Atlanta, GA
April 25, 2024
Thank you all so, so much!
Thank you so much to Kenny, the IBEW, for welcoming me back yet again—realizing that this is really my office when I'm here in Atlanta. So thank you so much for hosting us and for giving us a chance to show that we're not just here to talk about stuff. We're actually here to get it done. And every single time we come back, we'll talk about the progress that we're making. And I'm just so grateful for all of you who are doing the work on the ground to make this progress.
I want to say something to Sandra Williams and to Yvonne Brooks. You are literally transforming the face of the labor movement.
[Applause]
And building in the kind of equity and good jobs, that has already been mentioned today, that are really the North Star at the Department of Labor. And I'm just so proud to get to work with two such great sisters in this work. And you demonstrate every day how much leadership matters and representation matters. So thank you very, very much.
[Applause]
And speaking of that, I have to say something to Ms. Stacey Abrams. I have watched you from afar for some time. But in the last year or so, in getting to meet with you and talk to you and hear your vision, it has been truly extraordinary and inspirational.
And honestly, I have to tell you that I think that we talk a lot about infrastructure now in this country—and I'll say a little bit more about that in a bit—but you have built a different kind of infrastructure: a power infrastructure here in Atlanta and throughout Georgia. Without which, we would not be able to do all the things that we are doing right now. So thank you for being who you are, and for showing the way, and giving us shoulders to stand on, and a vision to follow.
[Applause]
I also want to say to my new friend, Commissioner John Flanagan, and the mayor's office, you all are also leading the way, and your focus on equity, your focus on good jobs, having a fairly new but powerful Department of Labor inside the city is just so important.
And we know—I know this from having been in state government and now federal government—how important having local partners is, so thank you to you and the Mayor for being here and for all that you are doing.
And I want to thank the local elected officials who are here, as well as the community-based organizations, who are so key to really delivering and rolling up your sleeves and getting equity done and making it real.
And of course, it's not just the IBEW, although we know you power the country, literally. It's the rest of the unions who are also here, the state AFL-CIO, and all of you for what you are doing here also to demonstrate that we can and must build a future on good jobs, on good union jobs and equitable access to those jobs everywhere.
So again, thank you. What you are doing here is going to be a model for the rest of the country.
And I'm here with my colleagues in the Biden-Harris Administration, the wonderful Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg, who is going to speak, at the Department of Transportation, who I've got the pleasure to work with over the last three years. And my colleague, our Acting Director Michele Hodge of our Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. And both of them are going to speak in a little bit.
But what you are seeing here is just how committed the Biden-Harris Administration is to the things that are happening here in Atlanta.
Earlier today, I had a chance to speak at the African American Mayor's Association Conference, and I shared a story that I think is also fitting for what we're talking about here today. I think you all, being from here, know it already.
But this year—2024—marks the 50th anniversary since Mayor Maynard Jackson was sworn into office as the first Black mayor of Atlanta and of any major city in the South.
And soon after his inauguration, the city was engaged in an airport expansion project. He decided that 25 percent of that construction work would go to minority-owned businesses. At that time, that was pretty much unheard of. And it certainly shocked the white businesses who were already doing business in this space.
But building equity into that project expanded business opportunities. It brought new people to the table to be part of the work. And because of that, more working families were able to make a living to expand their businesses. And that was all because of leadership that was intentional about equity.
That said, "We are either going to build this the right way by being inclusive, or we're not going to build it at all." And that's what is possible when we are intentional about equity.
So today, we're talking about infrastructure projects for this generation. And we're talking about—not just contractors—but about workers and making sure that those workers look like the communities in which these projects are being built.
So it's already been mentioned, President Biden is kicking off an infrastructure decade.
Unlike a promise of infrastructure that never materialized—infrastructure week here, infrastructure day here that never came to pass—the infrastructure decade is happening right now because of President Biden's leadership. And there is some $2 trillion in investments in our nation's infrastructure, in manufacturing, in clean energy, and in really building America, using America's workers.
And here in Atlanta, you're once again modernizing the airport. And we're also investing in the northeast section of Atlanta's BeltLine project. All of these investments are opportunities to create good jobs, including good union jobs, and including for people who've been left out in the past.
But I think it's important to say that transportation and good jobs have not always been good for communities of color. They've not always been accessible for communities of color. And we are saying, "Not this time, not on our watch." This time, we're going to do that differently.
I think of our workforce system as infrastructure, too. It's the roads and bridges that connect people to the good jobs they want and need and employers to the people they want and need. And we need that infrastructure to be just as strong as our physical infrastructure.
But just like our physical roads and bridges, it has not always been. Our workforce infrastructure, that system, also has got some cracks. It's also got some potholes. It has not been built to reach all the ways the way that it should. And we are saying, "Not this time, not on our watch."
So one of the things that we are doing right now is making sure that our workforce infrastructure is built with all the right people at the table.
So last March, I was here, and I met in this very room with labor leaders with organizations and issued a challenge to build equity concretely into everything that you all are doing right here in this community. And I'm so proud of the work that Yvonne and Sandra have been leading along with Mayor Dickens, and you're going to hear more about what they have done and are doing.
Also today, we're going to hear from Stacey Abrams. And, I'm so happy to meet you too, Mayor Holiday Ingraham, and the incredible work that you're doing to take federal investments and working with a nonprofit and a municipality to partner on making clean energy home installation projects—making sure that's benefiting communities that have been left out in the past.
And I just wanted to commit to you that I support working with you as you expand federal investments to more communities and create more good jobs. To bring everything that we have, our firepower, to ensure that's all equitably shared as well.
The other thing I just want to mention is that the Department of Labor has designated some projects that are being funded by this Administration as "megaprojects."
What does that mean?
That means that we are working intentionally on equity before a single shovel hits the ground. We're working with project owners, contractors, and subcontractors to make sure that hiring is taking place from every single community. So that's the concrete work that we are doing.
And we are just getting started on that megaproject with the Northeast Trail BeltLine megaproject.
But just to share an example because we do have other megaprojects in other parts of the country. And we have seen how they work. We have seen that it changes the face of those projects. It gives more opportunity to more communities.
And it does so, not just by recruiting and retaining, which is important. But the reality is that for many people who've been shut out in the past, it's not just a matter of giving them opportunity. It's also that we make sure we create an infrastructure that will allow them to succeed once they get those jobs—and that includes supportive services like transportation, like child care, like other things that workers need in order to build a life and to be able to get to and from work.
And so that's the kind of barrier-breaking work that we can get done when we work together.
So today is not the very beginning, but it's certainly not the end. It is one step in a journey of progress that we are going to keep on making all together.
And it also helps when we have strong government leadership, right, including city leadership, sometimes that is defying restrictions, and challenges, and barriers that are put in the way by others in the state.
And that includes when cities put in place community benefits agreements—it helps to ensure that hiring is more equitable. It includes Good Jobs Principles that are embedded, including when cities put out procurement and contracting. And so again, thank you to Atlanta for demonstrating what is possible, even against odds, to build in equity into everything that we do.
So I'm going to close by saying, you know, when we talk about bridges and roads at the Department of Labor, we are talking about more than physical bridges and roads.
We are talking about bridges from poverty to prosperity. We're talking about bridges from insecurity to opportunity. And that's the kind of bridge that we know we can build by working with all of you.
So let's build that together.
And I'm very excited to see so many of you in this room with your sleeves rolled up and with your hearts in it, to see what we can accomplish together as we go forward.
So thank you so, so much.
[Applause]