New Orleans, Louisiana
September 28, 2024
Wow. So, Vicki and Erica, thank you so much to NABTU and the Tradeswomen Committee... that's right, let's give it up for the Tradeswomen Committee... and my friend Sean McGarvey, thank you so much for your extraordinary leadership and vision. Tradeswomen of America... Sisters! I have had the privilege of meeting so many of you in my travels across the country, but it is something else to see you all together.
So as a woman and a mother of two daughters, I have seen my whole life how society limits what women are supposed to do, telling us what we can and can't be. Telling us how we should dress, walk, talk, behave. When my oldest was five and she wanted to be Spider-Man for Halloween, people said she couldn't do that because Spider-Man was for boys.
Yep. Superheroes are men they said. Well, standing here in a room full of tradeswomen, I know that women can be anything. And I know. I know that you have all been told what you can and can't do.
So I feel like it's a little bit hot in here. Any of you guys hot? Ok, it's a little hot.
Today we are in such a momentous moment in our country, a moment of both worker power and women's power like we haven't seen. And don't just take my word for it. Look around this room. It's women like Leah Rambo, president of... President of Nontraditional Employment for Women who is working, who is working toward a day when we're not going to be talking about nontraditional jobs for women anymore because women in the trades is going to be the norm.
It's women like Mariah Doherty who found a flyer for a women's apprenticeship program in the trades when she was in line for food stamps. And today, she has achieved full financial security through her determination and her grit and her tradeswoman job. And she has never looked back. And I know you are here, Mariah.
It's women like President Liz Shuler, the first woman president of the AFL-CIO.
It's the fact that Tradeswomen Build Nations had 200 people when you all started out... Look at you now! And it's women like Vice President Harris, who dares to say that in this country we trust women and is showing the world what women can do.
It's the fact that women are in the labor market in record numbers and women have really powered this nation's economic recovery. It's all of you closing the gender and racial wage gap, expanding access to paid sick leave, maternity leave, health insurance, pensions, legal services and mentorship programs, proving something that we all know that when we lift up women, we lift up everyone. Safety measures for heavy lifting and child care stipends; standards that should have been in place for years but are being implemented now thanks to you. So you are not just reshaping unions, you are reshaping America and showing what work should look like.
Now, President Biden set out to be the most pro-worker, pro-union administration this country has ever seen. And for us, that is not just a slogan. It's a promise. It's a promise that we are keeping every day. And I appreciate President Booker for listing many of the ways that that is true. Let me tell you what I mean by that.
We say union loudly and proudly, and we say unions make America strong because it's true. And that has helped to strengthen workers leverage at the bargaining table and has helped lead to 400,000 new union members since President Biden and Vice President Harris came to office.
Now, in the past, U.S. presidents didn't talk about unions. Right? And when they did, they wanted people to believe that strong unions was bad for America. And that worker organizing, bad for our economy. The last administration crushed union organizing and said if workers try, they should be fired.
We say not on our watch.
The last administration created fake apprenticeship programs to replace union apprenticeships.
We said not on our watch.
That's right. Not today, not tomorrow, not on our watch. We shut down fake apprenticeships. We restored registered apprenticeships. And we put unprecedented dollars into the programs that the gold standard that you all built, that the Trades Union built, and we see women apprentices flourishing and communities reaching back and bringing more women in.
The last administration promised an infrastructure week that never materialized. It became a punchline, right? And anyone who thought that a week was enough doesn't know anything about infrastructure.
And what do we say to that? Not on our watch.
We're investing more in our nation's infrastructure than ever, more than we invested when America built our nation's highway system. And we have more PLAs in just one year, than in the entire ten years before, combined.
And this means jobs for you because Tradeswomen build America in the Biden-Harris Infrastructure Decade. I don't need to tell people in this room that laws are only good if they're enforced. And that's what we are doing building back OSHA that was gutted in the last administration. I know that Vicky's incredible work is about making sure that people will be that one guy, and we are working to ensure that gender based violence and harassment in the workplace are treated as the workplace hazards that they are.
Our work is not done. Our work is not done. Tradeswomen build families, build communities, and yes build this nation. So I'm going to leave you with what I told my daughter when she said she wanted to be Spider-Man. You can be anything that you want to be. Superheroes... superheroes are not just in comic books and in the movies. Looking out at all of you, I know that in real life, superheroes are women. Let's go get it.