Richard Trumka speech

Now, do we have a chance of regaining control and turning our country around? Well, I remind audiences everywhere I go [that] what goes on in Washington is already decided by very close margins.

You remember CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the bastard child of NAFTA, well, it passed by one vote in the House of Representatives. And we missed by only two votes of having enough support to filibuster against Sam Alito in the Supreme Court. His presence on the Supreme Court is already being felt; three or four decisions have come down against workers already, five to four, he casting the deciding vote.

Bush's emergency budget that had all those awful cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and student loans passed the House by just two votes. And we now have 216 sponsors in the House and 43 in the Senate for the Employee Free Choice Act, almost enough to pass legislation that we so desperately need to restore the freedom of workers to join unions and to form unions.

Let me tell you this, did you know that 57 million Americans said that they would join a union tomorrow if given the fair chance? Fifty-seven million Americans would join a union tomorrow if given a fair chance.

See, Brothers and Sisters, we can win. We can win if we can convince our members that the time has come to get mad and then get even. See, our job is to get them angry and energized and then remind them that the Bush Administration and its cronies in Congress are just as incompetent as they are corrupt.

You see, they not only failed to win a victory in Iraq or to make a plan to win the peace, they failed to track down the terrorists. They failed to save our airline industry, failed to create enough jobs, failed to preserve our pensions, failed to bring gasoline and heating oil prices under control, failed to bring down healthcare costs, failed to bring healthcare to 45 million Americans.

And with that failure, earlier this year, the former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich — and before you hit me, I'm not too accustomed to quoting Newt Gingrich, but this time's an exception, because he began telling the press and anyone else who would listen that his party could lose control of the House and Senate if they didn't get busy correcting their direction. He said that progressive forces could take back control of our federal government by asking voters of all political persuasions one simple question: "Have you had enough?"

And that's the question that I want to ask all of you. And that's the question that you in turn must ask every one of your members every day between now and November when you see them on the shop floor, when you see them in church, when you see them in town, all your friends and neighbors, "Have you had enough?" Have you had enough of working harder and harder and harder for less and less so the corporations can make more money and CEOs can't cart it off in a truck? Have you had enough?

Have you had enough of corporate lobbyists pulling the strings of puppet politicians who vote against working families and our unions time and time and time again? Have you had enough?

Have you had enough of seniors going without the drugs they need? Have you had enough of our children going without the healthcare and the education that they deserve? Have you had enough of working Americans and union workers being treated like second-class citizens? Have you had enough?

Have you really had enough?

Well, then it's time. It's time that we stand together. It's time that we fight together. It's time that we vote together. It's time that we win together. It's time that we take back the country together. Let's do it starting now.

God bless you.