Thank you, T.J. [Rooney] for that welcome, and for the great work you've done as chair of the state party over the past seven years.

What a record. Everybody here has lived that record, but I just want to say it again now.  With your leadership, TJ, Bob Casey replaced Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania has a Democratic majority in your congressional delegation, and you took back the state house.

Great job.  Congratulations.  A great job by all of you here tonight.

And thank you, Pennsylvania Democrats, for honoring a great man tonight -- a great union brother and a great Democrat.

Bill always, always says it's union time. But tonight, it's also Bill George time.  What time is it?  Say it with me: It's Bill George time.

That's right—time to recognize a man from Aliquippa who has traveled a lot of miles in the past 50 years—for working families, for the Steelworkers and for the Democratic Party.  But he never left his hometown and he's never left his union.

Billy and I have been friends a long time. We've walked picket lines together—at Pittston, at Canonsburg Hospital in western Pennsylvania, too many others to name. Back in 1990 when he ran for president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, I'm proud to say my union supported him. And when I ran for secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO and then for president, he supported me.

For 50 years, Bill George has been giving everything he can to a strong, united state labor movement, and doing everything he can to keep Pennsylvania a deep, true blue.

A lot of you look at Bill George and see him as a leader in your state and of the national Democratic Party.  And you're right that he's a great political leader – on his watch, in every election, 30 percent of the voters are union voters. 

But I look at Billy, and I see a labor leader and a good friend.  It's hard to think about doing what we do in Pennsylvania without Bill George. But Billy is leaving things in good hands, and I want to congratulate Rick Bloomingdale, the great new president of the state AFL-CIO, and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder.  If anyone can step into Billy's big shoes, you can.

And I've heard Bill may head south to enjoy some retirement time—but we all know he won't be too far away when it counts.

Billy, thank you for all you have given to working people, all you have given to Pennsylvania, everything you have done for your union and all our unions—for everything you've done for America.

And thank you for being my union brother and my friend.

I'm glad to see Don Onorato and Joe Sestak here with us tonight. Don and I worked together in Pittsburgh on ATU negotiations, and he was kind enough to join us at our Convention last year.

And Joe Sestak, during his congressional career, has built a nearly perfect voting record on working family issues. He's been a true champion for working people.  He's been way out ahead on the Employee Free Choice Act—and you all know that is a key priority for labor because it is a key to restoring economic strength for working people, and returning us to the kind of consumer economy in which people can actually afford to the buy things our families need.            

You know, it's 75 years now since the National Labor Relations Act became the law of the land—and working Americans still need legal protections for their freedom to form and join unions without employer interference and intimidation. That is why we will keep fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act.              

And although there's been some modest economic growth, America's private-sector job engine is dead in the water. Fifteen million Americans are out of work. Almost half have been jobless for longer than six months.              

That's a crisis, my friends. And that's why we must and we will keep fighting for jobs. That's why we're fighting to restore America's middle class, to keep good jobs in America, to keep teachers in classrooms and police and firefighters one phone call away.              

Unions built the middle class. And we're not about to see it disappear on our watch.  Right, Billy?              

It's no secret that 2010 is the year of the angry American. We can see it in recent elections. We can see it in the Tea Party madness. We can see it on the Gulf Coast. We can see it in the decline of confidence in large institutions of all kinds—from government to corporate America, from Wall Street to the political parties—even to the labor movement. We can see it in the hateful anti-immigrant law in Arizona. And we can see and hear it in the increasingly violent rhetoric on the Internet and at public meetings.            

I can understand why people are angry. They're hurting. They've lost jobs. They've lost homes. They've lost savings. They've lost retirement security.            

Wall Street tanked our economy, took taxpayer bailout money to prevent a second Great Depression, then went right back to business as usual—playing casino games with our savings, handing out huge bonuses, and choking off credit for the small businesses that could be using it to create jobs.            

We should be angry.  I'm angry, too. But progressives in this party and in our labor movement have to channel that anger into hope, not hate.  Into progress, not polarization.  Into our values, not victimization.            

We are in a crisis—and it's hard, and it hurts, but those are exactly the times that bring out the best in America's progressives. The Civil War gave birth to new freedoms. The Great Depression gave birth to the New Deal. The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and others gave birth to new justice.              

I believe today's jobs and economic crisis will give birth to a new American economy, restoration of America as a world leader in green technology development and high-quality exports, restoration of balance in which working people and not just corporations benefit from our productivity, restoration of a shared sense of what is right and what is worth fighting for.              

I believe that working together -- standing together -- we can restore hope for the American people, restore the promise of America, and restore American prosperity.            

So—and I think I can be presumptuous enough to say this on Bill George's behalf as well as my own: If you want America to create new jobs with rising wages, stable benefits and promising futures, stand together.              

If you believe that keeping jobs in this country matters, and in returning America to a country that makes things again, stand together.              

If you believe that America must invest in transportation and technology, education and the environment, stand together.              

If you believe that when someone calls 9-1-1, they should get a cop or a firefighter -- not Halliburton, or Xe [Zee] Services, or a recorded message -- stand together.              

If you believe that Wall Street got us into this mess and now must pay its fair share of the costs of getting us out, stand together.              

If you believe that quality public education is our moral responsibility to our children and grandchildren, and that Social Security and Medicare are our solemn obligations to our parents and grandparents, stand together.              

Work together.  March together.  Fight together.  Stand together.  And no one -- no one -- can stand in our way.              

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless Billy George.