Workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore.

Unions have been the best anti-poverty program that actually worked and did not cost the government a dime. But as unions grow smaller- not stronger- our ability to act as an economic mechanism to distribute the gains of our work and raise all workers' wages and benefits up is disappearing.

Wal-Mart is the sewer pipe through which good jobs are being flushed.

The union movement has been the best middle class job creating program that America has ever had, and it doesn't cost the government a dime.

The question is always 'What is the role of a labor movement?' How much is about collective bargaining, how much is about social change for all workers?

Manufacturing and other unskilled professions that were union jobs, that allowed people to live a middle-class life, are disappearing both because unions are disappearing and because of the global nature of the economy.

We can bring to earth a new world from the ashes of the old because our union transforms us the powerless into the powerful. And I ask you to join together in using all that power-all that strength to make the dreams of all workers and communities around the world come true.