Independent senator Bernie Sanders speaking at a Campaign Rally in dearborn, michigan, in 2016. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv saturdays on cspan2 and find a full schedule on your Program Guide or watch online anytime at cspan. Org history. Several democratic lawmakers joined the American Federation of Government Employees to call on congress to avoid a Government Shutdown in march and passed the federal adjustment of income rates act which would give federal employees a 7. 4 pay increase. They spoke. They spoke on capitol hill for about an hour. [inaudible] good morning. Good morning. Brothers and sisters, how you all feel this morning . [cheers and applause] listen, listen. Are you ready today to Tell Congress that you need a raise . Yes. Are you ready . Yes. Listen, i come in today with the message, okay . You can with a message, is thatt right . Before we sent our message let me take the privilege to say happy valentines to everyone in this audience today. [cheers and applause] all right. And happy birthday to one of our staff today, okay . But listen, i came in today and the glad that you are here with me. We are here to send a message, a loud, clear message, right . To our senators and our representatives here on the hill. Do your job. [cheers and applause] yall say that with me. Same with me. Say it with me. Do your job. Do your job. Do your job. Do your job. [chanting] all right. Not only do we want them to do their job but we want them to fund the government, right . Keep the government open, keep the government serving the American People. This is the most basic function of congress. But right now the house is setting new lows on this functionality. What do you say about that . Distractive nurse, chaos, incompetence, and, ignorance, brothers and sisters. They want our military arm prepared for battle. They want our prison properly staffed and guarded and our borders protected. They want their meat to be safe, there in water to be clean, and their workplace to be some members of congress, its time for you to stand up and deliver. [cheers and applause] because if you dont, there are many candidates out there who easy can become effective lawmakers, right . And guess what . We will help them get elected. [cheers and applause] now, and heres Something Else we are here to Tell Congress. Its time, matter of fact its past time for federal employees to receive what they are due for our hard work and service to the American People. [cheers and applause] and that last, at least a 7. 4 raise. [applause] a raise that our members naturally deserve. 7. 4. 7. 4. [chanting] 7. 4. 7. 4. 7. 4. All right. So before we go to [ti our first speaker, i want you to say it with me. On the hill, at their door. What do we tell them . 7. 4. 7. 4. 7. 4. 7. 4. 7. 4. 7. 4. 7. 4. Afge, i love you. [cheers and applause] i love you. Lets get this job done. Now, i would like to introduce representative valve lawyer. As member of the House Committee on transportation and infrastructure, and House Committee on resources,nd she fights for our department of sanitation and National Parks and interior employees. Before she came to congress she was state labor commissioner. She was a strong advocate for organized labor. Pleaser. Welcome afge friend and representative, representative val hoyle. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Brothers and sisters, thank you for being here today. I am proud to cosponsored the bill to give you a 7. 4 raise. [cheers and applause] im here to apologize because it is not nearly enough. Because over the past few decades your pensions have beena gutted. Your wages have been stagnant. Because we have people in government, my maga collects, the want to break the system, the want to give tax breaks to the wealthiest while they make you have to work to back jobs. Right . One job should be enough. And then not give you staff and blamed you when things start breaking. It is not right. It is not fair. You are expected to show up at your jobs even when Government Shutdown and you are not getting paid, and you do. Because you are patriots. Because you care about this country. While our colleagues want to get paid to not show up at work and break the system. It is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. But heres the thing. They think they can get away with it because they think we are asleep at the wheel. But heres what i will tell you, is that when you take on one union, you take on the whole house of labor. Applause]d so, what i will tell you is, i dont know if you notice, the right of labor is not asleep at the wheel. No, they have woken a Sleeping Giant because when i could to take it anymore. And im proud to stand with you. I am proud to fight with you. Thank you for helping me get here and i will never ever, ever walk away from working people. So letswe hope we get more peoe and congress that would do that. They need to do their job. [cheers and applause] thank you, thank you. Do your job. Do your job [chanting] all right. [chanting] afge. [cheers and applause] 7. 4. All right. Listen, brothers and sisters please help me welcome representative great closer. Hes a member of the oversight and Accountability Committee where he fights for federal employees rights, he works hard to produce, to protect our department of agriculture employees and food safety, as member of the agriculture community. Hes a staunch advocate for working people and the fire for labor since his days on the Austin City Council when he fought back against right to work. Please help me welcome representative great case are. [cheers and applause] thank you. On the hill at that door. What we tell them . 7. 4. On the hill at the door come what we tell them . 7. 4. What we want . What do we want . 7. 4. And when they say they dont have the money for nobody can spell out the like a union member. We know the money isnt there. We know the money isnt there. Just the other day we saw them send hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to their corporate donors. Just the t other day my very fit bill as a member of congress, they said they want us to work on, these guys who say they care about inflation. These guys syndicate about working people. The first billl the sp to vote n as a o member of congress was to cut the irs agents that go after Corporate Tax cheats. Boo. They always find the money but for when is for the billionaire buddies. They always find the money when its to wage war to hurt people. But we know the money is there to pay the everyday person that is doing the work of protecting this country. That meet doesnt get expected on its own. Those workplaces dont get cut safe bundle. People look at the social to check on their own. That healthcare is something that people fought for and bills Indigenous Congress that you delude and is tied for u. S. Congress to do our job. Do your job. Do yourto job. Do your job. Do your job. I think its ridiculous. Eichinger from texas wanting to make sure that we took care of working people, make sure we get rid of right to work for less laws. Make sure people can bargain a fair contract of have warfare economy and instead what we showing up in saint is dont shut down the entire u. S. Government. Thats what were fighting over, really . And the reason for it is because they are the arsonists and to try to blend the firefighters for a flames. Are we going to let them blame us for the flames . Know, going to hold the arsonists accountable. Were expose were going to expose do your job. Do your job. [chanting] dodo your job. So i think as a member of congress, im also union through and through. [cheers and applause] and so as a close aqi as who are we . Afge. Who are we . Afge. Who are we . Afge. I am with you all thehe way. Thank you all. All right, all right. Who are we . Afge. All right. Already . Listen, please help me welcome a strong labor friendly representative of illinois. Years shes both to her labor brothers and sisters and work for the united food and commercial Workers International association of firefighters. Afge, she is a labor, she is labor. She works with us and brought home a top seat in illinois. She settled Agriculture Committee where she stands up for afge members write every day. Not some days but every single day. Help me welcome congresswoman nikki budzinski. [cheers and applause] thankki you. Thank you. It is great to be with you. Wonderful to be at a union rally. I am a Proud Union Member and proud to be endorsed and supported throughout my career by af ge and the hardworking men and women of your union. Thank you so much. I want to talk about doing your job. You have my commitment that i will do my job. My job is, as you know, keep the government running. You work hard every day and you deserve the pay at the end of the day for the work youve done and you dont make enough. You can count on me to do my job to raise your wage by 7. 4 . And you can count on me to do my job to oppose a Fiscal Commission that some folks on the hill are thinking about that will cut your pay and benefits and reduce the impact fees of workforce we have that we desperately need. I will oppose a Fiscal Commission and stand with you absolutely. And i want to say im on the House Veterans Affairs committee. Are there folks that work at the v. A. . Thank you. Thank you for the hard work you do. You are asked to do so much and not given enough, to do very important jobs for our men and women that have served. I want to say a huge thank you for all of you in the work you do. I want to take a special moment of privilege to honor my sister april from my district and i want to share something with you. Every member of congress has an opportunity to bring someone to the state of the union. I am bringing a member of the afge. April is coming with me. And what i hope you know in that is my respect for the work you do and issues that you fight for every day that i want those to be front and center for all of congress. Thank you for joining me. Have a good rally. All right. Are you ready . Brothers and sisters, i want to take a moment to recognize our sisters and brothers on the first rail wide nationwide Flight Attendant day of action. They are doing actions at more than 30 airports and i want to raise our voice in solidarity. More than two thirds of u. S. Flight attendants have contract negotiations right now. Lets send them our solidarity. Can you say it with me . Go sisters, go brother. United for Flight Attendant rights. Go sisters and go brothers. United for Flight Attendant rights. But who are we . Afge. What do we want . 7. 4. I cant hear you. We want 7. 4. We want 7. 4. Im so happy you are here today. Afge, i dont know what i would do without you because you always step up and take care of the job. Always on task. And today, we need to send a clear message to the congress of the United States and the senators of the United States of america that we cant take it no more. We want to be treated fairly. We want fair contracts and dignity and fairness on the job. We want to be paid what we are worth. 7. 4. We are knocking on your door. 7. 4, we are knocking on your door. Ok. I dont know if you want to have a word or not, but if you do, im calling you out. All right. Do you want to talk to the people . If its up to me, i will keep talking. Dont ever say that Everett Kelley is longwinded right . , because you also may try to get the mic up right. Ill take it, ill take it. Ok. What are we here for . 7. 4. What ill be here for . 7. 4. 7. 4. Afge i love you. I love you and theres nothing you can do about it. So dont even try. Because we are what . We are who . Who are we . Afge. Afge. The one and only. Cant nobody knock us down because when we unify and stand together, we win. When we stand in solidarity, there is nobody and nothing that can come between us. Right now we are telling congress, we want what . 7. 4. When do we want it . Now. What do we want . 7. 4. 7. 4. Listen. All right. For the Union Makes Us Strong. Solidarity forever solidarity forever and the Union Makes Us Strong the Union Makes Us Strong solidarity forever let me hear you. Solidarity forever, for the Union Makes Us Strong let me hear you. Let me hear you. Solidarity forever, for the Union Makes Us Strong. All right. All right. Do yall feel all right . I enjoy being in front of afge members. Especially the day before valentines day. Listen brothers and sisters, our next speaker has played active an active role in the Labor Movement serving as a student advocate for workers rights for the past 50 years. He got his start in 1973, brother fred reverend. In the middle of the steelwork again wasted many positions during National Vice president overseeing the Union Human Rights department. In 2020, he was tapped to chair the cio task force on Racial Justice where i was privileged to work alongside him and groups of labor leaders to implement plans to address racism in our country and pull his Police Violence of black people. Fred made history as the first black man to hold the position of secretarytreasurer of the aflcio. Under his leadership, the aflcio has made great strides, afge please give a warm welcome, an afge welcome, to my friend, my brother, the secretarytreasurer, fred redmond. [applause] afge is in the house. First of all, i want to thank my brother Everett Kelley for his leadership. Everett is the inspiration of working families everywhere. Theres no better advocate for federal workers and it is an honor to call you my brother. Thank you, brother. Good afternoon, siblings brothers and sisters. ,we are all gathered here today, we got folks from different unions and different walks of life to support federal employees. Thats what we are here for. We are here to call on congress to do what is fair. We are not here to ask them to do us any favors. We are not here to ask them to be kind. We are here to ask them to do their jobs and do what is fair. Thats all. And we make that ask. We hold our heads up high. We can stick our chest out and make that ask because Union Members love this country. Federal employees love this country. This is a nation that you serve every day with dedication, with pride. You care for our veterans. You serve our seniors. You protect our environment. You keep america healthy, safe, strong, and free. You wake this country up every morning and took us to sleep at night. Thats what you do. But there are some members in congress who have forgotten that. Some members of congress only see u. S. Ponds in their selfserving political game pawns in their selfserving political games. Are you pawns . No. Hell, no, youre not pawns. You are patriots. Yes, sir. You are heroes. You serve the public day in and day out. And to do so with dignity, integrity, and professionalism. And today were going to remind the congress of that. We will remember remind them it is high time for congress to give Public Servants the professionalism that you deserve. We want respect. We want government workers to be able to do the work of the government. We want to put an end to the policies that attack your jobs and pay, your benefits. This Labor Movement, we have made this country great and we have had to fight tooth and nail to make it great. They havent given us anything. We fought for every victory. We made jobs safer. We made health care more affordable and accessible. And we made sure that at the end of an honest days work, that there be honest pay. Afge and the american Labor Movement, we are going to make damn sure that government workers get the honest pay that they deserve. Look, dont let nobody tell you anything different. A 7. 4 pay increase, that isnt a lot to ask. Not for the federal employees who love this country. You have contributed more than your fair share. Now its time for this congress to step up and contribute back. Its time to stop playing games. No more shut down threats. No more debt default threats. It is time to fully staff federal agencies and fund the government. Its time to pass the fair act. And its time for all federal employees to have collective bargaining rights. So lets use our voices today and make sure this country does not work without us. Brothers and sisters, i respect all of you and the work that you do. The work that you do making this country grow every day. Run every day. You dont owe the government anything, they owe you. Lets not get this twisted. Lets be clear. Lets be precise. This is our moment and this is our country. We are strong, we are powerful, we are united, and when we rise up together as a powerful Labor Movement, we all win together. Keep up the fight. Hold your heads up high. We will win. We will win. Thank you very much. All right. All right. Thank you. [chanting] we will win. We will win. We will win. [chanting] we will win. We will win. We will win. All right, all right, all right. All right. All right. All right, brothers and sisters now, i would like to introduce you to representative Donald Norcross of new jersey. He is the coc