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Address of International Secretary-Treasurer
Jerry J. O'Connor
IBEW 3th District Progress Meeting,
Atlantic City, New Jersey
September 11, 2003

Im happy to be here with all of you, and theres no place Id rather be on the second anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon than right here in the district that took the biggest hit and where we lost 21 of our own. Just to say the date "September 11" brings a chill to the soul. Our troops including our own brothers and sisters who have been called up to active duty have done everything asked of them and more under extremely trying circumstances. We can only hope that their leaders show the same intelligence, courage and perseverance as the fighting men and women on the front lines.

The fight on foreign soil takes up much of our energy. But we also face a fight here at home. A direct terrorist did not even come close to breaking America, but a withering combination of economic factors are devastating our people. Getting our nation back on track here at home is the most immediate battle and one that will be our focus for the foreseeable future.

How bad is it? Lets look at some numbers.

Unemployment in the United States reached 6.2 percent in July, the highest the jobless rate has been in ten years. Some economists say that if you count people who have given up looking for work and those working part-time but seeking full-time jobs, then the rate is as high as 10 percent.

Thats no surprise. Pick up the business section of any major newspaper in the country and you read about layoffs. What is going to happen to these people? In the boom times of the 1990s, the economy absorbed many displaced workers, even if they couldnt find employment equivalent to what they had. Now, these folks are falling through a safety net that has holes big enough to drive a tank through.

The National Association of Manufacturers hardly proponents of the union agenda reported a loss of 2.3 million manufacturing jobs in the last three years. To give it a little perspective, thats the equivalent of three big unions being wiped out since late 1999.

And its not just industrial workers. A recent study by one consulting firm estimates that by 2015, more than 3 million white-collar jobs and nearly $140 billion in wages will have been transferred from the U.S. to other nations. And surprise, surprise professionals in other countries earn less than their U.S. counterparts.

Apparently the Republicans approve of this. Did you see the story that we put on the IBEW web site and which later hit the media about the Republicans putting a telephone fundraising operation in India? Its happening. As long as those corporate fat cats keep writing big checks, I guess they dont care where the calls come from, or the jobs either.

In the meantime, at least 41.2 million Americans are without health coverage, and the total climbs steadily. That squeezes the health care system and forces the costs onto those of us who have coverage. In negotiation after negotiation, health care is the backbreaker issue.

The Clinton surplus is long gone, as the federal government now projects a $480 billion deficit in this fiscal year, and thats before Bushs tax cut really kicks in.

And as for retirement security, $175 billion was lost in 401(k) savings in the year 2001 alone.

Not too long ago, the federal government was the largest employer in the United States. Say what you will about the government, it was a source of good, stable jobs with health care and pension benefits. Today, the largest employer in the United States is Wal-Mart a company that has raced to the bottom when it comes to wages and benefits, dragged suppliers down to its low standards, and hates unions with a passion. Do you feel happy about that?

After ten years of labor warning about the effects of unfair trade agreement and cutthroat foreign competition, the press and politicians finally seem to be waking up to the fact that we have a jobs crisis in America. George Bushs solution is to create a manufacturing czar in the Commerce Department and politely ask the Chinese to stabilize their currency so their exports wont have such an unfair advantage. Do you think we should tell him that creating one job in the government isnt going to help create jobs in the private sector? Do you think we should let him know that the Chinese have already told him where to put his request about their currency? And Maybe we should tell the President that it really doesnt matter how much the yen is worth because the slave masters in China dont pay much of them to their workers anyway? When it comes to creating jobs, meaningless symbolic steps are no substitute for solid investment in industry, infrastructure and policies that allow them to flourish.

Not surprisingly, the jobs crisis is reflected in our membership. Over the past five years, you folks in the Third District increased your "A" membership by 11,692, a solid performance by any measure. But in that five-year period, your net membership gain was only 1.76 percent. Thats because during that same period, the industrial states that make up the Third District have suffered the loss of 9,205 "BA" members, reflecting the decline in manufacturing and the ongoing restructuring of the utility industry. And now that construction is in a slump, our "A" membership is breaking even or declining in many districts. Union-wide, our overall membership was down 3.43 percent in 2002. The sharp downturn of the last two years has eaten away at our hard-won gains of the recent past. Our net membership growth over the past five years has been a mere three-tenths of one percent. Theres a word for that, brothers and sisters stagnation.

And if we dont turn this around soon, we will be looking at long-term losses in our membership, and thus our power to change things for the better in our industries and in our society as a whole.

No matter what is happening to the lives of real people no matter how many industrial jobs are being eliminated no matter how much income inequality grows the elite in our society still happily count on retail and the service sector to pull us through. And I kind of understand why.

Our past prosperity has been a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it has allowed us to enjoy the highest standard of living in the world. But the downside has been that far too many of us dont define ourselves as union members, or members of a political party, or adherents of a particular faith. The common thread among Americans from the descendants of the Pilgrims to the newest immigrant to our shores is that we are consumers. We want to acquire as much stuff as possible and we dont care where its made as long as we get the best price.

Im sure everybodys seen that paragraph that somebody put together some years ago about how Joe Smith wakes up a uses his German-made razor to shave, watches his Korean-made television, puts on his Pakistani-made shirt and Mexican-made trousers, drives to the unemployment office in his Japanese-made car and wonders why he cant find a good-paying American job. Anybody think thats a stretch?

We wonder why Wal-Mart has achieved such growth in this country, when in fact that companys expansion is possible because we made it so. Wal-Mart is simply catering to what the people want, or at least think they want in the short run.

Those of us who are active in our union have been preaching buy American, buy union-made for years. At least I think we have. Check your clothes and shoes when you get back to your rooms and see where theyre made. Unless you have an IBEW shirt or jacket on, I bet were talking imports. Were all at partly guilty of guilty of that, because we live in a society that doesnt value its domestic manufacturing capacity anymore. Were swimming against a tide that shows no sign of being turned back anytime soon. I read where even the government is thinking of replacing the Presidents helicopter with one made in Europe.

It goes back to that lack of idealism that Ed talked about. By rights, when working people read about how corporate executives are robbing workers and shareholders to enrich themselves, we should be dragging those fats cats out of their plush offices, tarring and feathering them and sending them out of town on a rail. But we dont. And I think we dont because the culture of greed has spread throughout our society. And its affected many in our own ranks as well.

If I thought the situation was hopeless, I wouldnt be here. I know how I feel about whats going on in our nation and the world today. I know how many of you feel about it. And Im betting that there are hundreds of thousands of IBEW members and other workers, union and nonunion, who are also angry and fed up.

weve got to prevent that anger from turning into bitter frustration. Instead, weve got to channel it into righteous anger that inspires us to get out there and change things.

You folks in this room are some of the finest local leaders to be found anywhere in the IBEW. You make a positive difference in your members lives every day. Its the work that we do as union leaders that has helped prevent things from getting even worse than they are. But weve got to speak out and look beyond our day-to-day jobs to see how we can build a better America.

When were on the job, we build from the bottom up. Thats what we do every day. And thats one way were going to change things. But we also need to give it our best shot from the top down. In 2004, we badly need to elect a new President of the United States.

Many of us wore the uniform of our country by serving in the military. Were you as disgusted as I was to see a guy who sat out Vietnam in the Air National guard -- and then didnt even bother to show up for that cushy duty -- fly onto that aircraft carrier some weeks ago? Were you as angry as I was to see him strutting around in a flight suit they he never had to wear in defense of his country? And were you outraged to see brave men and women who had recently put their lives on the line be used a props so the President and that wingnut Karl Rove could have footage for their campaign commercials next year? And it was easy for the President to taunt our enemies with the words "Bring em on," when it wasnt him, or anybody related to him, or anybody like him, whose lives are on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is that what our troops deserve? Is that what we as patriotic Americans deserve?

We have enough evidence in the third year of this administration to know that Bush as a domestic leader is a total and abject failure and unfit to be given another term on the job in 2004.

Whether you look at the big picture or focus on the details, the results are the same. The Bush Administration is a disaster for all but the most privileged in our society. Their campaign to undermine working families has truly been one of "shock and awe." But in their greed and lust for power, the Bush loyalists are also eroding the very foundations of our economy and our society.

These are people who captured "captured", not won the election in 2000. Bush didnt outpoll Al Gore; he finagled the victory through bullying legal tactics and a bare majority of the right wing activists on the Supreme Court. And what did he do? He has acted as if he had a mandate to govern from the far right, and made Ronald Reagan look like a moderate.

From the end of World War II up until 2001, every President of the United States presided over a net creation of jobs. Through all phases of the cycle, the American economy was at least strong enough to keep creating more jobs than were lost. Not surprisingly, more jobs were created under Democrats, but even Nixon, Ford and Reagan kept us moving in the right direction.

Until now.

Who is the first president to see a net loss of jobs on his watch? Why, its none other than that newly minted flyboy himself. We are losing an average of 69,000 jobs per month under George W., the worst record in 58 years.

I think that says it all. Under George Bush the wealthiest and most powerful Americans are thriving. The oil companies are in the chips. The corporate elite are raking it in. But the people are hurting, and its getting worse every day. The tax cut that passed Congress this year was one of the sorriest bills in our history, at least for now. This administration will probably break its own record for shameful legislation before long.

And what happens if you raise your voice to protest whats going on? If the rare politician and they are getting rarer all the time dares to speak out for the little guy, he or she is branded a "class warrior," the implication being that it is somehow un-American. Class warfare is apparently okay if it is declared from the top, but how dare the rabble have the gall to fight back.

And in the meantime the public, including our members, are increasingly being spoon-fed the new party line by a media that is either too timid to be objective or is out-and-out controlled by people who used to spend their time helping Republicans get elected.

Believe me when I tell you that I am afraid for our future if the political climate does not change. And when I say "our," I am not speaking merely of the IBEW or even the labor movement, but of the future of freedom and democracy in the United States and, by extension, Canada and the rest of the world. Unions do not flourish in unjust societies. Working people do not have hopes for advancement in nations where a tight band of thieves controls the wealth and the doors to opportunity. And yet I am afraid that is where we are headed.

We are getting pushed further out into the political wilderness, and we need to begin the trek back. None of us can do it alone, but together we can make that journey.

Do not underestimate your role in that process. You are the leaders in one of the greatest unions in the history of the world. What you say and do matters it matters a lot to your members and in your communities. If we are going to lop off that diseased top branch of our country, we have got to work from the roots on up.

We have got to start telling the truth now about what is happening in this country and make our voices heard. And we have got to get our people out to vote to make sure that the voice of working America is heard before they try to take that away too. If were still talking about it and not doing it by this time next year, then it will be too late. You will be hearing more about this. We need the biggest political mobilization effort ever in our union and in the labor movement for 2004.We did a tremendous job of mobilizing in the last election but the right wing out did us. The odds against us are steep, but we must begin now, and if we fail in 2004, then we must fight even harder until we win.

And there is no politician who alone can deliver a more honest and just society. It is a never-ending task that falls to all of us. Thats part of our responsibility. This is our watch, and we will be judged by history. Lets do our job with gusto, because were the good guys.

Throughout my career, I have been inspired by the words of a brave and defiant labor leader, Eugene V. Debs. He went to jail for his beliefs, but without his struggles, none of us would have the rights we have today. And its these words from 1894 that give me strength and give me the confidence to know that we in the IBEW today are every bit as capable of fighting back in hard times as were our forerunners more than a century ago.

Debs wrote: "Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. 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 notwithstanding all this and all these, 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."

Lets use that vital and potential power, brothers and sisters. Thank you very much.