Today, Hillary Clinton speaks to more than 3,000 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members at the union's 2016 International Convention, Monday, May 23, 2016, in Detroit. (Photo by HB Meeks/Tell Us Detroit)

   

 
 

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  Hillary Clinton Speaks to 3,000 at SEIU 2016 International Convention

By Karen Hudson Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - Hitting on the bedrock issues of America’s working class, better wages, health care, and workplace safety, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered a rousing convention speech Monday to thousands of Service Employees International Union members meeting at Cobo Hall.

Clinton trounced her Republican challenger for what she called “Trump economics” as “a recipe for lower wages, fewer jobs, more debt - he would bankrupt America like he bankrupt his companies.”

How does anyone running a casino lose money; the question posed by Clinton sent a ripple through the audience. Her message of “America needs a raise” rallied the audience of union members from around the country.

Speaking to the powerful 1.9 million-member SEIU, Clinton’s focused on issues aligned with the economic and social agenda of the SEIU. Leaders in the fight for the $15.00 minimum wage, for fast food workers, the SEIU endorsed Hillary Clinton in November 2015.

The SEIU represents what Clinton called “unsung heroes” the nurses, home health care works, childcare workers, airport workers, janitors, sanitation workers and adjunct professors. “Your fights are my fights.”

Clinton said workers should not have to choose between, paying bills or taking care of their health, or having to return to work early following surgery, she shared stories of meeting families forced to make these difficult choices. She called upon the membership to encourage private and public employers to adopt family friendly policies, like predictable work schedules and quality child care.
Clinton credited the SEIU with being on the front lines of affordable health and said “Today we are leading the movement is to raise the minimum which would lift 30 million working Americans out of poverty.”

Respecting the dignity of hard and what it takes to provide a good middle class life, is how Clinton said she grew up, “My mother was out on her own working as a housemaid at the age of 14” and my “father put everything he had into a small fabric printing shop in Chicago.”

In a veiled reference to state GOP leaders, said “All of you who have every faced a hostile legislature, a union busting Governor or both, help is on the way! The audience erupted in sustained applause. A Clinton administration would protect collective bargaining, the right to organize and create good union jobs that couldn’t be outsourced.

While Clinton’s speech emphasized the economic concerns of the labor movement, she also spoke to ending the “epidemic of gun violence” and “dismantling the school to prison pipeline” which she characterized as a moral obligation to fight for justice and equating everywhere. That fight would include she said ending the era of mass incarceration and rebuilding trust between law enforcement and communities.

With the Democratic convention closing in and Clinton in dead heat against Donald Trump in a race fo the White House, Clinton wrapped up her speech playing on the theme of the convention “We are stronger standing together.




 
 

 
   
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