Washington, DC
08/06/2024
Welcome, Great Cities, to the Department of Labor for the Good Jobs Great Cities summit!
I know earlier today you were with my friend, Mayor Benjamin. When President Biden was deciding who to bring into the White House to help and advise him, he knew that if he wanted to get things done, he should choose mayors.
And speaking of mayors who can get things done, I want to say to the incredible former president of the National League of Cities and Mayor of Tacoma, Mayor Woodards: this really was your brainchild. It showed that when you bring amazing, smart people together who want to get things done, even more happens than you initially thought possible. So, thank you so much for your leadership, your friendship, for giving birth to this idea and helping to nurture it all the way to fruition.
Today is as much a celebration of that journey as anything else.
I want to extend my sincere gratitude to NLC President and Rancho Cordova Mayor David Sander – who unfortunately could not be here today – and NLC CEO and Executive Director Clarence Anthony, for their passion and perseverance in driving the change we see in our cities today.
One reason we first did this—the Good Jobs Great Cities initiative—is we knew we were living in extraordinary times, with historic federal investments from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that would transform America and American industries, from construction to manufacturing to clean energy. We knew we had to recover from a global pandemic that brought incredible challenges, while continuing to confront age-old challenges: how to create good jobs where working people aren’t just getting by but getting ahead; making sure everyone has access to such a job, and combating homelessness and poverty. All requiring creative solutions and partnerships.
That’s why I want to thank all the mayors who are here today and acknowledge all that’s happened as a result of Good Jobs Great Cities.
Missoula, Montana is connecting low-income women to renewable energy jobs. In Newark, opportunity youth, through the YouthBuild program, are helping to build Hope Villages, learning in-demand skills while meeting the need for access to shelter. And in Frederick, Maryland, Mayor O’Connor actually created a new position, Manager of Opportunity and Transformation, to connect formerly incarcerated individuals to good career opportunities, expand apprenticeships, and build career pathways for opportunity youth. Talk about building for sustainable impact!
These are some examples of the incredible work being done by those in this room. This is how we not only envision a better future, but actually build it; how we roll up our sleeves and do the hard work. City by city. Community by community.
One year ago, we met here to kick off the Good Jobs Great Cities Academy. This academy embraced the principle that equity and excellence go hand in hand, and the idea that when we break down the barriers that hold people back and give them a real chance, they succeed, and communities thrive.
This work is proving what we all know: that when workers do well, everyone prospers.
Workers like Rose Evans from Kokomo, Indiana. Kokomo is reopening plants that had been shuttered, and Rose, who was struggling to provide for her kids and struggling to see a bright future for herself, found a sheet metal workers apprenticeship. Because of that, Rose’s daughter, Diamond, saw the power of a good union job, which inspired her to join a pre-apprenticeship program funded by the Department of Labor in conjunction with the Building Trades. This year, Rose and Diamond are working side by side in good jobs that are funded by Investing in America dollars and by private investments inspired by those dollars to build battery plants in Kokomo.
It’s not just good construction jobs that are being created because of those investments. It’s also the manufacturing jobs that will be done in those plants once they are fully built up. The work to make sure that those manufacturing jobs are available to workers who have been left out and left behind in Kokomo is part of the work of this Good Jobs Great Cities initiative. It’s all interconnected and it proves—I’ll say it again—that when workers do well, communities prosper.
There are so many stories like Rose and Diamond’s that are being written every single day. “Good jobs for All” is not just a slogan for us. It is a strategy. And we know that a good job is a job that provides real economic security. It’s a job in which a worker knows that at the end of the day, they’re going to come home healthy and safe. It’s a job where workers have a right to join a union and have a real voice.
And speaking of unions, the opening of battery plants in Kokomo, Indiana isn’t happening by accident or lucky coincidence. They were part of the negotiations that UAW had when they were fighting for their new contract. When workers have a real voice on the job, when unions are strong, their wins benefit not just their current members but create opportunity for more people to get a real shot. And when a good job is available to everyone, workers, families and communities do better, not just for now but for generations to come.
But for too long, too many people were cut out of the promise of a good job. Our workforce system wasn’t doing what we need it to do. That’s partly because for too long, the workforce system was thought of as mainly about training. And the problem as one of a skills gap. No. That’s much too narrow.
As we build this nation’s infrastructure, I think of our workforce system as infrastructure too. 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. And we need that infrastructure to be as strong as our physical
infrastructure. I call this the Opportunity Infrastructure. And it will connect ALL workers with good jobs that have the power to change lives.
This Opportunity Infrastructure starts with good jobs: employers creating jobs that provide real security and signaling what skills they need for those jobs early. Because once it’s time to hire, it’s too late to think about where the workers will come from.
The strongest examples we have of effective Opportunity Infrastructure involve employers and workers, management and labor, working together as partners to identify skills needs and the best way to develop those skills – and not just for individual jobs but for whole industries.
What else is part of the Opportunity Infrastructure?
1. Registered Apprenticeships. Registered Apprenticeships are the superhighways that connect whole industries to workers with exactly the skills that they are looking for. And apprenticeship programs aren't just one-off trainings. They create a steady pipeline of workers with in-demand skills.
2. Educational institutions. Schools, especially community colleges, are the on-ramps to the system, but that doesn’t work if they are disconnected from it, if the degrees, credentials, and certifications have little to do with actual jobs.
3. Supportive services like child care and transportation, which help people get to jobs and stay in jobs, eliminate barriers that operate like roadblocks in rush hour traffic. These critical services help everybody get to where they need to go faster and more reliably.
Right now, our workforce infrastructure, like our physical infrastructure, has some cracks and potholes. For too long, too many training programs of the past have been focused on skills that workers might need for jobs that might materialize, only to end without a firm job offer. And too often we’ve heard people say, “People don’t have the right skills,” which has then been used to justify leaving out entire communities. These communities have been left behind not because they lack the skills – but because we haven't built the roads and bridges to connect them to good jobs.
That’s what the Opportunity Infrastructure will do. That’s what you’re all building now. And I promise you President Biden, Vice President Harris, and the entire Department of Labor are all committed to continue to work with you to strengthen and fortify the Opportunity Infrastructure in your cities and across the entire country.
This year alone, the Department of Labor will invest $6.8 billion in our nation's Opportunity Infrastructure. Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has significantly increased the number of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs nationwide.
I know that you are all committed to this work because I know that in Jamestown, New York, you’ve launched the “Dream It Do It,” initiative to energize and build an early talent pipeline of students interested in manufacturing careers. I know that in San Antonio, you’re working with employers, industry leaders, and workers together to address barriers to equal opportunity and
sustainable employment, like child care, head on. And I know that in Chattanooga, you’re expanding apprenticeship to youth in the city, connecting them to good paying jobs without debt.
Building this infrastructure is not something that happens overnight or within a year or two. But we’ve begun that interconnected infrastructure building that’s going to connect people to real opportunity and together, we will be able to scale for broad impact
From the heart of our cities to the breadth of our nation, we are witnessing a transformation. A transformation that will change how workers of every community – including those historically left behind – are connected to good jobs so that every family can achieve stability, and every community can flourish.
I want to thank Mayor Woodfin of Birmingham and Mayor Woods of Tempe, who have joined our Good Jobs Alliance, signed onto our Good Jobs Principles, and committed to continuing to bring together workers, unions, employers, industry associations, school districts, community colleges, training partnerships, workforce boards, and community-based organizations who serve marginalized individuals to build the Opportunity Infrastructure.
I want to encourage all of you to join our alliance.
Together, let’s finish what we’ve started. Let's continue to drive progress and connect people to the good jobs that will change lives for generations to come.
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