Matt Murray of NH Labor News recently attended the NH Progressive Summit and went to a workshop on writing speeches with a Progressive Economic Narrative. The fruit of his efforts:
Today I want to talk to you about how we build an America and a New Hampshire that works for all of us, not just the ultra wealthy one-percent (1%).
Today, we see that New Hampshire’s working families and middle class are getting crushed. Workers wages continue to go down as their household costs continue to rise. Workers are loosing their voice in the workplace as the corporations are forcing our unions out.
But this is no accident. After they break our unions, they slash our wages and loot our pensions, leaving us without a job and without a future.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Together we can create a New Hampshire that works for all of us. That’s why we must work together to reform our labor laws. To make it easier for workers to come together and form unions, to push back against this corporate anti-worker agenda. By sticking together and speaking with one voice, we will begin to make a difference in our communities.
You know, working people and the middle class are the engines of our economy. When we have good jobs, we can educate our children, we can shop in our neighborhoods, we can afford healthcare and retire with dignity and security. We drive our economy forward.
We’ll bolster working families and build a strong middle class, with the decisions we make together. If we are to achieve a strong and vibrant middle class again, we need to: help workers find their voice in the workplace, to strengthen our labor laws to make it easier for worker to organize, and stronger disciplinary actions against companies who violate our laws by intimidating or threatening workers who choose to speak out.
It is up to us to hold our elected officials accountable for standing up for working people and the middle class, not just the CEO’s and hedge fund managers on Wall Street. Together we can assure that all of us will be able to climb that ladder and find our own version of the American Dream.
This is what America is about. This is what New Hampshire is about. We can do this together. We can build an America, a New Hampshire, that works for all of us.