NEW YORK CITY – United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today delivered remarks at the 41st Grand Lodge Convention of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). In her remarks, Ambassador Tai affirmed the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to a worker-centered trade policy that empowers unions and grows the middle class. Ambassador Tai also emphasized the need for trade policy that complements industrial policy to strengthen U.S. infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and technological strength.
Ambassador Tai’s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:
Thank you, Brian. It is wonderful to see you and to be here for the 41st Grand Lodge Convention. Thank you for inviting me.
I am stating the obvious, but Brian is a true champion, someone who has dedicated his career to fighting for workers. He is a worker, a shipbuilder by trade.
I am grateful for his leadership, and for the entire IAM team for their tireless work.
And of course, to all the Machinists here today from across North America—it is my honor to serve as your Trade Representative.
I don’t say this lightly: you are the engine of our economy—you make our country run. Not just efficiently but also safely. Thank you for all you are and all you do.
Thank you for sticking together. For persevering. For fighting the good fight, not just for yourselves, but for the common good.
I know it was earlier this week, but I want to say happy Labor Day to everyone.
The first Labor Day was celebrated right here in New York City, on September 5, 1882.
We know that IAM proudly claims one of your own as the founder of the Labor Day holiday—machinist Matthew Maguire.
He served as the secretary of Local 244 in Paterson, New Jersey, and there seems to be evidence that he started the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
So, it is fitting that we’re gathered here in New York City, 142 years after that first Labor Day celebration.
Back then, IAM started out with a small number of rail workers, determined to make a difference. Your membership grew over the years, and now, IAM is one of the biggest, most diverse, and most influential industrial trade unions across North America.
But your DNA hasn’t changed.
You still have that fight in you. To leave no one behind. To move forward, together.
You have so much to be proud of from your past, so much to honor, as the theme for this convention states. And you have so much to build and to hope for.
To build a tomorrow that’s better than yesterday.
Where dignity is not something you negotiate but is an unalienable right. Where fairness is not a cost of doing business but is the only way to do business. Where hope is not a distant abstraction but a present reality.
I am proud to stand as your partner. And I am proud to work for a President and Vice President that get this. People who have dedicated their political careers to fighting for workers.
As President Biden says, “unions built the middle class, and the middle class built America.”
And our Administration is the most pro-union, pro-worker administration in history, and we have the record to prove it.
We meet you where you are; we see you and we hear you.
Vice President Kamala Harris has done a tremendous job leading the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment.
USTR is a member of that task force, and I can tell you that under the Vice President’s leadership, we are doing everything we can to reduce barriers to worker organizing.
We’re a team of joyful warriors, and we’re fighting for you.
We’re fighting for the common good. To lift up hard-working people, not tear them down.
Our economy is more than just numbers. It is made of people, workers, and the communities they live in and support. So, our economic policies must work for them. To empower them. To equip them to succeed. Not just today, but also for future generations.
We’re building an economy that works for all working people. That has always been the foundation of the labor movement, and IAM and its members have been leading that good fight.
It can be too easy to talk about worker empowerment in the abstract. But our Administration knows that this has a real impact on real people.
The people who power our factories, build our planes and trains, make our clothes, and care for our sick. Only when we put them at the heart of what we do can we truly use our policies as a force for good.
So, when I say that I’m putting the “U.S.” back into USTR, I mean exactly that.
I’ve made it a priority to get out of the DC bubble and travel across the United States to meet workers where they are, to hear directly from them.
Like Brandon Bryant, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Oregon.
Brandon proudly represents District W24. He’s been an IAM member for 30 years, starting out in a sawmill in Tacoma, Washington.
His story was truly inspiring and showed me what it means to fight to improve working lives. He worked his way up, both at the sawmill and through the union. He dedicated his time to educate and empower IAM members to grow and become stronger.
He embodies the best of what America stands for.
Brandon is just one example of the dozens of proud workers I’ve met.
Whether it’s in Seattle, or Minneapolis, or anywhere else, the Machinists I’ve met have stood for the same cause—that working people matter.
These are the voices that have for too long been left out of the trade policymaking process. We are committed to changing that.
This is how we’re making trade policy now. If we want better results from our policies, and in particular our trade policies, we need better inputs.
Since day one, I’ve been committed to setting a bigger, more inclusive table.
It’s a metaphorical table, so it can be as big as we want it to be, and we do not run out of seats. As a result, your voices are now helping shape our work, in new and important ways.
We have to stop pitting Americans against Americans—workers against workers—with our trade policy. Where we mostly benefit big corporations and those that know their way around Washington.
That’s why we’ve been hard at work, flipping the narrative, where we’re using trade to lift you up, to empower you.
For example, under the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement, we have been bringing cases against specific facilities in Mexico that we think are violating workers’ rights.
We are holding corporations that offshore American jobs accountable, and we are changing real people’s lives for the better.
New independent unions and collective bargaining agreements. Better pay and safer working conditions. Reinstatement for workers who were wrongfully dismissed for lawful union activities.
Real change, affecting real people and their livelihoods, through a trade agreement.
This is how we are using trade to end the race-to-the-bottom.
This is the standard that we’re working to set in all of our trade policies.
I was in South Africa last year for a gathering of African trade ministers. It was one of the best international trade convenings I have ever participated in.
The strength of the relationship between the American and South African labor movements was clearly reflected in the format of the meetings.
Labor and civil society not only had a seat at the table, but they were celebrated and lifted up, as an integral part of the economic relationship between the United States and Africa.
When I hosted ministers from Asia in Detroit last May, we had a first-ever ministers session dedicated to labor issues.
Labor leaders like United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond spoke directly to trade ministers, so that our partners know that a worker-centered trade policy is not just rhetoric from the Administration, but is a policy we’re crafting with our labor leaders.
Your well-being is also a top priority in our ongoing work with Kenya, Taiwan, and Latin America, including through the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity.
Through all of this, we have made it clear to our trading partners that workers are at the heart of what we do. And it turns out that we all want to build our middle classes.
The question is how can we advance trade policies that allow us to build our middle classes together.
The key is in President Biden’s strategy on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally.
It harnesses the power of the U.S. government to use our trade and international policy tools to empower workers here and around the world.
This is important because the wealth of our nation is our workers.
Let me take a moment to focus on IAM and IAM members.
You make things and build things—things that make our country run.
You’re the engine that literally builds the engines!
You are such a critical part of our past, our present, and our future.
Over the years, our trade policy has contributed to our deindustrialization.
We lost the ability to make many important things. We lost jobs, we lost communities, and we lost critical parts of what makes us secure.
This is not okay, and that is why the Biden-Harris Administration is doing things fundamentally differently.
Instead of continuing an unsustainable status quo, we’re now actively investing in our infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and technological strength.
We’re investing in you.
Our job is to make sure our trade policy works hand-in-hand with our investments and our industrial strategies, and does not undermine them.
Our goal is to reinvigorate American manufacturing and create more good manufacturing jobs, because that’s important for bolstering economic security for working people, economic security for our country, and our national and international security.
This change won’t happen overnight. This work isn’t easy. Changing paradigms never is.
But we are confident that what we’re doing is the right thing.
Let me end with a story.
A man dies and appears before St. Peter at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter looks at him and says, “Before I can let you in, I need you to roll up your sleeves.”
The man is puzzled but does as he is asked. St. Peter examines the man’s arms and asks, “Where are your scars?” Still confused, the man answers, “I don’t have any scars.”
With tears in his eyes, St. Peter asks him, “Was nothing worth fighting for?”
All of you have fought the good fight. You have the scars to prove it.
We all stand for something. I choose to stand for you. And with you.
Know that I have your back. Joe Biden has your back. Kamala Harris has your back. We see you and hear you. And we’ll fight like hell for you. Because you are more than worth it.
Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your convention.
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