Hakeem Jeffries: Let’s take back our country

When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries walked into the AFT convention hall and saw the tremendous enthusiasm there, he said “this is not simply a convention. It’s a union-powered extravaganza.” 

And so, the highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives wasted no time in calling on AFT members to take back our country from MAGA extremists this Nov. 3. More specifically, Jeffries exhorted members to win back the House. 

Jeffries honored AFT President Randi Weingarten, thanking her for her friendship and praising her leadership on behalf of working people and children. “We’re both from New York, y’all,” he quipped, adding that Randi “is one of the best labor leaders this side of heaven.” 

Adding how great it felt to be in the same room with teachers, faculty, school and college support staff, healthcare workers and public employees, he expressed appreciation for the work AFT members do and how they stand up for working families. Thanking his teachers, he recalled the words of Frederick Douglass, saying, “It is easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men or broken women.” 

Democrats in Congress, he said, will continue to defend union jobs. “No group … has done more to deliver the American dream than the men and women of organized labor,” he said.

As Jeffries explained, both of his parents were public employees and members of the Social Service Employees Union, which held two strikes in 1967 to improve the pay, benefits and quality of life for those serving the poorest residents of New York City. His parents had to decide whether to cross the picket line and pay their bills or stand with their union siblings, he said. They stood on the picket line until they won. 

Jeffries also expressed gratitude that his brother, born with a serious health condition, survived because of their parents’ union-negotiated healthcare. In the 1980s, due to their union contract, his parents were able to buy a modest home in Brooklyn. And eventually, they were able to pay off their mortgage because of their union-negotiated salaries. 

Thanks to their parents’ union wages and benefits, both brothers were able to go to college. They graduated debt-free in the 1990s because their mom could borrow tuition money against her union pension. 

Members of the AFT “don’t ever have to worry about whether Hakeem Jeffries is gonna stand up for you and organized labor because organized labor has always been there for me and we’re gonna make sure that organized labor is there for the American people,” Jeffries said.

In this challenging moment when many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, he said, working people should be able to live a middle-class life. We know what that looks like, he added: “a good-paying job, good housing, good healthcare, a good education for your children and, when it’s all said and done, a good retirement.” 

For that, he said, we need to push back against MAGA extremists and keep their hands off Social Security and Medicare. We know, he said, that President Donald Trump is trying to interfere with free and fair elections this fall. In response, he promised that Democrats will fight back, working toward the AFT’s call for “A Better Life for All.” 

The race to the midterm elections is no longer a marathon but a sprint, Jeffries said, as he urged AFT members to elect leaders who will fight for an economy that works for everyone, end the war in Iran, get ICE under control, protect the right to organize and pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Jeffries emphasized that the stakes are high but so is our capacity to meet this moment together. 

[Annette Licitra/Photo credit: Pam Wolfe]