Remarks by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka Paychecks Pay the Bills Rally for Jobs Los Angeles, California
August 13, 2010

Thank you, Maria Elena [Durazo], for that introduction.

Sisters and brothers, I want to know one thing: Do you want jobs? Do you want security? Do you want to rebuild America? Do you want to dig us out of this recession with good, honest work?

Good. And I'm glad we're in this fight together. We need everyone we can get -- working together. Standing together. Fighting together.

Okay. Look around. California's official unemployment rate is 12.3 percent. The real rate could be close to twice that. I see a lot of building trades workers here. You're some of the hardest hit by this recession.

In June, there were 747,000 people in Los Angeles looking for work. Three-quarters of a million people without jobs! Right here in L.A.

That's not acceptable. That's a crisis.

We've seen private-sector jobs destroyed, and now they're coming after the public employees. That's why all of us are fighting for jobs. We've got to keep pushing – it's about jobs. Jobs.

I see Letter Carriers here. I was just at their convention. The job-killers have a big push on to cut back mail service to five days a week. They don't care what that means to your mom's social security check or that prescription you're waiting for, but I'm telling you this -- we've got to keep letter carriers on their routes! Nobody, not the U.S. Postal Service -- nobody is going to cut their way to fiscal health in this recession. It doesn't work that way. All we'll be doing is cutting ourselves a deeper hole.

Some people see public employees as an island of privilege. The truth is you're the foundation for decent standards -- you're the only thing standing in the way of a Republican-driven, all-out race-to-the-bottom -- a deeper and deeper hole.

And that'll be the end of America's middle class.

When public employees, and union workers everywhere, negotiate decent pay and decent benefits, what we do is lift all boats. Every worker in America gets a chance at a better deal.

We need each other. We're strong together. Shoulder-to-shoulder, there's nothing we can't do.

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

Last week every Senate Republican but two voted to keep tax loopholes for companies that send jobs overseas, instead of sending the money to California and other states to keep teachers in the classroom, cops on the beat and firefighters one phone call away! That's insane. And it's wrong.

How are we going to rebuild America? With jobs! Who's going to rebuild America? Working people with jobs!

When you listen to Republicans on the jobs issue, it sounds like they're talking about some make-work project that costs a lot of money and is gone in six months. That makes about as much sense as your Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

But I'm talking about real projects, like the LA Metro 30/10 Initiative. It's efficient, it's smart, it's strategic. It accelerates 12 key construction projects to complete a new, comprehensive, rider-friendly rail system in LA. It does it in 10 years instead of 30, and it gets started now.

We're talking about 166,000 jobs, and the federal dollars needed are minor, just enough to kick the process into gear.

And here's the best part. You start this investment in a new, environmentally friendly metro rail system, and it will create a virtuous cycle of innovation and creation. You'll see spin-off businesses, new investments. This is how you rebuild an economy.

What I'm talking about are real jobs for you, a future for your family. That's the foundation. Good jobs for you, for Los Angeles, for America. But to get there, we need the right people in Washington, and we need the right leaders in California.

In the political showdown between Wall Street and Main Street, California is Ground Zero. Nowhere else in the nation are voters' choices in November so stark. You have the third highest jobless rate in the country. A budget deficit of $21 billion. You need leaders who can create and save jobs, and deal with tough budget situations.

So in the elections for governor and senator, who do the Republicans throw at the problem? Two clueless CEOs: Meg Whitman, who was too shady even for the board of Goldman Sachs; and Carly Fiorina, who laid off 30,000 Hewlett Packard employees, shipped jobs overseas, got fired—with a $20-plus million golden parachute—and was labeled one of the worst CEOs of all time.

Sisters and brothers, this is crazy! Wall Street destroys our economy and robs us of millions of jobs. And the Republican response is: Great! How about more of the same?

We're done with that kind of deal for America.

Queen Meg? She's not what we need on the throne of the biggest state in the country.

And how about Carly Fiorina -- who calls offshoring jobs "right-shoring"? She actually said that. And she says the new Arizona immigration law promoting racial profiling is just fine. And—here's a classic—she says, and I quote: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore." So count on her—she doesn't even have the shame to hide her plan—count on her to keep pushing for tax breaks for companies that ship away our jobs, and for rich people just like her.

That's why we've got to fight for Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown --- because together we can restore California and restore jobs.

So I'm asking you today: Sign up with your local union or CLC for Labor 2010. Volunteer for the phone banks; walk the neighborhood walks; talk to people at your worksite; convince people of what's at stake in California and in America, and that they cannot under any circumstances sit this one out.

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

Nobody's going to hand them to us. And people who want better have to understand: If California and America are going to create new jobs with rising wages, stable benefits and promising futures, we've got to work for it.

If you believe that keeping jobs in this country matters, and in returning America to a country that makes things again, work for it.

If you believe that America must invest in transportation and technology, education and the environment, work for it.

If you believe that Wall Street got us into this mess and now must pay its fair share of the costs to get us out, 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 all.