Philadelphia, PA
August 8, 2023
Hello Philly! It’s great to be here in the City of Brotherly Love with all my union brothers and sisters.
And it’s an honor to join my sister from California – our Vice President – Kamala Harris.
Vice President Harris has always been a fighter for America’s workers, and I’ve seen it firsthand. Ten years ago, when I was California Labor Commissioner and Vice President Harris was our state Attorney General, she reached out to me to talk about teaming up to fight for working families.
That’s the kind of leader she is — she understands that we can achieve more together than we can individually. Today, I’m proud to work with her side by side again as part of the most pro-worker, pro-union administration in history.
Now, thank you to everyone who has welcomed us here. And a special thanks to the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades for hosting us. And to [Painters’ General President] Jimmy Williams – thank you for your leadership and your partnership in this work.
And of course, thank you to the union members and workers gathered here today.
Some of you are coming here during your lunch break or before heading back to work — thanks for taking the time to join us. And I want to send a message to you loud and clear: the Biden-Harris administration has got your back, and we’re all in on putting workers first.
I can’t think of a better place than Philadelphia to showcase the impact of our economic plan to Invest in America by investing in America’s workers.
I don’t need to tell anyone here that Philadelphia is a proud union town. I bet the only things more popular than a union in Philly are Rocky Balboa and Jalen Hurts. The proud history of Philadelphia labor is proof positive that fair union wages are key to bringing good jobs to more communities.
As we speak, President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is delivering new roads and safer bridges to neighborhoods across the country.
And these projects are also an opportunity to create good union jobs — here in Philadelphia, and in every community.
At the Labor Department, our North Star is connecting all workers to the good jobs we’re creating, and we’re getting it done with three key values in mind: first, empowering workers; second, building equity into everything we do; and finally, enforcing the law using every tool at our disposal to protect workers’ rights.
Let’s talk about that last piece: enforcement. Because it’s the key to everything else. Believe me: you can’t achieve empowerment and equity without enforcement.
At the Department of Labor, we have a special role and responsibility in ensuring that our investments in America are also investments in America’s workers, and we do that by enforcing labor standards.
Under President Biden, we’re setting standards that uplift all workers. Workers like Erin O’Brien-Hoffman, who’s in the audience today.
Erin is a Philly girl, born and raised, and the mother of four boys. After high school, Erin tried college, but she realized that a four-year degree wasn’t right for her. So, she started working full-time as a server and a barmaid.
But Erin found herself working unpredictable hours with unpredictable pay. With a young child at home, she knew she needed a change.
She noticed many of her customers were carpenters, electricians, steamfitters. They came in wearing union shirts, they finished work at a reasonable hour, and she appreciated that they were generous with their money.
Erin decided she wanted to do whatever they were doing. So, she applied and was accepted into her local Painters Unions as a new apprentice, where she was able to earn as she learned.
Today, she’s the Director of Education right here at the Finishing Trades Institute. She’s got health benefits, a pension, and yes — she makes the family-sustaining wage she deserves.
Erin told me that, quote: “The sky is the limit in the building trades…” and that she “had to break a lot of glass ceilings to get there.”
Well, under President Biden, we’re making sure that ‘the sky is the limit’ for all workers — just like it is for Erin.
And we’re raising the floor for workers so that everyone can keep breaking those glass ceilings — just like Erin did.
I like to say we’re leading a golden age of enforcement. That means setting high labor standards because when we raise the floor for workers, everybody benefits. It means ensuring that the jobs we create are good jobs that uplift families and communities. And it means leveling the playing field for employers who are taking the high road. Because companies who exploit workers, or who don’t pay workers fairly, should never have a competitive advantage.
Strong enforcement is good for workers — and it’s good for employers who are playing by the rules and are frustrated by the bad guys who aren’t doing the same. It turns out: protecting competition also protects workers.
So, here’s the bottom line: when we don’t pay workers fairly, we’re locking out families from the middle class, and we’re excluding entire communities from sharing in the historic gains we’ve made.
But when we raise the floor, we give folks a path to the middle class.
It’s the same path that put me here before you today — and that put ‘Union Joe’ in the White House. That’s Bidenomics in action. It’s about kicking off America’s infrastructure decade, not making empty promises of an infrastructure week that came and went. It’s about creating good jobs with family-sustaining wages right here at home, not shipping jobs overseas, where labor standards are lower. And it’s about investing in people and advancing policies that improve their lives — and lift up their families, and their communities.
Right now, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity, not only to build roads and bridges across the country, but to create pathways to the middle class for all workers.
Whether they have a four-year degree, whether they have kids at home, or whether they’ve seen themselves represented in construction jobs in the past.
All of us are part of that work. Together, we’re making sure that the sky truly is the limit for families across the country.
So, thanks again for everything you do.