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Kerry: Workers, Unions Deserve Respect from Congress
John Kerry didn’t pull any punches: The three-term Massachusetts Democrat is fed up with hypocrisy from his colleagues on the other side of the U.S. Senate aisle who couldn’t wait to shake hands and take pictures with New York’s firefighters in the wake of Sept. 11.
They’re the same lawmakers, he said, who are tearing down workers’ rights at every turn and bailing out corporations to the tune of billions while paying lip service to living wages, rising health care costs, retirement security and other worries of working families.
“I think it’s time to remind our Republican friends that those people they are so quick to give speeches about, those heroes they refer to, the firefighters and police officers who were willing to lug that hose and go up those stairs to remove people from those buildings and give their lives so that others might live, we should remind them that those people were all members of a union,” Kerry said. “They believed in the right to organize and the right to strike and the right to bargain.”
Kerry’s impassioned speech at the 64th annual CWA convention brought delegates to their feet, cheering his vision for working families and his voting record. CWA President Morton Bahr said Kerry voted with CWA every time in 2001 on issues critical to union members.
A decorated Vietnam War veteran, Kerry is so popular in Massachusetts that he is the first senator in the state’s history running for reelection without opposition. He’s also considered a leading contender for the party’s presidential nomination in 2004.
Kerry called on all Americans to recognize the vast contributions of the labor movement to the lifestyle they live today, and called for anti-worker forces in Congress to pay labor the proper respect.
“Every day millions of Americans get up and go to a job that is safe and where they have benefits,” Kerry said. “They may not all be members of organized labor. But let there be no mistake: They have those benefits and those rights and those privileges because through the years members of organized labor were willing to put their lives and bodies on the line to organize in this country.”
He said he’s “astounded by the breakdown in the relationship between workers, corporations and the government in the United States,” but suggested that massive tax breaks for business and loopholes that let companies hide funds in overseas accounts have made such fractures inevitable.
“All across this country, executive after executive and corporation after corporation has been allowed to transfer income that comes from hard-working Americans and pretend that somehow these aren’t taxes, they don’t count,” Kerry said. “It’s imperative that we all stand up for what is right, for what is fair, for what is common sense and ask them to pay their fair share.”
While the country has changed in many ways since Sept. 11, Kerry blasted those in Washington who have used “false labels and patriotism” to push an anti-worker agenda.
“All of us are united in our determination to win the war. There is not a flicker of light between us on that subject,” he said. “But there are a set of choices about our children, about our health care, about Social Security, about transportation.
“In the end, the real strength of the United States of America doesn’t come out of the muzzle of M-16s or the belly of B-52s,” he said. “The real strength of this nation is in the relationship of our citizens to each other, to our government and to the ability of all people to reach the brass ring.”
They’re the same lawmakers, he said, who are tearing down workers’ rights at every turn and bailing out corporations to the tune of billions while paying lip service to living wages, rising health care costs, retirement security and other worries of working families.
“I think it’s time to remind our Republican friends that those people they are so quick to give speeches about, those heroes they refer to, the firefighters and police officers who were willing to lug that hose and go up those stairs to remove people from those buildings and give their lives so that others might live, we should remind them that those people were all members of a union,” Kerry said. “They believed in the right to organize and the right to strike and the right to bargain.”
Kerry’s impassioned speech at the 64th annual CWA convention brought delegates to their feet, cheering his vision for working families and his voting record. CWA President Morton Bahr said Kerry voted with CWA every time in 2001 on issues critical to union members.
A decorated Vietnam War veteran, Kerry is so popular in Massachusetts that he is the first senator in the state’s history running for reelection without opposition. He’s also considered a leading contender for the party’s presidential nomination in 2004.
Kerry called on all Americans to recognize the vast contributions of the labor movement to the lifestyle they live today, and called for anti-worker forces in Congress to pay labor the proper respect.
“Every day millions of Americans get up and go to a job that is safe and where they have benefits,” Kerry said. “They may not all be members of organized labor. But let there be no mistake: They have those benefits and those rights and those privileges because through the years members of organized labor were willing to put their lives and bodies on the line to organize in this country.”
He said he’s “astounded by the breakdown in the relationship between workers, corporations and the government in the United States,” but suggested that massive tax breaks for business and loopholes that let companies hide funds in overseas accounts have made such fractures inevitable.
“All across this country, executive after executive and corporation after corporation has been allowed to transfer income that comes from hard-working Americans and pretend that somehow these aren’t taxes, they don’t count,” Kerry said. “It’s imperative that we all stand up for what is right, for what is fair, for what is common sense and ask them to pay their fair share.”
While the country has changed in many ways since Sept. 11, Kerry blasted those in Washington who have used “false labels and patriotism” to push an anti-worker agenda.
“All of us are united in our determination to win the war. There is not a flicker of light between us on that subject,” he said. “But there are a set of choices about our children, about our health care, about Social Security, about transportation.
“In the end, the real strength of the United States of America doesn’t come out of the muzzle of M-16s or the belly of B-52s,” he said. “The real strength of this nation is in the relationship of our citizens to each other, to our government and to the ability of all people to reach the brass ring.”