Remarks by John Sweeney, President AFL-CIO
Summit on the 21st Century Workforce, June 20, 2001
MCI Center, Washington, DC

MR. SWEENEY: Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. I'm delighted to be here to speak on behalf of American working families and to represent the views of not only the members of our unions but also the members of their families. But I must say that I'm disappointed, Madam Secretary, that you didn't come in on a Harley.

How workers fare in the global economy of the 21st century is of critical concern to the AFL-CIO and to workers everywhere. So it is encouraging to have a get?together like today's where leaders from government and business, the nonprofit sector, and our unions can exchange thoughts and hear some new ideas. We thank the Secretary of Labor for seizing the moment and marshaling the effort it took to organize this forum.

The AFL-CIO has had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the Department of Labor when it comes to health and safety, wage and hour enforcement, employment and training, and more recently, our global effort to end child labor and combat the HIV-AIDS menace. I want to thank Secretary Chao for her efforts to continue that tradition and to implore the Congress to restore budget cuts that have been proposed in some of these vital areas. (Applause)

I'm especially proud - I'm especially proud of the partnership between the AFL-CIO Working For America Institute and the Labor Department, and our attempt to provide a critical link between employers, workers, and the public system. We have long advocated for and delivered education and training at the workplace, in partnership with employers and often with the Department.

Let me say a special word of praise for the building trades unions of the AFL-CIO, who in essence are the training arm of the construction industry in this country. They have provided training and apprenticeships in a great American tradition, and they are reaching out to the workers of the future - women, workers of color, immigrant workers, skilled and unskilled, to help ensure that all Americans have good jobs and employers have the skilled labor they need.

Unionized firms invest more in education and training than their non-union counterparts, and unionized workers take advantage of education and training opportunities offered by employers at a greater rate than non-union workers. Clearly, this is an area where American businesses need to make a greater investment. Today's unions recognize that in a relatively high wage economy workers in the United States, especially those who work in industries that can easily move their production out of the United States, need to be more productive and produce higher quality goods and services, and their companies need to innovate and change more rapidly if they are to succeed in today's global economy. And that's why, historically, we have called for serious public investment in work force development for all of our nation's workers and not just those who have been laid off. It's good for workers, good for our nation, and good for companies, whose workers can contribute even more to their success.

You will hear in a few moments from my co-panelist, John Wilhelm, about one of those partnerships in the hospitality industry. And we are committed to working with the Department and Secretary Chao to increase the number of such high-road partnerships that create and help retain good jobs. In addition, we're proud that we've been able to play a critical role in delivering services to dislocated workers from the early intervention of rapid response all the way through training and placement for new jobs. This will be an important area for us in the future, along with our training initiatives to address the skill needs of America's work force and the skills mismatch confronting many of the employers represented here today.

Madam Secretary, we appreciate your leadership and interest in raising the issues of the new work force. We want to help you make the work force investment Act work, and we believe that strong labor participation will be key to its success.

Let me pause a moment also to say a word of thanks to all those of you in this audience and those who are not here, who are employees of the Department of Labor and other federal departments and agencies. We've worked with many of you for years, and I can honestly say that your commitment and the work you do every day keeps our nation strong. You are the best friends America's working families have, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. (Applause)

The story of the 21st century work force is in fact many different stories. We've just heard one story from my co-panelist, Jeff Bleustein, about listening to workers and giving them a strong voice within their company. I can echo what Jeff has said. I've talked to union members at Harley-Davidson. I can tell you that not only are they committed to working together with management to solve problems, they are the best advocates of Harleys that anybody could ask for. They ride them and they sell them.

Including workers in workplace decisions isn't just good for labor relations. It's good for business. Because the ingenuity and insight of workers is a tremendous asset that smart companies recognize. In fact, wherever you look, whether it's among professionals in health care at Kaiser or skilled engineers at Boeing, or whether it's among janitors who maintain the country's corporate headquarters, workers are asking for a voice on the job every day. They're asking to be recognized for more than the brawn of their arms and the strength of their backs. They're asking to have their ideas considered and heeded, and very often they do that through their unions.

I would suggest at the outset that giving workers a say is a crucial start at solving the problems that have been framed so far today. The principle of respecting workers and recognizing the needs of working families in the 21st century was the topic of discussion last week in Geneva, where I participated in the International Labor Organization's Conference on the Global Challenge of Creating Decent Work. The ILO is a unique tripartite body, as you know, created by the United Nations, with equal representation from government, business, and unions. And when it speaks, it does so with a consensus of leaders from each sector throughout the world. It could be said that the ILO is to the global work force what the Department of Labor is to the American work force. And as we consider our role in today's economy, the global perspective is especially important.

Last week, the ILO released an important new report on reducing what the ILO calls "the global deficit in decent work." And it offers us a guide toward meeting the needs of our working families here in the United States as well as around the world. The report notes that while economic success is often calculated by growth rates and output percentages and income levels, genuine social progress must also be measured by the employment, enjoyment of human rights and basic freedoms -- the expectation of security, the guarantee of social protection, and the insistence on work in decent conditions and for a decent income.

All too often, we hear the complaints that in the competitive new global economy the markets won't allow for any indulgences other than the bottom line. We, of course, argue otherwise. And the ILO reports in fact that there are plenty of examples to make the case that decent work not only is a goal in its own right, but it can boost productivity as well as economic growth. In fact, a substantial body of research shows the positive effects on employee commitment and workplace efficiency and productivity of worker participation and decision-making.

Nowadays, there is also is the contention commonly heard among the advocates of unregulated globalization that people caught in poverty just need income and employment, that basic rights are not relevant. But as the ILO points out, unless fundamental rights are insisted upon, including the right to join or form unions free from interference by employers, the viewpoint of work first, decent work later, will prevail. And all too often, the later never arrives.

Some critics of the report that was issued in Geneva said they have a hard time defining exactly what is meant by the term "decent work." For me, it has never been that complicated. Decent work is work that pays enough to raise a family, with enough time off to enjoy life a little bit. Work that enables you to send your kids to college, to cope with unforeseen emergencies, especially when it comes to health care, and to enjoy a secure retirement.

But even if one has a hard time defining decent work, we all recognize indecent work when we see it. A maid turning down sheets in a hotel or a nursing home aide caring for the elderly for $5.15 an hour, with no health insurance, no pension, and no prospect for advancement, that's indecent work. A janitor - (Applause)

A janitor working for $5.50 an hour doing tough manual labor with no sick days or hope for higher wages, that's indecent work.

It's not always about money. When a dot.com professional is misclassified as an independent contractor so the employer can avoid paying health insurance or offering pension benefits. That can be just as indecent even though the money is better. Or when an officer worker or a retail worker finds his or her privacy violated through surveillance pre-employment screening based on medical information, and even pocketbook searches, that too is indecent work.

The challenge of creating decent jobs and reducing the decent work deficit at home here and abroad is frankly daunting and also urgent. So we need to get about the task at hand. Here in America, our union movement has firm ideas for creating decent jobs and reducing our decent work deficit. We believe that the broad changes taking place in our work force and our workplaces call for the Department of Labor to update, retool, and sharpen its enforcement efforts. The need is especially great with respect to workers in low wage labor markets, including immigrants, women, and workers of color, who are most vulnerable to minimum wage and overtime violations, as well as employer misclassification of their employment status.

We believe that if America is truly committed to improving today's work force and building the work force of the future, we must step up significantly both our public and private investment in lifelong education and training for American workers. We fervently believe that the federal minimum wage must be increased to meet current realities of raising a family. (Applause)

We also believe that we should develop now a new ergonomic standard to give workers protection from repetitive stress injuries. (Applause)

We believe more must be done to help ensure a dignified and secure retirement for American workers. That includes expanding defined benefits pension coverage for low and moderate wage workers, but it does not include converting part of Social Security, our nation's most successfully family protection program into private investment accounts and paying for the transition by draining off assets, cutting benefits, and raising the retirement age to 70. (Applause)

Let me close by noting that we have no time to waste. The imbalances created by today's rapidly changing economic system are vast and growing, and they are building a powder keg of discord and upheaval here at home and abroad. Let's get busy now, closing the decent work gap so we can all enjoy a more prosperous and secure future. Thank you and God bless all the good work you're doing. (Applause)