There was not a SINGLE  politician that I can remember for the 13 years I was the organizing director who gave a damn either about who I was or about the organizing work SEIU was doing.

In fact (whew you got me warmed up now) before I became President of SEIU I was — excuse my language — really pissed off and cynical about politics and politicians.

Any of you here ever felt that way?

But when it became clear I was going to be President, I talked to lots of members and leaders — many of you in this room.

And I realized that being turned off to politics is exactly — exactly — what too many corporate CEOs and the anti-worker politicians they got in their pockets WANT us to do.

They WANT US to stay home, to not vote, and complain and think politics doesn’t matter

And the more I listened, then thought, I began to realize that what we really needed was to be MORE active – not less. But — BUT — in a VERY different and new kind of politics.

And so in my acceptance speech after my 1996 election, I described a different road we could travel on together. 

[showed video from 1996 SEIU Convention]

And so our new journey began—

It has not been easy — as you can tell by how boyishly youthful I looked in the video before George Bush and too many other politicians of both parties turned me into a more “senior” leader and made ALL of my hair — the hair I still have — turn gray.
 
But the results — STARTLING!

In the last 10 years we have built THE most aggressive, THE most progressive, and The most effective — independent — issue driven — member led — political force in politics in North America.

[showed slide reporting National Journal’s rating of SEIU as #1 in political effectiveness]

And everyone knows it! 

Today, WE use politics instead of politicians USING us.

Today, we make elections be about changing workers’ lives — not just changing the names on the doors in the legislature.

In fact, SEIU political strength has played a crucial role in helping — think about this — in bringing ONE MILLION MORE — one million — workers into our union – making us all stronger where we work.

If you are one of the 400,000 home care workers who have used the political process to gain a union since 1996 and improve life for yourself and your clients, you understand that SEIU’s political strength is not about politicians, it’s about us (please stand up).

If you are one of the 65,000 child care workers who — because of politics — now has a union and a path to better pay, health care, and training, you know that SEIU political action is about us and the children we care for (please stand up).

If you are one of the 30,000 security officers who are bringing new hope to African American and immigrant communities in our major cities by using politics to improve your jobs, you know that in SEIU, politics is about us (please stand up).

If you are a nurse who because of politics now works with safer needles or more staff …

… a nursing home worker who got a big raise and new training because of a political alliance with nursing home operators …

If you are a public service worker in the South or Southwest who now has a voice in your pay and benefits… (I want all of you to stand up!)

It’s clear in SEIU, Politics is not about politicians, it’s about us all of us and the communities we serve. (So everyone who made this happen — all of us — please stand up.)

This week is a big moment for our union.

We come together to prepare for another election.

We have earned — by our work — a louder and more powerful voice for working people than ever before.

Today, when SEIU speaks, the powerful listen.

We are the ones who keep calling out the greedy CEO’s like Paul Ormond from the nursing home company Manor Care.

[showed slide of Manor Care ad]

That company gets two-thirds of its money from public funds, our taxes. When Manorcare gets bought out, our tax dollars are going to pay that CEO a 186 million dollar buyout bonus — money that should have been used to hire thousands of nursing assistants to provide safe staffing and quality care.

Tell me — Is that outrageous?

We are the ones who called out the politicians who opposed — of all things — making sure all kids in America have affordable health care.

[show State Children’s Health Insurance Program video ad]

We are the ones who stood up to the oil companies and the politicians in Houston when they used police on horseback against immigrant janitors who were making only $20 a day cleaning huge office buildings.

[showed photo of of Houston janitors and police on horseback]

To Wal-Mart’s greed in providing 5 family members 18 billion dollars each, while their workers have inadequate health care.

[showed slide of Wal-Mart health care ad]

We are the ones who have stood up to President Bush on the escalation of the war.

[showed slide of the Bush escalation of war ad]

To Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus on trade.

[showed slide of “They work for us” ad]

To New York’s Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer on hospital service cuts.

[showed Spitzer newspaper ad / clipping]

To Chicago Democratic Mayor Richard Daley on living wages.

[shoed slide of Daley living wage ad]

To Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on pensions.

[showed slide of Schwarzenegger pension ad] 

Today, there is no corporation too big, or politician too powerful, that SEIU will not hold them accountable to build an America where work pays for everyone — not just executives and shareholders.

Is that right?

Tomorrow, we will have some very special visitors.

Tomorrow, the powerFUL — those seeking THE most important job in the world — come to ask us — the once powerLESS — for the support of our nearly 2 million SEIU members.

The powerful come because they’ve been told and know it is true — that in SEIU, members matter, and YOUR preferences will be a critical input into an SEIU endorsement they so desperately desire.

Our members expect us to listen carefully, to tune out the news media and their daily, startling, groundbreaking discoveries that the candidates are … NOT PERFECT.

In fact, candidates are — can you believe this? — human beings — with faults and flaws, and missteps and mistakes in their past.

This election is not about the price of a haircut, whether someone’s dress is cut too low. Or whether they do or don’t get along with their spouse. 

It’s about people like Paula Hall, a child care worker from Washington State, who I am so proud got to give the nationally broadcast Democratic response to President Bush’s Saturday radio message.

[played audio excerpt of Paula Hall’s radio response]

This election is about people like Peg Smith, who runs a highway maintenance crew in New Hampshire. I walked a day in her shoes. And during that day she told me she wants a president who will keep health care affordable so it won’t eat away her paycheck — and so she can make it through her retirement years.

[showed photo of Peg Smith]

It’s about John Hoard, a school worker who I walked a day with in Iowa, who wants someone in the White House who understands the difference between a country with good union wages and benefits — and an economy where companies like Wal-Mart provide only poverty pay and leave it to taxpayers to cover their employees’ health care.

[showed photo of John Hoard]

This election is about needing a White House and a Congress who recognize that unions are the best anti-poverty program, the best jobs program, the best pension, health care, health and safety, and anti-discrimination program that America has ever had.

We need a new President who will not only walk in our shoes but will stand and fight in our shoes for an America where the dreams of our children still come true.

Imagine a president who walks a picket line, and holds the line on workers’ rights to choose a union as a way to restore the middle class,

Imagine a president who we don’t have to lobby or beg as if making work pay was some type of  special interest — and who knows in their gut that what’s good for workers and unions is good for America.

In 2008, ARE WE going to elect that kind of president?

[applause]

Are we?

But we know our work won’t stop there.

We know how change really happens in America.

The media often talk as though our country is like a sailboat and if we only elect the right person to have their hand on the tiller—they will steer our country in the right direction.

In fact, the game has already begun. Who will be the captain who has their hand on the tiller?

Will it be Hillary or John, Mitt, Rudy or Barack?

But the fact is that our country — like a sailboat — doesn’t work that way.

No matter who has their hand on the tiller, if there is no WIND, that boat is going to go around in circles — or nowhere at all.

It is the wind that fills the sails and allows the boat to reach its destination.

While growing up I witnessed the power of the winds of change when thousands of African Americans and their supporters sat down, marched and went to jail. They were the winds of change that FORCED a President and Congress to sail America in a new direction on civil rights and more equal opportunity.

They were so-called “ordinary” people — housekeepers and janitors and teachers and health care workers — but, united, they were able to do extraordinary things.

As a young man, I saw how — in small groups and in big mobilizations — women in America demanded equal rights  and became the winds of change in their workplaces, their homes, and their union.

I saw it more recently when millions of hard-working, taxpaying immigrants from all over the world carried American flags through the streets of our cities and towns — and put immigration reform back at the top of our nation’s agenda.

And I’ve seen the winds of change begin to blow as courageous military veterans and their families demand that our elected officials start REALLY supporting our troops by bringing them home from somebody else’s civil war — with the right to the health care and other services they will need!

[applause]

All these movements — and so many more to create the winds of change — have required the people to lead — so the leaders will follow.

It is now our time.

Our responsibility.

We — WE can become the winds of change.

We — the once powerless — can unite our voices and take action to create the wind that steers America in a new direction — where work pays again — and where our children and grandchildren have hope and opportunity to achieve their dreams. 

Because if not us — then who?

And if not now — if not now — then when?