Remarks of Bruce Popper, First Vice-President, Rochester Labor Council; Vice-President, 1199SEIU

(Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation)Labor Day 2008
Rochester and Vicinity Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Press Conference
Rochester, NY
September 1, 2008

Remarks of Bruce Popper
First Vice-president, Rochester Labor Council
Vice-president, 1199 SEIU


        Ever since I became a union organizer in 1978, workers and their
organizations have been under attack.  The defeat of labor law reform
during the Carter Administration was followed by Reagan firing 13,000 air
traffic controllers and appointing a professional union buster to head the
National Labor Relations Board.

        Unfair trade deals shattered our manufacturing base and our
industrial unions, while health and service workers were effectively barred
from organizing.  The resulting decline of organized labor has had
devastating consequences.

        Less than half of full-time workers now have a retirement plan of
any kind, and very few have guaranteed pensions.  Wages have stagnated.
Working families have compensated by working longer hours, putting everyone
in the house to work, and by working multiple jobs - just to stay even with
the cost of living.

        45 million Americans have no health insurance, and the only reason
it isn't worse is due to our successful defense of the Child Health
Insurance Program, Medicaid, and Medicare.

        We went more than a dozen years with no increase in the Federal
minimum wage before a newly elected Democratic Congress overrodea Bush
veto.

        No other significant piece of pro-worker federal legislation has
been enacted since Bill Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act, the
second month he was in office.

        In spite of everything the corporations, the bosses, and their
lackeys have thrown at us, WE ARE STILL HERE!  We have survived every
onslaught on our values and on our organizations.

        We stand here today with the same message:  That every worker has a
right to:

        * A voice on the job.

        * A workplace that allows them to provide the best quality service
or product.

        * A living wage.

        * Health coverage for every member of their family.

        * A secure retirement.

        * The opportunity for training, education, and career development.

        We stand here today, Labor Day 2008, with one important difference:
the chance to change America once and for all. 

        We stand here today in the darkest hour just before the dawn. 

        We stand here today with the opportunity to elect a pro-worker
President, a former organizer himself, and a pro-worker Congress.

        It is finally our time . 

        It is finally our time to set America  back on the right path for
workers and their families, to win health care and retirement security,
respect for work and workers, to bring democracy to the American workplace,
to the American spirit, and to the American nation.

        Brothers and sisters, IT IS OUT TIME!