• Senator Dodd walked with Colleen Mehaffey, a Head Start teacher, in Iowa.
• Senator Obama walked with Pauline Beck, a home health care worker, in California.

• Senator Clinton walked with Michelle Estrada, a nurse, in Nevada.

• And Senator Biden walked with Marshall Clemmons, a school custodian, in Iowa.

They did it for YOU.  They did it because they respect the work you do, and because they respect SEIU. 

I can tell you that NO OTHER ORGANIZATION IN THE COUNTRY  could get presidential candidates to give up a WHOLE DAY  of campaigning to be with just ONE  person.

I think that’s the point.  Just one person. 
Our political power is based on just one person – YOU.   Everyday, you – and you, and you, and you (pointing into the crowd) – go out there and make America better.

We are a political watchdog for all workers.  But it wasn’t always this way.  Back in 1996, we were just a lapdog for the Democratic Party.

That began to change, one person at a time. 

Let me tell you about one of those people,

Sarah Galardi, a nurse and a steward with local 105 in Colorado. 

Sarah became active in her local’s political program in 1998—knocking on doors, volunteering at phone banks, and getting other members to vote. In 1999, she helped form her Local COPE committee and a year later, she took time off from her job for more than six months to coordinate the political program for one of Colorado’s State Senators.

But that wasn’t enough for Sarah.  She decided that she wanted to create change from inside the legislature. She ran for her House seat and lost by just 1,000 votes. But she didn’t give up.   She ran again last year and now represents Colorado’s 27th House District.

Just like Sarah, SEIU’s involvement in politics has grown over the years.

Our members created a political program based on the economic issues that mattered most to our families.

We believed that organizing and politics went hand in hand.  The more workers we could organize, the stronger our political hand would be.  And with political strength, we could increase our organizing power and win victories for workers at every level of government.

So, over the past 11 years, child care workers, home health care workers, and others, dug DEEP into their communities.

They gave their TIME,
They gave their  SWEAT,
They gave THEIR STREET SMARTS
and they gave $3 a month 
To plant the seeds for what is now the GREATEST member political program in the nation!

These men and women were – and always will be – SEIU’s first political activists.

Let me tell you about one of our newest, Jessica Lavassar.

Jessica lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Nick.  She works in the state parks system, and I spent a day with Jessica this summer, walking in her shoes.

Her dad is a truck driver.  My dad was a truck driver.  Her Mom works in a nursing home, my Mom worked in a nursing home.  She’s a state worker and I was a state worker.  We had a lot in common right off the bat, and it was great to work with Jessica.

Jessica and Nick want to start a family, and she is already worried about the challenges they will face in the future — health insurance. Child care. — How to juggle work and family.

That is why Jessica is on the campaign trail, raising the issues with the candidates.

But on top of that, Nick is a state legislator in New Hampshire, one of the youngest in the country.  He’s also going to school at the same time.

Jessica and Nick, in their own way, are stepping out and speaking up.  They are ready to make America better.  One person, one family at a time.

And now, it’s time for all of us to be ready — because America needs us.

Our country is hurting.

We are hurting because the privileged, the elite, the wealthy have decided they’re going to take more from you, so they can give more to themselves.

Most CEOs make before lunch on the first day of the year more than their workers make all year long.
Is that the American Dream?

More than 40 million workers make less than $10.30 an hour.  That’s one-third of all workers in our country. 
Is that the American Dream?

47 million of us don’t have health care, and every minute, five workers lose their health coverage. 
Is that the American Dream?

Let me put it a different way.

While you decide if you can afford to go to a movie, the wealthy decide which movie studio to buy.

While you decide between bus fare or breakfast, they decide between a new corporate jet or a new Rolls Royce.

While you decide between rent and doctors bills they decide where the swimming pool should go at their third mansion.

Now we have an important decision to make?  Do we want their America that works for a few?  Or our America that works for everyone?

Brothers and sisters, we are at a big moment in history.  A pivotal moment.  As we approach the 2008 elections, we have to be ready to STEP OUT AND SPEAK UP.

SEIU is ready for this moment.  What we do matters.  We can make a difference.  We  will create the new American Dream!

We have been absolutely clear with presidential candidates.  All we want to know is: Do they stand with working families?

That’s because, for SEIU, politics isn’t about power.  It’s about people — our members, and all workers, and all families — about how they live their lives. 

We use politics for a purpose.  We use politics for things that matter. 

Things like:  food and clothes for our kids.  Health care we can actually afford a retirement we can count on.  Child care, good teachers in our schools, and clean, safe communities.

These are the building blocks of the American Dream.  They are not fancy, but they are also not negotiable.

We don’t need yachts and Rolls Royces, but we will insist on respect, fairness, and real opportunities.

The working families of America haven’t had this much at stake, or faced such a clear choice, in a very long time.

Workers want good government.
We want a government to promote basic economic security and ensure corporate accountability.

We want a government that makes sure  employers keep their promises on things like pensions and health care.

We want a government that guarantees a fair tax system that doesn’t punish our hard work.

We want a government that guarantees a retirement system that provides real security so we don’t have to work all of our lives.

We want a government that guarantees affordable health care for every single man, woman, and child in America, and we want the best quality health care in the world.

We want a government that guarantees that all workers can have a voice at work through a union.

***And we want a government that will act RIGHT NOW to end this TERRIBLE WAR IN IRAQ and BRING our sons and daughters home!

And make no mistake … while this is President Bush’s war, it’s now up to everyone in Congress, Republican and Democrat, to stand up and demand an end to this disaster right now.

From ending the war to electing a working people’s president, it all comes back to a single thing: one person at a time, doing one thing at a time.

So I ask each of you –

Will you make one more phone call? 
Will you go to one more web site?
Will you raise one more COPE dollar?
Will you host one more house party?
Will you organize one more worker?

Because people are counting on us.

I want to tell you about one of them.  Michael Johnson is counting on us.

Michael’s a security officer in Los Angeles in one of the most prestigious buildings in the city.  

He’s dedicated to his job and he’s good at his work. He has the promotions to prove it. 

Every morning he leaves his house by  5:30  — before his five children are awake —  and returns from his second job at 10:30 at night — after his children are asleep. 

Michael is like millions of American workers ? he is responsible and resilient. But even with two jobs, Michael brings home just $550 a week — barely enough to pay for his family’s one-and-a-half bedroom apartment. 

And health care?  Forget it.  Michael’s kids have to rely on the state’s low-income health program.
 
This is a man who is away from home 17 hours a day for work. Yet he feels like a failure.

“It makes me feel like less than a man,” he says, “not being able to support my family the way I want to.” 

When people hear stories like Michael’s, often times they say, “I wish someone would change things in America.”

Well, guess what? 
People have been waiting for change.
You have been working for change.
The time for waiting is over.
The time for action is now.

Together, we can secure a better future for our children.

Together, we can create the new American Dream.

Together, we can do anything.

Let’s STEP UP. Let’s SPEAK OUT. Let’s CHANGE THE WORLD.