Montgomery, AL
January 12, 2024
Thank you so much, for that warm welcome and, Courtney, for that beautiful introduction.
I got to talk to Courtney a little bit before we both came up here and Courtney is a fearless leader who is making things in her workplace, who is doing hard work in her union, and who is building her community. So, Courtney, thank you very much.
[Applause]
I want to acknowledge President of the AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler. I have spent the week crisscrossing the country at the same events with President Shuler, which tells me that I am doing something right. It also actually demonstrates the incredible alignment between the Biden-Harris administration and the AFL-CIO on our current issues and the priorities for this moment.
And I also want to acknowledge Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond for his incredible – let's just give it up for Secretary-Treasurer Redmond again [Applause] – who is such a giant in this community, in this work, who has lived his life and his career at the intersection of workers rights and civil rights. And you are just an inspiration to me.
So I'm so excited to be here, union family. There is nowhere else I would rather be to honor the legacy of Dr. King than here in Montgomery, the birthplace of the nation's civil rights movement with all of you.
[Applause]
To me, this conference embodies something I have seen throughout my life, and something Dr. King preached throughout his, which is that we cannot have economic justice without racial justice. And we cannot have racial justice without economic justice.
[Applause]
He dared us to imagine a world in which both existed. In fact, Dr. King said – at the AFL-CIO's fourth Constitutional Convention in 1961 – that when the forces of labor and civil rights come together, he said, "This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy."
And now is the time to bring about that day.
Because for far too long, we've been living in a very different reality.
We've heard that when workers demand better, it's a threat to our economy and prosperity.
We've been told that the massive gap between CEO pay and front-line worker pay – where workers have to work for years to make what the CEO make in an hour – is just the natural way of things. No, not on our watch.
We've heard that people who face discrimination, racism, and other forms of marginalization, well they just need to keep their heads down and keep working harder. Not on our watch.
In President Biden's America, we are rewriting that narrative.
[Applause]
Now, 2023 was a big year for the labor movement.
Across our country, workers – from health care to hospitality to Hollywood, teachers and delivery drivers and dockworkers – all demanded their fair share, said we deserve to be valued, and had historic wins at the bargaining table.
[Applause]
That's right. Give yourselves a hand for that.
And we have a President who's not just watching this happen but is using every lever to promote and support it.
In President Biden's America, "union" is not a bad word. It is the reason America is strong.
[Applause]
It is the way that America is going to grow stronger.
It is the engine for economic and human rights.
It is how we are going to achieve the promise of American democracy.
[Applause]
So I was in the room for many of the contract negotiations that went on last year. And I heard corporations say, "the wage increase you want is too far above the market wage."
Above market wage.
My response to that is instead of telling workers that their demands are too high, maybe it's time we question why the market wage is so low?
[Applause]
Why should we accept as normal the fact that workers have to work full-time, year-round, even multiple jobs and still can't afford to live near where they work?
Well you – unions – are helping to reset and lift up that market wage.
Let's look at the auto industry, where the UAW won a 25 percent wage increase and improvements to health and retirement benefits.
[Applause]
They're also charting a future in an industry that is undergoing massive change.
So I was with the President in Belvidere, Illinois where a plant that had been shuttered was now going to reopen due to the union's demands at the bargaining table [Applause] and not only bring back lost jobs but create new, good union jobs.
Those wins helped motivate workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant just outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama to go public – earlier this week – with their campaign to join the UAW.
[Applause]
And almost immediately after the UAW and the "Big Three" automakers reached their agreement, non-union employers in the auto industry began giving unprecedented wage increases to their workers, too. [Applause] Right here in Montgomery, workers at the Hyundai factory will see their wages rise by 25 percent by 2028.
[Applause]
This Brother, along with President Shawn Fain, calls that the UAW Bump.
[Audience member: "Yes, ma'am!"]
And they are absolutely right about that, resetting and lifting up the market wage.
I also got to be there when health care workers negotiated their historic contract and proved what is also true, which is that unions are one of the most powerful forces – if not the most powerful force – for combating racial and gender wage gaps.
Those workers, largely women of color, won a historic wage increase and are lifting up the market wage in their industry too.
[Applause]
Black and Latino workers especially benefit from public-sector collective bargaining.
Now, the racial wealth gap in the United States persists; in 2022, the median wealth for a white household was more than six times that of a Black household.
But unions help to change that. And a 2019 McKinsey report estimated that if we closed wealth gap for Black Americans in this country, it could raise U.S. GDP by 4 to 6 percent by 2028.
Right? I don't know how many economic policies could do that. But what we know is that ending structural racism is good economic policy.
[Applause]
Unions prove time and time again that when we strive for worker justice we can also advance racial and gender justice and combining these forces, as Dr. King said, will help us realize the dream of American democracy.
Because the same values that animate union organizing – people being heard, building solidarity to secure and just conditions for the collective good, and demanding dignity and equality for all – those are the same principles that are necessary for a vibrant democracy.
I said that 2023 was a big year for workers in America, and this didn't happen by accident.
It happened because you organized. Because you bargained. Because you chose solidarity.
And it happened because "Union Joe" is our President [Applause] – a President who has promised to and delivered on being the most pro-worker, pro-union president in history.
Let me ask you this. Before him, when was the last time you saw a President walk a picket line?
[Audience member: "Never."]
That's right. Because it's never happened before.
And President Biden believes that creating good union jobs is one of the most important ways to strengthen and expand the Black middle class.
He knows that this is not just a matter of being fair. This is essential for a strong and resilient economy and a strong and resilient democracy.
So the Biden-Harris administration is actively directing investments to build things – build safe roads and bridges, clean drinking water, safe, reliable, affordable internet, electric school buses and more - all across the country.
And in President Biden's America, these are not just the privileges of a few. These should belong to every family.
[Applause]
And the good jobs that are needed to deliver these things should be available to every community.
So let me share with you a few examples of how we're making that happen.
The Department of Labor has designated 24 infrastructure projects "megaprojects," including ones in North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
For these megaprojects, we are rolling up our sleeves before a single shovel hits the ground to work with project owners, contractors, and unions to help recruit and hire from communities that have been left behind – women, people of color, and others – so they get these good jobs.
[Applause]
The Department is also awarding grants - like one to the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute and Lawson State Community College right up the road in Birmingham. That funding is going to help train women, people of color, and others who have been left out from jobs in construction, manufacturing, and clean energy.
This is how we build, not just physical roads and bridges, but the high road to the middle class.
[Applause]
So last year I was in Chicago when I met an Ironworker named Jazz Allen, and many years ago, Jazz returned home from involvement with the justice system. And Jazz struggled to find a job that she could live on.
But one day she learned about a pre-apprenticeship program and found herself in classes and then became the first Ironworker to graduate from a program called Chicago Women in Trades where she embarked on a career with high pay and benefits.
But that's not the end of her story.
Because Jazz went back to the program, after she graduated, to volunteer and to mentor new students. She recruited more women who were looking for a good career with good pay. And today, she leads that program, Chicago Women in Trades, the same one that she graduated from.
[Applause]
Last year, the Department of Labor invested $1.3 million in Jazz – and other women like her – to connect more women to good jobs in construction.
You know, Jazz's story is one that I have seen throughout my life. I spent my entire career fighting alongside workers to help them realize and exercise their power. And I have seen – you have all seen this too – a deep connection between someone's experience at work and their sense of power in their lives.
If they worked – or they saw the people around them working – full time, under grueling conditions, without the pay to live a decent life or a voice to change it, it had a profound effect on their faith in whether the system was just and fair, right? It limited the dreams they had for themselves and for their futures.
It robbed people of opportunity and security. And that diminishes power in our communities. It cheats our country out of talent and potential. And it is devastating to our democracy.
But I've also seen the flip side – and I know this room knows the flip side well – that when people first feel the thrill of being able to change the conditions in their workplace, there is no turning back. When workers like Jazz find their voice and find their power, they can imagine a better future for themselves and they can see what they can contribute - not just to the workplace - but to their communities and to our country.
And that's what Dr. King was working toward. Not racial justice in isolation. Not economic justice in isolation. But the full potential of every person to contribute, to flourish, to organize, and yes, to be valued. So that's the promise of America.
That's why, in his last days, Dr. King was in Memphis, supporting Black sanitation workers in AFSCME Local 1733, who went on strike for 65 days to demand better working conditions. He told them when he got there that they were making real the promise of democracy.
The labor movement has always been about reimagining what is possible – that a different country, a different economy, is possible – and making it happen. And the labor movement is key now to making the America we know we can and want to build.
If we want a strong democracy, we need strong unions – a place where every worker is treated with equality and with dignity. And if we want strong unions, we have to demand inclusion so that no worker has to hear that they should just keep their heads down and work harder.
My friends, 2023 was a big year for workers, but we have much more work to do.
The Biden-Harris administration stands with you like no administration before.
So, keep on organizing. We have your back.
Keep on lifting that market wage. We have your back.
Keep on demanding inclusion. We have your back.
Let's keep on reimagining what is possible for workers together in this country.
Let's keep on fighting for our democracy together.
Now is the time. 2024 is going to be our biggest and best year yet. So let's get it done together.
[Applause]