For Immediate Release
Tuesday, November 05, 1996
Statement by Gerald W. McEntee, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO and Chair, AFL-CIO Political Education Committee
As Prepared for Delivery
When I think about where organized labor stood on election night two years ago and how far we've come to the point we are tonight, all I can think of is something Mark Twain said a long time ago when he read a news article that reported he had died.
Back then he said that reports of his death were, in his words, an exaggeration.
Tonight, the labor movement's message to America is that reports of our death were an exaggeration.
Two years ago the radical right would have laughed at the notion that organized labor would become their worst nightmare, but tonight they're not laughing anymore!
Over these last few months in cities, suburbs and small towns all across America, a labor movement that was once written off and almost forgotten has been restored and renewed.
We did it by organizing, mobilizing, and educating our members on the issues. And we did it by reminding this country that the real choice we faced in this election is between becoming an America where every family can get ahead and no worker is left behind, or becoming a nation where only a small elite makes it to the top, while the rest of us race each other to the bottom.
In that regard, the re-election of President Clinton was the labor movement's first priority and his victory tonight is welcome news for working families.
Together, we look forward to working with the President as he carries out his mandate to build an American future where there's affordable, quality health care; for retirement security; for better education; strong public services; jobs with a future for every American; safer, healthier workplaces, and where every worker's right to organize and join a union is protected by law.
While some will say that organized labor fell short of its goals in the House and Senate, the fact is that by sewing the seeds of political activism in every congressional district, the American labor movement today is better prepared than ever to respond to any renewed efforts on the part of the Republican leadership to rob working families of our right to economic security.
Same as we have always been ready to work with any legislator -- Democrat or Republican -- who is willing to work with us to protect America's workers, our message tonight to anyone who mistakes this election as a mandate for government bashing and union busting is this: when you push us, we're pushing back!
For a generation the American labor movement was a sleeping political giant. This year that giant stirred and we will never be caught sleeping again.
