Governor Hochul: "You all showed up and kept building us out of the dark days of the pandemic. And now, as the Governor who leads this state in this post-pandemic era, I want people to look back at this time and say, 'How did New York get through that? They were the hardest hit. They were the epicenter. We lost more people. How did they get through it?' And the answer's going to be so simple. They built their way back. They built their way back with union projects."
Hochul: "There is so much going on in this state. I am excited. I am excited because we can come up with all the great ideas and put the money behind it But the fact that you'll also be creating a better planet for our children and grandchildren. That's what union labor does. And so, I'm so proud to be your Governor."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the New York State Building Trades Conference in Saratoga, New York.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Great to see my brothers and sisters in labor. Gary, first of all, how do you get an election that's unanimous? Congratulations. Congratulations to you and to the entire board on your election here today. And as someone who's been through 14 elections, I know there are serious matters, but it is great to see your success and the faith that your members have in your leadership. And really the unification of our state -- upstate and downstate under one mantle of New York State Building Trades is powerful.
It truly is powerful when you speak for the entire state. I'd like to unify our own state politically that way. So, maybe we can get some pointers from Gary on how that magic happens. But thank you, Gary LaBarbera for being a leader, but also a friend. A friend to me during, yes, some challenging times and some battles and you know, if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. No one is stronger than me having come through my first round of budget, but I always had labor in my heart because it is so important that we as leaders stand up and fight for you as you fight for us every single day. So, thank you to everyone here.
Also, I do want to, again, congratulate Al Catalano on being elected as the Secretary Treasurer. Mario Cilento is here too. This guy, he travels the state as much as I do, and that's quite a statement. Mario and I sat together in New York City a couple days ago, and just really talked about the challenges that's facing the labor movement.
And it is a huge source of pride for all of us that we are the most unionized state in America. I happen to come from the most unionized part of the most unionized state in America and that is Western New York. We like to build things. But, Mario has really taken the influence of the AFL-CIO to a new level in terms of really being a champion for our workers. So, Mario Cilento, thank you for all you do for us as well.
I know Sean McGarvey is here. The whole President, the big guy is here. So, make sure we all keep our act kind of clean, so he says good things about us here in New York State. And Sean it is great to see you once again, as well.
And my partner in government, Roberta Reardon, am I not blessed to have her at my side? She is a voice for the men and women of labor in so many powerful ways. Fighting wage stuff, making sure people get their unemployment benefits, making sure that we take care of people, especially during the pandemic. And I'll never forget this Roberta, how you had a stand up operation that went from maybe a couple thousand unemployment claims a week to tens of hundreds of thousands -- I don't know what the numbers were. It was mind boggling what you had to deal with. It was cataclysmic what this state was going through and you responded, and I want to thank you and your team for getting us through those really tough, tough times. So, Roberta Reardon.
Also, our Chair of the Senate Labor Community, Jessica Ramos is here. Jessica, nice to see you as well. I'll be heading down to your district after this. I don't know how to get you there, so you can catch a ride. Because you're always working and I want to thank you for that.
A couple of things, and Gary hit on some of the priorities I have and I heard from your acceptance speeches, is you guys are all kind of partial to shorter speeches. I could tell that. You score more points the less you say, but I will just give you some really heartfelt feelings about all of you and what this movement means to me, personally. I've shared this with a number of you, but all of us come from other people who came before us. I mean, none of us were born here.
We came from our parents, our grandparents and people usually started far away. They left great poverty, many times, like my grandparents leaving Ireland. And they came here with literally nothing on their backs as teenagers. And they worked hard when -- Grandpa worked as a migrant farm worker in the wheat fields of South Dakota. And then they heard there were jobs as domestic servants in Chicago, and they had horrific circumstances where they were abused and they ended up leaving in the middle of the night from Chicago. They were in search of one place, a place called Lackawanna, New York, where you could make steel. And that steel industry, the Bethlehem Steel Plant, lifted up not just my grandparents out of poverty and into the middle class, but thousands of others. And the people were making the automotive parts and the people were part of the unions, like my uncles who are plumbers and longshoreman and iron workers. There is such pride in my family to have all of our family members lifted out of poverty because they had that union card. That union card was the ticket to the American Dream, back then and still to this day.
So, that is why my grandparents are inspiring to me. My father worked at the steel plant. He and my mom lived in a trailer park in the shadow of that steel plant. I literally was there a couple days ago, because I always go back to that neighborhood. I go back to the little diner, I actually went to the ice cream parlor that my parents used to go to, in a still kind of tough neighborhood where people are struggling.
And all I want to do is give everybody in that community, all the way on down to the five boroughs -- upstate, downstate, give everybody that same opportunity to lead a great life, and have your families be taken care of, and maybe send them to college or bring them into the union because I want those opportunities available for everybody. Everybody deserves to have what I had. And that means we're supporting the apprenticeship programs. I believe in them to my core. I have walked the floors and seen where people's lives transformed. Women who are learning to be electricians in a place in New York City, nontraditional opportunities for women. They were on the line to get food stamps, and they saw a sign and found their way to get this training. And I'll never forget this woman who says, "I can take care of my kids now because I got this union card." That means something, my friends. We will never take for granted the power of being a member of a union here in the State of New York.
And so, I will continue to honor that. And now, as we come out of this pandemic, and yes, you all showed up, you kept the building going on, you couldn't Zoom into the construction site, last I checked. You all showed up and kept building us out of the dark days of the pandemic. And now, as the Governor who leads this state in this post-pandemic era, I want people to look back at this time and say, "How did New York get through that? They were the hardest hit. They were the epicenter. We lost more people. How did they get through it?" And the answer's going to be so simple. They built their way back. They built their way back with union projects. Like Gary mentioned, what we're going to do at the Buffalo Bills, and I don't care if you're a Jets or Giants fan, there is one team that plays in the State of New York and they're called the Buffalo Bills. Okay, so we've got to love all of our teams
And I've taken a little bit of lumps over this, but they're not going anywhere for at least 30 years. Nobody else could make that deal. They'll be there so my granddaughter can watch them play when she's an adult, okay? That's important to all of us. But also, Penn Station, yes, I am jamming that thing through as fast as I can. Everybody says, "Oh, you'll never get it through that." Yes, I will. "You'll never get it through that." Yes, I will, watch me. Because I am so impatient because number one, there's great jobs on the line. But also, don't New Yorkers and our visitors deserve a world-class experience that's more heavenly than hell-like. Which is what Penn station is right now. All of you working on that project will be able to point to your kids and your grandkids and say, "I did that." Just like you can point to buildings in the skyscrapers and all the projects, and the offshore wind that we're bringing, and the Port of Albany where we're manufacturing the wind turbine parts and shipping them down the Hudson.
There is so much going on in this state. I am excited. I am excited because we can come up with all the great ideas and put the money behind it. And I do want to give a shout out to President Joe Biden for giving us the infrastructure plan, getting it over the finish line. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Majority Leader, getting the job done. And you can talk politics, but there's actually people want to run for office who didn't support this. So let's just put that out there, put that out there. I support it, because that means money from the Federal Government. To the State, to your pocketbooks, because these are going to be Union projects. So we're going to build our way back. We're going to be the leaders in the Green Energy Revolution. Yes. I need your support for $4.2 billion, it's a lot of money. But you figured that out over 30 years, per family, that is a small price to pay for the jobs that'll be created. But the fact that you'll also be creating a better planet for our children and grandchildren. That's what union labor does. And so, I'm so proud to be your Governor. I'm all excited. You can tell I'm fired up. It's early in the morning, but your applause made me feel so good. And I just want to say, thank you for being my friends, my allies, getting me through some tough times, and we are going to look back at these days and say, "We got the job done, because unions built our way back."
Thank you, everybody. I appreciate your support.