Ed ott at the ILCA

http://ilcaonline.org/content/keynote-address-ilca-awards-2010

Monday, December 6, 2010

ED OTT
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
2010 ILCA AWARDS LUNCHEON

November 19, 2010

(Transcript from video by Howard Kling)

GARY SCHOICHET (ILCA VICE PRESIDENT): I’m here to introduce Ed Ott, our Keynote Speaker.
He’s a worker, an organizer, a teacher, an AFT member, political director, former
Executive Director of the New York City Central Labor Council, who, seeing the
future, championed the unaffiliated unions of taxi drivers, restaurant workers, and
domestic workers, all headed by young and incredibly smart women, and brought
them into the New York City Central Labor Council.

Sisters and brothers. Put away your phones, stop texting, pay attention to 40 years
in labor movement: Ed Ott.

(Clapping)

ED OTT: I’m really embarrassed by introductions so he agreed to keep it short. Um.
It’s actually a long one. The one l like is I’ve been in the labor movement for over 40
years.

Good afternoon.

(Good afternoon)

I’m very honored to be here. This is an organization that I have known about,
engaged individuals in it over the years, but I just want to acknowledge something
because I don’t think it gets talked about enough. And it certainly wasn’t talked
about enough in my time at the Central Labor Council. You guys are the, a huge,
huge piece of the intellectual capital of the labor movement. And it needs to be put
out front more, as we craft message, as we engage outside forces. Um, you need to
be part of that.

But I just wanted to acknowledge your good work. Even at times when I disagree
with some of you about this or that, you’re a key component. But the intellectual
capital of this movement is not respected enough. It’s been lost somewhere and we
need to get back to that.

That being said I’ve been asked to come here today to talk about a few things
and people wanted me to talk about some of the work we’ve done with domestic

workers and others, and folks wanted to me to also talk about what’s going on with
the public sector, I see them as very much related.

But I would be remiss if I came to Washington DC and didn’t say something about
politics. I would feel like going to church without praying.

(Laugh)

So, let me just say this. On the way down here I was trying to think of some
philosopher, union leader, politician, that said something profound that could
describe the labor movement’s relationship with the Democratic Party.
(Laugh)

So what I came up with – and some of you are going to have to go back and find this
song on your computer – there’s a pop singer named Duffy. She has a song called
Mercy. It’s basically about a young woman whose lover is married. a\ And he has
got her under control. And it’s against her morals, but he has her misbehavin’. She
knows better.

He wants something on the side. And she wants to been seen in public holding his
hand.

(Laugh)

And I kinda think that that kinda gets at it with us and the Democrats.

(Laugh and clap)

They don’t want to be seen in public with us holding hands.

We’re in the hole we’re in folks – and it’s a political hole, it’s an economic hole.
For the working people of this country, this is probably a, to use an abused word,
challenging moment. But they’re in that hole because the Democratic Congress
never in my lifetime does what they say they’re going to do! And we have to figure
this one out.

We’re in a situation where we have so many people who are disconnected from
possibility that it is on the brink of social dynamite. Huge swaths of this country
have lost everything that defines their culture.

Our own U.S. Capitol has played a seditious role in our economy. They have used
their political power to rig the tax laws to shift the wealth disproportionately to
the top, and they used that same power to break the back of organized labor in the

private sector by the wholesale export of our industries. If we ran down the street
and someone grabbed our wallet, we would be screaming for the police. They stole
our entire livelihoods; they stole entire communities; they stole everything that
defined generations of hard work. And they walk around now within blocks of this
building, prepared to tell us how we’re going to live for a generation.

The question before the house, whether you’re AFL-CIO, whether you’re Change to
Win, whether you’re independent; the question before the house of labor is where
do we go from here, and what are we going to do about it? Every union organizer is
taught from day one: play the cards you’re dealt. We’ve got a bad hand.

(Yep)

FULL story at link.