Washington, D.C.
December 6, 2023
Good afternoon, everyone!
It's always such a pleasure to hear from my California sister – and our Vice President, Kamala Harris. Ten years ago, when I was California Labor Commissioner and Vice President Harris was our state Attorney General, she reached out to me to team up to fight for working families. Because she believes deeply in the dignity of work and all workers.
And that’s what we believe at the agency I lead – the Department of Labor.
Good jobs change lives.
Just yesterday, I hosted a discussion with many of you here to talk about how we can get more good jobs in Tribal communities. And we heard from a woman named Cecelia Bull Chief who is a member of the Crow Tribe in Eastern Montana and who now lives in Seattle.
When Cecelia became a single parent, she knew she had to get a good job. So as soon as her youngest daughter started kindergarten, Cecelia started a Registered Apprenticeship to become a glazier. Those are the workers who place the glass windows on buildings.
Even as she was learning the trade, she also earned a paycheck – making more than double the minimum wage. And after graduating from the program, Cecelia got a good union job that allowed her to support her family.
As her kids grew up, she proudly pointed out all of the buildings she worked on in the Seattle skyline. Today, Cecelia’s two oldest kids are painters in good union jobs. And her youngest daughter is the first in the family to attend college, where she’s studying as a pre-med.
I’ll say it again, good jobs change lives. They build intergenerational opportunity, wealth, and pride.
But at the same time, I’ve heard loud and clear from Tribal leaders that for far too long, we’ve done far too little to create more of those kinds of opportunities for Native Americans and in Tribal communities.
And the U.S. government cannot solve problems that we’re not honest about. And we can’t build equity if we’re not looking at inequity.
And so one of the first things I did when I got to the Department of Labor was to make sure that when we look at jobs numbers and unemployment rates, we disaggregate that data for different communities like American Indians and Alaska Natives.
So now, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is publishing monthly labor force estimates for this community. And a recent analysis found American Indians and Alaska Natives have a lower labor participation rate and a higher rate of unemployment, compared to the overall U.S. population. And unemployment is higher in places like federal or state American Indian reservations… compared to American Indians and Alaska Natives who do not live in these communities.
The Biden-Harris administration is working to change that story. And we want each of you to help us write this new chapter.
That means strengthening our workforce system with state and local partners, along with Tribes.
I think of our country’s workforce system as infrastructure. It’s the roads and bridges that connect people to the good jobs they want and need and employers to the people they want and need.
You’ve already heard how the Biden-Harris administration is investing in infrastructure for Indian Country – like new roads and bridges, affordable, high-speed internet connections, clean water to flow out of every faucet, and more.
And now, we need to make sure that our workforce system is as strong as those new physical roads and bridges that we’re building. And we need it to reach all communities.
In 2022, the Department of Labor announced the Good Jobs Initiative. As our government makes historic federal investments across our country, we want to do it in a way that creates good jobs that you can raise a family on. Jobs that recruit and hire people from Native communities and many others that have historically been left behind. Jobs where workers are respected and treated fairly.
So we’re investing in proven models like Registered Apprenticeship programs, like the one Cecelia took part in. If the workforce system is like infrastructure, Registered Apprenticeships are superhighways. We’re also working alongside Tribes to better prepare Native youth for jobs in growing industries.
And as we do this, we also recognize and respect Tribal sovereignty in all of our work.
With input from Tribal leaders, we now have a policy that makes clear that for any action that affects federally recognized Indian Tribes, the Department of Labor will engage in government-to-government consultation.
We also have a new Tribal Consultation Training course for all DOL employees who work directly with Tribal Nations or those who work on policies that would affect your communities.
Because we want to build our Nation-to-Nation relationship in positive and productive ways.
As President Biden says, a good job is about more than a paycheck.
Good jobs bring dignity and respect. They sustain families. And they build strong communities today and for the future.
And as we write a new story together, the U.S. Department of Labor will be right by your side to fulfill the promise of bringing good jobs to every community.
Thank you.