Triangle Labor Council Pres. to Occupy Durham, "We are with you!"

Remarks by Michael Gravinese, Oct. 16, 2011

I am Michael Gravinese, President of the Triangle Labor Council AFL-CIO. I bring you greetings from the NC AFL-CIO and its member unions.

Like our national AFL-CIO president, Rich Trumka, I applaud you on capturing the imagination and passion of millions of Americans who have lost hope that our nation's policymakers are speaking for them. I commend you on your courage to stand up and demand a better America.

But you may ask why am I here and the answer is a simple one.

Because we are with you!

Let me say that again; labor is with you!

We too are the 99 percent.

We too want a more equitable society.

We too are tired of the staggering wealth gap.

We too want Wall Street and the banks held accountable.

We too are sickened by the bailout of Wall Street and the foreclosures onMain Street.

We too are fed up with the corruption of our political processes by financial and business elites.

What do we want?

That isn’t hard.  We want jobs, jobs, and more jobs. Americawants to work.

We also call on corporations, big banks, and the financial industry to do their part to create good jobs, stop foreclosures, and pay their fair share of taxes.

And ultimately we want a society where there is fair opportunity for all and everyone pulls their weight.

Washington and Raleigh, are you listening? We are not going to go away.

This is our time; time for the majority, the 99%, who have played by the rules but haven’t gotten a fair shake; time for us to be heard.

I leave you with a quote from FDR. “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”