Remarks by the President on Opportunity for All and Skills for America's Workers
GE Energy Waukesha Gas Engines Facility
Waukesha, Wisconsin
11:27 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Hello, hello, hello!
(Applause.) Well, it's good to be in Wisconsin! (Applause.) It’s good
to be in Waukesha. (Applause.) Now, I’ve always appreciated the
hospitality that Packer Country gives a Bears fan. (Laughter.) I
remember when I was up here campaigning the first time and there were
some “Cheeseheads for Obama” -- (laughter) -- and I felt pretty good
about that. Neither of us feel that good about our seasons, but that's
okay. There's always next year.
We have three of your outstanding elected officials with us here
today. We've got Congresswoman Gwen Moore. (Applause.) We've got the
Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett. (Applause.) And we have Milwaukee
County Executive, Chris Abele. (Applause.) And we've got your former
Governor, Jim Doyle. (Applause.) And it's also good to see -- I had a
chance to see backstage somebody who was a huge part of my economic team
before she became Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison --
Dr. Becky Blank is here. And we just want to give Becky a big round of
applause. (Applause.) She said she missed Washington, but she doesn't
really. (Laughter.) She was just saying that to be nice.
I'm so proud of Reggie, and I'm grateful for the terrific introduction. I want to thank Jim for showing me around the plant.
I have come here to talk with you about something that I spent a lot
of time on in my State of the Union address on Tuesday -- the idea that
no matter who you are, if you are willing to work hard, if you're
willing to take on responsibility you can get ahead -- the idea of
opportunity here in America.
Now, we’re at a moment where businesses like GE have created 8
million new jobs over the past four years. (Applause.) And that's good
news. Our unemployment rate is the lowest that it’s been in more than
five years. Our deficits have been cut in half. Housing is
rebounding. Manufacturing is adding jobs for the first time since the
1990s. We sell more of what we make here in America to other countries
than we ever have before.
Today, we learned that in the second half of last year our economy
grew by 3.7 percent. We still have more work to do, but that's pretty
strong. And our businesses led the way. Over the past year, the
private sector grew faster than at any time in over a decade.
And that’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America.
After five years of hard work, digging ourselves out of the worst
recession of our lifetimes, we are now better positioned in the 21st
century than any other country on Earth. We've got all the ingredients
we need to make sure that America thrives. And the question for folks
in Washington is whether they're going to help or they're going to
hinder that progress; whether they're going to waste time creating new
crises that slow things down, or they're going to spend time creating
new jobs and opportunity.
Because the truth is -- and you know this in your own lives, and you
see it in your neighborhoods among your friends and family -- even
though the economy has been growing for four years, even though
corporate profits have been doing very well, stock prices have soared,
most folks’ wages haven’t gone up in over a decade. The middle class
has been taking it on the chin even before the financial crisis -- too
many Americans working harder than ever just to get by, let alone get
ahead. And then, there are too many Americans who still are out of work
here in Wisconsin and around the country. So we've got to reverse
those trends if we're going to be serious about giving opportunity to
everybody.
And that’s why, on Tuesday, I laid out some new steps that we can
take right now to speed up economic growth and strengthen the middle
class, and build ladders of opportunity into the middle class.
Some of the ideas I presented I'm going to need Congress for. But
America cannot stand still, and neither will I. So wherever I can take
steps to expand opportunity, to help working families, that's what I’m
going to do with or without Congress. (Applause.) I want to work with
them, but I can't wait for them. We've got too much work to do out
there, because the defining project of our generation -- what he have to
tackle right now, what has driven me throughout my presidency and what
will drive me until I wave goodbye is making sure that we're restoring
opportunity to every single person in America.
Now, this opportunity agenda that I put forward has four parts. The
first part is creating more new jobs -- jobs in American manufacturing,
American exports, American energy, American innovation. And, by the
way, this plant represents all those things. You've seen new jobs being
built in part because we've had this amazing energy boom in this
country. And the engines that are built here, a lot of them are being
utilized in that new energy production. We're exporting a whole bunch
of these engines overseas.
The manufacturing that's taking place here isn't just good for this
plant. It has spillover effects throughout the economy. And what's also
true is, is that manufacturing jobs typically pay well. We want to
encourage more of them. And there's also innovation going on at this
plant. So the engines that were built 25 years ago aren't the same as
the engines we're building today.
So the first thing is let's create more new jobs. Number two, we've
got to train Americans with the skills to fill those jobs. (Applause.)
Americans like Reggie, we've got to get them ready to take those jobs.
(Applause.)
Number three, we've got to guarantee every child access to a
world-class education, because that's where the foundation starts for
them to be able to get a good job. (Applause.)
And then, number four, we've got to make sure hard work pays off. If
you work hard, you should be able to support a family. You may not end
up being wildly rich, but you should be able to pay your mortgage, your
car note, look after your family, maybe take a vacation once in a while
-- especially when it's kind of cold. (Laughter.) At the State of the
Union, I was going to start out by saying the state of the union is
cold. (Laughter.) But I decided that was not entirely appropriate.
(Laughter.)
So on Tuesday, I talked about what it will take to attract more
good-paying jobs to America -- everything from changing our tax code so
we're rewarding companies that invest here in the United States instead
of folks who are parking profits overseas to boosting more natural gas
production. But in this rapidly changing economy, we also have to make
sure that folks can fill those jobs. And that’s why I'm here today.
I know some folks in Wisconsin can remember a time, a few decades
ago, when finding a job in manufacturing wasn’t hard at all. If you
basically wanted a job, you showed up at a factory, you got hired. If
you worked hard, you could stay on the job. But our economy is
changing. Not all of today’s good jobs need a four-year degree, but the
ones that don’t need a college degree do need some specialized
training. We were looking at some of the equipment here -- it's $5
million worth of equipment. GE is going to be a little nervous if they
just kind of put you there on the first day and say, here, run this
thing -- (laughter) -- because if you mess up, you mess up. (Laughter.)
So that’s a challenge for workers, and it’s a challenge for companies
who want to build things here and want to bring jobs back from
overseas. As one of the top executives here put it, Brian White, “If
we’re going to have a manufacturing base in this country, we’ve got to
find a way to have manufacturing employees.”
Now, the good news is that folks across Wisconsin have set out to do
just that. This plant is a great example of that. That's why we're
here -- in addition to just you seem like very nice people.
(Laughter.) But we're here because you're doing some really good stuff
that everybody else needs to pay attention to. Together with a local
high school, you started a youth apprenticeship program. So students
spend four hours a day in the classroom, four hours on the shop floor;
after two years they leave with both a high-school diploma and a
technical certificate.
Then, you set up an adult apprenticeship program, so that folks can
earn while they learn. You’re working with partners from the Wisconsin
Regional Training Partnership, to Mayor Barrett’s manufacturing
partnership, to more than 50 other employers big and small across the
region in order to spot job openings months in advance and then design
training programs specifically for the openings. You even helped set up
a “schools to skills” program with a local business alliance to bring
kids to factories and help inspire them to pursue careers in
manufacturing.
And I just want to make a quick comment on that. A lot of parents,
unfortunately, maybe when they saw a lot of manufacturing being
offshored, told their kids you don't want to go into the trades, you
don't want to go into manufacturing because you'll lose your job. Well,
the problem is that what happened -- a lot of young people no longer
see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career. But I
promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled
manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree.
Now, nothing wrong with an art history degree -- I love art history.
(Laughter.) So I don't want to get a bunch of emails from everybody.
(Laughter.) I'm just saying you can make a really good living and have a
great career without getting a four-year college education as long as
you get the skills and the training that you need. (Applause.)
So back to what you guys are doing. All this work has paid off.
It’s one of the reasons why, over the past four years, you’ve grown your
manufacturing workforce by nearly half. So what you’re doing at this
plant, and across this region, can be a model for the country -- which
is why I've asked Congress to fund more reliably proven programs that
connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs.
(Applause.) That's what we'd like to see from Congress.
Of course, there are a lot of folks who do not have time to wait for
Congress. They need to learn new skills right now to get a new job
right now. (Applause.) So that's why here today at GE, I'm making it
official: Vice President Biden, a man who was raised on the value of
hard work and is tenacious, is going to lead an across-the-board review
of America’s training programs. (Applause.) We’ve got a lot of
programs, but not all of them are doing what they should be doing to get
people filled for jobs that exist right now. And we've got to move
away from what my Labor Secretary, Tom Perez, calls “train and pray” --
you train workers first and then you hope they get a job. We can't do
that, partly because it costs money to train folks, and a lot of times
young people they take out loans, so they're getting into debt, thinking
they’ve been training for a job, and then, suddenly, there's no job
there.
What we need to do is look at where are the jobs and take a
job-driven approach to training. And that's what you're doing here in
Wisconsin. So we've got to start by figuring out which skills employers
are looking for. Then we've got to engage the entire community. We've
got to help workers earn the skills they need to do the job that
exists. And then we've got to make sure that we're continually
following up and upgrading things, because companies are constantly
shifting their needs.
So what we're going to do is we're going to review all of federal job
training programs, soup to nuts. And then we're also going to be
supporting local ones. I've asked Vice President Biden and top
officials in the federal government to reach out to governors, mayors,
business leaders, labor leaders, Democratic and Republican members of
Congress -- let's find what programs are working best and let's
duplicate them and expand them.
And later this year, I'm going to ask Tom Perez, my Secretary of
Labor, to apply those lessons as we conduct the next round of a national
competition we're going to set up, challenging community colleges to
partner with local employers and national industries to design
job-driven training programs. And we're going to have at least one
winner from every state. And we’re going to invest nearly $500 million
in the partnerships that show the most potential. So we're putting some
real money behind this. (Applause.)
Now, we know that we’ve got to start training our younger workers
better and that a worker’s first job can set them on an upward
trajectory for life. So we should do something as a country that you’re
doing right here, and that is create more apprenticeship opportunities
that put workers on a path to the middle class. Part of the problem for
a lot of young people is they just don't know what's out there. If
you've never worked on a plant floor, you don't know what's involved,
you don't know what it is. If you don't have a dad or a mom or an uncle
or somebody who gives you some sense of that, you may not know how
interesting the work is and how much you can advance.
So while we redouble our efforts to train today’s workforce, we've
got to make sure that we're doing everything we can to expand
apprenticeships. And I'm going to call on American companies all across
the country, particularly manufacturers, to set up more apprenticeship
programs.
And we've got to make sure that once folks are through training, once
they get a job that the hard work pays off for every single American. I
talked about this in my State of the Union. Incomes, wages have not
gone up as fast as corporate profits and the stock market have gone up.
And that's a problem for the economy as a whole, because if all the
gains are just at the top, ordinary folks aren't doing better, then
they're not shopping. They're not buying new cars. They're not buying
new appliances. They're not buying the new home. And that depresses
the entire economy. When there's money in the pockets of ordinary
folks, everybody does better, including businesses.
Now, today, women make up half our workforce. They're making 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: That’s wrong!
THE PRESIDENT: That's wrong. Who said that? It's wrong.
(Applause.) It’s an embarrassment. So I mentioned on Tuesday, women
deserve equal pay for equal work. (Applause.) Women deserve to have a
baby without sacrificing her job, and should be able to get a day off
when the kid gets sick. Dad's need that too. (Applause.)
We've got to give women every opportunity that she deserves. As I
said on Tuesday, when women succeed, America succeeds. (Applause.) And,
by the way, when women succeed, men succeed. (Applause.) Because -- I
don't know about all the guys here, but when Michelle is doing good and
happy, I'm happy, too. (Laughter and applause.) I'm just saying.
But also, just the economics of it, because we now live in a society
where if you've got two breadwinners, that sure helps make ends meet.
So if a woman is getting cheated, that's a family issue for the whole
family, not just for her. (Applause.)
Now, women hold a majority of lower-wage jobs. But they're not the
only ones who are getting stifled by stagnant wages. As Americans, we
all understand some folks are going to make more money than others. And
we don't actually envy their success. When they're worked hard, they
make a lot of money, that's great. Michelle and I were talking --
Michelle's dad was a blue-collar worker, worked at a water filtration
plant down in Chicago. Mom was a secretary. My mom was a single mom.
They never made a lot of money. They weren't worrying about what rich
and famous were doing. They weren't going around saying, I don't have a
fur coat and a Ferrari. They just wanted to make sure that if they
were working hard, they could look after their family.
And that’s how I think most Americans -- that’s how we all feel.
Americans overwhelmingly agree nobody who works fulltime should ever
have to raise a family in poverty. They shouldn’t have to do it.
(Applause.)
So this is why I’ve been spending some time talking about the minimum
wage. Right now, the federal minimum wage doesn’t even go as far as it
did back in 1950. We’ve seen states and cities raising their minimum
wages on their own -- and I support these efforts, including the one
that’s going on right here in Wisconsin. (Applause.) As a chief
executive, I’m going to lead by example. I talked about this on
Tuesday. I’m going to issue an executive order requiring federal
contractors to pay the federally funded employees a fair wage of at
least $10.10 an hour -- (applause) -- because if you’re a cook or
washing dishes for our troops on a base, you shouldn’t have to live in
poverty.
Of course, to reach millions more people, Congress is going to need
to catch up with the rest of the country. There’s a bill in Congress
right now to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 -- the 10.10
bill. It’s easy to remember: 10.10. And they should say yes to it.
Give America a raise.
Making work pay also means access to health care that’s there when
you get sick. The Affordable Care Act means nobody is going to get
dropped from their insurance or denied coverage because of a preexisting
condition like back pain or asthma. (Applause.) You can’t be charged
more if you’re a woman. Those days are over. More Americans are
signing up for private health insurance every day. (Applause.) So if
you know somebody who isn’t covered, the great thing about this shop is
because of strong union leadership and GE is a great company, most of
the folks who work here, they’ve got good health insurance. But you’ve
got friends, family members, maybe kids who are older than 26 -- because
if they’re younger than 26 they should be able to stay on your plan,
thanks to the law that we passed. (Applause.) But if they don’t have
health insurance right now, call them up, sit them down, help them get
covered at healthcare.gov by March 31st.
So these things are all going to help advance opportunity, restore
some economic security: More good jobs. Skills that keep you
employed. Savings that are portable. Health care that’s yours and
can’t be canceled or dropped if you get sick. A decent wage to make
sure if you’re waking hard, it pays off. These are real, practical,
achievable solutions to help shift the odds back in favor of more
working families.
That’s what all of you represent, just like the Americans who are on
this stage. Several of these folks graduated from one of your training
program last year, including Reggie. And as you heard Reggie say, he
feels like he “won the Super Bowl of life.” (Applause.) But just like
the real Super Bowl, success requires teamwork. So as they earned the
skills that put them on the path to the middle class, Reggie and folks
in the program had to look out for each other. They had to help each
other out. Sometimes if one of them slipped, they had to come together
and make sure nobody missed a beat.
And that’s the attitude it’s going to take for all of us to build the
world’s best-trained workforce. That’s the attitude it’s going to take
to restore opportunity for everybody who’s willing to work hard. And
it won’t be easy. And sometimes some folks will slip. But if we come
together and push forward, everybody as a team, I’m confident we’re
going to succeed. We’ve seen it here in Wisconsin. We can make sure it
happens all across the country.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless America. (Applause.) Thank
you. (Applause.) And now I’m going to sign this executive order to
make sure we’ve got everybody trained out there. (Applause.)
END