Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su provided remarks during the IAM 41st Grand Lodge Convention expressing support for IAM members and the labor movement, emphasizing the growth and importance of unions in America.
Acting Secretary Su expressed gratitude to influential figures in the labor movement, including IAM President Brian Bryant, for his decades of service and recognized IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Dora Cervantes as the first Latina in that role in IAM history.
Su also reflected on her own background of advocating for workers’ rights in California and celebrated the Biden-Harris Administration’s pro-worker stance.
“One of the things that I hear and I know you hear too from corporations is well we can’t meet that wage demand. It’s too high because it’s too far above the market wage,” said Su. “Instead of telling workers that their demands are too high, it’s time that we start questioning why the market wage is slow.”
“We’ve heard that the massive gap between CEO pay and frontline worker, pay where a worker has to work for years to make what the CEO makes in just a week,” continued Su. “We are rewriting that narrative because we know we can and must do better. We’re building an economy where workers come first and where no workers are left behind.”
Su spoke about the progress in the labor movement, including the rise in union popularity and significant job creation, with a focus on quality jobs that offer security, dignity, and the right to unionize.
“Workers are bargaining like never before making demands and winning like never before and it has been a big year for building worker power in this country,” said Su. “This didn’t happen by accident, it happened because you organized, it’s because you bargained, it’s because you chose solidarity as the volunteer workers at Ohio State, AI lab workers in Chicago, CVS pharmacist in Las Vegas, and the list goes on.”
The speech underscores the successes achieved through organization, bargaining, and solidarity among workers, attributing these achievements to both collective effort and effective leadership.
“When workers are silenced and when they are made to fear speaking up, it hurts not just workers but everyone, the quality of our goods deteriorate and all of our lives are made less safe but when workers have a voice, the opposite is true,” said Su.
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