Obama's Full Remarks to United Steelworkers Conference

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama

USW Conference

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Hello everybody. I'm sorry I can't be with you today, but thanks for letting me say a few words to you. I want to begin by thanking John for that introduction. America's working men and women have few people fighting more tirelessly on their behalf than John. And I'm proud to be fighting alongside him in this campaign to help build that one America that he talks about. I also want to thank your President Leo Gerard for his leadership and friendship. You know, this has been a long campaign, and I've spoken to a lot of groups and a lot of conventions. But I've got to say, talking to you today carries a special meaning for me. Because it reminds me why I entered public service more than twenty years ago.

As some of you know, the reason I moved to Chicago and became an organizer after college was to help lift up neighborhoods that were devastated when a local steel plant closed. For about three years, I organized unions and churches to give job training to the jobless and hope to the hopeless, and block by block, we helped turn those neighborhoods around. And it was the best education I ever received – because it taught me that together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. It's the idea that's at the heart of the United Steelworkers – that we are all connected, that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, and that in this country, we rise and fall together.

And that's a lesson we need to remember today. Because for the past eight years, we've had a very different philosophy in the White House. They call it the ownership society, but what it means is you're on your own. You're a worker who's seen their job shipped overseas? Tough luck, you're on your own. You're a single mom trying to afford health care for your kids? Tough luck, you're on your own. You're a senior whose pension got dumped after a lifetime of hard work? Tough luck, you're on your own.

Well, we know where this approach has gotten us. More than 3.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. More than 40,000 factories have closed down. Wages are stagnant, while the cost of everything from gas to groceries is going up and up and up. And more often than not, the few jobs that are being created pay less than the ones we're losing and come without health care or a pension or the benefits you deserve.

But as you know all too well, Steelworkers, the problem isn't just that this administration hasn't been fighting for you; it's that they've actually tried to stop you from fighting for yourselves. This is the most anti-labor administration in our memory. They don't believe in unions. They don't believe in organizing. They've packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies. Well, we've got news for them – it's not the Department of Management, it's the Department of Labor, and we're going to take it back.

So we don't have to wait for the verdict of history to know that the Bush years have been a disaster for hardworking families. And that is why we cannot afford to let John McCain serve out George Bush's third term. Now, I honor Senator McCain's service to this country, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. But while he can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.

It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush ninety-five percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.

It's not change when he offers four more years of trade agreements that are written by and for corporate lobbyists; agreements that don't protect our workers, don't protect our environment, and ignore the plight of workers abroad. That isn't change.

It's not change when he sides with George Bush and the business lobby to say “no” to workers' rights, “no” to organizing, and “no” to the Employee Free Choice Act.

It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create jobs with fair wages, or insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of health care or make it easier for every American to join a union – policies that have only succeeded in sending more jobs overseas, lowering the real incomes of the average American family, widening the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and leaving our children with a mountain of debt to countries like China. That isn't change.

Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who create it; it's understanding that the struggles facing working families can't be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs; it's giving a middle class tax cut to 95% of workers and their families, and putting a college degree within reach for anyone who wants one – because that's how we'll make sure our children can compete and win in the global economy.

Change is knowing that for trade to work for America, it has to work for all Americans; that we have to stand up to countries that are manipulating their currency or flooding our markets with subsidized goods; that it's wrong to have a “one-size fits all” trade policy that treats countries as different as China and Mexico as if they were the same; that it's wrong when we're opening up our markets but not asking other countries to open up theirs; that when workers are mistreated in sweatshops and labor leaders are threatened or even murdered abroad, it not only offends our conscience, it hurts our workers too; and that our job ends not when a trade deal is signed, but when it's enforced – because success should be measured not by the number of agreements we sign, but by the results they produce. That's what change is.

Change is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and giving them to companies that create good paying jobs here in America; it's putting people to work – members of your union – making the materials we need to rebuild America, and making sure new infrastructure projects adhere to Davis Bacon standards; it's building on your path-breaking Blue-Green Alliance with the Sierra Club by unleashing the potential of green manufacturing in America, and creating millions of new green jobs – jobs that we want to be good union jobs – and giving our workers the skills to do them. That's what change is.

Change is a health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it; brings down premiums for every family who needs it; cuts costs for business and their workers by picking up the tab for some of the most expensive illnesses and conditions; and that stops insurance companies from discriminating and denying coverage to those who need it most.

Change is a President who welcomes you into the White House; who's walked with you on that picket line; who doesn't choke on the word “union”; who lets unions do what they do best and organize our workers; who knows it's wrong when companies are calling their workers “independent contractors” to avoid paying employment taxes and workers comp and overtime; and who will finally make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land.

That's what change is. And that's the choice in this election. We all know what the stakes are. But from time to time, there's someone who reminds you what this is all about. One of those people is Steve SKI-VAH-RUH, who asked a question at the AFL-CIO presidential debate last summer. Steve spent 34 years working for the LTV steel until he was forced to retire because of a disability. When LTV filed for bankruptcy a couple years later, Steve lost a third of his pension and his family lost their health care. And Steve started tearing up, explaining how every day, when he sits across the kitchen table from his wife of over three decades, he thinks about how he can't afford her health care. And he asked a simple question, “What's wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?'

Well, the answer to Steve's question isn't just that I'll make health care affordable. And it isn't just that I'll protect retirement security. The answer to his question is that I'll be a President who wakes up every single day, determined to make life better for working people in this country.

You see, politics didn't lead me to working people; working people led me to politics. I was standing with American workers in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant twenty years ago, and the reason I'm running for President is because I don't want to wake up one day many years from now and see that we're still standing idly by while even more plants are shut down, and even more jobs are shipped abroad, and even more workers are denied the good benefits and decent wages they deserve.

The reason I'm running for President is because I know what it's like to see a mother get sick and worry that maybe she can't pay the bills. I know what it's like to go to college on student loans. I know what it's like to have to scratch and work and claw to build a better life for your family. And I don't want to wake up many years from now and find that the American dream is still out of reach for ordinary Americans.

The reason I'm running for President is because I believe that if we can just put an end to the special interest-driven politics in Washington; if we can just put an end to the politics of division and distraction; if we can reclaim the idea that the United Steelworkers make real each day – that we all have a stake in each other, that we all have mutual obligations to one another; if we can just unite this country around a common purpose – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American; labor and management; Democrat, Republican, and Independent – then there's no obstacle we cannot overcome, no destiny we cannot fulfill.

That's the opportunity we have in this election. There is a moment in the life of every generation when that spirit of unity and hopefulness has to come through if we're going to make our mark on history. This is our moment, Steelworkers. This is our time. And if you keep marching with me and organizing with me, and keep knocking on those doors, and making those phone calls, and registering voters, and talking to your friends and co-workers and neighbors, and if you vote for me, then I promise you this: we will win the general election and then – you and I – together are going to change this country, and change this world. Thank you.