Barack Obama On Unions

Senator Barack Obama in Fairless Hills, PA on March 11:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451gIv3SKd0

Speech Highlights:

"You know, the best-run companies, I notice, are the ones that are not afraid of union drives, because they know that if they've got a cooperative workforce that feels it's got a stake in the company's success, that that company will end up over the long term being more successful and more profitable...

The Employee Free Choice Act, I'm a huge supporter of, and I intend to sign it when I'm President of the United States of America...

One of the things I think you're seeing in the union movement is a greater maturity and understanding that if the company doesn't make a profit, it doesn't matter what your contract says, they're gonna shut down. Right? So the union has to constantly be working with management to figure out how do we make the company more profitable, how do we make it more efficient, how do we innovate, how do we incorporate new technologies. And if you've got that attitude, then I trust the American workforce. I believe we can compete with anybody in the world...

What we do have to be sure of is that our strategy for long-term economic growth is not just to drive down wages, eliminate benefits, and boost corporate profits at the expense of workers. That's not a recipe for long term economic growth. A strategy for long-term economic growth is making sure that workers, alongside management, are continually adding value, and getting more skills, getting better training, creating new, innovative technologies; that's gonna be the recipe for long-term success. And my job as President is going to be to encourage that partnership and to continually invest in workers."

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