    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 17 (Monday, April 29, 1996)]
    [Pages 714-717]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks to the Service Employees International Union Convention

    April 24, 1996

        Thank you for that wonderful welcome, and thank you, Dick, for that
    fine introduction. I really enjoyed working with you, and I want to
    congratulate you on the many years of service you have given to your
    great union. I look forward to working with your new president, Andy
    Stern. I know he has also made a tremendous contribution as your
    organizing director, and I wish him every success.
        I want to also acknowledge your secretary-treasurer, Betty
    Bednarczyk, and my wonderful Secretary of Labor Bob Reich. I know that
    you enjoyed his speech, and I thank him for his work on your behalf.

    [[Page 715]]

        And finally, let me thank SEIU for one of its greatest gifts to
    America, John Sweeney. Because of John's leadership, and because of your
    commitment, labor is back. I know in this political season, some people
    aren't too happy about that, but I am delighted.
        I am proud that in 1996 the voice of organized labor, the voice of
    working men and women from all across our country, will be heard in our
    national debate. I welcome your voice. America needs to hear it. And I
    promise you this: You will be heard.
        You know, in a way, it's hard to believe that SEIU is celebrating
    its 75th anniversary, for you stand out as America's most dynamic and
    innovative union, a shining example of labor's revival. Not only has
    SEIU given renewed hope for millions of union members, you've also
    pioneered new ways to organize both workers in low-wage industries and
    workers in fast-growing industries like health care.
        Of course, we all know your contributions to America stretch far
    beyond collective bargaining. From civil rights and family and medical
    leave to the minimum wage and the fight to save Medicare and Medicaid,
    SEIU has been a leader in the struggle to achieve economic and social
    progress for all Americans.
        In many ways, we're on a shared mission. Four years ago our economy
    was drifting with high unemployment, a deficit twice as high as it is
    now, and very few new jobs. I took office determined to change our
    course, to cut the deficit in half in 4 years, to invest in education
    and training, to shrink and reform the Government so that it works
    better and costs less. Our Government is now the smallest it's been
    since 1965, but it's still strong enough to protect workplace safety,
    pure food, clean air and water, to help Americans to get the education
    and training they need, to help grow the economy and to protect our
    seniors through Medicare. And I'm proud of that strength. You helped to
    get it there, and you helped to keep it there, and I thank you very
    much.
        In 1992, I told the American people that if we carried out our
    economic plan, two things would happen, we'd get 8 million new jobs and
    the deficit would be cut in half. Well, just a couple of weeks ago, we
    learned that our economy has already created 8.5 million new jobs,
    nearly all of them in the private sector. And last month the
    Congressional Budget Office said that by the end of this year the
    deficit will be less than half of what it was when I took office. Over 8
    million new jobs, the deficit cut in half.
        Those are two important commitments you helped me keep to the
    American people. We also have the lowest combined rates of unemployment
    and inflation in 27 years. Our auto and telecommunications industries
    are now leading the world again. We have a 15-year high in
    homeownership, and we have finally halted the decade-long slide in real
    hourly earnings.
        But let's face it, we all know this is a record to be proud of, but
    to build on, not to sit on. Too many Americans still are working harder
    just to hold on. We have to do more. We have to continue to focus on the
    concerns of working Americans, the concerns they have about their own
    families' economic security at a time when the country is undergoing
    profound economic transformation, a transformation every bit as
    momentous as the shift from farms to factories a century ago.
        As I said in the State of the Union, one of the main challenges we
    face is to make sure that this new economy with all of its opportunity
    doesn't leave behind people who are willing to work for their own
    opportunities. We need to make sure that every American can be a winner
    in this time of economic change, to make sure that every American has
    access to education and training and good health care and secure
    pensions. And we absolutely have to get wages rising again in our
    country. We have got to do that for working people and working families.
        That's why I fought for the passage of the Family and Medical Leave
    Act. That's why we have dramatically expanded the earned-income tax
    credit, to give tax cuts to more than 15 million working families with
    incomes under $28,000. That's why just after I took office I swept away
    my predecessor's anti-worker, anti-union Executive orders. And that's
    why, with an Executive order of our own last spring, this administration
    said in no uncertain terms we will not allow companies who replace
    striking workers perma-

    [[Page 716]]

    nently to do business with our Government. I also want you to know that
    I directed the Justice Department to take all appropriate steps to
    overturn a recent court decision blocking that Executive order.
        Now unfortunately, for the past year you and I have been trying to
    work with a Congress that didn't always see eye to eye with us when it
    came to putting in place an agenda that would make the American dream
    accessible to all Americans. I'm proud to say that in these battles
    we've had with Congress we've more than held our own. Not only have we
    managed to stall or defeat practically every major attack on America's
    working families and on the unions that represent them, we may be poised
    on the verge of major victories.
        I challenged Congress to pass the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill, which
    would improve access to health care for 43 million Americans, so that
    you don't lose your health care when you change jobs, and you can't be
    denied coverage if someone in your family has been sick. Now Congress is
    finally moving forward with that important legislation. Yesterday it
    passed the Senate 100 to zero. That's the kind of thing we all ought to
    be doing more of for the American people.
        And I want to challenge the Senate and the House to get together and
    pass a good version, a clean version of that bill. Pass something that
    can pass 100-0 again in the Senate and 435-0 in the House. And when it
    does, that bill will be law the minute it hits my desk.
        I challenge the Congress to raise the minimum wage, which is on the
    verge of hitting a 40-year low. Now, you and I know that no one can
    raise a family on $4.25 an hour. So if we're going to talk about family
    values in Washington, we ought to reinforce them in the heartland of
    America. Last year, I proposed that Congress increase the minimum wage
    to $5.15 an hour. For a parent working full time, this 90-cent-an-hour
    increase would help pay for groceries for 7 months, for 4 months of rent
    or months of child care. Raising the minimum wage will help many of our
    hardest working people. Six out of 10 of them are working women, many
    trying to raise children and hold their families together.
        I'll say again: If we're going to have family values coming out of
    Washington, we should start by valuing families that are working hard,
    staying off welfare, doing their best to raise their children. They're
    living by the values we say we all believe in, and it's harder for them
    than it is for most of the rest of us. I say it's time to give them a
    hand up; they don't want a handout, just a hand up.
        Now Congress appears, at last, to be moving forward with a bill that
    would raise the minimum wage. They should do it, and they should do it
    without gimmicks. That's another bill I want to be the law of the land
    now. And I want to say a special word of thanks again to my friend John
    Sweeney for his hard work on this. The dignity of America's working
    people should be above reproach. If you work full time and you have
    children in your home, you should not live in poverty. We can afford
    this, and there's all the evidence in the world it will not cost us
    jobs.
        Let me say next, I hope Congress will start moving right now on my
    ``Retirement Saving and Security Act,'' which would expand coverage to
    help 51 million working Americans who are not now covered by an
    employer-provided retirement plan. The bill would also increase
    portability so workers can take their retirement savings with them and
    keep saving if they change jobs or lose their jobs.
        And finally, I urge Congress to come back to the table and work with
    me to pass the right kind of 7-year balanced budget. Now in all those
    hours of negotiations over the winter, congressional leaders and I have
    come up with plans that have in common more than enough savings to
    balance the budget, provide tax relief for working families, and protect
    our values by protecting Medicare and Medicaid and our investments in
    education and in the protection of our environment.
        We can make this a season of progress. We can get back to work and
    balance the budget in the right way, so we can bring interest rates down
    again, make homeownership more affordable, get investment in the economy
    and grow jobs, and still protect the things we believe in that keep us
    coming together as a country.

    [[Page 717]]

        But make no mistake: I will not stand for a budget that jeopardizes
    these bedrock commitments to Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the
    environment. And I will not accept legislation like the T-Max, which
    would repeal the ban against company unions, or legislation that weakens
    OSHA. We can't afford to jeopardize the future of working Americans by
    undermining the safety and the solidarity of the workplace, and if such
    legislation crosses my desk, I'll do what the Constitution entitles me
    to do: I'll veto it.
        You and your families and the millions and millions of working
    families just like you, you're the heart and soul of the American dream.
    We have to keep working together, not just to preserve what's been won,
    but to continue to fight for better jobs, stronger unions, higher wages,
    more justice, for things that will bring us together.
        I honestly believe the 21st century can be the next American
    Century. Our children and our grandchildren can enjoy more freedom and
    more opportunity than any generation of Americans, if we do the right
    thing. If we stand up to those who would take this country backward, if
    we stand up for the men and women who work hard every day to build our
    country, we can realize the promise of this great Nation.
        You know, there is a lot of talk in Washington about empowerment.
    Sometimes people in the other party mean giving people more choice but
    not caring much about whether they can exercise the choice. Well, we
    want empowerment, too. We want to make sure every person, every family,
    every community, has what it takes to make the most of their own lives
    and live up to their dreams. With your help, we will realize that goal.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke by satellite at 12 noon from Suite 520 of
    Media Technologies to the convention meeting in Chicago, IL. In his
    remarks, he referred to Richard Cordtz, interim president, Service
    Employees International Union, and John Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO.