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Prepared Remarks for AFSCME International Secretary-Treasurer William (Bill) Lucy to AFSCME's 35th International Convention

June 25, 2002

Thank you, Jerry, for your kind introduction. I have also appreciated working with you over the past two decades. Working with you to make AFSCME the biggest, the best, the greatest union in the country - in the world! Despite successes like ours, there are some who continue to predict the demise of the American Labor Movement. But when I look out at you — thousands of loyal, AFSCME members, thousands of loyal, dedicated unionists and workers — I know that our detractors and critics are wrong.

As I listened to Jerry's opening address yesterday, my mind recalled a speech by another great trade unionist reflecting on his times and challenges. More than a hundred years ago, one of the great champions of labor said, "We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. But . . . labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun."

Power to Change

Brothers and sisters, Eugene Debs' message then is our message today. The working men and women of this nation have the power to change the world. We had it a century ago. We have it today. In fact, through our ever-increasing strength in organizing and in the political arena, whether it's getting pro-labor candidates elected or pro-labor bills passed, we are changing the world.

Over the years we have worked hard to get candidates like Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Jean Carnahan of Missouri elected to the Senate. We've put our AFSCME muscle behind George Miller of California, Charlie Rangel of New York and Loretta Sanchez — and now her sister, Linda Sanchez — of California, who you just heard speak.

And as Jerry said yesterday, we must never forget about the gubernatorial races. That's why we went all out for Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Gray Davis of California, Parris Glendening of Maryland, Paul Patton of Kentucky, and Jim McGreevey of New Jersey. And we are really out there right now for Representative David Bonior running for Governor of Michigan. These are all candidates who really care about working men and women. So we really care about them.

And we have legislation that we supported which has literally changed the lives of scores of workers, and those who want to work and be productive: the Americans with Disabilities Act; the Family and Medical Leave; the Hatch Act Reforms; and the Act for Better Child Care. Right now we're fighting for the Patients' Bill of Rights, Medicare, Prescription Drugs, Election Reform, Strengthening Social Security, an Ergonomics Standard — and long overdue — Universal Health Care Coverage. We will keep on fighting for these policies — and others. Because they are right for working families . . . they are right for America.

Through our actions in the workplace where we reach out to unorganized workers who have little or no benefits and poor wages, we are changing the world — from Head Start workers in Ohio to corrections officers in Puerto Rico; from food service workers at UCLA to clerical workers in Maine; AFSCME members have gone out and knocked on doors, made phone calls, held workplace and off-site meetings - and convinced non-union workers to join us in this crusade to bring them and other workers, public and private, a better life.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees continues to lead the way. As you heard yesterday, we have organized over 100,000 new workers over the last two years. We have conducted political action programs among our members at every level of government across this country, second to none. On our watch, two governors signed Executive Orders that allow collective bargaining in states that never had it before - Kentucky and Missouri. In Washington State, the governor signed a collective bargaining law that had taken many years to pass. We have won a strike against Jesse "The Body" Ventura in Minnesota. Our council in Minnesota, along with our allies and the most committed members that any union could hope for, put a body slam —a full Nelson — on Jesse and the referee, and more importantly, the people of Minnesota counted him out.

Power of Organizing

Despite our great successes, when we put the pieces of the last year and a half together under the Bush/Cheney administration — Enron economics, disappearing jobs, and dishonored rights — we see a sobering picture of what workers are up against in 2002 and beyond. Folks who thought they had secure jobs, stable benefits, and opportunities for advancement are waking up to an American nightmare where everything they worked for, saved for, sacrificed for, and struggled for, can be — and is being lost without warning. Bankruptcies, industrial and manufacturing job loss, corporate layoffs and union busting tactics are taking their toll on our workers. Both organized and unorganized. That's why AFSCME must continue to wield a strong hand when it comes to fighting oppression, when it comes to fighting greedy people who would run this country like a corporation rather than like a democracy.

And we do that, sisters and brothers, by organizing the unorganized. We build our strength by building our numbers. That is why at the 1998 Convention, we approved a critically important per capita tax increase. Over the past two years, we've primarily used those extra revenues to mount major organizing campaigns that Jerry spoke about in Missouri, Kentucky, California, Maryland, Puerto Rico and the exploding home health care industry. All of these have borne fruit in the form of new members adding new blood and new energy to our union's struggle.

In 2001, the International spent over one-sixth of its budget — which amounted to more than $20 million - on organizing. And as you heard Jerry say yesterday, the results were incredible. We won representation rights for over 60,000 workers in 2001 alone. This has been one of the biggest, most successful organizing efforts of any international union in the AFL-CIO. We can stand proud. We can stand firm. But we can't stand still! That's why our budget for 2002 continues to invest in organizing. This year's budget projects $120 million in total revenue and $120 million in expenses. Leaving a small operating surplus of $350,000. Within this budget, we have $25 million earmarked for organizing. But organizing is not all we're looking at for 2002. In November, elections will be held for every U.S. House seat, one third of the Senate and 36 governors. Elections that will set the political direction of this country for years to come. Brothers and Sisters, whether this country continues to drift towards the rich and wealthy, towards meanness and madness and away from hard-working American families could well depend on the strong role we play this year in political action. Given the political landscape, this is a job well suited for our union. Remember our boldness in 1992 —we brought this nation eight years of unprecedented economic growth. We did it then — we can do it again.

By helping elect pro-labor and pro-AFSCME candidates, we can fight the privateers, some — especially in this administration — who want to take our jobs. These are our jobs. These are our futures. These are our lives. We must — and will — fight to save every single job. Jobs in our schools, highways, transportation, corrections, food service, Food Stamps, Medicaid, employment services, child support, and every other area of the public sector. The influence-peddling lobbyists for the rich and wealthy and the power-hungry CEOs of corporate America will not take over critical segments of the public sector along with our jobs and our futures without a fight. We will fight back.

Whether it's an effort to negotiate away our jobs through GATS and trade deals, or give them to their political cronies through new forms of patronage, we are telling politicians of both parties, Republicans and Democrats alike, our highways and roads, our water and treatment systems, every single job provided by the public sector to maintain and improve the quality of life we consider ours - we will not give them up without a fight.

Importance of Fiscal Integrity

In your kits and in the Officers Report section in the Secretary-Treasurer's Report, you will find our Consolidated Financial Statements concluding December 31 of the years 2000 and 2001. The information is presented to you here in summary form, and in addition, is mailed to your councils and locals on a quarterly basis.

Our financial activities reflect the controls necessary and the flexibility required to meet the increasing challenges of new organizing in the areas of Home Care, Head Start, private non-profits and the public sector, and to follow our jobs wherever they are shifted with decentralization or privatization. As we predicted, our challenges to confront decentralization and privatization of services continue, and our need for a strong and aggressive political action program has never been more critical than now.

As we fight the good fights, we also make sure that the International and its affiliates are in good financial shape. Therefore, the International continues to review the finances of each council and local union with over 2,000 members. More than 120 affiliates go through this review process yearly, and the results have been very positive.

What we've found, as we move from council to council, local to local, are well-kept records and accounting procedures being overseen by very committed secretary-treasurers, and any feedback we give is used to strengthen internal controls. In 2000 our total income was $125, 462,582, and our expenses were $125,329,464. This resulted in a budget surplus for the year of $133,118. In 2001, we had total income of $123,627,129 and expenses were $123,186,695. This resulted in a surplus of $440.434.

From the smallest local union to the largest district council, you and I have a responsibility to make sure that every nickel paid to us in dues is used to benefit our members. Over the last two years, 99.8 percent of all income received by our International was used in our operations to provide services to our existing 1.3 million members and to organize new members.

What I've talked about briefly is only a short version of the incoming funds and how they were dispersed. As I indicated earlier, in your convention kit, you can find the full report for the years 2000 and 2001 in the Officers Report under the Secretary-Treasurer's Report. I encourage you to read it for a fuller understanding of our finances and how we use them to further the interests of our members.

At AFSCME, we are vigilant as we make sure we are accountable to each and every member. This is what makes AFSCME special. This is why we shoulder a greater responsibility.

The truth is, if we and other unions don't maintain the status of the American Labor Movement as the entity that best serves workers, and if we don't build our numbers and our strength and our power and continue to fight back against the new political reality of Washington, D.C. today, millions of workers — public and private workers who are in the same leaky boat on the same stormy seas — may well drown.

Only two short years ago, our world looked very different. We had an economy that was enjoying the longest period of expansion in 60 years. While there were some job losses related to the misguided trade policy of NAFTA, there were 22 million new jobs created. The national debt left by the Reagan revolution of over two and a half trillion dollars — more than four times the amount at the time of his inauguration — was being paid down. Our federal budget was balanced, and we had built a surplus of $2 billion, and the Social Security trust fund was solvent.

Across the width and breadth of this land, workers from every slice and segment of our society were moving towards a better life. Personal income was up, net spendable income was up. Home ownership was up. We were beginning once again to find an hour or two to spend as a family, as we recovered from our two-and sometimes three-job condition imposed on us by the dreadful years of the eighties. That was two years ago. This is today and today it's different. They say an optimist is someone who does the same thing over and over and expects a different result. It should not have been a surprise that trickle-down economics in 2001 would have the same end results as they did in 1981. As a payoff to the well-heeled donors of corporate America, the Enrons, the Exxons, the IBMs, the Xeroxs and the CEOs that ran them, in the early days, they began to get repayment.

In 2001, this administration paid a down payment on its debt to the rich and wealthy with a $1.3 trillion tax cut.

  • The top 1% received 37.6 percent.

  • The top 10% received 56.5 percent.

  • Sixty percent of the workers split 14.6% of the pie.

Fundraising from the well-to-do in this nation and the corporate elite, as of today, has generated in excess of $100 million for this administration and its allies. What group of working people can raise that kind of money? Not many. This administration makes no bones or excuses about its love and affection for the rich and wealthy. Their friends at Enron, in pursuit, I assume, of good government, gave $420,000 to politicians in Florida with Governor Jeb Bush sharing in the loot.

They have literally rewritten the book on fundraising from the wealthy elite of this nation - from the Enrons, the IBMs and the Xeroxs. And believe me, the donors get their money's worth from the White House and from Tom Delay and Dick Armey, who are eager to respond with little loopholes, or in some cases outright slits in our tax code. Like the alternative minimum tax, retroactive 15 years, creating a windfall for selected corporations — $5.4 billion dollars for corporations that were profitable over this period but in virtually every case paid no taxes to begin with. Or perhaps Ken Lay from Enron got Jeb Bush to buy, with the deferred wages of Florida workers, worthless Enron stock.

There seems no end to the unholy influence and greed that some practice — you would think it would be enough to just be rich and let it go at that. Twenty-five years ago, not really a long time, 50 percent of the wealth in this nation was owned by 10 percent of the population. By the year 2002, nearly 80 percent of the nation's wealth is owned by 10 percent — a 30 percent increase.

As a nation, our success should not be measured by how many billionaires are created but rather by how many of our seniors can enjoy their remaining years in dignity, how many of our citizens can have access to affordable housing and prescription drugs, how many of our children have we educated for the future.

When I make this point some folks accuse me of raising the issue of class warfare. They can call it what they want, but what we know is that at the end of the day, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and the hardworking people in the middle, those who are lucky enough to have a job, are paying the bills for both groups. At a time when bankruptcies and scheduled layoffs have slowed the economy, when 800,000 jobs were lost before 9-11 and 1.2 million since, this administration refuses to accept any program other than tax cuts and capital gains reductions as a potential solution to a stagnant economy.

Because we, AFSCME, have the audacity to raise the question of domestic priorities, they trot out this argument of patriotism. We will not be silenced by this tactic or sucked into a debate that has no meaning. We are the true symbols of patriotism in this nation. Patriotism is not about blindly serving the needs of the rich and wealthy but about serving the needs of average Americans, the old, the young, those on the margins of life, working families trying to make a living.

I am told there are 100 or more millionaires or multimillionaires in Congress. Why aren't some of them in Afghanistan? Our sons and daughters are there doing a job they believe in and protecting the values they have been taught.

Brothers and Sisters, there is a fundamental difference between average people and the super-rich when it comes to defending this country. Average people put it on the line. The super-rich put it in their pocket. We will continue to raise the issues.

By April 2002, unemployment had increased to 6 percent for all workers — an eight-year high — and under current policies, future predictions don't look good. The Economic Policy Institute is predicting that unemployment will reach 6.5 percent in November of this year and stay between 6 and 6.5 percent throughout 2003. At a time when folks who moved from welfare to work in a strong economy are now losing their jobs in a weak economy, this administration's response is incredible and defies belief.

  1. Cut job training by $700 million.

  2. Freeze TANF benefits at 1997 levels, which were too low to start with.

  3. Stand on the sidelines while states cut transportation and child care support. At the exact moment when unemployment is increasing, phase out 75 percent of the federal unemployment tax, which finances administration of the unemployment system.

Protecting the Legacy

Brothers and Sisters, the loss of industries, the loss of jobs in both the private and public sector is not a by-product of this administration's policy, that is the policy. When entire industries are lost . . . when manufacturing workers are losing their jobs because of unfair trade deals . . . and service workers are losing their jobs in a sagging economy . . . health care employees and public employees are losing jobs and benefits because of state and local budgets . . . and workers who try to fight back run into campaigns of smear and fear: Make no mistake about it, these aren't separate stories and these aren't separate struggles.

As many union members lose their jobs and others lose the right to organize, working people are in danger of losing their right to struggle together to improve their jobs, their livelihoods, their community and their country. We must not let that happen. We will not let that happen. We have fought too hard. We have fought too long. We have sacrificed too much.

We have a legacy to defend and a future to create: which we have been doing from Madison to Memphis; from Miami to Minnesota; from Pennsylvania to Paducah; and from New Jersey to New Mexico. And a thousand places in between. We will not be turned back or slowed down. We are AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The most aggressive organizing union in the House of Labor. The most politically powerful. The most socially conscious. We have been a spotlight in the past — we must be a beacon for the future. We are a new idea whose time has come.

We do not seek more members and more power in order to exercise bragging rights. We do not seek more members and more power so some politician can invite us to his fundraiser and call us by our first name. That's not what this is about.

More members and more power is our vehicle to gain respect and dignity for every single member in this union. For every highway worker, every truck driver and snowplow operator, for every social worker or probation officer. More members and more power is better wages and better benefits and adequate staffing for our prison system and our corrections officers. More members and more power is respect and dignity for caregivers and the challenges they face, no matter where the workplace happens to be — the hospital or the hospice, the nursing home or the client's home. We struggle to give perfect care in an imperfect health care system.

More members and more power mean demanding and receiving recognition of the contribution of our school crossing guards, our school bus drivers, custodial, food service and all of the support personnel of our education system. Those with the B.A.'s, the M.A.'s and Ph.D's , they may be the teachers, but in so many cases, we are the educators. The children learn life's lessons from us.

Sisters and Brothers, with more members and more power comes an awesome responsibility to help others. A responsibility to help our brothers and sisters who are struggling to build their unions in some very dangerous places in this hemisphere and around the world. In places where hundreds are killed each year for just being trade unionists. Colombia - Guatemala - Uruguay - Mexico - Honduras - Paraguay and a hundred other places hidden from view.

We must use our power to change policies that strangle and bankrupt countries for the benefit of an outdated and contradictory international financial aid system. Argentina - Chile - Grenada - Guyana - Nicaragua. A system whose impact is global. Asia, Africa.

Two years ago, Henry Nicholas asked, as we set out on a massive organizing program, would you help him. And you responded. I ask you today, as we continue to try and make this union of ours the best in the House of Labor. Yesterday Jerry asked would you help and what would you do - I ask you again today. Will you help us? If you will, with God's help, we will make this union of ours the greatest vehicle on the face of the earth to improve the lives of working people.

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