Remarks by Gov. Nixon to National Building Trades Legislative Conference

Good morning. It is an honor to be in the company of the hardest-working, most productive and highly skilled workers in the world.

I want to thank President Sean McGarvey, who addressed thousands of workers at our building trades rally last year at the Missouri State Capitol, and especially the folks from Missouri who are here with us today.

As Governor of Missouri, I'd like to share a perspective from the Heartland, where the men and women of the building trades are helping to build a brighter future for everyone.

So let me tell you who I am, what I believe in, and what we're doing in the Show-Me State.

I carried a union card for seven years as a laborer, working construction. To this day, in my office, I have the shovel the guys gave me on my last day on the job.

That's so I never forget that it was working people who built this country and made it great.

My brothers and sisters in the building trades taught me about the dignity and pride of doing a hard day's work, and the value of a skilled and organized workforce.

For generations, union workers fought -- and died -- for rights the rest of the world is still catching up to:

The right to a safe and humane workplace;

The right to compensation if you're hurt on the job

The right to fair wages

The 40-hour work week

Child labor laws…sick pay … health insurance…the weekend.

The list of hard-fought victories won by the labor movement goes on and on.

Those victories lifted the living standards of working families everywhere -- union and non-union.

They gave rise to America's middle class, the backbone of the strongest economy in the world.

But some folks seem to have forgotten that, and want to roll back those rights.

I don't have to tell anyone in this room about the challenges confronting union labor in America today.

The question is: How do we compete and win in a global economy without giving up the rights you sweated and bled for?

We won't do that with a race to the bottom on wages. We won't compete and win, paying workers a dollar a day.

We've got to keep on fighting for the single mom pulling double-shifts to provide for her family…

Fighting for the laborer working nights and weekends to pay the mortgage and save enough to send the kids to college…

Fighting for the construction worker who deserves to retire with dignity, after a lifetime of toil.

These are the folks who are the foundation of a strong middle-class and a strong economy across this great land.

In Missouri -- building things is what we do.

We build tough. We build safe. We build to last.

In 1956, union workers poured the first stretch of interstate highway in the nation, in St. Charles County, Missouri.

In 1962, union workers at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis built the Mercury spacecraft carrying the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

In 1965, union workers stood atop an arc of stainless steel -- 630-feet-high and lowered the keystone in place in the Gateway Arch.

And as Governor of Missouri, I've worked to carry on that proud tradition:

When I took office in 2009 on the heels of the worst recession in our lifetime, Missouri was the first state to start construction on a transportation project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

So union labor rebuilt the Tuscumbia Bridge, first built by union hands during the Roosevelt Administration.

But we weren't going to stop there. To break the grip of the recession, we were going to build things.

At 7 a.m. on a Monday morning, I got every building trades manager in the state on the horn and said, "Let's move this money out, turn some dirt and put folks back to work."

And that's exactly what we did -- building water plants, sewer plants, and putting thousands of highly-skilled workers on the job.

While the Keystone Pipeline is still gridlocked here in DC, back in Missouri, oil is flowing right now through a billion-dollar Enbridge pipeline. Completed this past December, it created 1,800 good-paying union jobs.

A few short years ago, the American auto industry was on the ropes. So I called a special session, brought the legislature back to work for the summer to bring next-generation auto jobs to the Show-Me State.

Today, the top three pickups in the country -- the Chevy Colorado, the GMC Canyon and the Ford F-150 -- are rolling off the line in Kansas City and Wentzville, built by the UAW.

They're working at new plants built by your members -- a nearly $2 billion bet by automakers on the future of American auto-manufacturing.

The Stan Musial Bridge over the Mississippi in St. Louis -- completed on time and under budget -- is a shining example of what only union labor can accomplish.

Travelers on that bridge could soon see a brand new, billion-dollar NFL stadium -- built with union labor on a revitalized riverfront in St. Louis. These guys right here -- they've pledged to work 24 hours a day to make it happen. And I thank you!

We've identified more than 38,000 misclassified workers…and uncovered more than $7.8 million in unpaid unemployment insurance taxes.

Enforcing prevailing wage laws, we put more than $6.5 million in the pockets of folks who deserved an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.

The building trades' achievement that makes me proudest is down in the southwest corner of our state, in Joplin. In May 2011, an EF-5 tornado struck that community, destroying homes and businesses, leveling entire neighborhoods, and claiming many lives.

We made a commitment to rebuild Joplin stronger, better, and safer. There were some who wanted to do it on the cheap. But we made sure that the folks who were building those new schools and safe rooms and hospitals were paid the prevailing wage.

So what does this show?

That the Show-Me State is better, because we're union. And so is America.

And that's why I share your grave concerns about the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Now, trade isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a good thing.

As Governor, I've gone all over the world to sell products that are union-made -- and Missouri-grown.

On my watch, exports from the Show-Me State have reached record levels.

We've got to compete -- and win -- in a global economy.

But we don't win by lowering our standard of living, giving up on workers' rights, or signing trade deals that put American workers at a disadvantage.

American workers work hard and play by the rules. All they want is a fair shake and a fair shot.

If a trade agreement makes it easier to outsource jobs and doesn't hold foreign countries to the same standard that we have here in the U.S., then it's not good for American workers and I'm not for it.

And as we stand together to make sure our brothers and sisters don't become casualties of a global race to the bottom -- we can't ignore the threats closer to home, including in my home state of Missouri.

Over the past few years, with growing anti-labor majorities in the House and Senate, the Missouri legislature has passed bills to make it harder for people who have gotten hurt to get hired, to make it harder for folks to get unemployment benefits, and to make it easier for corporations to discriminate against and fire their workers.

To defend the rights of working people, I've never been afraid to use my veto pen.

I vetoed every one of those anti-labor bills. And we held those vetoes.

But the tide is shifting. The special interests who have rolled back workers' rights in state after state have now set their sights on Missouri.

We've seen it in Idaho and Indiana, Oklahoma and Wisconsin -- even Michigan.

Now, the Missouri legislature -- like so many others across the nation -- is moving backward with an effort to make Missouri the 26th so-called "Right to Work" state.

For the first time in Missouri history, a Right to Work bill passed in the Missouri House. And if the Senate does the same, mark your calendars for the veto session on Sept. 16, when we are going to need to send legislators a strong and unambiguous message, just like we did in 1978.

Thirty-six years ago, the people of Missouri spoke loud and clear when they defeated Right to Work at the ballot box.

I remember I had an orange Gremlin -- bought with my union wages-- and I put a bumper sticker on it that said: Right to work is a rip-off.

It's as true now as it was then: Right to work is wrong for Missouri, and it's wrong for America.

This is the moment we stem the tide.

This is the moment we stand together -- shoulder-to-shoulder.

America, Right-to-Work stops now, in the Show-Me State.

The hands of union laborers built the mightiest nation on the planet, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the trans-Alaska pipeline, from Hoover Dam to Cape Canaveral.

Union hands built our schools and hospitals, our highways and shipyards.

When the Twin Towers fell, union workers volunteered alongside firefighters and police officers to help sort through the rubble. And from those ruins, union hands built the new World Trade Center.

The history of the labor movement in this country is a story of hope, courage and progress. Of working people willing to stand together to take on powerful interests and fight for their rights -- wherever and whenever they are threatened.

Together, we will stand as tall and strong as the towering structures you've built, and speak with one voice:

Union labor built the middle-class, the middle-class built America, and together we're going to build a brighter future for all Americans.

Let's keep fighting for the working people of our great nation.

Thank you, and God bless.

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