SEIU President Mary Kay Henry

We're also here to pay tribute to tens of thousands of garment workers -- mostly women--who mobilized at the turn of the last century to fight for their rights, to demand a decent wage to support their families, a safe workplace, an end to child labor, and acceptable work hours.

These women and men changed the face of this city and of our nation, by demanding the type of dignity that goes by one name: Union.

They were immigrants who came to these shores escaping pogroms and murderous times in Russia and elsewhere. They came to America with hope in their eyes and a commitment to hard work. They came with a determination to create a better life for themselves and their families.

They were immigrants like 23-year old Clara Lemlich, who had been in this country just six years, when she demanded a strike vote of thousands of garment workers in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, just a few blocks from where we stand today.

The great Uprising of 20,000, which this women-led strike was called, shut down 500 shops while the workers demanded fair treatment by greedy corporate owners. The company that fought the hardest against these women was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. And, sadly, the legacy of the Triangle owners, and their unwillingness to allow union representatives in the factory, is what brings us here today.

Today, we have a new generation of workers and a new generation of immigrants, standing up to greedy CEOs and anti-worker politicians for a voice on the job and a chance at the American Dream.

And we've watched as nurses, janitors, firefighters, home healthcare workers, and other workers in Wisconsin and Ohio and across the America continue to link arms for a greater vision for America-- One where we all share responsibility in creating communities we can proud of, and where people can get back to work in good jobs that support a family and allow everyone to retire with dignity.

And one where every worker has the freedom to join together to bargain collectively for a middle class life, for safe workplaces, and for healthy and prosperous communities.

Clara Lemlich understood the power of joining together for a voice in the workplace and to better our situation--and so did every worker at the Triangle Factory who came here on a Saturday in 1911, many of them working on their Sabbath after already putting in fifty plus hours of work that week.

They came here so that they could earn a meager wage to help support their families. March 25, 1911 was also pay day for the workers. And the change from the Triangle workers' pockets fell out onto the sidewalk as the workers tried to flee the horrendous fire, a pitiful memory of their hard work.

There is an old union song that an earlier generation of garment workers used to sing and it goes like this:

We are here today because the women who died in this fire can't speak out for a better future.

But today and every day we speak out for justice and a better life--We speak for them. Today we embrace their families. We embrace the hundreds of schoolchildren who are here and we bring greetings from the millions of workers who are fighting for their own rights and for future generations all across America.

We owe it to the workers we commemorate here today and we owe it to ourselves, our family, and our nation to rise up to the standards of goodness and dignity for all--And to stand up and fight for a greater vision for our nation and a better future for our children.