State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

It is a distinct honor to address the membership of State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. To stand with the working men and women, who for over a century have been leading the fight for social justice and economic opportunity in our state. Speaking up for those without a voice. For construction workers denied decent and safe working conditions. For parents toiling full-time but still unable to afford health insurance for their kids. For millions of middle class families who owe their standard of living to this council's unstinting commitment to the prevailing wage.

But your contribution is much, much bigger than that. Those who understand the history of California know that the men and women of the building trades literally built this state. That your members created the very fabric of California's prosperity. The roads and infrastructure that support our commerce. The schools and universities that expand hope for millions. The aqueducts that bring water to our farms and our cities.

And even if the conservative idealogues won't acknowledge it, we know that California stands today as the wealthiest state in the richest nation on earth because of the sweat and labor and imagination of working people. And, yes, because of the labor movement itself.

Now, I understand that recent events in our state have been discouraging to some. The lingering disappointment from last year's bitter recall campaign. The prolonged budget crisis and the absence of creative leadership in confronting it. The jobless recovery led by a president who believes that the only way improve our economy is to grant ever more lavish tax cuts to those at the very top.

But, we can't afford to be discouraged, because we have enormous challenges in front of us. And let me say to you all that never before has the mission of the Building and Construction Trades Council been more relevant or more essential than it is today. Because who will be affected more profoundly by Governor Schwarzenegger's budget policies than the men and women who are building our state?

The question being put to us by the new governor is no less fundamental than whether we are going to take a wrecking ball to the very investments that will sustain our long-term wealth and strength.

Whether we will cripple this state's transportation system, as the governor proposes, by halting and delaying scores of new projects and suspending Proposition 42. A $2 billion raid on California's economic future.

Whether we will undermine the greatest public university system in America, dealing massive cuts to research and instruction while capping enrollment, cutting financial aid and raising college fees out of the reach of millions of California families.

Whether we will balance our budget on the backs of our children. Mortgaging their futures while cutting health care access to 100,000 kids through the state's Healthy Families program.

I think we all know-above all, the men and women of this union know-that this is not how you build a future.

Friends, it is time to stand up. And to stand together. But unfortunately, instead of leading the fight for our progressive values, I see too many in full retreat, bending to the politics of the moment rather than doing what is right for California.

That is not what I'm going to do!

What I'm going to do is stand up for our beliefs.

The belief in an economy-and society-that includes everybody, not just the privileged few.

The belief in an education system that embodies excellence, that gives true meaning to the promise of expanding opportunity.

The belief that all workers have a fundamental right to living wages and safe working conditions.

The belief that every child and every family in California ought to be able to see a doctor when they are sick.

And the belief that our most sacred obligation as Californians-as Americans-is to build a better future for generations to come.

We should always be proud that progressives and labor have led this country's greatest economic expansions. From FDR to Bill Clinton, we have consistently proven that when we invest in the future, when we expand opportunity, when we strengthen the middle class, our entire society prospers. And when we do these things, the people stand with us.

These basic values stand in stark contrast to the agenda now being advanced by Republican politicians from Sacramento to Washington. The constant din raised by Republican leaders about taxation, deregulation, and worker demands has obscured the insidious threat that their policies pose to the long-term strength of our society and our economy.

What has been lost in this din is a creeping, corrosive change in the very fabric and culture of our state and nation.

This nation's success-California's success-has always been based on a fervent belief that only by reinvesting back into society will we create sustained wealth for future generations.

But today, under Republican leadership, something very different is happening. Today the fundamental tenets of economic fairness and broad opportunity are under siege… Yes, under siege… As Republican politicians in this state and across the nation exalt excess and greed.

Think about it. At a time when the wealth in this country is concentrated as never before, in the wake of the greatest wave of corporate corruption since the crash of '29 - this president championed more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Throwing a life preserver to the captains of industry and an anchor to their drowning victims.

And now we see the same cynical philosophy that fueled, and then bankrupted Enron, driving Republican policies in Washington and Sacramento.

Like a CEO focused on cooking the next earnings report, the Republican politicians are attempting to shift the costs of their policies off balance sheet and into the future. Instead of cutting budget deficits, they are now talking about cutting Social Security.

While they preach about reducing government spending, they do just the opposite. Heaping enormous contracts on their friends and business associates while financing these excesses in an unprecedented orgy of public borrowing, leaving the next generation holding the bag, just like the workers and pensioners who got fleeced in the Enron debacle.

When California requests more money for schools or roads, the Republicans in Washington ask why we need it. But when Halliburton requests a multi-billion dollar contract, the Republicans ask whether they might not need more.

And when the Republicans in Washington tell Californians to fend for themselves, Governor Schwarzenegger calls President Bush "the greatest ally this golden state has."

I fear that the Bush approach is now at work in the new Schwarzenegger administration. In his first days in office, this governor deepened our budget hole by $4 billion. Sending the message that it is more important to cut taxes than to keep construction workers on the job.

Now he has unveiled a budget that slashes the very investments - in transportation, in our universities and colleges, in services for children, in decent health care - which build our wealth and our strength. Without rooting out the waste and fraud he promised to find. Without having the courage to close even one corporate tax loophole. Without asking even the wealthiest amongst us to sacrifice for the common good.

A blueprint for the state's future that is both morally and economically bankrupt.

Instead of asking what we can do for our children, Governor Schwarzenegger is asking what our children can do for us.

This is the time when we must stand up. Stand up and embrace a new vision…Yes, a new vision…for sustained, broad-based prosperity in which all Californians have a chance to participate.

Because right now the conservative idealogues are winning the argument. And they are winning it with the lie that you cannot have growth whose benefits are broadly shared. That paying a living wage and expanding the middle class comes at the expense of economic progress. That funding first class schools and universities is not possible in this society of abundant wealth.

Despite all of our successes, California still has the greatest gap between rich and poor of all but four states - a gap that widened during the last decade. It is unconscionable and it is unacceptable that one in five California children today lives in poverty. And that over six million Californians have no health insurance.

Let me repeat that. In the richest state in the wealthiest nation on earth, one in five children lives in poverty. Over six million Californians have no health insurance.

Our prison budget has soared from $400 million-a-year in the early 1980s to over $5 billion this year. We are spending billions of dollars on jail cells for the young adults whom we failed to educate-with every new prison a monument to our failure.

This, we cannot accept and we will not accept.

It is time for us to stand up against the assault on the principles and values that are our legacy and our guideposts to a brighter future.

Let us stand up.

This is our time for choosing.

We can stand by while this governor decimates the greatest public universities and colleges in the world - or we can stand up for a higher education system that builds opportunities for all children.

We can stand by will this governor cuts critical transportation funding - or we can stand up for investments that will ensure California's continued economic leadership.

We can stand by while this governor cuts healthcare for the children of working families - or we can stand up for universal healthcare.

And we can stand by while this governor protects the privileged few - or we can stand up for all those Californians struggling to support their families and to make ends meet.

Now, more than ever, we have to stand up for our beliefs. To engage Governor Schwarzenegger in a vigorous debate about the future of California. To lay out a vision of growth, progress, and opportunity that will win the hearts and minds of our fellow Californians.

Friends, it is time to dust ourselves off and stand up!

Stand up for our colleges and universities!

Stand up for transportation funding!

Stand up for prevailing wages and protections for workers!

Stand up for Senate Bill 2 and healthcare for all working Californians!

And stand up for the California Dream!

Let us stand up!

Thank you.