. We know we haven't achieved everything we worked for. But we've made progress—and we have to keep it going. Remind them we have to save our anger for the corporate lapdogs who made this mess and the Republicans in the Senate who are determined to keep us in it.

Sisters and brothers, in just three months, there's going to be an election with an historic choice—a choice between the clean-up crew and the wrecking crew. 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?

The Republicans want to extend President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. The Democrats wanted to extend unemployment benefits.

That's the choice we have to make.

The Republicans want to give us House Speaker John Boehner—who compared the financial crisis to an ant—who called health care reform "Armageddon" and said repealing it is his No. 1 priority. They want to give us a chairman of the House Energy Committee who apologized to BP. A chairman of their Congressional Campaign Committee who actually says right out loud he wants to go back to the Bush policies. And a tea-partying senatorial candidate from Nevada who wants to abolish Social Security, Medicare and the Department of Education.

That's the choice we'll make in November.

Do we want leaders who fight for a lifeline for the unemployed or candidates like Rand Paul of Kentucky, Steve King of Iowa and Sharron Angle of Nevada who call them "hobos," "on-the-dole," "spoiled" and "lazy"?

Do we want leaders who will hold corporate CEOs accountable or those who justify the blind "me first" attitude of CEOs while asking us for "shared sacrifice" in the form of Social Security benefit cuts and a retirement age of 70?

Do we want leaders who fight to raise the minimum wage or do we want people like Rand Paul, who tell us workers should just take lower wages, because that's the "Tough Love" of a recession?

Do we want leaders who fight for jobs, or people like Sharron Angle, who says creating jobs isn't her job.

Do we want leaders fighting to restore the economy or people like Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who complained about missing a basketball game, while he single-handedly blocked a stimulus bill that included the extension of jobless benefits?

Sisters and brothers, these are the choices in this election—between going backwards and moving forwards. Between the wrecking crew and the cleanup crew. Between running this country for the richest top one percent and the American promise of "liberty and justice for all."

It's up to you to energize the working women and men who have the most to lose from going backwards and the most to gain from moving forwards. It's up to you to pour in the release staff, and run your Labor 2010 programs like there's no tomorrow—because there may not be.

If you want an America where work is rewarded, make it happen Nov. 2.

If you want an America where we make things again, make it happen Nov. 2.

If you want an America with a strong and growing middle class, make it happen Nov. 2.

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 make it happen Nov. 2.

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 make it happen Nov. 2.

Sisters and brothers, we got America moving forward in the election two years ago. Let's do it again in 2010. The people in this room are the people who can make it happen. Every single one of us. Together.

So for the next 91 days we have to work together. Vote together. Stand together. And no one—no one—can stand in our way.

Thank you, and God bless you all.