LIVE: Biden Delivers Remarks on Economy at Department of Labor

I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak now, I'm starting to speak Please welcome Liz Taylor, President of the AFL-CIO. Hello, hello. Good morning. I think it's still morning. How is everyone out there? I love it. And I just want to say thank you for being here. It is such an honor to be here with you today on behalf of the nearly 13 million working people in the AFL-CIO and on behalf of working Americans everywhere across this country. I cannot tell you how powerful it is to be part of this celebration for someone who, to me, is an unsung hero in our national story, who has inspired millions of women, millions of workers, and is directly responsible for so many of the rights and benefits we have as working people today across this country. Now, I think about Frances Perkins a lot, a glass ceiling breaker, someone who has opened doors for people like me to have a seat at that leadership table. She gave this great speech at the American Association of University Women in 1939. She was six years into her role as the Secretary of Labor. First woman, of course, cabinet member, we know. It was at the tail end of the Depression, and the New Deal had been implemented. As she went to the stage, she pulled out this little handwritten note that she had written actually eight years earlier. It had scribbled down on this little, you can imagine this piece of paper, a list of ideas that at the time she thought would be good for policymakers to consider. She thought the government should think about shorter working hours, higher wages, help for the elderly and unemployed, abolishing child labor, measures for industrial safety, and the right to organize a union and bargain collectively. Those ideas that as she gave that speech were all now a reality. She said they were made possible because at no point did anyone in the administration say we're satisfied. That's good enough. President Roosevelt, Secretary Perkins, every worker who stood with them, they kept fighting. As Francis Perkins said in that speech, and I quote, a healthy discontent keeps us alert to the changing needs of our time. President Biden, since you were first coming up in the Senate, you've led with that same spirit that Francis Perkins was talking about. That ability to say we are not satisfied, that's not good enough for workers and families all over this country. They deserve dignity. They deserve respect. They deserve a fair shot. Because of you and Acting Secretary Julie Hsu and this team, we have taken massive steps forward these last four years. For the first time in history, a president of the United States stood with union members on a picket line. We have seen a Department of Labor that actually works for working people. We've seen overtime expand and non-competes banned and generational investments in this country that are creating millions of good union jobs. Nothing short of amazing. It's a historic record. And we're going to move forward with that same healthy discontent that Secretary Perkins spoke about. We're going to defend that record and fight to build on it every single day. And I am so honored now to introduce someone who has led the Department of Labor in a way that Secretary Perkins would be damn proud of. She has taken the fight to anyone who tries to exploit working people. She has stood with our unions. She has turned DOL into a true house of labor. And I'll just say I have watched her and I have seen how she has helped navigate through conflict all across this country. When we've seen workers rising up in historic numbers, she has been there and helped with contract fights and settled strikes and really delivered for working people. So with that, it is my great honor to introduce Acting Secretary of Labor, Julie Su. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much. Please have a seat. Thank you. And thank you so much to President Shuler on a day that we are talking about history-making women. It is phenomenal to have worked alongside you and to have had a front row seat to your history-making leadership. And I also want to thank my friend and colleague, Secretary Deb Haaland, for making the announcement about this monument here at the Francis Perkins Building today. So this is no ordinary day at the Department of Labor, not only because we honor Francis Perkins, by all accounts the most consequential labor secretary our country has ever seen, but this day is really special because we are also doing something else. So today we are at the Department of Labor. We are honoring a secretary of labor with all of you, dozens of labor leaders and labor organizers and our labor champions in Congress. And so it's really no surprise to anybody who knows President Biden that we are doing this here today all together. It's sort of like that commercial about Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. President Biden and labor just go together. Now, Mr. President, you have made history time and time again with your commitment to working people. And while you are here to honor one of my predecessors, we are here to induct you into the Labor Hall of Honor. Now, the Hall of Honor is how we acknowledge the labor heroes of America. And as we reflect on your legacy, Mr. President, the way that you always had workers back, the way that you put workers first, there is really no one like you. My fellow cabinet members know this, but in the Oval Office across from your desk, you hung a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course the president that named Francis Perkins Labor Secretary. And Francis Perkins was no bystander to history. She lived at its fiery edge. She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, a horror that took 146 garment workers lives, mostly immigrant women and girls. And it was there in the ashes of that tragedy that she made the decision to devote her life to justice for workers. And it's a reminder that how we use our power matters. Now, President Biden promised to be the most co-worker, co-union president this country has ever seen. And he has gotten up each day and delivered on that promise. Never before has a president wielded the power of the office so unapologetically on behalf of the people who rake their back, building our bridges, teaching our children, picking our crops, nursing our sick, making the things we rely on, connecting our communities, and making our country function. And never before has a president so thoroughly dismantled the rusty machinery of trickle-down economics. The decades-long con that has told working people to just be patient while CEOs got rich. We know who's in the room today, obviously. Mr. President, you haven't just spoken about being a co-worker, you have acted on it every single day. From the outset, you told Amazon warehouse workers from Bessemer, Alabama to Staten Island, New York that the right to organize was theirs, full stop, without interference, without coercion, and without the corporate bullying that's all too common. As President Schuler already mentioned, you are the first sitting president to walk a picket line, a sitting president throwing his weight behind labor's most fundamental first principle of the way to exercise power and resistance. You have protected workers' wages and benefits, and made it so that federal dollars are not blank checks, that under your watch, unprecedented federal investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy, and our environment don't just repair roads and replace pipes and build factories, but build lives by creating good jobs that sustain families and communities. This is not empty rhetoric or fleeting gestures. These actions are seismic. When you said unions make America strong, it mattered. And today, unions are more popular than they have been in my lifetime. Maybe even in yours, Mr. President. Since you came to office, union election petitions have doubled, and 400,000 workers have joined a union for the first time. Pensions that were on the brink of collapse have been salvaged, allowing workers to retire with security and dignity, the security and the dignity that they earned. Under your leadership, worker fatalities and injuries are down, and employers who hire children to do dangerous jobs know not on your watch. Under your leadership, the Department and the National Labor Relations Board have roared back to life, enforcing laws with the ferocity that workers deserve. NLRB Chair Lauren McFerrin and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, thank you for showing how that is done. Under your leadership, you said that a worker-centered president should have a worker-centered trade strategy, and U.S. Trade Representative Kathleen Tai showed us how that is done. You've said again and again, collective bargaining works, and on your behalf, I have been at the bargaining table more times than several of my predecessors combined. We've set a new standard, not just for the number of collective bargaining agreements that we've helped achieve, but the nature of our engagement. We come to the table not to pressure parties to come to an agreement, but to achieve outcomes that value workers for what they are worth. When dock workers on the East Coast and the West Coast were negotiating their contracts, a lot of people said, invoke Taft-Hartley, the way your predecessors have done in the past. In fact, when companies said to me, just use Taft-Hartley, this president did it, I would look them in the eye and say, do you know who my boss is? That is not going to happen. And under your watch, workers from autoworkers to airline flight attendants, from hospitality to healthcare, from actors and writers to machinists to longshoremen have won record contracts. And those gains, most of them are locked in for the next four years or more. Under your leadership, Mr. President, workers organizing has been seen not as a threat to democracy, but the beating heart of democracy. So thank you, Mr. President, for your courage, for your clarity, and your unwavering commitment to the simple but revolutionary idea that workers deserve their fair share. Only under your leadership would the things that we've accomplished even be possible or imaginable. And the story of that generational impact has still yet to be fully told. To me, the Hall of Honor is about making sure that those who have shaped our country's labor history are forever enshrined for all to see and to learn about. I have inducted working people, farm workers, garment workers, LGBTQ workers, into the Hall of Honor. Those workers have changed the course of history. And today, it is a point of immense personal and professional pride to induct the best advocate and ally these workers have ever had. Scranton Joe, Union Joe, President Joseph R. Biden, the 46th President of the United States. Whoa. It's a good day. Thank you, Acting Secretary Hsu. I had no choice. My grandfather would come down from heaven if I didn't do it. Excuse me. I have a little bit of a cold. Folks, you know, it's an incredible honor. I really mean that. And I want to thank Acting Secretary Hsu and the Department of Labor for this incredible honor. You know, I measure the importance of any award I have ever received. Basically, character and consequence of the organization is bestowing it. And the Department of Labor is an organization of character and consequence. I'm honored. I'm honored to be joined today by leaders of character and consequence. Many of us sit right here in the front row. I have my cabinet there. I want to thank all the labor leaders here today, including Liz, the AFL-CIO, members of the cabinet, including Computer Secretary Deb Howell. You know, we talked about that list that she wrote. Secretary Rodham Cox. I don't know what that was about. I don't know what it was about. But I think she had a relevance. And that's what I want. Would you stand up, Madam Secretary? Let's hear it for her. I've been around a long time. She's the only secretary I've ever worked with or had working for me. And when I say that, that's a no-no. We have discipline. Thank you. Look, you know, a former labor secretary who's now in the White House, a senior advisor, is Tom Perez. Nice to meet you. Tom, thanks for sticking with me. And members of Congress, including Maine Senator Andrews King and Chairman McKinley. Where are you guys? By the way, last night we were doing a Christmas event at the House, and we were talking about the importance of labor. And my wife said it. And by the way, his wife's a member of a labor union, too. I'm Jill Biden's husband. She's not here today, but she's been a longtime union member of the National Education Association. And it's fitting with all these powerful women here that we're gathering at the headquarters of the Department of Labor. Named after one of America's greatest labor leaders. Now, that's not hyperbole. Frances Perkins. You know, we're honored to be joined by her grandson, Tomlin. Where are you, Tomlin? Thank you, bud. Saturday, March 25, 1911, Frances sat down for afternoon tea at her home in a close friend from New York City. Suddenly, I hear the sound of the distant screams and sirens. The building was in flames. Her instinct was to run to the scene. As she approached the fire and smoke, she recognized the Triangle Shirt Factory, a company that employed hundreds of workers, mostly immigrants and women, who worked long hours to cram into tight quarters where managers locked them inside to make clothing. In an instant, those workers were trapped in a brutal blaze, with no safe exit. Some workers forced to climb out the windows, holding on to their dear life until their fingers gave out. Others just jumped, frayed and jumped. A total of 150 lives were lost that day. It was the deadliest industrial disaster in America's history. Frances was devastated. But that fire ignited a passion in her, which changed her resolve to fight even harder for working Americans and working families. In her decades of service, she became a fierce defender of unions and workers' rights, an architect of the New Deal, the first woman cabinet secretary, the first woman cabinet secretary. I increased my net worth, because I know what my family is like. All the really great people in my family are women. I'm the longest-serving Secretary of Labor in America. And the story goes, after Franklin Roosevelt asked her to become his Labor Secretary, Frances quickly immediately responded by outlining her goal, what she wanted done. She said, I want unemployment relief, overtime pay, child labor laws, minimum wage, workers' compensation, national health insurance, and Social Security. Many of the benefits we take for granted, as a consequence of Frances' dedication and steadying career. Imagine walking up to Roosevelt and saying, hey, I'll take your job, but here's the deal, man. Let's get this straight. Like I said, a little bit like on Ask Frances would be my job. Hard-fought battle, you know, with teachers and, you know, I don't know. A real testament to her skill as an advocate of public service. An example, through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she cemented the idea that if you work in a full-time job, you shouldn't have to be in poverty. Simple proposition. If you work a little extra, you should have extra money for overtime. Not a crazy idea. I mean, some even argue about it now. Frances understood it when my dad taught me. And you've heard me say this a thousand times. Joey, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in the community. It's about being looked with kid in the eye. And honey, it's going to be okay. I mean it. That's my dad. In fact, during her 12 years in office, she accomplished everything I would most accept. Expanded healthcare for health insurance. Took 65 years later and a guy named Barack Obama hired him to get the Affordable Care Act passed. To thank God all of us here protected and expanded the Affordable Care Act. Look, it's because of Frances Perkins and a generation of activists in the labor movement that has laid the groundwork for much of what we've accomplished in the last 20 years. We're fundamentally transforming the economy by breaking an economic orthodoxy that has failed this nation generation after generation in my opinion. Trickle-down economics. The notion that if the wealthy do very, very well, a little trickle-off off their table. On our kitchen table. My dad used to say, nothing ever trickled on my table, honey. No, I'm serious. My dad was a really well-read man who didn't get to go. He went and accepted John's hot people. During the war, he never got to go. But my dad was a well-read guy. Well, you know, the primary benefits of a very wealthy corporation were trickle-down. And that didn't do much for working people in the middle class. It left too many people behind. Together we built an economy from the middle out and the bottom up. Not the top down. Because we know the simple truth. Wall Street didn't build America. The middle class built America. And unions built the middle class. That's a fact. In fact, as the Secretary of Treasury will tell you, I asked her to do a study because I was going to get hit. Because I knew they'd say, by having unions increase in their numbers and their wages go up, they're going to cost people. Guess what? A study the Treasury did showed that when unions do well, all workers do well. Union and non-worker. Across the board. It matters. It works. It's fair. Kamala and I are so proud of a great job creation record. That's actually the greatest job creation record of any single president in a single Senate. Over 6 million new jobs so far, including 1.5 million manufacturing and construction jobs. Good-paying jobs. You can raise a family and don't have to require a four-year degree. And get this. There are more women, especially mothers in the workforce, than ever before in American history. I'm so damn proud of the protected pensions of millions of union workers in the entire U.S. When I signed the Bush-Lewis Act. I mean, think about it. Imagine what the average American would say if they were going to do that when they're supposed to be doing what they've got to do. Imagine if you said your pensions can't change. In addition, we've been covering more than $1 billion of back-breaking damage for 600,000 voters. We push for a right to a living wage and a right to overtime pay. Jobs and factories are coming back home to America because we invested in the American agenda. We're modernizing American infrastructure. Last time this guy had the job, he had infrastructure week every week. He didn't build a damn thing. And guess what? We've built a lot. And guess what's coming? Look, folks. One of the things that is frustrating. I knew this was going to happen. We've been around a long time. I talked over to the Secretary of Agriculture and other places. Guess what? All the things that we have, $1.4 trillion in economic and infrastructure growth. There's thousands of good things around. The Chips in Science Act. Investing billions of dollars. Billions of dollars. Some of these fabs are going to house hundreds of people working thousands. They're going to be getting paid about an average of $100,000 to $2,000 a year. Don't need a college degree. So much. So much is going on. And it's going to take a little bit of time. But we've got to make sure to protect the onslaught that's going to come. Because it's hard to see right now. And, by the way, I know I got criticized by putting the housing programs in red states and blue states. Actually, more. And guess what? The red state guy screwed it up. And we've got to represent all Americans. Not just Democrats. All Americans. Look, as we do all this, we're buying America. We're using American workers. We're using American products. And we're standing up for AmeriCorps America. We're still working against China's nuclear trade pact. We're appointing a National Labor Relations Board that actually believes in unions. We have a co-union member on the board. It's the only notion. And a special thank you to the chair of the board, Ron McInerney. Where are you, Ron? Thank you. Don't be so shy. Stand up. There's no accident, no accident, that petitions to form unions have doubled, doubled under my presidency. I got all this credit for walking the picket line. It never crossed my mind not to walk the picket line. No, I'm serious. I didn't think it was any big deal to walk the picket line. As a black guy's president, I hadn't thought about that. Pamela walked the picket line. We support the right to fair contract. There's one, you know, that doesn't get enough attention. I mean, workers in sectors like construction, manufacturing, mining, and hale toxic silicon dust on the job can lead to lung cancer and other deadly diseases. It's been a major problem for decades, even under Secretary Perkins. She led an investigation that, despite the science, a big business blocked the regulation. But not on our watch, not on your watch. With your help, we carry Francis' mantle and issue the rule that finally reduces such dangerous exposure. And, by the way, my Secretary of Veterans Affairs was sitting in front of me. A really good guy. I really needed him. You know, what we did when we did the Chippewa Science Act and the amendment to make sure we could take care of veterans, we said all those folks in my generation, those the age of mine, couldn't feed off the illness of the consequence of it. And all those, like my son's generation, exposed the toxin of lung cancer and arachnoid bison. And it's assumed that my son came back to the United States more than any of us did. No more brain injuries than any of you. And guess what? They're entitled to the benefits that they were going to get if they had not divorced. The former. And I'd live with you, but I think we have to be able to figure out how we deal with what's basically decent and fair. Just basically decent and fair. There are a lot of sacred obligations I got in trouble for saying that. But only one truly sacred obligation. To care about who's standing behind the line at the first and only time until they come home. That's a simple proposition. Finally, that's happening. But have you got another million now? A million to take care of. Make no apologies. I'm so damn proud of you. Look, folks, in our four years together, we've made historic investments that have changed the course of the nation's future and will have a lasting impact in decades to come. And I'm here to say, state the obvious. We could not have done this without the dedicated professional service department of labor and all the costs associated with it. We could not have. And I'm damn proud to be known as the most pro-labor administration in America. We are. We make no apologies. Look, let me close with this. Francis Perkins once said, people are what matter to government. And the government should aim to give people, all people, under its jurisdictions, the best possible life. The best possible life. And my dad had a simple proposition. Everybody deserves a shot. All of you have helped out a lot. Putting people first, no matter who they are. Another important legacy of our administration is making sure we learn from history. Lift up stories that often have gone untold. Earlier this year, during the Women's History Month, I signed the first ever executive order on recognizing honor in women's history. Increased representation at women's historic sites and historic sites all across America. I'm damn proud to stand here and Francis Perkins, Perkins family. And for the labor force. I designate Francis Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine, a National Monument. And Secretary Holland is also going to be announcing five new National Historic Landmarks. It's to honor women's contributions to American history. And it includes Charleston Cigar Factory. It's an opportunity for black women to have more of a strength to oppose gender and racial discrimination. To advocate for the rights of women. Too many people want to be a racist. Or ignore it. But from all we want to do is make sure we've got courage. Courage to look back and admit who we are. I was able to show up as an immigrant and apologize for what we did in America. And the schools that we have been going to. Throughout our history, women have been able to achieve a strength in this nation. That's why I kept my commitment to having a workforce that looks like it. It includes having more women with access all across the home. Starting with my amazing Vice President, Kamala Harris. It's about time. We honor them in building the American Women's Museum and the History Museum on the Mall. And the Women's Suffrage National Monument on the National Mall. And by the way, it's time for Congress to move in authorizing that legislation moving forward. They should do it now before this Congress ends. Folks, our administration is coming to an end. But our work continues. We get up. We keep going. We keep the faith. I know I will. I know you will. Just remember who in the hell we are. We're the United States of America. There's nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. Nothing, nothing, nothing. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. And now I will sign the proclamation. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.