 Portuguese. So before we get the microphone. So before we continue I would like to announcement in Spanish but welcome, welcome, welcome. Entonces me gustaría hacer algunos comentarios en español and as you know as you said tonight, language is going on. Isn't that amazing? Talking about unity, right? Ok, entonces esta noche tenemos cinco idiomas pero para aquellas personas que les gustaría estar en español, escuchar en español por favor vayan a la parte de atrás de allá donde usted ven esos buenos, mosos, hombres y muchachas con la mano levantada por favor vayan hasta allá a conseguir su equipo. Todos los equipos en español esta noche necesitan estar en el canal noventa y cinco. Si usted tiene alguna dificultad organizando poniendo su canal por favor vaya a la parte de atrás y de allá atrás les va a ayudar a ustedes a poner en el canal noventa y cinco. What I said is 95 stories Spanish. If you see it someone is struggling please send them to the back. Another thing that I would like to say is and this is for a wonderful speakers. So today because we have so many different languages and we really really want to have language access tonight we are going to ask our wonderful speakers to do the following. To please speak slowly with full sentences. So if you see one of the interpreters going looking like a purple color and going like this that means they are going too fast. And also if you see someone going like this means that they can hear anything. So if you were so kind also to sort of elbow them a little like go up. So that's all I have. You know I'm so glad to be here tonight and enjoy this is going to be amazing. Thank you everybody. Give it up for our hardworking interpretation team and for all the union workers at the hotel and the AV and many people who are working tonight to make this possible. How's everyone feeling. My name's Alexandra Bradbury. I'm the editor of labor notes and it is my absolute joy to kick off the 2024 labor notes conference. The biggest one yet to get a sense of who we have in the room show of hands. How many of you have been to a labor notes conference before. Awesome. And how many are here for the very first time. Wonderful. Well you picked a good year to come. It is an exciting time in the labor movement. Two years ago in this room we heard from Starbucks baristas who believed they could force their employer into national bargaining. Well they did it. We also heard from UPS teamsters who were preparing a grassroots contract campaign to put an end to two tier wages. Well they did it. And we heard from auto workers who had just won the right to vote on their leadership and were building a movement to turn their union around and did they ever do it. All weekend you will hear from workers in just about every industry you can think of from auto to waffle house about what we're winning how we're winning and what we're still fighting for. And there is a lot to learn not only from the people on the platform but from everybody in this room just to get a sense of how much we have to learn from each other in this room. In the last two years who here has been on strike. Quite a few. Who's been part of a contract action team. Who's organized to form a union at your workplace. Who's taken some kind of direct action on the job. All right we love to see it. And who's been organizing to change your union from the better for then. Fantastic. The auto workers strike last fall was so successful that it has inspired non union auto workers to organize. And tonight at this very moment while we are in this hall they are counting the ballots in Chattanooga Tennessee to find out to find out whether Volkswagen workers at that plant are going to win their union. I hope we'll get a chance to celebrate that news later tonight. I bet the word is going to zip around at the various parties and activities. We're and we are really here this weekend to cheer each other on to learn from each other to borrow each other's best tricks and to build on each other's momentum and keep growing the fighting wing of the labor movement. We know we also have our differences and that's part of our strength to the variety of our perspectives adds up to a richer understanding. There are important disagreements even here in this room. But we know there's also a lot of common ground. You get the chance this weekend to meet people who you almost never get to meet. People from different industries. People from different parts of the country and different parts of the world. People with different experiences. But you know that everyone here is here for the same reason as you. They are part of the fighting wing of the labor movement. And we all have some work to do together. If we're going to build the power to change the world in all the ways that we all know that it needs to change. It's going to start with the people in this room. And the more we can listen to each other the more we can learn from each other the better shot we have. Did anyone here go to a rally yesterday for airport worker for airline flight attendants for Trader Joe's workers. This is a room full of people who know that solidarity isn't just something you talk about. Solidarity is something you do. And there are some very practical ways that you can show solidarity this weekend that I just want to touch on. One way is to wear a mask whenever you're not up the front of the room speaking or obviously eating. We're asking everyone to wear one throughout the conference. And that's because there are 4600 people here we're going to be packed in like sardines. And we do not want to spread COVID through this vital growing fighting wing of the labor movement just when it's finally gaining steam. A few other ways to show solidarity as the workshop rooms get crowded and we they will they are make sure you're not blocking the door so that people using wheelchairs can get through. Make sure that you leave seats near the door and near the very front for people with other kinds of disabilities who might need them. We want to welcome all of us here. If you're staying in a hotel leave a tip every day not just at the end those union housekeepers and all of us can show solidarity by refusing to tolerate harassment of any kind racism sexism transphobia anything like that. This year we have joined forces with the great labor arts exchange to weave music and arts throughout the conference as we felt as we marched in with the drumline today. We know our movements are teaming with creativity and too often it goes untapped. So for a quick preview of the arts exchange events I want to welcome up Kim and MacGyver Williams from the Labor Heritage Foundation. Thank you Alexandra. Good evening. I am Kim and Williams but please call me MacGyver. I am the treasurer of the Labor Heritage Foundation and so delighted to be here with you all this evening and this weekend. What you all do when you leave here matters so much the bargaining the debriefs with updated metrics and the new policy that needs to be reviewed all crucial but what happens beyond that work is so important and that's why I want to talk to you really quickly now. Art is not just how we tell our own stories but how we preserve those learnings for the future. Not everyone is built to read a 300 page thesis, read, comprehend, implement. We're just not going to do it. Some of us find our way into this movement through dance, through poetry, through digital art and through music. All of that is happening tonight. Us in this room we not only stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, we are the shoulders upon which the next generation will stand. The labor movement is alive. I know that by the people in this room you not only keep it alive but you allow it to thrive. At the Labor Heritage Foundation we know artists how we capture new hearts and change minds and we hope you'll support art that centers you so visit the labor heritage dot org and join us tonight for the arts and song contest. Thank you. I do want to mention one bittersweet thing about being together tonight and that is remembering people who would have been here, who should have been here with us, people we've lost since the last conference. Among them are Tim Scrummerhorn and Paul Bigman, two long time builders of labor notes and Dennis Soret, a founding member of the coalition of black trade unionists. I could name more people and I know all of you could too. We're also thinking tonight of Jane McAleby who has trained thousands of organizers including many of you who has entered hospice care and we hope she may be watching this video tonight. Jane, we want you to know we appreciate all your work, troublemaker to the end. And with that we're going to turn to this terrific lineup of speakers and performers here with me. All weekend you're going to hear from workers who are transforming their unions and building power from the bottom up as so many of us are doing. And that's what Chicago teachers were doing here at the labor notes conference 12 years ago when they were planning a strike against Mayor 1% Rahm Emanuel for the school. Exactly. For the schools Chicago students deserve. And one of those teachers was a high school history teacher here at the conference named Brandon Johnson. He first met the newly elected reformers in the Chicago teachers union in 2010 when a grievance staffer from the union visited his school and came back to say, I have just met the most remarkable person. Soon he was helping build the unions first organizing department, developing support in church pulpits and on the city council and persuasively explaining the union's vision to the press and the public. He always stood out for his talents as an organizer and communicator and for his legendary corny jokes which I hope we'll hear some from tonight. And last year with the backing of the Chicago teachers union voters chose him as mayor of Chicago. It is pretty rare, pretty rare we would have to agree to elect a mayor who comes from the fighting wing of the labor movement and it speaks to the power that teachers and workers in Chicago have built that they were able to defeat the candidates of the rich in this wealthy city and elect someone from our own ranks. Please welcome Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please be seated. I really appreciate you all reminded me of how my seventh grade students will greet me every single morning when I walked into the class. They would just cheer and yell. Mr. Johnson we read our homework last night. You can't wait for the discussion. So thank you so much. Thank you for much that introduction and thank you for the leadership that is in this room. Good evening. I am truly humbled to be the 57th mayor of the greatest freaking city in the world. The city of Chicago. And you know why I'm so excited is because a generation ago someone said something very powerful at a union meeting. And he said that if the labor rights movement and the civil rights movement were to ever collide what enormous potential we would have. And those words were uttered by one of the greatest organizers to walk the planet Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I don't think it's a coincidence that on April 4th as we dealt with the loss of that great leader. That it was on April 4th when the city of Chicago voted for the embodiment of that great potential. What are ancestors dreamed of? We are experiencing it today. Make no mistake about it. I'm so grateful that this is also a conference that I got a chance to hang out in 2012. You know as a union member, as an educator, as a labor activist, looking back in 2012, wearing my red, didn't have a regular schedule for a haircut, to be standing before you all today. In front of all of these, what they call y'all, us troublemakers, I can't help but think about my mentor, Karen Lewis. Let her soul, let her soul rest. It was a 2012 teacher strike where there was a company of educators, teachers assistants, draped in what we call CTU red. As the fight for education wasn't just simply about raises, it wasn't just about working conditions. Karen Lewis said that this fight is about the soul of public education. And so here we are 12 years later, as we struggle to make sure that the soul of public education is addressed, we have an even greater struggle. A struggle for the soul of Chicago. A struggle for the soul of this land. We're struggling against systemic racism in decades of neglect, discrimination, whether it's housing, healthcare, policing, pollution, struggle against the slander of Chicago. The right wing pundits who have made a mockery over our movement continue to use their bully pulpit to demonize us. And this first year certainly has been a struggle, but we have aggressively begin to address the wrongs of the past so that we can build a better future for everyone. We dare to struggle in this room, because if we don't dare to struggle, how can you say you're serious about winning? Daring to struggle allows us to believe to dare to win. And that's why I'm so grateful of what we've accomplished in this first year. I'm proud that we invested 80 million dollars into youth employment. We hired over 24,000 young people this past summer, a 20% increase, hiring 4,000 more to get to 28,000 young people with jobs, of which 64% of them are black, 97% black and brown. That's what this struggle is about. I am proud of the work that we have done around mental health. We are doubling our non-police response to mental health crisis and two administrations ago shut down mental health clinics. Well this year I'm opening up two of those mental health clinics that were closed two administrations ago. I am proud that the city of Chicago is the first major city to abolish the sub-minimum wage. That's my cousin. Labour knows God real black fast, didn't it? We know that the sub-minimum wage was a vestige of the slave system when black people even after the Civil War were forced to work for tips instead of actual wages. I'm also proud that the city of Chicago led the way the beginning of this year of passing a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and I'm so grateful that I got a chance to vote to break the time. Listen, the bedrock of the Labour Movement is in this room. We're going to build a better, stronger, safer economy for everyone because we believe that the value of everyone deserves to be invested in and despite the fact that there are many forces that are trying to divide us, make no mistake. There are individuals who have not accepted the results of the Civil War and they want to rematch desperately but the Labour Movement, the faith movement is well alive in this room and if we're going to transform our economy it starts with organizing. We got to go into black communities, brown communities, working class communities to bring this message that change is here and so whether you are a Starbucks worker, whether you work for the UAW, whether you are a teacher, whatever it is that you do, make sure that you are working to change and transform lives as we continue to build. Thank you all for this incredible work. Thank you Labour Notes. God bless you. God bless the greatest, freakest city in the world, the city of Chicago. So we're here tonight to build the power we need to make a better world. We're here to listen to one another, we're here to learn from one another, we're here to build the fighting wing of the Labour Movement and we have a great array of people here to talk about that. I think we have a lot of unity here in this room. I think we got a lot of agreement on that. Who is for a ceasefire in Palestine? Let's hear. Cease fire now. Cease fire now. We have to do that is rooted in our power as organized workers and that is a power that we have made tremendous strides in even in the last couple of years and that's what we're going to keep building this weekend and tonight. And I think the next speaker is well situated. So Amanda Rivera pours drinks at Starbucks in Atlanta. She's been at that Starbucks for 12 years. She's working part time with Starbucks workers united as well to help stores unionize across the south. Amanda led the unionization effort at her store. She joined in coordinated national strikes against Starbucks and she was even in a wildcat strike over safety. It was because workers like Amanda stuck together and kept ramping up and ramping up the pressure that last month they finally forced Starbucks to start bargaining a national contract. Amanda Rivera thank you so much. Just a second sorry. As I stand before you today I'm reminded of the many faces I've encountered while working and organizing Starbucks workers. The faces that reflect diversity. It's a diverse sorry. Well I'm a little nervous. This is my biggest crowd. And I has to say. As I stand before you today I'm reminded of the many faces I've encountered while working and organizing Starbucks workers. Faces that reflect the diverse tapestry of our communities. Faces that too often bear the weight of having to choose between paying bills, buying food or going to the doctor. Even if the pay isn't great at Starbucks. People come for what the company claims is industry leading benefits. Let's talk about those benefits. The simple fact is that your barista at Starbucks can't use those benefits. And what that really means is that they cut our hours we don't have enough to be eligible for benefits. You come to Starbucks for education they hang it over your head like it's a carrot. That you're always striving to get. Our health insurance it sounds great 20 hours a week you get health insurance. We can afford to pay the copays. We can afford for the lab fees can afford the medication. So we just don't go to the doctor. And that's not any way to live. It should be easy to get 20 hours a week at Starbucks except that they make it so they make us work severely understaffed to maximize their profits. Workers are getting one shift a week for five hours and then expected to cover shifts at other shops to make up the extra 15 hours that they need to get their benefits. What are we expected we are always expected to show up be polite and go above and beyond. But what stability is there that the company provides when we're expected to deliver these things but they don't give us what we need to be successful. And so when you come to Starbucks and you have a bad experience it's because of what the company puts their workers through. My own store has faced numerous unsafe work conditions. We've had break-ins. We've had broken security systems. There is no security guard when we have to get there at five o'clock in the morning. You know we end up being the police we end up being therapists. I am an expert at deescalating because it's to protect myself and my co-workers. Workers don't know what they're experiencing every day when they come into work. And at my store it all came to a contentious head when a customer one of our regulars had a medical emergency in the store. Myself and my co-workers called 911 and we followed the dispatcher's orders to help him. Management who showed up late for a shift they scheduled themselves. Told us that we shouldn't have helped the man. That it wasn't our responsibility and that we needed to return to work even though we had been something through something very traumatic. It was like taking a magnifying glass to our issues. The company wasn't going to help anyone not even our customer in our in their time of need. So as we're standing at our Starbucks looking at each other dumbfounded what are we going to do. We can't just let this happen. So we decide to distract our manager by telling all the regulars exactly what happened. While one of us goes into the employee bathroom to write a strike notice. Within 15 minutes we were out the door. Every single person that worked that day. We shut it down it was so wonderful. They they had nothing they could do. Our manager couldn't run the whole store by herself and that is something that she needed to realize. And it was scary. A lot of the workers have never done anything like that. You know we've gone on coordinated strikes. We're all working together. We know what we need to do. But to walk out because you're facing terrible like circumstances. That was not on my bingo card for that year. So a lot of sorry. All of this is not to say that I don't love my job. I do. I wouldn't have stated Starbucks for 12 years if I didn't. I met some of the best people in my life through Starbucks and for that I'm thankful. But here's the duality of the situation. I enjoy my job. But I also realize that it could be so much better. And stories like the ones I've told you are not unique. This kind of stuff happens all the time at Starbucks. And you know we're not just part time workers. We're not just college students. We're not just you know what the top like to say that unskilled labor. I don't think so. You try working Starbucks. Throughout this fight I've made so many friends and I'm reminded of one of them. A partner which is what Starbucks Carl's its employees partners from Jonesboro Georgia. He's been with the company 26 years. That's more than that's a longer time than some of the people have been alive that work with him. We filed for an election at the Jonesboro Georgia Starbucks. And within two days they fired the 26 year partner. And so all the workers had decided that they could not just stand by while the company illegally fires workers especially 10 year partners who are keeping their stores together. They stood together in Jonesboro and they said that they were not going to go back to work until they rehired Logan. And within less than 24 hours Logan got his job back. He got back pay. And he got an apology letter from Starbucks saying we didn't follow protocol we're very sorry. And so we showed 25 people that had never been involved with anything like this. We showed them what the what power they do have and that you don't have to sit by and take what the company gives you. We're seeing every day Starbucks partners embodying the spirit of resilience and determination that's fueled this movement. Our persistence is a testament to the courage it takes to speak truth to power to demand better for yourself and your colleagues and to envision a future where every worker is treated with dignity and the respect they deserve. Our coordinate coordinated efforts like that of Strike with Pride the Red Cup Rebellion have brought a multi-billion dollar company to the bargaining table. Not only that but they have they are reinstating workers that they have illegally fired. They are giving all union shops that they have withheld benefits those benefits and basically putting an end to their divide and punish tactics. I hope that all can draw strength from these stories as we embark on this new journey of labor organizing. Together we will write a new chapter in history for the labor movement. One that you know maybe Starbucks is the introduction to organized labor. You start at Starbucks and you end up working in unions for life. This doesn't mean that it just starts and stops at Starbucks you know. So I'm honored to be here to spend time with you and to build the future that we so desperately want. Thank you. The issue in Palestine is an issue of vital national labor importance. Can we agree? It is immensely important that we all be attentive to that and nobody should be arrested for speaking out on this issue for speaking their mind. Word has been passed to me that people had been arrested in the rally across the street and that they have now been released. Word has also been passed to me that with 500 votes counted at Volkswagen so far the workers and their union are 73 percent up. We're going to hear next from Brahim Kone. Brahim is secretary treasurer and staff director of service employees local 26 in the twin cities which organizes janitors and security workers. Most of them immigrants. He was born in Ivory Coast in West Africa and came to the US in 2001. Brahim says the discrimination and harassment in the workplace forced him to step up and become the voice of his fellow janitors. Not knowing at the time we had a union he said I know this country is a country of law and I know there has to be something out there that protects workers rights and that's something with SCIU local 26. He became a steward, a board member, a spokesperson for the janitors campaign and elected secretary treasurer. Brahim will tell us how his union and other twin cities local unions organize together to coordinate their contracts to expire at the same time, take strike votes, set common strike dates and set a collective deadline for employers to meet their demands. Please welcome Brahim Kone. Hello everyone. I cannot start this meeting without saying whether you're outside or in this room we all want the same thing so free Palestine. My name is Brahim Kone. I am the secretary treasurer of SCIU local 26. A union of 8,000 janitors, security officers, airport workers, window washer and more across the twin cities in Minnesota. I have been part of our union for over a decade starting as a member when I was a janitor as a steward and guy higher on staff and now secretary treasurer of our local alongside our president Greg Namakere is sitting here. Our union is majority woman, immigrant and people of color and I am proud to be here today representing our unions to talk about how our recent contract went and the week of action and the vision we have for the how we build a fighting labor movement to take on great corporations in the U.S. and to fight structural racism and sexism that we know is hurting the workers in this country. Over the last decades our union has always aligned our contract from different sectors so that almost all of our 8,000 members have their contract aligned and have the same expiration date between the same year. This year not only we had our workers as part of this fight but we engage other union and community groups for the week of actions around the question what could we win together. We brought together union leaders, educators from Minneapolis and St. Paul, nursing home workers with SCIU and UFCW, city workers with LIUNA, transit worker with ATU, non-union construction worker with SCIU, affordable housing and rental advocate from multiple community groups, environmental group that led frontline communities and more. We all agreed to support each other's fight but also to align our contract around four big issues. Dignified work, good schools, livable planets and affordable housing. We also named the big corporations who run our states and how we know they actually have the real power in our state. We brought together nearly 1,000 people in October for our day-long training and rally to align our fight and set march as a public deadline. It was a powerful day where we started not only talking about but seeing how our fights are connected. We also brought together core leaders in December to build skills because we knew each organization was in different place. Some of our groups are not used to striking. Some they do at a time. Having everybody on the same page is challenging and requires a lot of muscle building. We know between local 26 a line contract is a big deal because having 8,000 members in motion at the same time shows we are doing something big. We watch each other bargaining because we always have open bargaining. The workers see each other bargaining. They talk to each other. We also had our community groups come to our bargaining. We support each other as we got to point that we need to take strike vote and we come together as each contract big moments. In February we had nearly 15,000 workers who had authorized strike votes. That could happen at the same time getting a lot of media attention. We even did joint press events making crystal clear that we were all aligned in Minnesota. After contracts started to expire we got on Saturday, March 2nd, where hundreds of people, where thousands of people came together at a union hall to kick off our week of action. Even before anyone went on strike multiple groups won groundbreaking contract like they never seen before. Launa city workers won a 30 percent raise and Saint Paul educator won a strong new contract that includes salary raises, high employer contribution to health care, used language on copying school size public transit incentive for teacher and clean energy transition proposal. Our security officers and retail janitors saw their employer really feel our power and came to the table with the best contract our members ever seen. Right before our deadline I was at the bargaining table the lawyer for the company the janitorial companies said something I would never forget you are trying to stall because of your artificial deadline either way we know you are going to strike that is the practice of local 26 at least one day strike every time we bargain and we said maybe this time we will do three days how about that and we did and we won on Monday the fourth janitors with our union started three days UP strike that hit buildings across the metro making use waves on Tuesday we saw the largest nursing home strike in our state history when thousand of SCIU and UF members went on one day strike we made sure striking janitors and striking nursing home workers met at the Capitol and made some noise on Wednesday our janitor would clean the airport held a big march where hundred of people took the street and 15 people took a rest after blacking the traffic to show solidarity with the workers at the airport after that exciting actions we joined the community groups to call for green investment that prioritize the minority communities that face the worst of the climate crisis and ensures our green future mean good union job on Thursday we rally with non-union construction workers standing up to wage death and had a forum with renter rights group where we talk to county commissioner about the need for publicly owning the affordable housing on Friday we close out the week of action with a big rally at the Capitol with educator from multiple unions where we call for taxing the reach so we can fully fund schools as that was as that was happening janitor who had been on strike had a 20-hour session bargaining that ended with an amazing contract and won the raise from 1862 to $20 an hour with a fully employer paid retirement life insurance most sick days holidays lower healthcare and language to expand our union contract this week saw workers in the community closer and seeing our fights are connected we got local and national media attention we want more than ever we could have one if we wasn't together our union believe you can just talk to talk we know some people here may think this is something they would like to do but be scared on how to make it real as for local 26 as soon as another union our group engages idea with us to start get interested we share a big vision with them you are fighting a big fight the only way you will win is if you organize yourself that's how we came up with what we could win together i would stop there and i'll say thank you i'm running out of time being signal here so thank you brahim pretty impressive mariah parker who goes by the stage name lingua franca has been mixing hip-hop with politics for a long time but the song you're about to hear was their point of entry into the labor movement they wrote the song work spelled w u r k about the worker struggles they were watching and learning from in the early days of covid the music video made a splash in the labor movement and lingua franca was invited to perform the song for many unions meeting all those workers who were deep in the fight they realized this is what i want to do and became an organizer for the union of southern service workers now organizing with waffle house workers in georgia please welcome lingua franca three two six five the words if you do sing it with me a little bit i went side workers ship the boxes we swept our rain we mop and look chipper we're never talking we're in the shopping parts and solvent they clock in for a piffy city bucks bear the coffin the like sixty thrifty jugs get spit on like sitting ducks they are sick of it and not so you ever wanted to honor them here's my ass bargaining amazon and target and phoenix and wal-mart i'll get what we are to get workers run the company there isn't any argument so are you with them are you it's a point blow who need them i'm i said off in sejo a point blow who need them i'm i said off in sejo you want left side let me hear you say which side or you want let's try it on the right side let me hear you say which side or you want my people imagine a minute millions of average women and men in the tragic position of trade and impassion their wages and cash because they shackled by capitalism imagine a minute millions of average citizens planning the spittage waxing the kitchens sacking the linens contractors and renters and tenants they were extractive of pittance what if they coordinated to address the sort of state of it in an organization well guess what that's what organizer pretends they're not even sort of it's more of the cards taking the power from hoarders and bugs making us off more than they could returning the value of labor to those who create it but it is open to us so if you jaded in jelly by waking up early to earn the bag you sad about burning if you got a courier's your net how do we passly lurking at your back and we're happy to have you i don't know pick a line actively where could go which side keep it going keep it going keep it going keep it going El Pueblo Unido Amaceta Vencido El Pueblo Unido Amaceta Vencido El Pueblo Unido Amaceta Vencido Amaceta Vencido Amaceta Vencido which side which side oh which side are you on labor notes and make fridges for whirlpool many consider them the most radical industrial union of Italy which is europe's second most industrialized country members have struck and occupied factories to stop layoffs it built strong ties with unions in the us to fight the same companies and in the last few years they fought a new right wing government that is trying to slash workers rights by being part of a national general strike please welcome mckelay da palma Caricompagni Caricompagni Innansi tutto permettetemi di ringraziarvi sono molto felice ed orgoglioso di essere qui con voi l'internazionale delle lavoratrice dei lavoratori non può essere la nostralgia del passato o una speranza per il futuro ma una necessità del presente dear comrades first of all let me thank you i'm very happy and proud to be here with you the workers international cannot be a nostalgia for the past or something we hope for in the future it is a necessity in the present di fronte a noi il capitale e globale i fondi finanziari insieme alle multinationali decidono il nostro presente e il futuro senza e contro i lavoratori mai come ora chi è più ricco lo diventa sempre di più mai come ora gli stessi più ricchi inquinano di più il paese in front of us capital is global financial funds together with multinational corporation decide our present and our future without and against workers never before have the riches become so rich never before have the riches polluted the planet so much il capitale sta divorando la terra e l'umanità the capital is devouring hard hand humanity oggi un amministratore delegato di una grande banca fondo o azienda sempre avere più potere delle leadership politiche che governano i singoli paesi today a CEO of a large bank of an hedge fund or a big company seems to have more power than political leaders la guerra i nazionalismi servono a dividere mettere in concorrenze i lavoratori mentre la rendita aumenta per pochi ricchi meanwhile war and nationalism serve to divide and put workers in competition while income increase for a few rich people in questo panorama noi dobbiamo diventare globali internazionali in this panorama deliver movement must become global international e indispensabile scambiare informazioni sulle diverse situazioni e condizioni di lavoro a livello mondiale ma non basta dobbiamo agire insieme certo veniamo da paesi diversi ma abbiamo in comune un compito riprenderci la proprietà delle nostre vite it is essential to share information on different situation and condition of workers worldwide but this is not enough we must hug together yes we came from different countries but we have the same task to take back the ownership of our lives non dobbiamo lasciare indietro nessuno lo sfruttamento e lo stesso se sei un operaio in una linea di montaggio di auto a detroit o a mirafiori che è lo storico stabilimento fiat oggi stellantis nel nord italia infatti la scorsa settimana li abbiamo organizato un grande sciopero ed una manifestazione alla quale hanno partecipato più di 15 mila tra lavoratori e cittadini perché mentre l'amministratore è delegato guadagna quanto mille operai lo stabilimento rischia di chiudere noi vogliamo ottenere investimenti per la produzione del futuro come affatto la united automotive worker con gli scioperi lo scorso anno we must not leave anyone behind the exploitation is the same whether you are in a car assembly line in detroit or in mirafiori which is the historical plant of fiat nowadays stellantis in the north of italy last week in fact in that plan we organized a big strike and a demonstration of 50 000 workers and citizens while the CEO of stellantis earned the same average of 1000 blue collars workers salary the company is threatening us to shut down the plant we want to achieve investments for the future production like the uw did in the strikes of last year la fiamma è il più antico sindacato italiano il più grande dell'industria del nostro paese dall'informatica la sidirurgia i nostri membri costruiscono navi, treni, automobili, elettrodomestici macchinari di ogni tipo vengono esportati in tutto il mondo e sono uninti da un unico contratto nazionale di lavoro fion is the oldest italian trade union and the largest among industrial workers from information technologies to still making the built ships, train cars household appliances and machinery of all kind exported all over the world and are united by only one national collective agreement importante l'otta della united automotive worker con i tre contro i tre colossi dell'auto non l'abbiamo fatto solo per la curiosità e nemmeno per una generica solidarietà l'abbiamo fatto per un bisogno comune che non è rappresentato unicamente dall'avere anche noi in qualche problemino con stellantis che sta dismettendo gli stabilimenti italiani riducendo le produzioni all'occupazione siamo venuti qui per partecipare ad una lotta che sentivamo nostra e che non è che sono riassumibili in una semplice parola dignità a few months ago we came to this country to learn about and support as much as we could the u.s. important fight against the three automotive giants we didn't do it just out of curiosity and not even just out generic solidarity we did it out of a common need which is not only represented by the fact that we also have some little problems with stellantis which is the best in its italian plans reducing production and employment we came here to participate in a struggle that we felt was ours and which can be summed up in one simple word dignity in short to regain human dignity for workers a fight that they won participate in your pickets listen to your words for us it was a lesson from which we learned a lot and from which a pact was born we need the one of the others the one that will help the others and vice versa we learn a lot from participating in your pickets and listening to your words and from there a pact was born we need each other we will help each other and this is the international dimension that we have to conquer at all levels in the syndical warnings against the great multinational in which our writers and our workers are scattered but also on the great social issues that today put the world at risk from the environmental devastation to the war to the need to guarantee the rights of millions of immigrants that go through seas and deserts to seek a dignified existence this is the international dimension of our movement that we must regain at all level in trade union disputes against large multinationals in which our members of workers are scattered but also in the major social issues that today put the civilization of the world at risk from environmental devastation to wars to the needs to guarantee the rights of millions of immigrants crossing seas and deserts to seek a dignified existence I think about all this and immediately they appear in front of me the political representatives with whom I would do the math and what I see does not console me in our country as in yours I think that all this and the question of politics immediately appears before me and what I see does not console me nor in our country not in yours we have a government led by a leader, Giorgia Meloni that evokes sad fantasies of our history and that today practice social and economic choices of classes that penalize the dependent work favor the precariousness stimulate individual competition discriminate the immigrants many of these aspects our premier evokes someone that you know very well Donald Trump on whom I do not want to say anything because you know it much better than me in Italy we have a government directed by leader Giorgia Meloni who evokes sad ghosts of our history and who today carries out policies that penalize workers encourage precariousness stimulate individual competition discriminate against immigrants that does not disdain the war to the point of wanting to change our constitution in many of these aspects our prime minister evokes someone that you know very well Donald Trump who I do not want to say anything about because you know him better than me nobody will come to save us Elon Musk is one of the richest men on the planet and thinks of abandoning the earth and flying on Mars nobody will come to save us Elon Musk one of the richest men on the planet is thinking of living hurt and flying to Mars we are our work it says who with our work build a society in which we live in let's stand up let's walk together workers united are the future of the earth and of the humanity thank you very much that was fantastic and inspiring was it not and last Angela was a fourth grade Spanish immersion teacher in Portland, Oregon until 2022 she'd only been a teacher in Portland for six years when she ran for president on a rank and file slate that won making her the first black Latina, openly queer and openly disabled president of the Portland Association of Teachers and the next year last fall she helped lead her local 15 day strike which is a very long strike for a teacher union that was like a month out of school her first labor notes conference was right after she was elected in 2022 and she says that conference completely changed her mind around about what it was possible to achieve and that's why we're here Angela Bonilla hello you know none of us are free until all of us are free so free Palestine hello labor notes when I say union you say strong union union alright so special shout out to our educators that are out here today and also a special shout out to our PAT comrades we came in heavy so who are we that's right so this past fall my comrades and I we led a PAT through our first ever strike in Portland public schools the largest district in the state of Oregon our union previously had voted three different times to strike in the last 30 years after the first vote in the aughts we settled at the 11th hour and ended up with a 1% COLA each year and worked 10 days unpaid after the second vote in the 2010's we settled in the 11th hour and earned about 2.5% COLA each year last year after our third strike vote we struck for 15 days and earned a 13.75% COLA over three years we strengthened our health and safety language with a commitment of 20 million dollars from the district to upgrade our dilapidated buildings we increased protections for special education students and educators and increased supports for students in crisis and we got that increased planning time so I'm here to tell you that strikes work did we get here how do we go from a union whose leaders regularly went out to drinks with our district leadership to one whose leaders spoke truth to power publicly and privately how did we move from a union with a dozen or so folks carrying all the work to one in which we had 3500 educators and community members across 90 sites each day for 15 days because we did have a strong strike ready campaign in 2014 and it energized our members and our communities but that power waned and we didn't have our members as engaged as they had been but that changed when PAT started open bargaining by live streaming our bargaining sessions on YouTube during the COVID closures thousands of educators saw how the sausage was made and it motivated many of us I had done work for the union's contract hotline before but I felt compelled to work on bargaining after watching those sessions so during COVID we actually successfully fought back against an attempt to institute acceleration schools which is just one of those typical union busting approaches cutting up seniority rights creating a merit based placement process for our educators and what our bargaining team did was lean into the vision of the schools that our Portland students deserve and we demanded arts and music for every school small class sizes food pantries clothing closets and just demanding that at the bargaining table activated our members so for weeks after I received emails I had comments from members saying that it was just empowering to imagine that we could have great public schools for every Portland student so I decided to run for president having never held an officer position in our union but firm that we needed to lead our union with a vision of what is possible and stop fighting for scraps I was supported by the rank and file educators who held the line for years within our union and we ran a slate of executive board and top positions and in February 2022 we were all elected and as Al said two years ago I came to labor notes for the first time wanting to learn as much as I could before I started my office in July and at that Friday plenary I was standing back there with a crew of PAT members and we got to hear Senator Sanders and Chris Smalls from the Amazon Labor Union we heard from Starbucks workers we've heard from Teamsters and it was electric and I felt for the first time what solidarity actually feels like so when we got back to Portland we got to work we took every opportunity we could to democratize our union and get more members involved I've always told my fourth grade students that I'm pretty smart but I'm never going to be as smart as all of us working together in the room and I take that ethos into my union work the more voices the better the decisions we make will be so we did that we doubled the number of committee chairs and increased our participation in our committees we focused on bringing joy back into our union work remembering we are building the world we want through every action every day our member leaders organized regional picnics PAT declared the summer of 2023 our hot labor summer we promoted events in our communities centered around unions community organizations, parents and students we did a hard reset of our expectations for our stewards and moved from a top down organizing structure with limited representatives to a contract action team that anyone could join we fought hard to democratize while some of our old timers worked hard behind the scenes to undermine us through whisper campaigns white noise but you can't undermine the will of the rank and file members because that is where our power lives so we kept working we trained our stewards and our educators on our contracts, on racial justice in the union, on labor history we cut contractors who didn't follow up through on promised work and started working with folks like Sandra Lane from bargaining for the common good shout out we hired a member of our union as our community organizer held community listening sessions and educated parents about bargaining for the common good and how that won community schools for Chicago and Los Angeles we held a strike school leading up to our strike we were training educators to organize parents how to talk to the media, how to run a picket line we tried to give our members as many tools as possible so that they could lead each other because we never want to do for folks what they can do for themselves but all of this always came back to that larger vision that we could have great public schools for all so every action we made sure to ask is this going to help us win is this going to educate our members or the public is this going to build our power and that ensured that we kept our eyes on the prize and after all of that work our educators voted 99% to strike we went on strike on November 1st, 2023 educators and the parents and students who love and support them showed up by the thousands at our picket lines we saw literal rats running out of our buildings as we started chanting hot, cold, rats, mold rats, mold this is getting really old we saw thousands at our citywide rallies people cheering for each other and jeering at the district leadership and our superintendent chanting oye, guerrero donde esta el dinero oye, guerrero donde esta el dinero folks felt solidarity and power some for the first time ever and after 15 days of nonstop bargaining we won a historic contract one where we were able to acknowledge and enshrine the rights of groups of educators, students and families that had been constantly forgotten we had a union that finally listened to and supported our black and brown educators our special education teachers our counselors, our social workers we added language from the individuals with Disabilities Education Act to our contract so we can support our families without the resources to advocate against a huge district and now we're seeing the Portland effects impact other teacher locals in Oregon members are winning similar colas because bosses fear another Portland happening in their town so our journey to reclaim our union isn't over our union is building that democratic vision of public education in our union electing bargaining committee members and preparing for our school board races our members have reclaimed their power and all of this happened 20 months after being elected and only 18 months after attending labor notes so in case someone tried to dissuade you from that idea jump starting your union is possible solidarity makes anything possible so after you take as much in as you can here at labor notes and go back to your workplaces remember we have to trade that fear of scarcity for a love of justice we can continue to believe the lie that we have to keep fighting each other for scraps or we can demand the fruits of our labor and to share those fruits with everyone that we can demand the things we need now not later in the budget cycle not next election now because we deserve it we have to treat rest as sacred and an act of resistance we cannot mirror the systems we are attempting to dismantle as we dismantle them remember being forced to be exhausted is the point that way you can't fight back that's why educators get paid 40 hours and work 60 that's why the hardest working people that get paid the least refuse to accept holy martyrdom and destroying yourself in this fight so I know my time is up so I'm going to wrap it up you know the pandemic as much as it took away it gave us an opportunity it gave us an opportunity to imagine a different world and recognize that when the powers that be want to make a change they can do it at the drop of a dime right so anything can change if we demand it if it's necessary if we make it necessary and I think the beautiful thing about unions is that we come together we hold each other we support each other and that we know we're fighting for something bigger than ourselves and in that work we're reminded that each human and all work has dignity and value and should be treated as the divine when we do that we honor that by making sure that rest is part of our practice of resistance by making sure that we fight for justice and not just against oppression for each other not just for ourselves because anything is possible we just have to make it do because when we fight thank you that is what it is all about Angela's story is why we are here learning from each other teaching each other helping each other get smarter and stronger and fight harder and fight bolder it's not just an organization it's a thing that we are building together this weekend by all of the work that you are doing who here has done a volunteer shift or is planning to do a volunteer shift this weekend thank you 600 people are doing volunteer this weekend who is speaking in a workshop or a panel thank you anyone signed up today as a monthly pleasure I see a few hands they get a really cool t-shirt you should check it out by the merch table and that is part of how we keep the conference affordable how we keep doing this not only this weekend but all year with workshops online like secrets of a successful organizer and what to do when your union breaks your heart how we stay in touch and we keep building this so what's next I hope you are not tired because you have coming up so many great options tonight you can check out the great labor arts exchange from hip hop and drag contest which is on this level over by the elevators it is going to be amazing right next to that you can party with two of the leading movements for union reform and democracy the team search for democratic union and unite all workers for democracy there are several other receptions and parties too they are all listed in your program and down on the lower level is a special preview screening of the new film about the amazon labor union which just debuted at sundance how do you pick have some fun meet some great people and be sure you get a little sleep because we will be right back here at 9am tomorrow