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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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