(The International Brotherhood of Teamsters released the following on September 27.)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Today, we make history. Today, we set a new path for the American worker. The most militant, progressive and activist unions join together to create something new.
We have a vision of growth and strength. Our new federation is a mighty sum of its parts. Six million workers strong. We are janitors and casino workers; UPS drivers and farm workers; nurses and construction workers; truck drivers and grocery workers; locomotive engineers and meat cutters. We are the backbone of the American workforce.
Just look at the unions in this new federation and you begin to see the diversity of our membership. We are the American rainbow—African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic and white. We are from Alaska, Maine, California and Puerto Rico. We are trade unionists—united to build a stronger movement.
We are here to change the way the American labor movement operates. We are putting our money where it needs to be: organizing. We are working together. No member of a coalition union will ever stand alone again.
We will stand together. We will fight together.
And the work has already begun. Whether its Teamsters standing with SEIU janitors in Chicago; or our joint campaigns with UNITE HERE at CINTAS and SEIU in the school bus industry; or our combined efforts to take on Wal-Mart—We are moving forward. We will be a lean, mean, organizing machine.
We are reaching out to new worker communities: African-American waste workers in the South; Latino port drivers on both coasts; and Hispanic construction workers across the nation.
And we are reaching out to those who are most in need. Right now on the Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands of workers lives have been destroyed.
But the President cares about the wrong people. Who got the first no-bid contract? That’s right—Halliburton. What was George Bush’s first action in the devastated region—to repeal Davis-Bacon. That means Halliburton won’t have to pay construction workers $13 bucks an hour. $27,000 a year is too much for Cheney’s cronies.
We have a strategy to train workers to rebuild their communities. The Teamsters training drivers; SEIU training healthcare workers; the Carpenters training construction workers; the Laborer’s training hazmat workers; and, UNITE HERE training casino and hotel workers.
We must learn from this tragedy and help these workers start over. We must help our fellow Americans build new communities and new lives. We must give a hand up—not a hand out or a slap down.
Change To Win will stand up for all workers. We will give workers a chance to win a voice on the job. We will build the American labor movement—together, brick by brick.
Today, the battle for America begins.