Atlanta, GA
April 25, 2024
Congratulations on celebrating 10 years of this organization.
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I know that the mayors in this room aren't just celebrating, anniversaries, you're also making history. Like my friend, Mayor Woodards, who is here. I know we continue to build on your vision for our partnership together.
Also my sister, Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, the first woman to ever serve as mayor of Los Angeles
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And also in AAMA President Shawyn Patterson-Howard, the first woman mayor of Mount Vernon.
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I also see the ways so many of you are making history, like when I was in Alabama earlier this year and met with Mayor Steven Reed, the first Black mayor of Montgomery.
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I see it up close in the work that DOL is doing with Mayor Brandon Scott, the youngest mayor in Baltimore's history.
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And I also see it in Stephen Benjamin—who I know many of you know—who made history as the first Black mayor of Columbia, South Carolina.
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Today, I get to work closely with him as he leads public engagement for the White House. President Biden brought him in because he knows that when you want something done right, you need a mayor.
And I see that firsthand whenever I travel to your cities. You are getting transformational things done, and it's so exciting for me. So thank you for welcoming me to your cities.
Mayor Dickens here in Atlanta. We just had an amazing conversation. Mayor Bibb in Cleveland, who I also just also saw in D.C. but also in Cleveland. Mayor Lumumba in Jackson, and of course, I already mentioned Mayor Lyles in Charlotte.
I think whenever we break barriers in our positions, there's something bittersweet about it. There's something about knowing that we are celebrated for our accomplishments but that there's still a long way to go to achieving true racial equity. It's the idea that we can be celebrated at the same time that we know that there are still lots of barriers that still exist. And I think about that a lot, that those of us who come into positions of power, really thinking about how we use that power in meaningful ways.
For me, that also makes me think about the history made here in Atlanta by Mayor Maynard Jackson. So 50 years ago—many of you probably know this story—Mayor Jackson was sworn into office. And he was the first Black mayor of any major city in the South.
And soon after his inauguration, the city was set to do a big expansion of the local airport. And so Mayor Jackson saw an opportunity. He decided that 25 percent of those construction contracts would go to minority-owned firms.
At that time, that was virtually unheard of. And it certainly shocked the white businesses here in Atlanta. But Mayor Jackson held firm. And, as Mayor Dickens and I just talked about, what he told the business leaders was, "You can have 75 percent of the project, or you can have 100 percent of nothing."
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And then he asked them, "What is your choice?"
Well I just flew yesterday into Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. So I'm pretty sure we know what they chose.
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And what Mayor Jackson knew is that it's not enough to talk about equity and equality. We have to be intentional about it. It's not enough to hope for economic prosperity for all. We have to be intentional about it. And we have to use our power to make that real, to imagine something is possible even though it's never been done before.
And I know you're doing that every single day. And I just want to talk about what we are doing in the Biden-Harris administration to do the same thing.
So we're making historic investments in America's infrastructure, safe roads and bridges, high-speed internet in every community, clean air and clean drinking water, batteries for electric vehicles.
And all of these opportunities are also opportunities to bring good jobs to every single community, especially for the people who've been left out in the past.
So we talk about infrastructure, and I think about our workforce system as infrastructure, too. You all are grappling with this. Everyone I talk to is talking about how we make sure that we have the workforce that we need. And to me, the reason why I say a workforce system is infrastructure, is because it's the roads and bridges that connect people to the good jobs they want and need and employers to the people that they want and need.
Too often, people hear "workforce development" and just think that it's about training. No. This is not just an issue of training. Black folks have been left out of opportunity for too long—not because they lack the skills. It's because we haven't built the roads and bridges that connect people to good jobs in their communities. Training is a small part of that.
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So, I'm here to say, "Not this time." That's not how we're going to do it.
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At the Department of Labor, we're focused on making sure the roads and bridges in our workforce system are as strong as our physical infrastructure.
That's why we've created a set of Good Jobs Principles that are intentional about how we can connect all of America's workers to the good jobs that are being created. Principles like recruiting from underserved communities, breaking down systemic barriers, focusing on justice-impacted individuals, single moms, those who struggle to find housing, and building connections between K-12 system, community college, colleges, and jobs so that there's a connectivity about it that provide real opportunity and real security.
A set of principles about the kinds of jobs we want in our communities and who we want to see in those jobs can unite workers, businesses, community-based organizations, civil rights and philanthropic organizations, labor unions, state and local governments, and many more—in common cause to lift up all of our communities.
So we've seen that already in Pittsburgh, where I've had the privilege of working closely with Mayor Gainey to build a coalition around Pittsburgh's Good Jobs Principles. And I am so pleased to announce today that Atlanta—under Mayor Dickens' leadership—is committing also to Good Jobs Principles right here in Atlanta. And that's going to make sure that people right here in this great city have equitable access to the jobs that are being created at the airport and beyond—and that we make sure that they're good union jobs.
So let me tell you why I talk about good union jobs.
We hear a lot of talk about the worker shortage in this country. I don't buy it. It's not a worker shortage. It's a good jobs shortage.
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What we've had for too long is the idea that working people just have to accept certain conditions. And when working people opt out of that, that's not something wrong with them. It's something wrong with the jobs.
Unions are raising wages and working conditions in industries across America. And workers here in the South are choosing—against great odds, often against political pressure to do otherwise—to join unions.
And unions are one of the most powerful forces—maybe the most powerful force we've seen—to combat racial and gender wage gaps. In a union, pay for Black workers increases by 17.3 percent. And union jobs have helped to build the Black middle class in this country, especially through jobs in the civil service.
Now, I know the history of unions and people of color is complicated. And that's part of what we are being intentional about.
We're awarding grants—like one in Birmingham with Mayor Woodfin, in partnership with the AFL-CIO—for a pre-apprenticeship program for women, for people of color, and others who have been left out to get good jobs in construction, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy.
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We're also working closely with Georgia's AFL-CIO President Yvonne Brooks and the Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council, led by Sandra Williams, two Black women who are leading the labor movement right here in Georgia. And today, they're also going to announce commitments make sure workers who have historically been shut out of economic opportunity—and opportunities created by unions-are getting equitable access to those good union jobs.
We also, at the Department of Labor, invested $20 million in a partnership between the Building Trades' TradesFutures and the National Urban League to open opportunities for apprenticeship programs to Black workers. In that program alone and in less than a year, we've enrolled more than 2,500 people of color in pre-apprenticeships programs.
And across the board, we're seeing historically high numbers of Black workers and other workers of color in these programs that allow people to earn while they learn and get an opportunity that they might not have gotten before or might not even known existed.
And that doesn't happen by accident. It happens because we're intentional about who and how we serve and the quality of the jobs we're creating.
And I want to make sure that every mayor in this room has the playbook, has the toolkit, for what we are doing and how to help make sure the good jobs that are being created are available to everybody in your communities.
So the first thing I'll mention doesn't require a big budget or tons of resources. It's what I've already said. It's the adoption of a set of Good Jobs Principles to build a coalition that signs onto such principles. And these principles become a kind of organizing tool so that the jobs in your city are putting workers on a path to the middle class, give them a voice on the job, and bring the right partners together to ensure the workers, businesses, and communities are working together to make this happen.
And Registered Apprenticeships are part of those roads and bridges. The Department of Labor is on a mission to serve a million apprentices by 2026. And we want people in your city to be part of that million. So the other thing is to set a goal for the number of apprentices that will come out of your city.
Another initiative, which I think you all are already doing, and I want this to be national too, is to commit to hiring youth this summer in youth employment and apprenticeship opportunities. Mayor Dickens and I had a conversation about this, and I know there's going to be thousands of young people hired for jobs right here in Atlanta through the initiative you already have.
But we're opening up a nationwide effort to make sure that opportunities are enjoyed by all young people. I was recently at a program with some young adults. And they were in a program where they were learning how to use a 3D printer. And they said to me: "I didn't know 3D printers were actually a real thing. I had never seen one. I didn't know it was actually something you could use and make things with it—that I could make things with it." It's great that they got that opportunity. But in some places, in some schools, kids as young as third and fourth grade are learning how to use 3D printers, right? So we need to make sure that we are combatting that inequity that is so built in to our society.
And I also want to welcome you to join us for our first-ever Youth Apprenticeship Week that will be happening the week of May 5.
We also have some funding opportunities available right now that I just want to mention very quickly. We have workforce opportunities for rural communities, making sure that rural communities are not left out in this moment of good job creation. And we also have opportunities for community-based organizations in your cities for grants like the "Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations" and another grant called "Fostering Access, Rights and Equity."
Both of those grant opportunities are open right now. And if you go to grants.gov you can get more information about that, and please help us spread the word.
I just want to end by saying that I'm really proud to serve in President Biden's administration. He has been very clear that he—and we—are going to be the most pro-worker, pro-union administration in history.
We're making history by doing that.
But as you all know, the best part of making history is the opportunities that we open up opportunities for other people to see what's possible for them. And so I want to talk a little bit about some of those people I've met, like Robert, a young man who is now working on an airport modernization project in his community. And Robert told me that on his first week on that job, he made more than several jobs combined that he'd being doing before that. And before that, he had to work several jobs, just to piece together a life. Now he could just have one.
With that income, he bought a house for his family, and he's looking forward to pointing out to his young son one day that he helped build the airport that's right there in his community.
We know good jobs change lives.
I'm also thinking of Vicki. Vicki went on strike, alongside 75,000 other health care workers last year for better working conditions and better wages. And it was my privilege to be at the negotiating table with her and those workers and with the employer, trying to resolve their issues. And one night, in the middle of the night—we had already been up for 24 hours straight—Vicki looked the CEO in the eye and said, "I matter, we matter, we make what you do possible, and we deserve better."
And I share that because I carry what Vicki said in my heart all the time. And I think about the courage that it took for her to say that and how finding her voice in the workplace is also going to help her exert her voice elsewhere.
And I'm thinking about a young woman I met named Jazz Allen, who struggled to find a job that she could live on. And despite her criminal record, she got a job because of a program led by and for Black women in the trades.
Today, Jazz runs that program. And at the Department of Labor, we just invested $1.3 million in so that Jazz and other women like her can be connected to the kinds of jobs right there in her community.
So I close by saying, investing in Black America is investing in America.
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And we're making those investments right now, because—you know and I know—that good jobs change lives. And good jobs strengthen our economy. And workers with a voice in their jobs help to strengthen our democracy.
So let's keep up this work of investing with intentionality, of embracing what we know to be true that when we end structural racism, it's good economic policy. It's how we build a stronger nation. And we have a moment right now under President Biden's vision for this economy to make sure that we finally do right by Black workers, too.
I know that if we can get that right. We can increase community wealth. We can increase intergenerational wealth. We can strengthen America's middle class and make America stronger.
This is our time to do it.
We are making history in our positions. And let's make sure that we make it count.
So thank you so much for having me here. Thank you for being partners in this work.
And this is not the first, and it will not be the last time that we're in conversation, in partnership.
So thank you so much for everything you are doing.
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