Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Remarks by UAW President Ron Gettelfinger at the NAACP National Convention

Dr. Martin, Lt. Governor Cherry, Reverend Jackson and all of the dais members and all of you, good afternoon. Thank you for that warm reception. I appreciate the respect that all of you show for the position I am privileged to hold.

It is indeed a privilege to be with you at this labor luncheon and to represent the men and women of the UAW, several of whom are here, as well as our International Executive Board.

The UAW is extremely proud that all 18 members of our International Executive Board and all of our retired Board members are lifetime members of the NAACP. Thank you Vice President General Holiefield for the very kind introduction. Vice President Holiefield is a great asset to our union.

He has held many positions in the local and International Union and before being elected vice president, he was my top administrative assistant in the president’s office where he did an outstanding job.

As one of our five vice presidents, General is responsible for our upcoming national negotiations with the Chrysler Corporation. All of us in the UAW appreciate his leadership and, just as important, his friendship. I want to acknowledge UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles and UAW Region 1A Director Rory Gamble. They both do a great job in their respective assignments. They deal with tough problems and they are up to the task. Thank you, Jimmy and Rory, for being here today and for all that you do.

To Richard Womack, Bill Lucy and Clayola Brown: thank you for the invitation to be here. I also want to recognize the director of the UAW Civil Rights Department, Larry Smith, and recognize the fabulous job that he does along with our Civil Rights Department staff.

They did a wonderful job working with the NAACP in setting up this Convention, including this luncheon, but just as important I want to thank each of them for what they do everyday to make ours a better nation and this a better world.

Thank you, Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democrat Party for being in attendance and thank you, former UAW Vice President Marc Stepp for joining us.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the UAW’s longtime friend, Julian Bond, who was a keynote speaker at the UAW’s Constitutional Convention last summer.

It is always a privilege to be with Chairman Bond, and I know our audience feels the same way.

***

Our union has long believed that one of the labor movement’s most meaningful achievements is that we bring together a diverse group of men and women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, of various faiths, of all ages, and unite them into powerful organizations that look out for everyone’s interests.

It is through our unity that we are able to accomplish together what none of us could achieve alone.

That’s what we will do this afternoon as we join together to send a message to Wal-Mart that will be more powerful than any of us could send individually.

It is important that we support the UFCW in their efforts to “wake up” the public about Wal-Mart and its treatment of workers here at home, as well as in its factories in low wage countries, especially in China.

I know UFCW President Joe Hansen and the union’s membership will appreciate our show of solidarity in this important cause.

***

It is evident by the presence of labor leadership and membership here today that the bond between the labor and civil rights movements remains strong and solid.

Ours is a relationship that has been built over the years. Together we have marched, walked picket lines, joined boycotts, launched voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, and worked on campaigns across America to elect politicians who stand with us and stand up for the issues we care about.

We have worked together to pass laws that strengthen equality and opportunity. And, we have joined together to defeat laws and candidates that would turn back the clock.

Certainly that was true of the misnamed Civil Rights Initiative, known as Proposition 2, which was passed last November here in Michigan.

As we know, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was anything but about civil rights. It represented civil wrongs.

Under the guise of ending discrimination, it will actually perpetuate it by banning affirmative action for minorities and women.

This was a setback for our state, and it will be a setback for our country if Ward Connerly and others like him are not defeated in any future state ballot initiatives.

And, although we lost the battle this time; we have not lost the war. We strengthened the coalition between labor and the civil rights community.

We will be better prepared for the next battle, as we take on those who want our country to retreat to the dark days of blatant discriminatory practices.

So, ours is a time-tested relationship built not only from the common challenges we face, but also from our common hopes and dreams.

In a speech to a labor group in 1961, Dr. King talked about the shared vision between the fights for racial equality and for workers’ rights. These words apply just as much today as in ’61:

“Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community.”

Dr. King went on to say to the labor group that “any crisis which lacerates you is a crisis from which we bleed.”

The bond between labor and civil rights is strong because it was not built by standing on the sidelines. We have never been interested in the 50-yard-line seats.

Our bond was built and continues to be strengthened by standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the front lines in the battle for social and economic justice.

And, as we enter into a campaign season that is heating up – way too early – we have an opportunity to ensure the issues we care about are front and center, leading up to November 2008.

For those of us who believe that change is necessary and that we can do better as a country, these next months give us an opportunity to forge alliances and strengthen partnerships.

Certainly, we were reminded on June 26 of the vital importance of the 2008 election. That is the day the Supreme Court handed down its’ 5-4 decision striking down school programs that use students’ race to decide school assignments.

As Justice Breyer so eloquently wrote in his dissent, “The last half-century has witnessed great strides toward racial equality, but we have not yet realized the promise of Brown.” He went on to say that the court’s majority position would break that promise.

We have the opportunity now to do all we can to elect a president who will not turn their back on the progress and the promise our nation has made to equality in our schools.

We can help elect a president who will nominate Supreme Court Justices … who will fulfill the promise of Brown vs. the Board of Education.

Our country has had enough of wedge issues that divide us.

Let us work together to find those bridge issues that will unite us.

Certainly, our broken health care system is such an issue.

Rising out-of-control health care costs are a major concern for working families with health insurance. And they are a terrible burden for the more than 46 million Americans who have no health care coverage.

Of those without health insurance, 70 percent are from working families and nearly 10 million are our nation’s children.

Here’s what we know about America’s health care system:

First, we pay more, but get less. Our health care system is too expensive and too exclusive.

Americans pay much more of our Gross Domestic Product – about 16 percent – on health care than any of the other 20 industrial countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); yet, we are the only industrial country without national health care.

And, for all that money we spend, we are less healthy. Compared to the other OECD countries, we fall behind on most health indicators. In fact, the U.S. has the highest rate of infant mortality for industrial countries.

Second, even though we have top-notch health care professionals, our health care system is highly inefficient.

Let’s be clear: Our hard working, dedicated doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are second to none and they are not to blame for the mess our health care system is in.

It’s estimated that about one-third of health care dollars do not pay for actual health care. Insurance and administrative costs gobble up about 33 cents of every health care dollar.

The U.S. currently has more than 1,000 different insurance providers, each with multiple plans.

A case in point that our priorities are upside down is that since 1970, the number of doctors in the U.S. grew by less than 200 percent while the number of health care administrators grew by about 2,500 percent.

Third, health care costs are out of control.

In the past five years, insurance premiums have risen by 73 percent.

A Harvard Law and Medical School study released in 2005 found that almost 50 percent of personal bankruptcies involve large medical bills.

And, it’s just not individuals and families that are hurt; employers are facing ever-escalating health care costs, too.

Many were surprised when the chairman of Starbucks told Congress that his company pays more for health care than they do for coffee.

Unfortunately, too often the corporate solution, not at Starbucks I might add, is to shift the rising costs to the workers.

As employers increase employee premiums and co-pays, the number of workers who cannot afford insurance grows, too.

Fourth, while American prescription drug prices are the highest in the world, the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable.

Americans pay more for prescription drugs than residents of any other country.

So, it is not a surprise that the profits of pharmaceutical companies far exceed those earned by the other Fortune 500 companies.

Despite their claims, drug companies spend more on marketing and sales than on research.

And, pharmaceutical companies have more lobbyists in Washington than there are members of Congress.

Perhaps that is why the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan – passed by a Republican Congress – denies the government the right to negotiate drug prices for our seniors, which could lower prices but also cut into the drug companies’ profits.

And, fifth, although a majority of Americans may agree that our health care system is broken , we don’t agree on how to fix it.

The UAW has long supported a single payer, universal, comprehensive, national health care plan that covers every man, woman and child in America. But, we are realistic enough to know that not everyone agrees with us.

It would be wrong if we just waited for the “perfect” health care system to be enacted.

That’s a luxury that the millions of uninsured – especially the millions of uninsured children – cannot afford.

There are good, sound programs that we could enact now. Programs like expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program so that all children in the U.S. have health care.

There are proposals for standardizing care, instituting electronic medical files, expanding government coverage for catastrophic care as well as lowering Medicare eligibility to age 55.

We will not get there in one giant step; it will most likely take many small steps.

But, all of us have to keep working toward the day when health care in America will truly be a right and not a privilege.

***

If we want a clear understanding of what’s wrong with health care coverage in America, we have to look no further than Wal-Mart.

It is the largest private employer in the U.S. with nearly 1.4 million employees in over 4,000 stores.

Yet, there are Wal-Mart workers who work full time and live in poverty.

And, not all Wal-Mart workers are given full time jobs – and earn even less as part-timers.

It is “always” low wages that are behind those “always” low prices.

Last year, Wal-Mart reported its health insurance plan covers less than 50 percent of the workforce.

With premiums and high deductibles coupled with low wages, it’s no wonder many Wal-Mart workers qualify for taxpayer-supported health care plans.

Taxpayers are helping to pay the health care tab for our nation’s largest employer – a highly profitable employer that made an $11 billion profit last year.

In Arkansas, the home state of Wal-Mart, there are more children of Wal-Mart employees on state health care rolls than those of any other employer.

In fact, in 18 of the 19 states that have disclosed statewide data, Wal-Mart is the #1 employer with the highest number of workers and family members on public health care assistance.

Clearly, this is not right.

For those who say that we cannot afford to fix our health care system, we can only ask: How can we afford not to?

***

Before I touch on a couple of other topics about Wal-Mart that are of grave concern to many of us, it’s important to say that the working families that shop at Wal-Mart to make their dollars stretch are not the problem.

In fact, in many small towns and mid-size cities, there are not too many other places to shop since Wal-Mart has a proven record of driving out the competition, especially the local “Mom-and-Pop” stores.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart stays away from opening stores in our inner cities.

***

When we look at some of labor’s major concerns – the loss of manufacturing jobs, the health care mess, unfair trade agreements and the deterioration of workers’ rights – it’s a straightforward conclusion that what’s wrong with America is what’s wrong with Wal-Mart.

Since Bush took office, we’ve lost 3 million manufacturing jobs in this country.

Jobs out! Investment out! Drugs in. Guns in.

Many of these were union jobs that were shipped to low wage countries. These are jobs that likely will never come back.

As we have watched American factories close or cut-back, we have also seen America’s trade deficit skyrocket.

Last year, the U.S. trade deficit climbed to a staggering $763.4 billion while the U.S trade deficit with China alone ballooned to $233 billion.

Part of that deficit is due to the fact that more than 70 percent of all merchandise sold at Wal-Mart comes from China.

If Wal-Mart was a country, it would be China’s sixth largest trading partner.

And, the low wages that Wal-Mart pays its American workers are nothing compared to the outrageously low wages paid to workers in China.

It is illegal in China for workers to form an independent union. But, that has not stopped workers there from fighting back.

Indeed, there are more labor activists jailed in China than in any other country.

It is more than ironic that Wal-Mart has recognized government-sponsored unions in its China stores while not one worker in any Wal-Mart store in the U.S. belongs to a union.

And, that’s not because Wal-Mart’s American workers don’t want to improve their wages and benefits by joining together to form a union.

It is because Wal-Mart has aggressively and systematically fought any attempts by its workers to organize.

This is a company that was so threatened by a small group of meat cutters that formed a union in the Jacksonville, Texas, store that Wal-Mart responded by closing the meat- cutting department.

What is happening at Wal-Mart – and in many other corporations – illustrates just how weak and ineffective our nation’s labor laws are.

And, it also reveals the effectiveness of another industry that only exists in the U.S.: the union busting industry.

And, the vast number of imports – especially from China – by Wal-Mart shows us how unfair trade agreements hurt workers here at home while allowing the rights of workers to be abused in other countries.

Furthermore, the fact that one-half of Wal-Mart workers have no health care coverage speaks volumes about what is wrong with America’s health care system.

So, we hope that the NAACP and other civil rights groups will join with the labor movement in “waking up” America to the real facts about Wal-Mart. We can do better in America.

We can fight to keep good paying, manufacturing jobs here.

We can work together to find a solution to fix the broken health care system.

We can level the playing field by enacting trade agreements that include workers’ rights and environmental protections.

We can strengthen workers’ rights here at home by broadening the right to organize. We can continue to work to expand support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

And, we can hold employers accountable for being a part of the problem and encourage them to become a part of the solution.

Let us not lose faith that we can make a difference.

Let us keep fighting for the promise of equal opportunity.

Let us stand together to make our voices heard!

Thank you.

Solidarity. Solidarity. Solidarity forever!