AFL-CIO President Trumka 4 April 2011
Sisters and brothers, I'm honored to speak to you today on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee. Some people don't know this, but Dr. King had traveled to Memphis to help win the rights of public employees to form unions and bargain for a better life. You see, the Memphis city sanitation workers had voted to join AFSCME, but the city refused to honor their union with a contract. Dr. King joined those striking workers, who carried signs that simply, but eloquently said, "I AM A MAN." Dr. King marched with them for the dignity of a union contract. And on the night before his assassination, he delivered his final and unforgettable "Mountaintop" speech.
So it is very fitting that we remember Dr. King today, that we celebrate his fearlessness and his vision, as we wage our modern struggles for the basic freedoms and rights of working people.
As we gather here today, just about every bill imaginable that undermines working people and our unions has been piled onto a legislative calendar somewhere, whether it's right here in Washington, D.C., in Wisconsin, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio or, yes, in Tennessee, or too often in all of those places at once.
When it comes to working people being under attack, we are truly one.
Instead of creating jobs, states are cutting unemployment insurance. Instead of training young men and women, states are slashing education dollars, and pushing students out of school and into the cruelest job market in generations.
Just last week, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made things even harder for young workers by cutting the state's flagship apprenticeship program.
We've been saying this until we're blue in the face: As a nation, we cannot cut our way out of a hole. We cannot slash our way to prosperity.
Attacking Davis-Bacon and PLAs on Capitol Hill and across America's heartland won't build a future for our children.
Cutting infrastructure spending out of our federal budget won't sharpen America's competitive edge.
The politicians in Washington insisted on tax cuts for millionaires. They insisted on keeping massive tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.
Yet we're on the verge of a government shutdown, and America has more than 13 million jobless workers.
This isn't fiscal responsibility! It's crazy! It's insane and it's got to stop now, and we – you and I – must stop it. Because do you know where this give-to-the-rich and take-from-working-families, so-called austerity leads? Down -- nowhere but straight down.
After the most profitable fourth-quarter in history, Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers this year collected some of the biggest bonuses in history—and took home even more of those bonuses, thanks to the millionaire tax cut deal. After nearly destroying our economy and killing 11 million jobs, they are back to business as usual.
And yet they say we can't afford good jobs. We have to learn to accept less---that the American Dream is dead.
The idea of national belt-tightening in this environment is truly mind-boggling. Economically, it's flat-out wrong.
Yet politicians here in D.C. are making it sound like Social Security and Medicare cuts are inevitable—like we have no choice. But destroying economic security for our seniors is disastrous policy, and it's just plain wrong. So, let me be perfectly clear: The AFL-CIO will oppose any and all cuts to Social Security or Medicare—no matter who puts them forward.
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