January, 1999
Labor Party Press
Cecil Roberts:
'We've Got
to Take Our
Power Back'
Excerpts from a talk by Cecil Roberts,
President of the United Mine Workers of America
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Photo ©Michael Kaufman, Impact Visuals |
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I want to commend the leadership of those who have put the Labor Party
together. Leaders like these do not come in bunches like grapes. They’re rare, like
pearls. And by the way [OCAW President] Bob Wages said I sounded like Mr. Ed of Green
Acres. I do not have an accent. God speaks like this!
I want to tell you about some folks who went to work every day, had a
decent union contract, supported their family. But one morning the employer decided they
didn’t like the contract, the same one that everyone else had in the coalfields. They
decided the healthcare was too expensive. So they laid off workers. They got rid of 1000
people, and forced them to give up their rights to recall.
So these podunks got up one morning and found that their jobs weren’t
there anymore. What did these people do wrong who worked for this company? Nothing. Labor
laws in this country favor the bosses — that’s why they did it.
Do you realize that 80 percent of the workers in the United States make
less money today than they did in 1980, when you factor in inflation? That 42 million
Americans don’t have healthcare? That 40 million Americans live in poverty? And all
our media wants to talk about is sex in the White House. I think it’s ironic that
Clinton has sex in the White House and Gingrich loses his job. I say, more sex for
Clinton!
What should be troubling to everyone is that there are 100 million other
houses we should be hearing about and talking about on the evening news. We should be
hearing about healthcare at your house, a living wage at your house, Social Security at
your house. We know the answer to workers’ problems in the U.S. is a stronger labor
movement in this country where people have a legal right to defend themselves.
Did you know that Bill Gates has more money than 40 percent of Americans
put together? That’s106 million Americans. He laid off 5000 workers like you for 30
days so he didn’t have to give them healthcare. These millionaires and billionaires
have too much power in this country, and you’ve got to take some of that back!
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