{"id":128492,"date":"2021-09-08T22:15:27","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T05:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=128492"},"modified":"2021-09-08T22:15:27","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T05:15:27","slug":"president-biden-in-honor-of-labor-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=128492","title":{"rendered":"President Biden in Honor of Labor Unions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Jocelyn, thank you.  Please.  Please, please, please.  Thank you, Jocelyn.  Please, sit down.  Thank you.  I \u2014 nothing to it, is there, Jocelyn?  Just walking in and stand at the podium, and \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 speaking at the White House.  Nothing to it.  You did a great job.  And thank you.  And thank you.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/43oepUyzAZs\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Before I really begin, I want to say that I think one of the biggest things that\u2019s changed is \u2014 my dear mother, God bless her soul, used to say, \u201cOut of everything bad, something good will come if you look hard enough for it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>And I think one of the good things that\u2019s come out of this godawful crisis regarding COVID is ordinary people who never thought about the technician at the drugstore, never thought about the grocery store worker, never thought about what that firefighter has to do when they go in.  They don\u2019t ask, \u201cDo you have COVID or not?\u201d  Never thought about the people who keep this country up and running before. <\/p>\n<p>I really mean this sincerely.  It\u2019s not a \u2014 it\u2019s not a political \u2014 it\u2019s a reality. <\/p>\n<p>And I think people went, \u201cWhoa, whoa.\u201d  And instead of \u2014 which was a good thing \u2014 banging pots and pans when people came back from rescuing other folks, I think they began to realize, \u201cYou know, this is part of the deal.\u201d  And to use my dad\u2019s expression \u2014 and I mean it sincerely \u2014 and some \u2014 a few of you knew my dad \u2014 he said, \u201cEveryone is entitled to be treated with dignity.\u201d  And that\u2019s what the labor union is all about: dignity.  It provides dignity for people who deserve to be treated differently. <\/p>\n<p>And I want to thank Jocelyn, and I want to thank President Shuler \u2014 Madam President.  And I know you didn\u2019t expect to be in this role at this moment, but as I told you before, I believe that the future of American labor is in very good hands.  I really mean it.  Thank you.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>And I want to welcome everyone to the White House.  And I really mean that.  This is your house.  It\u2019s not hyperbole.  It\u2019s a fact.  This is your house.  I wouldn\u2019t be here without you.  That\u2019s, again, not hyperbole. <\/p>\n<p>In my White House, you\u2019ll always be welcome.  You\u2019ll always be welcome.  Labor will always be welcome.  You know, you\u2019ve heard me say many times: I intend to be the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history. <\/p>\n<p>But I think one of the reasons I\u2019m able to do that is the public is changing, too.  You\u2019ve changed the public; you\u2019ve educated them a lot.<\/p>\n<p>I want to thank the dues-paying members of the Laborers, Marty \u2014 (laughs) \u2014 Marty Walsh, who\u2019s helping make sure that we keep the commitments across our entire government. <\/p>\n<p>And before I go any further, I\u2019d like to pause for a moment of silence to honor the hundreds of union workers and essential workers who have died from COVID-19; and to honor a buddy, John Sweeney, who we lost earlier this year, and to honor a truly dear friend, Rich Trumka. <\/p>\n<p>A moment of silence, please.<\/p>\n<p>(A moment of silence is observed.)<\/p>\n<p>Thank you.  This is real. <\/p>\n<p>One of the things I admired about Rich is that he understood what people in this economy are really facing.  He, like most of you, felt it in his bones.  He understood what had happened to workers in this country, like you do.  I\u2019ve got to know a lot of you really, really well.  You just feel it.  You taste it.  You understand it.<\/p>\n<p>I \u2014 I get kidded by my staff for \u2014 all these years, and I say: I trust the person most who arrives at the right decision when it starts in their gut, it goes to their heart, and then they have the ability to articulate it because they \u2014 it goes to the brain.  They\u2019re the ones that never back down.  They\u2019re the ones that stay with you. <\/p>\n<p>The ones who arrive at it intellectually are the ones that are the ones who first \u2014 I welcome that, but they\u2019re not the ones who stay to the end. <\/p>\n<p>And, you know, Rich understood the past and the challenges, like so many of you who lived and led through these moments.  But he also understood the future.  I think he understood who built this country and the tools that were needed to \u2014 to build it back and build it back better. <\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve heard me say it a hundred times: We\u2019re the only country in the world that goes into a crisis and, when we come out of it, we\u2019re stronger than before we went in it.  That\u2019s by building back better.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going to build back better.  We have to.  We must.  We will.  Because that\u2019s who we are.  That\u2019s what America is. <\/p>\n<p>On Labor Day, we honor the dignity of the American worker.  And every day, we remember that America wasn\u2019t built by Wall Street.  They\u2019re not all bad folks out on Wall Street.  I\u2019m not suggesting that.  But they didn\u2019t build America.  It was built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>You gave \u2014 you gave workers a voice, all the way back from my Great-grandfather Blewitt who was a mining engineer, back in the days of the Molly Maguires and all the way \u2014 and folks who were treated in northeast Pennsylvania, in the coalmines.  You gave people a voice.  Molly Maguires was \u2014 they \u2014 they were a little tougher.  (Laughter.)  You gave them a hard time, and you ended up on the doorstep, in a bag.<\/p>\n<p>But, you know, think about it: What are the basic things \u2014 my dad used to say, \u201cYou know, we just thought it would give people ability to just be able to take a deep breath, have a little bit of breathing room.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>And what \u2014 what are those things?  Well, healthcare; a pension, God willing; higher wages and a safer workplace; and protections against discrimination and harassment.  That\u2019s not asking too much. <\/p>\n<p>We fundamentally transformed how we live and how we work in this country.  The reason we have is because of the victories won by labor.  I\u2019m going to be a bit repetitive: the 8-hour day; the weekend; you know, time and a half for overtime; safety standards; sick days \u2014 victories for all of us.  Because, I might add, you know, I noticed when you all do that, everybody benefits \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 whether they belong to a union or not.  (Applause.)  Whether they belong to a union or not. <\/p>\n<p>When unions win, workers across the board win.  That\u2019s a fact. Families win, community wins, America wins.  We grow.  And despite this, workers have been getting cut out of the deal for too long a time. <\/p>\n<p>You know, from 1948, after the war, to 1979, productivity in America increased by more than 100 percent while the pay for American workers grew by nearly 100 percent. <\/p>\n<p>And then along came 1979, and everything began to change.  Productivity in the country has grown almost four times faster than pay since 1979.  That means the workers have been giving much more to their employers\u2019 bottom lines than they\u2019ve gotten back in their paychecks, breaking the basic bargain of this country.   The bargain was: If you work hard and you contribute to the welfare of the outfit you work with, you got to share in the benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that stopped for a long time.  So, you can carve out your piece of the middle class and make it a possibility.  That\u2019s what got taken away for a lot of people.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, some people started seeing the stock market and corporate profits and executive pay as the only measure for economic growth. <\/p>\n<p>By the way, the stock market has gone up exponentially since I\u2019ve been President.  You haven\u2019t heard me say a word about it.  (Laughter.)   I\u2019m glad it\u2019s gone up.  No problem.<\/p>\n<p>But, look, let me tell you something: My measure of economic success is how families, like mine growing up \u2014 working families busting their neck \u2014 how they\u2019re doing; whether they have a little breathing room; whether they have a job that delivers some dignity, a paycheck they can support a family on. <\/p>\n<p>In an economy \u2014 you know, in the economy my administration is building, instead of workers competing with each other for the jobs that are scarce, everybody is mad at me because now \u2014 guess what? \u2014 employers are competing to attract workers, having to raise pay.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>No, I\u2019m serious.  Think about it.  That kind of competition in the market helps workers earn higher wages.  It also gives them the power to demand dignity and respect in the workplace.<\/p>\n<p>Simply put, worker power is essential to building our economy back better than before \u2014 it\u2019s just that basic \u2014 to counter corporate power, to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.  I\u2019m so tired of trickle-down. <\/p>\n<p>I ask, \u201cWhen has the middle class done better that the wealthy haven\u2019t done incredibly well?\u201d  I can\u2019t think of a time that all the- \u2014 when the middle class is booming and moving, everybody does well. <\/p>\n<p>And to give workers even more power, I also signed an executive order to improve competition in the economy, including calling for a ban on non-compete agreements that deny workers the right to change the job in the same field, even when there\u2019s no real reason for a company to stop them.  It was all about suppressing wages.  That\u2019s what it was about. <\/p>\n<p>In Congress \u2014 when Congress passed the 1935 Labor Relations Act, it didn\u2019t just say you can have unions \u2014 it should be allowed.  That\u2019s how it\u2019s kind of viewed for a long time.  It said that we, the government, should encourage unions and collective bargaining, making it easier.  (Applause.)  That\u2019s what it said.<\/p>\n<p>And I believe every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union.  The law guarantees that choice.  That belongs to workers, not to their employers or to special interests. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why I signed an executive order creating a White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Employment [Empowerment]: to facilitate that choice whenever and wherever we can. <\/p>\n<p>Look, I want to thank Vice President Harris and Secretary Walsh \u2014 Marty \u2014 for leading that task force.  That\u2019s why I want to see Congress pass the PRO Act and send it to my desk immediately.  That\u2019s why I want us to extend organizing and collective bargaining rights to state and local government employees, like transit workers, first responders, healthcare workers, and other essential workers.  And guess what?  The public seems to agree with that as well.<\/p>\n<p>Government should never be a barrier to workers organizing.  It\u2019s government\u2019s job to remove those barriers.  But it\u2019s up to workers to make the choice whether to organize or not, whether to form a union or not.  And we need to help them understand why that can be the right choice for them.<\/p>\n<p>We know the economic reasons: Union members get higher wages, better benefits, like health insurance and paid leave, protections against discrimination and harassment, and a safer and healthier workplace.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s another reason \u2014 a basic American reason.  Workers who join unions gain power \u2014 power over the decisions and the decision-makers that affect their lives.  Workers\u2019 voices are heard and heeded.  In a simple word, a union means there is democracy.  Democracy.  Organizing, joining a union \u2014 that\u2019s democracy in action.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s about dignity on the job.  But it\u2019s also about creating good jobs.<\/p>\n<p>When I came to office, our first job was to stop the economic bleeding, and it was the worst bleeding since Roosevelt.<\/p>\n<p>We passed the American Rescue Plan.  That delivered shots in arms and checks in pockets, and provided that extra breathing room for working families.<\/p>\n<p>It helped state and cities keep essential workers on the job, including educators, police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers.<\/p>\n<p>And thanks to the part of the Rescue Plan named for Ohio labor leader Butch Lewis, over a million retirees and workers across the country \u2014 (applause) \u2014 they can trust that the pensions they worked for and sacrificed to secure will be there for them.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>You know, and with the bipartisan agreement we\u2019ve reached to rebuild America\u2019s infrastructure, we\u2019re going to be putting hundreds of thousands of people to work, including plumbers, pipefitters, electrical workers, steel workers, so many other union workers \u2014 modernizing roads, bridges, water systems, broadband systems; capping abandoned oil and gas wells that are leaking \u2014 over 100,000 of them \u2014 making the same salary as digging that well.<\/p>\n<p>It creates jobs for American workers and makes our cities and towns more resilient and better able to meet the climate crisis.<\/p>\n<p>And to keep those jobs here at home, when your government spends the taxpayer\u2019s dollar, it\u2019s going to buying American goods made in America, by American workers.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Look, over the years, the Buy America[n] Act became a hollow promise.  It\u2019s been there for a long time.  I\u2019m going to make it a reality.<\/p>\n<p>The next stop \u2014 the next stop is dealing with the ability to \u2014 to pass the rest of my Build Back Better agenda \u2014 once-in-a-generation investments in our people, making housing more affordable; bringing down the cost of prescription drugs by giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower prices \u2014 and you ought to thank Bernie Sanders for a lot of this.  (Applause.)  Making eldercare and childcare more affordable while improving the pay for homecare workers and childcare workers.  Providing paid family and medical leave so that no worker is forced to choose between their job and their caregiving responsibilities.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve all fought for all these things.  We got to make them available to every \u2014 provide two years of free, university [universal], high-quality pre-K, and high-quality pre-K \u2014 two years that are needed.<\/p>\n<p>It shows that if you send a kid to school at age three, four, and five, they increase by 56 percent the possibility they\u2019ll \u2014 no matter what the background \u2014 that they\u2019ll go through school all 12 years and do well.<\/p>\n<p>And when I asked \u2014 you know, in the Obama administration, I was asked to find out from the CEOs of the Fortune 500 what they most wanted, what they most needed, what was their greatest concern.  And over \u2014 I think it was \u2014 don\u2019t hold me to the exact number \u2014 348 or -47; I can\u2019t remember the number we got to \u2014 said the single-most important thing is they needed a better-educated public. <\/p>\n<p>But guess what?  They weren\u2019t paying for it.  (Laughter.)  And guess what?  Does anybody think if we were starting off from scratch, setting up public education, we\u2019d say 12 years was enough for the 21st century?<\/p>\n<p>So, look, we have to invest in high-quality job training and apprenticeships in fast-growing sectors; compete to give middle-class families a well-deserved tax cut for daycare and healthcare; and provide a significant monthly tax cut for working families with children.  That\u2019s what it is. <\/p>\n<p>Everybody talks about my Child Tax Credit; it is a tax cut for ordinary folks.  (Applause.)  That\u2019s what it is.<\/p>\n<p>And as part of that, I want us to see us finally \u2014 finally \u2014 provide DREAMers, TPS recipients, farmworkers, essential workers a pathway to citizenship, bringing them out of the shadows so they can receive the protection and representation that our laws and our unions provide.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Folks, we\u2019re making progress.  Our economy has added 750,000 jobs a month on average during the past three months since I\u2019ve been here.  Over \u2014 there are more than 4 million jobs since I took office.<\/p>\n<p>In the first half of this year, our economy grew fast \u2014 at a fastest rate in 40 years.  Unemployment is down. <\/p>\n<p>My Build Back Better investments are going to allow us to keep and progress and move further in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>I just want to add one more thought in closing.<\/p>\n<p>While the pandemic has prevented me from traveling as much as I\u2019d like, I\u2019ve had a chance to meet with many of your brothers and sisters and many of you: the proud UAW members building cars and trucks in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and noting that the mai- \u2014 the Big Three have decided that, along with the support of those unions, they\u2019re building \u2014 going electric, so we own that market. <\/p>\n<p>Steelworkers in Portsmouth, Virginia.  I\u2019ve met with longshoremen and firefighters in Columbus.  AFSCME workers in Allentown.  IBEW workers and ironworkers and nurses and grocery store workers in Cincinnati.  Plumbers and \u2014 and gasfitters in Maryland.  AFT teachers in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>And \u2014 and, by the way, of course I sleep with an NEA member every night.  Same one.  (Laughter and applause.)  Same one.<\/p>\n<p>Jill had her first day of full-time teaching yesterday, this year.  She\u2019s back to school. <\/p>\n<p>And, look, I\u2019ve talked with union transit workers, machinists, laborers, and welders in Wisconsin.  We\u2019ve had Teamsters here in the White House.  And always \u2014 the Teamsters always have my back.  And, last week, I met with the first responders in New Orleans.  And on Monday, I dropped by some of the IBEW linemen in Delaware helping recover from Hurricane Ida. <\/p>\n<p>You know, and the \u2014 the last year has taught us anything, it\u2019s what\u2019s essential.  And what\u2019s essential is you.  Not a joke.  You and your union members. <\/p>\n<p>Wall Street could go on strike, but if, all of a sudden, the middle of this cont- \u2014 this Ida, every IBEW member resigned, we\u2019d be in real trouble.<\/p>\n<p>I say that to make a generic point.  I think we significantly underestimate \u2014 and I think even you guys sometimes underestimate \u2014 the incredible value you bring to the safety, security, and growth of the economy.  You know, you\u2019re America\u2019s heart and you\u2019re America\u2019s soul. <\/p>\n<p>And we all need to fight as hard for them and work as hard for them as we can. <\/p>\n<p>And I want to say, the press was very, very \u2014 not just the press \u2014 a lot of people were very, very skeptical that when I was talking about we had to deal with the environment, that labor would never help. <\/p>\n<p>Well, guess what?  Labor is the reason it\u2019s working.  Labor stepped up.  Because they \u2014 you all understand.  And I made a promise, and I\u2019ll keep it \u2014 that what we\u2019re talking about here is: When you think of global warming, you think of jobs \u2014  jobs \u2014 all the jobs we\u2019re going to create \u2014 making us, once again, the fastest-growing \u2014 we are now \u2014 the most competitive economy in the world.<\/p>\n<p>So, folks, you do it all.  I\u2019m sorry to go on so long, but I can\u2019t \u2014 I can\u2019t thank you enough for all you\u2019ve done for the country and what you\u2019ve done for me over my career.  You\u2019ve educated me.  You brought me along.  And you\u2019ve \u2014 you\u2019ve always been there.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I\u2019m supposed to stop and walk out of the room here.  (Laughter.)  I\u2019m going to stop.  But with your permission, I\u2019m going to walk into the room because I want to say hello to all of you. <\/p>\n<p>Thank you.  (Applause.) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Jocelyn, thank you. Please. Please, please, please. Thank you, Jocelyn. Please, sit down. Thank you. I \u2014 nothing to it, is there, Jocelyn? Just walking in and stand at the podium, and \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 speaking at the White House. Nothing to it. You did a great job. And thank you. And thank you. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Chrome-Legacy-Window-982021-101131-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128494,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128492\/revisions\/128494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}