Sen. Clinton Addresses Communications Workers on America

Legislative Political Conference

SPEAKER: SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, D-N.Y.

[*]

CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

Woah. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

My goodness. Thanks so much. And it is great to be here with all of you. I thank Barbara for that introduction. She is a friend of mine. She's been a friend of mine for a long time. And she's a great leader, not only for CWA, but for women in the labor movement across America.

(APPLAUSE)

I also want to thank Jeff. Thanks for ceding your place to Barbara, Jeff.

(LAUGHTER)

And I did whisper to Barbara -- Barbara was the best-looking member of the executive board.

(APPLAUSE)

But, Jeff, I know that you've done a lot to keep people in good spirits here this morning. And I appreciate that because, you know, we're on the march. Let's be in a good humor. We're taking back our country.

(APPLAUSE)

We're going to get back to supporting the right values in America.

(APPLAUSE)

And, of course, I'm delighted to be here with your president. Larry Cohen is a fabulous advocate not only for your union, but he understands that we've got to make linkages between what labor needs and wants and whether we're going to have a middle class in America with rising incomes and a good standard of living.

And Larry also understands that we've got to start reaching out to workers around the world. You know, we have to have a global labor movement. We need a...

(APPLAUSE)

... a new commitment to making it clear that we have nothing against people around the world raising their standard of living; we just don't want them doing it at our expense.

CLINTON: We want to help people have a better life for the future, just like we had to have it right here at home.

(APPLAUSE)

Also, I was escorted in by some of the New Yorkers. And I want to thank Chris Shelton, the president of the regional CWA in the northeast; and of course Bob Master, political director from the northeast region; and all the local presidents and leaders from New York.

I've been on picket lines with you. I've tried to advocate for you. And I'm thrilled to be here with all of you today.

(APPLAUSE)

One final person I want to thank, because our offices work really closely together on a daily basis, and that's Lou Gerber, your legislative director, because Lou makes it clear...

(APPLAUSE)

... Lou, Lou, Lou!

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Lou makes it clear what's at stake in these struggles that we're engaged in.

I just came from the Senate hearing that was chaired by a great champion of American middle class and working families, Senator Ted Kennedy. We just had the hearing on the Employee Free Choice Act.

(APPLAUSE)

And, you know, the facts are indisputable. There's no debate here. It's just whether we can get the votes in the Senate to get it passed.

And that's going to be up to all of you. Those of you from states with Republican senators, let them know this is a voting issue; this goes to the real heart of whether we're going to be a country that stands on a principle that every person should have the right to join a union, to be part of a bargaining unit that will stand up for your income...

(APPLAUSE)

... stand up for your working conditions, stand up for your health care benefits and your pensions.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, in a very real way, all of you have made it possible for us to be connected in the world.

CLINTON: You know, I'm really well aware of that. You know, a student in Washington today can instant message with a student all the way around the world in Tokyo. You know, someone can send a real-time e-mail on a cell phone or, you know, be able to communicate, and that's because you've done this work for decades now. You know, you were the ones who put into action all the great ideas.

The ideas would have stayed on a shelf somewhere if people weren't there to actually implement them.

And I remember very, very well -- in the days after 9/11, when we were struggling to make sense of this horrific attack on us, you know, it was so overwhelming. And those of you from New York remember, you know, the confusion and the anxiety that we lived with.

CWA workers started reconnecting lower Manhattan. CWA workers...

(APPLAUSE)

CWA workers came down to Ground Zero; said, "How can we help?" You know, the switching station had been destroyed, phones were out, land lines were gone and cell phones didn't work. The stock exchange was down.

And it was CWA workers who came down and started to get us back in touch with the rest of the country and the world.

I can remember it like it was yesterday, seeing our workers from New York hauling cable, working on wires, digging into the ground, doing what had to be done to get our city going again.

And isn't it somewhat ironic that, when we all agreed that we needed to get the stock exchange up and going to send a message to those who had attacked us -- you know: "Forget about it; you're not stopping us at all; we're going forward" -- that it was union workers who made that happen?

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And yet it seems to me that a lot of our corporate leadership today just doesn't understand that. You know, corporate profits are up, CEO pay is up, but average wages of Americans are flat.

You know, we see this and we're asking ourselves, "What does this mean" -- what's called this middle-class squeeze?

Well, I'll tell you what it means. It means that the balance of power that's worked so well through the 20th century in America, where we had fair labor laws that were enforced fairly -- and it was only after a struggle that we even got those laws -- are being disregarded wholesale, because there is a mood in unfortunately too many corporate board rooms that we don't have to take care of the people who take care of us. No, we don't have to do our duty to America, because that's what this is at bottom about.

And we're going to continue to be the greatest country in the world?

I think we are. But we're only going to get there with a fight to re-establish the basic principles and values about what made America great -- because you can find rich people anywhere in the world, and unfortunately you can find poor people anywhere in the world.

What is unique about America is all of you; all of us. I come from a middle-class family in the middle of the country. And I know very well that the rising standard of living that we saw during much of the 20th century was due to the American labor movement.

I know that it was the American labor movement that first bargained for health care that then spread that concept throughout America. It was the American labor movement that first bargained for pensions, and then all of a sudden people took advantage of that.

Now we're down to 7 percent unionized workforce in the private sector. And is it any surprise that wages are flat; that people are harassed if they try to sign a card to start a union?

We're going to get back to the right balance here in America. We started with...

(APPLAUSE)

We started with electing a Democratic Congress, thanks to you and many of you who worked across our country to reverse the 12 years of Republican majorities.

(APPLAUSE)

And now we've got to work to elect a Democratic president so that in January 2009, we can begin to put our country on the right track to the future.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, for six long years, America's middle class and working families have been invisible to this president. He's looked right through you.

If you're a worker who can't organize for better wages and a safer workplace, you're invisible. If you're a family that can't get by on the minimum wage that hasn't been raised for 10 years, you're invisible. If you're a working person who doesn't have health care and you're one of the 47 million without insurance in the richest and greatest country in the world, you're invisible.

If you're a senior who's paid for long-term care, but then when you really need it and you produce your insurance policy, the insurance policy says, "Oh, just kidding"; you're invisible.

CLINTON: If you're one of those parents who's been saving money to be able to send your child to college and then all of a sudden you realize how much it's going to cost and you turn to get some help from your government and you realize that the aid hasn't been increased and there's no real recognition of how much more expensive it is today than it used to be, you're invisible too.

Well, you're not invisible to us. You're not invisible to this union, and you're sure not invisible to me.

And when I'm president, you'll have a president...

(APPLAUSE)

... who makes clear you're not invisible to her either.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, I'm running for president because I want to renew the basic bargain of America. You know the bargain. We were all raised with it: You work hard, you play by the rules, you get a better shot at life -- and your kids sure do. And you've got a government that's on your side; a government that sets goals for America and then encourages all of us to be part of reaching them.

That's how I was raised. You know, I'm old enough to remember that, you know, back in the late 1950s, the Russians sent a satellite up into the sky; they called it Sputnik. Anybody old enough to remember that?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Well, that was a big deal, you know, because we never expected any country to get to space before us. We were Americans; we'd just won a world war. You know, we were, under President Truman's leadership, starting to rebuild our enemies -- an amazing idea, but one that was very smart, because it helped to create democracy and, you know, keep our prosperity going.

So this satellite goes up in the air and, God, because my father was worried about it, everybody's worried about it -- I can remember like it was yesterday. My fifth grade teacher walked into my classroom and she said, "Children, the president wants you to learn math and science."

Now, I was convinced that President Eisenhower had personally called Mrs. Kraus (ph) and told her...

(LAUGHTER)

... to tell us that. And I wasn't too happy about it, because math and science were not exactly my best subjects. But I believed that that was possible, because I felt like my president would sit in the Oval Office thinking about me and every other kid in America.

That's what we believed then.

And, you know, when we were all rounded up and taken in the gym and we had to jump and run and do all kinds of physical activities, it was because the president had said we had to be physically active and fit.

And when I got that certificate signed by President Kennedy, I thought he was sitting there in the White House and said, "OK, Hillary's the next one; just sign it."

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, that's what we believed. We didn't think it was beyond the realm of possibility that we would have a president who actually worried about whether we were doing our homework and being physically fit.

And when President Johnson looked into that camera and said we were going to overcome and have voting rights, we knew it was going to happen that we were going to start breaking down those barriers so that every American could participate.

CLINTON: We used to set goals as a country. We believed in ourselves, you know. And when President Kennedy said we were going to send a man to the moon and bring him back in a decade, I didn't know how that was going to happen, but I never doubted it would.

What are the goals we're setting for our country now? Those of us who in New York personally lived through 9/11 and our whole country that rallied to our aid and was there for us when we needed you, we were waiting for the president to seize the moment, you know, to say, "Let's take this time and, you know, let's become energy independent so we're not sending money to people who fund those who then turn around and attack us."

(APPLAUSE)

Or maybe he would have said, "You know, I've learned a lot from what happened on 9/11. When those towers went down, all the medical insurance forms were lost. We didn't know who had insurance and who didn't. So we had to rush in with emergency Medicaid to sign people up."

And then we started hearing about the World Trade Center cough, and all these people were getting sick. And we had people, you know, we had guys who could run a marathon before 9/11 who can't walk up stairs now, they can't breathe. Some of them are dying. And, you know, maybe the president would have said, "Now's the time to move toward universal health care coverage." But we didn't hear that either.

(APPLAUSE)

So one of the reasons I'm running for president is set some goals again. I want to have universal health care coverage, quality, affordable health care for every single American.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to have an energy policy that makes us independent from those foreign regimes as soon as we can. It'll take a while, but if we get started now we can do it. I want to start having home-grown energy so that we're looking to employ people right here in America to build the new plants and run those new plants and distribute that new energy.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I want to begin to figure out how we're going to make college affordable for everybody again. I don't think it should be the province of the wealthy. It never was before.

Let's get back to providing the aid, the scholarships, the low- interest loans that people need to send their kids to college.

(APPLAUSE)

And I want to get back to a level playing field for the right to organize. I think it's a novel idea, but I would appoint people to the Department of Labor and the NLRB who actually were pro-labor for a change.

(APPLAUSE)

And I know what's going on right now. I saw those handouts that those of you who work at Verizon Business have been given. I saw the intimidation and the threats. I saw the false statements that they contain.

And as Barbara said, Senator Schumer and I sent a letter to the CEO of Verizon telling him that he should recognize your right to organize through Card-Check.

(APPLAUSE)

And I want you to know that I will stand with you every step of the way until you get that right. It should be the right of every single employee of every company in America.

(APPLAUSE)

We have a lot of work to do, and I'm going to look to you to be my partner. You know, we need a comprehensive national broadband policy. And I think we can use your "Speed Matters" as a road map.

You know, we need to get...

(APPLAUSE)

We need to get back on the global list of being number one.

You know, back in 2000, we were number one in the world in broadband. Now we're down to 12th or 14th or 15th, whatever the survey you look to; 16th. We're dropping by the minute; 20th.

(LAUGHTER)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Twenty-one.

CLINTON: Twenty-one. Jeff's read an auction up here.

(CROSSTALK)

CLINTON: You know, but basically, I just want us to be Americans again. I want us to roll up our sleeves and get back into the solution business; you know, solving the problems we face, not avoiding them, not denying them.

CLINTON: I want us to get back where people are respecting each other. We may have differences. We're going to have differences. We're Americans, you know, (inaudible) 300 million people, we probably have 300 million opinions about nearly every subject. I certainly know, representing New York, I have 19 million opinions about every subject.

(LAUGHTER)

But let's look for some win-win strategies. You know, when it comes to trade policy, we can't keep doing what we've been doing. You know, on balance trade was good for America in the 20th century, but today the situation has changed. You know, we shouldn't have any trade agreements if they don't have enforceable labor and environmental standards, and we need to figure out how to do that.

(APPLAUSE)

We need to take every one of the problems we've got. You know, climate change, some people are worried about climate change. Great Britain, they went into Kyoto when President Bush pulled us out, and they've now created over 100,000 new jobs. People are doing pollution control. People who are weathering houses. People who are making new technology that can be used.

You know, we're not gaining ground the way we need to by ignoring our problems. If we're going to remain the leader of the world, we got to start acting like it again.

And as president, I'll tell you, one thing I will do as soon as I'm elected is to send a message as loudly as I can to the rest of the world: I will always protect and defend America's interests, but I know we need to build alliances and coalitions because we can't solve these problems on our own.

If we're going to deal with...

(APPLAUSE)

... we're going to deal with the threat from terrorism and extremism, we got to have people on our side. We got to have the folks who know the bomb-maker down the street and turn him in. We got to have people who are rooting for America because we are the last best hope of humanity.

We got to get people back understanding that our values really should be everybody's values. You know, we believe in the opportunity for people to have freedom to make up their own mind.

It's like card check, you know. You ask somebody, "You want to join the union?" they say no, fine. More often they'll say yes. We want to give people that freedom across the globe.

So we have a lot of work to do. But I'm excited because I see it turning. I see people starting to say to themselves, "What have we gotten for all the rhetoric, all the partisanship, you know, all of the hot issues that don't give us a job or a pension or health care? What have we gotten?"

Because, you know, our country worked pretty well for a long time. And many of us are the result of what came before, people who made the sacrifice in our own families, in our own neighborhoods, the schools we went to, the unions, the jobs that were there.

I'm proud of our country. Always have been, always will. But I know we can do better. And with your help, on January 20th, 2009, when I'm sworn in as president and I inherit all these big holes that have been dug over the last eight years, and all the problems that have piled up, I'm going to hand everybody in America a shovel...

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: ... and we're going to start digging our way out.

And then I'm going to turn to Larry and the CWA. I'm going to say, "Connect us up, because America's on the march again and we're going to show the world we are back!"

Thank you, and God bless you!

(APPLAUSE)

(UNKNOWN): That was a home run.

CLINTON: Oh, thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. (inaudible) so I'm happy I could get through it.

(APPLAUSE)

Thanks, Jeff. Thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

END

Source: CQ Transcriptions

© 2007, Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Rights Reserved