Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO

[struggle4progress]

EFCA Part 2, The Union Strikes Back, Philadelphia, PA
February 26, 2009

... Now, am I saying the other side is intentionally lying about the Employee Free Choice Act? Well, let’s put it this way: when you consider the falsehoods, the exaggerations, and the misinformation the opposition has spread, it’s clear that they would agree with Mark Twain when he said: “Truth is the most valuable thing we have, so I try to conserve it.” It was reported that in October, Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, said that passage of the Employee Free Choice Act would trigger -- quote -- “the demise of civilization.”

Now, my guess, is that if you asked most people what the greatest threat is to civilization today, they might say global warming, or terrorism, or disease, or hunger, but very few would say it’s making revisions to the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. So why the hysteria?

It’s not because the Employee Free Choice Act is a threat to civilization; but because it’s a threat to an approach to management that’s a throwback to another era: An era, when employers could get away believing cooperation was when workers shut up and did as they were told. An era when an employer could get by only valuing workers only for their muscles and not their minds.

A bygone era when businesses thought unions were the enemy, when we can actually be their best allies. I think President Obama might have put it best when he said we: “Cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement and that strong, vibrant, growing unions can exist side by side with strong, vibrant and growing businesses. It’s not an “either/or proposition” ...

http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/sp02262009.cfm

[Historic NY]

1. wish it was on video...he is an inspired speaker.