Remarks by Vice President Harris at the Service Employees International Union Quadrennial Convention

Pennsylvania Convention Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

12:38 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi, everyone.  Good afternoon, SEIU.  Good afternoon.  (Applause.)  Good afternoon.  Oh, it is good to be in the house of labor.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That’s right.  We’ll do it together.  We’ll do it together.  Thank you. 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Oh, it is so good to be in the house of labor.  Thank you all so very much. 

Lolita, I want to thank you for that introduction.  She and I spent some time together backstage together, and we had an emotional moment.  And — you know, and we talked about the fact that, you know, I think the — one of the most important signs of the character of a leader — and this is a room full of leaders — is people who have a sense of empathy, who have a sense of concern and care about the wellbeing of other people and then do something about it.  And this is a room full of leaders.  SEIU, that is always who you are.  And, Lolita, I want to thank you for your powerful voice. 

To my dear friend, Mary Kay Henry, thank you for your visionary leadership of SEIU over the last 14 years.  (Applause.)  Generations of working people and their families have benefited from your work and the legacy that you leave.  And you’ve been an extraordinary partner from the beginning to the President and me and part of all the success we have achieved.

And congratulations to the new President of SEIU, April Verrett.  (Applause.)  Talk about a phenomenal women and a powerful fighter for justice and fairness.  And I know firsthand that April is a leader who is always guided by an uncompromising focus on worker empowerment and their rights.

And to all the members, then, of SEIU: Thank you for all that you do every day to build a more fair and equitable future for our entire nation.

So — (applause) — we here — we here — we believe in the promise of America.  A promise of freedom, equity, opportunity, and justice not just for some but for all.  (Applause.)

And for over a century, the workers of SEIU have led the fight to make that promise real. 

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., marched on Washington, the workers of SEIU marched by his side to demand both racial justice and economic justice.  And long before others, this union — this union fought — fought to protect the rights and freedoms, the basic dignity of women, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ Americans.  (Applause.)

Since your founding, SEIU, you have been on the frontlines of every major expansion of rights for the American people, chief among them the right of all people to have affordable healthcare — (applause) — understanding healthcare is a right and should not just be a privilege for those who can afford it.  (Applause.) 

More than 15 years ago, the members of SEIU took on the insurance companies, the lobbyists, and the special interests.  We helped pass the Affordable Care Act, which gave healthcare to more than 45 million more Americans.  (Applause.)  They have SEIU to thank for that.

And in the years since, we have defended that victory against a barrage of politically motivated attacks.

Many of you will remember when I was Attorney General of California and led 10 other state attorneys general in the United States Supreme Court to protect the ACA.

The attacks coming from political Republican state AGs.  And whereas the last presidential administration tried over and over and over again to repeal the ACA to strip healthcare from millions of Americans, our administration has strengthened and expanded the ACA with your support.  (Applause.) 

Including when we took on Big Pharma finally to finally give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.  (Applause.)  Because we knew: For far too many years, too many of our seniors with diabetes had to make the awful decision about either paying for and filling their prescription for insulin or paying for their rent.

So, we capped the cost of insulin for our seniors at $35 a month.  (Applause.)  And we capped the annual cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000 a year.

Together, we have also fought for economic opportunity for all people.  You know, I believe that in the United States of America every working person should have the opportunity to not just get by but get ahead. 

And today, because of your organizing, more than 80 million Americans live in a city or a state where the minimum wage is at least $15 an hour, because of you.  (Applause.)

And while President Biden and I have raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour, we will still continue to fight to raise the minimum wage for all workers.  (Applause.)   Economic opportunity.

We’re also taking on the issue of debt, which weighs far too many people down.  Take, for example, medical debt.  It’s often as — as the SEIU members here know, medical debt is often the result of a medical emergency — an unplanned, unexpected expense of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

We are making it so that medical debt cannot be included any longer in your credit score.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you. 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Because we got more work to do.  Because we got more work to do.

For example, on medical debt, we want to make sure that medical debt cannot impact a person’s ability to get a car loan, an apartment lease, or a home loan.  Why should people have to suffer based on an unexpected medical emergency?

We have also taken on the issue of student loan debt.  We have already cancelled — (applause).

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Four more years.  Thank you. 

So, we have already cancelled nearly $160 billion in student loan debt for more than four and a half million Americans.  (Applause.)  And for public servants — for public servants, like SEIU crossing guards and nurses and librarians, we have forgiven an average of $70,000 per person in student loan debt.  (Applause.)  

You may recall, as Attorney General of California, I shut down Corinthian Colleges, which was a for-profit school that used fraud and predatory practices to trick single parents, working people, our veterans into racking up thousands of dollars in student loan debt.  Well, we have now forgiven $6 billion of loan debt for former Corinthian students.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Four more years.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you. 

And see the contrast — and see the contrast, because here’s the thing we know: November, it’s going to be about two choices.  So, let’s be clear about that.  Let’s be clear about that.

And whereas the last administration buried our country in debt to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, we are helping dig families out of debt by telling billionaires to pay their fair share.  (Applause.)

We are fighting to protect the sacred right to organize.  We are protecting the sacred right to organize because we know when unions are strong, America is strong.  (Applause.)  

And I’m going to reflect for a moment on a couple of different days I spent with extraordinary SEIU members.  There was the day that I saw the strength of SEIU Local 1 member, Delo McDaniels [McDaniel].

In Detroit, Delo and I rode the bus to his job as a security guard while he talked about the profound responsibility he felt to do his job well. 

A few years before that, I spent the day with Wendy Ko in Oakland, California, my hometown.  (Applause.)  And Wendy was a healthcare worker with SEIU Local 2015.  (Applause.)  That’s right.

And here’s the thing that I talk about everywhere I go.  I watched Wendy as she used her body to lift her client out of bed to change the sheets.  She helped her client get dressed in comfortable clothing.  She asked her client, “What would you like to eat today?,” and cooked something that brought her client joy.  I watched as Wendy took her client outside, pushing a wheelchair — you know, Wendy wasn’t that big — pushing a wheelchair… 

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… talk about everywhere I go: I watched Wendy as she used her body to lift her client out of bed to change the sheets. She helped her client get dressed in comfortable clothing.  She asked her client, “What would you like to eat today?”  And cooked something that brought her client joy.

I watched as Wendy took her client outside, pushing a wheelchair — you know, Wendy wasn’t that big — pushing a wheelchair while pointing out the beauty of the surroundings.

What some people need to understand is that care work is physical work.  It’s emotional work.  It is a job, and it is a calling.  (Applause.)  It is a calling. 

And care workers deserve to be paid fully and fairly for that work.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Four more years. 

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you.  

And so — and — and in terms of what we have done so far, just lat- — last month, with April Verrett, now president, and dozens of other SEIU workers, I was proud to announce for the first time, we are requiring that of the billions of dollars that Medicaid pays to home healthcare companies that 80 percent be spent now on worker salaries — (applause) — not administrative overhead.

And I announced that for the first time in history, we are establishing minimum staffing standards for federally funded nursing homes.  (Applause.) 

SEIU, you’ve been demanding this stuff for a long time.  It’s about time we were able to deliver.  (Applause.)

So, President Biden and I are proud to lead the most pro-union administration in our nation’s history.

We have expanded the power of OSHA to make workplaces safe.

We banned non-competes that unfairly prevent workers from taking better-paying jobs.

And as head of the White House Labor Task Force, with the support of those in this room, I am proud to have made it easier now for service workers to organize in federal buildings and national parks.  (Applause.)

And whereas members of the last administration, who is trying to become the next administration — whereas they appointed corporate insiders to the NLRB, we appointed leaders with strong labor backgrounds.  (Applause.) 

So I’m going to finish up with this.  Listen, SEIU, we are here today because we are clear-eyed about the stakes of this moment.

Across our nation, we see full-on attacks on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms and rights: the freedom to vote, the freedom to organize, the freedom to be safe from the horror of gun violence, the freedom from hate and bigotry, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.) 

In this moment — in this moment, extremists are trying to divide our nation.  And we see them as they encourage xenophobia and hate.

Just yesterday, the former President of the United States, who praises dictators, who said there were “very fine people” on both sides in Charlottesville —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — let’s not forget — took to social media and highlighted language from Nazi Germany — highlighted language from Nazi Germany.

This kind of rhetoric is unsurprising coming from the former President, and it is appalling.  And we got to tell him who we are.  (Applause.) 

And once again, it shows our freedoms and our very democracy are at stake. 

In the face of these attacks, let us remind each other of our collective power.  Let us continue to stand against those who dare to attack our freedoms.  And let us continue to fight to make real the promise of America for paid family leave, for affordable childcare, to secure a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers and their families, to lower rents and help more Americans buy a home.  (Applause.)

These — these are the things we stand for.  And I believe when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)

So, our nation needs you, SEIU, to organize, to mobilize, and to make your voices heard.

So, are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.) 

Are you ready to fight for freedom?  (Applause.)

Are you ready to fight for the dignity of all working people?  (Applause.)  

Are you ready to fight for the promise of America?  (Applause.)

And when we fight —

AUDIENCE:  We win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win. 

God bless you.  And God bless America.  (Applause.)

 END                 12:57 P.M. EDT

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