Tim Westra 2020
April 30th, 2019
Henderson, Nevada
Another day, another meeting with labor. Today Tim was back in his strongest state of Nevada, following the SEIU conference he attended three days ago to discuss his economic vision. He had his sights on Velez making inroads with labor groups in the state. He intended to kill that.
He shook hands with the local AFL-CIO members and leaders, who were holding a weekly meeting today at their Henderson HQ. Tim was a keynote speaker. Nevada had the most robust unions out of any of the early states, and Tim intended to flex muscle among these groups. This was a state that Diane Clifford won in 2016, so he brought along his campaign manager Jameela Alam, who had contacts with many of these early state unions and thus gave him an edge out here.
He approached the podium to deliver his remarks.
"Folks, thanks for inviting me. Working people really do make the world go round. They built this podium, they built this stage, they built this room, they built this building, they built this entire damn city! You make the world go round, you really do. It's a fact that grounds me, it's a fact that I never forget."
"You know, there's a quote that I have framed in my New Jersey office. It's a quote I remember everyday, it stays at the front of my mind. It says, The only answer to organized greed is organized labor. It was uttered by the great Thomas Donahue, a revered leader of AFL-CIO in the roaring 20's."
"He lived in a time similar to ours. Opulence, luxury, excess - but only for some. Union membership was in rampant decline in no small part due to government prosecution of prominent unionists under the Espionage Act. The union busting from the 80's until today is largely in the same vein."
"And the billionaire class, they know which side they are on. They are afraid of the labor movement, the progressive movement. They own the media and write the narrative to paint us as radical socialists. They own the Congressmen on Capitol Hill who'd rather waste time on petty partisan divides than on delivering real reform for the working class. They own the the legislature and executive branch, and they write the trade deals and decide who gets tax breaks or not. And they own the judiciary, who refuse to break their monopolies up or prosecute them for their illegal activity in banking or marketing."
"We're not socialists! The average working person, the union man – he's no theoretical, Lenin-worshipping, Trotsky-adhering Marxist! That's laughable! We don't want more concentration of the economy! We just want a fair shot! Equal footing! Dignity! The pursuit of happiness, is that not the promise of America?"
"And yet there are still some, wolf in sheep's clothing, who beg for your support while holding up the rigged economy. There are people in this race who fundamentally believe that the profits of the multinational corporations and the dividends paid to shareholders in the 1% are more important than keeping American jobs!"
"For God's sake, we have a candidate in this race who claims to be for the working family, but whose biggest accomplishment during his time in the White House was to initiate negotiations to enter the disastrous Trans Pacific Partnership, which would have destroyed in excess of 2 million American jobs, more than half in manufacturing!"
"Had President Wolf not made the decision to pull out of this disastrous trade deal, American jobs would have been destroyed and wages would have been depressed. These kinds of trade deals have resulted in a $37 billion wage loss for the American worker, and some Democrats think we should double down! I don't know about you, but I don't think we are safe with a nominee that is worse on trade than this president! Imagine another death for the Democratic Party in the industrial Midwest with a candidate who was literally the architect of TPP!"
"Look, I have lived the American working class life. I know the pain experienced by an entire town, an entire people, when you lose a manufacturing plant, or a factory, or when your job moves overseas. My town, Freehold Borough, we had to deal with that. I was 8 years old, just like in Springsteen's 'My Hometown,' when the A & M Karagheusian plant closed down. That's the textile mill that the Boss was referring to in the song. It shook our entire community. Almost 1,700 people were left without work upon it's closing. My dad's friends, two of my uncles - they became destitute. Families were hungry. People got behind on rent, and were soon evicted."
"It's the same story in Flint, Michigan, or Janesville, Wisconsin, or Lordstown, Ohio. This is the story of the American working class. So, these trade deals, they're personal to me. This issue is personal to me. It's a big deal. And I made it my life's mission to oppose any systematic effort on behalf of the U.S. government to get involved in these job-destroying deals."
"I fought really hard against NAFTA as a Senate policy advisor. I was on the House floor in 2005, yelling at the top of my lungs against CAFTA. Some thought the group I was leading would succeed. In the end, it passed by a single vote."
"I am the only candidate to have released a plan specifically laying out how I want to deal with trade as president. Folks in this race, they're gonna keep claiming these trade deals benefit the economy. You guys know what's up. TPP, NAFTA, CAFTA - they only benefit the multinational corporations and their shareholders, a third of whom are foreign investors. Not American workers, who lose their jobs or see their wages go down."
"Unlike the insiders, I don’t think 'free trade' deals that benefit big multinational corporations and international capital at the expense of American workers are good simply because they open up markets. Trade is good when it helps American workers and families — when it doesn’t, we need to change our approach. And unlike Wolf, while I think tariffs are an important tool, they are not by themselves a long-term solution to our failed trade agenda and must be part of a broader strategy that this Administration clearly lacks."
"Our current approach to negotiating trade agreements works great for the wealthy and the well-connected. The negotiating text is kept confidential from all but a small set of advisory groups comprised mostly of corporate executives and industry trade group representatives. Once those corporate interests are finished whispering in the ears of our negotiators, the completed text is released. Then, under the expedited 'Fast Track' procedure Congress typically uses to approve trade agreements, our elected representatives must vote up or down on the agreement with no ability to propose and secure any changes to it. Meanwhile, the negotiators who constructed it often breeze through the revolving door to take jobs with the corporations whose interests underlie the deal."
"This a process overseen by U.S. Trade Representatives and Presidents of times past, and one I want to change. In a Westra Administration, we will negotiate and approve trade agreements through a transparent process that offers the public a genuine chance to shape it. We will make sure that trade negotiators will publicly disclose negotiating drafts and provide the public with an opportunity to comment. Trade advisory committees will prioritize the views of workers and consumers, and unions will have a seat at the negotiating table. The US International Trade Commission will provide a regional analysis of the economic effects of a trade agreement, so there will be no spin by the Washington insiders. And then, once that's all done, we will change the rules so that Congress has a chance to propose changes to these deals."
"I will also ensure that any trade deal we negotiate contains provisions to bar currency manipulation. Just eliminating currency manipulation in our international trade agreements would create 5.8 million jobs, with over 40% of that in manufacturing! I will fight for trade deals that prevent this malfeasant tool to kill American industry."
"My economic agenda is revolutionary on trade, but also domestically. We will give workers a say in the corporations that they hold up! We'll enforce laws that require corporations to share stock with workers, so workers become shareholders with a stake in the company. We'll require that 40% of corporate board seats are elected by employees. We'll enact first contract provisions to ensure companies cannot prevent a union from forming by denying a first contract. We'll create new rules so that unions can form through a simple majority sign up process, allowing the NLRB to certify a union if it receives the consent of the majority of eligible workers."
"This is pro-worker policy, an agenda that revolves around the working class. This is not airy talk about 'economic stewardship' or 'democratic socialism.' That means nothing to me. We need a concrete, detailed policy agenda to fight for workers in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Anything else is fluff."
"Folks, I strive to be a candidate that you can trust. My entire life has been about making political changes for workers. From creating the Blue Collar Caucus, to fighting against NAFTA and TPP, to writing Bahariacare, I have demonstrated that I can govern and create the coalition necessary to institute pro-worker reforms. I always say it, I'll say it again: fighting for workers in government is my life's work. And now, I hope to bring that labor lens to the top of the political system."
"Thank you, I would be humbled by your support, and may God bless our workers."
