Ladies and gentlemen…brothers and sisters…I am honored and pleased to be with you today in the Lone Star State.

I read in the paper recently that due to the popularity of the Survivor shows, Texas is planning to do its own… It’s going to be called “Survivor - Texas Style.”

The contestants will start in Dallas…travel to Waco, Austin, San Antonio…then over to Houston and down to Brownsville.
 
They will then proceed up to Del Rio…on to El Paso, then to Midland, Odessa, Lubbock and Amarillo.

From there, they'll proceed to Abilene, Ft. Worth and finally back to Dallas.

Each will be driving a pink Volvo with bumper stickers that read…"I'm gay"…"I'm a vegetarian"…"I voted for Barack Obama"…"George Strait Sucks"…and "I'm here to confiscate your guns!"

The first one to make it back to Dallas alive wins!

My friends, there is an old saying that goes like this: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  You hear this phrase a lot in the world of sports…because athletes who compete at the highest levels must prepare themselves for that one brief moment of opportunity. 

Think for a moment about the Olympic track and field athlete who prepares him or herself through an intense training regimen. This athlete trains for several hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week, over the course of several years. And they do it in order to be as prepared as possible for the opportunity to succeed for a brief shining moment at the Olympics.

Well, Brothers and Sisters…our Olympic games are now upon us. 

And we need to embrace the ideal that luck is success that is bred through the marriage of preparation and opportunity. Because right now, if we have the will and the discipline and desire, just like that Olympic athlete, we can start to generate a lot of luck for ourselves.

I cannot over-emphasize the extent to which there has been an immense shift in the prevailing attitudes in Washington, DC. The White House and the Congress and many federal agencies are not only listening to us they are actually acting on what we have to say.

President Obama and the US Congress are now looking to us. to our unions and our training programs, to help craft the solutions for long-term sustained economic investment and growth.

Whether it’s the issue of economic stimulus, or America’s clean energy future; or the resurgence of our nuclear power generation industry; or any number of other issues where we have been consulted; the Obama Administration recognizes that there is a great added value associated with the union construction industry, and this value is built upon pride, performance, and professionalism…

And in putting value on display…every day for owners, for contractors, and for the communities in which we live and work.

What’s truly refreshing is that President Obama understands that the key to American economic success is not in generating speculative economic “bubbles” that enrich Wall Street investment banks.

We have endured several of those in the last twenty years and they have always - always ended badly for America’s working families.

President Obama understands that our nation needs a new approach. An approach where sustained economic success will be achieved through investments in our physical infrastructure; in the technologies of the future – such as clean energy; and with investments in human capital.

An approach where all Americans with the desire and discipline to change their lives will have the opportunity to make a difference in our collective future.

That, brothers and sisters, is what our unions, and our industry, have always believed.

We know full well that America works best…when we bring about the best in America!

So, as I stand before you today, you should know that opportunity has finally come knocking on our door. But for us to create our own good luck, we have to make sure we are prepared.

And what I mean by that is that until we – all of us – have done what is necessary to rid ourselves once and for all of the damaging stereotypes and misperceptions that people have of us and our unions the paradigm doesn’t change.

I’m talking about the stereotypes and misperceptions that were the direct result of a counter-productive business model.

However, if each one of you makes the conscious decision to join with me and the General Presidents of our 13 national and international unions to systematically re-vitalize the union construction industry brand then good luck and opportunity will find us!

And when that happens, we will be well on our way to destroying those negative perceptions and stereotypes that have worked to prevent us from achieving our true potential.

So, the question we must ask ourselves is this: Have we done the best we can to dedicate and prepare ourselves mentally, physically, educationally, and spiritually for this challenge?

Think about it for a moment.

How many times over the last 30 or 40 years, have we blamed our failures on something, or someone else?  When the truth is we really have not done what was required of us to prepare ourselves and our organizations for the opportunity to succeed?

Far too often, we have placed limits on what we thought we could achieve.  Seriously, how many times have you said, or heard someone else say, “We can’t do that because that’s not how we have done things before?”
 
And how many times have visionary and innovative ideas found their way to the dustbin of history simply because they were outside of someone’s comfort zone?

No more.

Not if you want to survive – or if you believe what we have inherited from those before us is worth passing on.

We need new, innovative thinking that subscribes to our new mantra of providing “Value on Display. Every Day.”

And let me offer another angle to this, while I am at it.

Because it speaks to the preparation that is needed for us to meet opportunity and start creating some of our own good luck.

Brothers and sisters, the time has come for us to rediscover the inherent values of friendship, loyalty and a strong belief in one another.  We live in an increasingly complicated world.  For our unions and our industry, we are in the midst of making some major strategic decisions on how we want people to perceive us; how we intend to increase market share; and how we intend to accomplish our mission.

I know, it sounds like the same old story.

Someone comes in from Washington or from your international union with a glorious plan on how to save your ass, and many times they are good plans.

Then they leave town in their pink Volvo – just kidding.

The reality is that your future rests in your hands.

Not mine.

And not the person to your right or your left.

You, and only you, must decide if you are going to take responsibility for the continuation and growth of our great institutions, and your councils and local unions.  You must decide if you are going to step outside the box and try every potential means that will make you a value-added proposition.

You take that step and you’ll start to see a difference.

At the top, we are making strategic decisions that involve extensive dialogue with other union leaders and most importantly with the rank and file.

And with experts who reside outside our unions.

But, as valuable as all of those discussions are, our success really boils down to these three simple truths:

Developing friendship, loyalty, and a belief in one another.

In any business or organization, especially one like ours, personal relationships form the backbone of everything we do.  If we cannot cultivate friendships with the people we work with and the customers we work for…or want to work for…then we are truly going to have a tough time in re-capturing market share for the union construction industry.

Likewise, if we cannot inspire confidence and loyalty among the members we represent and the customers for whom we serve, then we are doomed to a future of marginalization and irrelevancy.

Instead, we have no other choice but to seek to re-define ourselves and re-define our strategic approach for taking back market share.  We must create a new business model that owners, government and contractors recognize as the model that makes sense.

Instead of simply dividing up markets and competing with our open-shop competitors like we are accustomed to, we should strive to create a newly-energized and robust demand for the products and services that we have to offer and the values that we represent.

In other words, we have no other choice but to re-position ourselves and create an entirely new market approach that is based upon value and a business model that is unique in our industry.

This will enable us to break entirely free of our competition and their outdated, socially-unacceptable business model.

The end result will be the creation of new, uncontested market space for the union construction industry.

So, let me be clear on this point.

For us to win this battle once and for all, we must stop competing directly with, and against, the open shop.

Because…and I want you to think about this long and hard…the only way to beat the open shop is to stop trying to beat the open shop.

Let me repeat that.  The only way to beat the open shop is to stop trying to beat the open shop.

Our intent is to expand the notion of what is important and what is possible in our industry…and in our society. To show owners and contractors, and government officials and community leaders that our unions are creating new and untapped market space that is defined by a  business model that represents all that is good about America.

It is a business model that is based upon...Quality, Skill, Pride, Performance, Professionalism, Integrity, Value, and Community Partnerships.

By further developing this new market space, we will open up a brand new way to showcase the irrelevancy of the open-shop.  We will, and we must, make it economically and socially unacceptable to conduct business with their outmoded business model that they have held us at bay with for far too long.

The open-shop model is predicated upon a race to the bottom, and defined by their determination to assemble the cheapest, and often times the most exploitable and undocumented, workforce they can.

Brothers and sisters, for the last 22 months America’s Building Trades Unions have been creating new markets, new opportunities and new perceptions. It’s working for those that have embraced change.

It will be the culmination of these efforts that will allow us to make new friends, inspire loyalty and foster a strong belief in what we do and what we represent.  And that is why the Building Trades Department is mounting an aggressive effort to tell this new story.

In fact, we have launched one new website, which will showcase the success stories we are having on the job, www.valueondisplay.com.

We are in the process of developing two more web sites.  One called www.AUnionLife.com, is designed to tell the personal stories of our members and how being a members of our unions has made such a difference in their lives and the lives of their families.  If used properly this can be an effective organizing tool.

Finally, we are working on a website devoted to telling the real truth about Community Workforce Agreements.

We will keep you abreast of these developments as they occur.

So, that is where we are on the “preparation” side of the ledger.  Now, allow me a few moments to detail a few of these opportunities that await us.

First, the Building and Construction Trades Department is committed to developing industry-based partnerships.  Many industries today, including the nuclear and oil and gas industries and conventional power generation, to name just three, are understandably worried.  They now find themselves faced with a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress who are not necessarily in tune with their objectives and their agendas.

So, they need friends.  And we seem to be making a lot of friends lately.  We have worked closely with the Nuclear Energy Institute to ensure that federal loan guarantees for the construction of a new generation of nuclear facilities are supported by the Congress.

And we have just recently created a new labor-management committee with the Oil and Natural Gas Industry for the expressed purpose of helping them educate policymakers on the importance of developing domestic sources of energy.  And we also need to expand our refinery capacity and delivery systems, such as natural gas pipelines.

The Department has developed a relationship with the Edison Electric Institute and we have helped protect their interests in the climate bill.

Further, we have developed partnerships with some of the more moderate environmental groups to help shape policies relating to global climate change.

We worked closely with the League of Conservation Voters on the American Clean Energy Security Act. It just passed the House of Representatives a few weeks ago. That bill, which seeks to reduce our national carbon footprint, has several provisions that are extremely beneficial to our unions.

We were successful in getting blanket Davis-Bacon coverage for construction outlays contained in the bill.  And there is also a provision giving the Secretaries of Labor and Energy the discretion to mandate Community Workforce Agreements for work conducted under this Act.

So, as you can see, the Building  Trades Department is committed to making friends in various industries…and cultivating their loyalty…and getting them to understand and believe in what we do and the values that we represent.

You must do the same locally.

Closely related to those partnership initiatives is the on-going work by the Department to foster good working relationships at the highest levels in the Obama Administration. We have worked very hard to portray our new story and our new identity with this Administration, and it is beginning to pay off.

We are inching ever closer to the Administration making a blanket proclamation to all federal agencies recommending the use of Community Workforce Agreements for federal construction procurement.

In fact, late Friday afternoon we were notified that the President will encourage PLA/CWA’s on all Federal projects.

And by the way, you will note that I use the term “Community Workforce Agreements.”  That is the new term we are using for Project Labor Agreements.  The reason for the change is that the Obama Administration, and many other important groups and lawmakers, recognize the social and community benefits that these agreements can offer.

It makes sense for us to showcase these attributes when we describe them.

From the stimulus bill, to clean energy initiatives, to the upcoming highway re-authorization legislation, more and more key officials within the Administration and within Congress are now recognizing the social and community benefits that are inherent in these agreements.

Benefits such as local-hire and apprenticeship training benchmarks that help move traditionally disadvantaged and underemployed citizens into sustainable careers.

These lawmakers and officials see Community Workforce Agreements as the ideal vehicle through which federal construction investments can be leveraged to achieve important social and economic objectives.

Again, we are making friends, and inspiring loyalty and belief.

Now, let me also get you up to speed on a couple of issues that I know are of special importance here in Texas.  And those would be immigration reform and the continuing problems with H2b visa abuse.

First, with respect to immigration, the Department has established a comprehensive policy on immigration reform which you can download from our website at www.bctd.org.

I won’t go into the details, but it is a four-part policy.  First, it demands Homeland and Border Security.  It also calls for an effective Verification System and serious Employer Sanctions.  It opposes a New Temporary Worker Program. And finally, it addresses the issue of Earned Legal Status.

Last Year, the AFL-CIO, in an effort to harmonize immigration reform policy throughout the labor movement established a Task Force chaired by former Labor Secretary Ray Marshall, a proud Texan.  I was a member of that Task Force.

I’m pleased to report the principles of reform outlined in our Department policy were included in the final draft of the Marshall Report which you can also download from our website. The Marshall Report will serve as the guideline for the labor movement when immigration reform becomes the subject of discussion again in the US Congress.

You may have heard recently that President Obama would like to begin immigration reform discussions with the Congress this year. In fact, he invited many key congressional leaders…Democrats and Republicans…to the White House a few weeks ago to engage in preliminary discussions.

But, there has been no signal that this issue will rise to the level of congressional action this year.

Congress is already quite busy with health care reform and clean energy legislation, each of which, by the way, has important implications for our unions and our members.

We are fighting hard against the taxation of employee health care benefits - which is generating serious consideration in the US Senate.

And then there is our first legislative priority…the Employee Free Choice Act, which we hope will be adopted and signed into law by Labor Day of this year!

Again, I encourage you to make it a regular habit of checking www.bctd.org for information pertaining to these and other issues.

But, getting back to immigration…I want you to understand that the Building Trades Department will be engaged from the outset once this issue begins to move. And we are somewhat encouraged that, in general, discussions that are occurring today indicate there is growing, bipartisan support for increased enforcement against unfair employers.

Now, as you all know here in Texas…we also have a growing problem with H2b Visa abuse.  In 2008, the construction industry moved into the # 2 position of industries seeking H2b workers.  The average hourly wage for these positions is below $9 dollars an hour.  And most of the applications filed for these workers are coming from Texas, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, and Virginia.

Rest assured, the Building Trades Department will be aggressive as we need to be in working with the Department of Labor and the US Congress.

First, to prevent any expansion of this program; and, secondly, to rein in the abuses associated with this program.

Brothers and sisters…as you can see, there is considerable work happening right now with respect to our unions and our movement.

And I am pleased to report that most of it is good.

Opportunities abound.

The question is, are we doing all that we can to prepare ourselves to take full advantage of these opportunities?

It’s time to start generating some good luck for a change!

I thank you for inviting me here today.  And remember, as you go forward from this convention…we are about Value on Display…Every Day.

Thank you and God Bless America’s Building Trades Unions!