AFL-CIO speaker warns budget cuts and immigration enforcement will hit working families; urges organizing and political action

John Paul (JP) Smith, executive assistant to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond, delivered the convention’s keynote, framing the national budget and federal policy as existential threats to working families.

Smith said the recently passed federal budget would cut funding for health care, education and nutrition programs while increasing funding for immigration enforcement. “It jeopardizes the health care of our elders, and it cuts nutrition programs that keep our children fed,” he told delegates, and he said increased funding for ICE and broader enforcement would lead to more workplace raids and deportations that affect immigrant workers and union organizing.

Smith framed those policy moves as both a practical and a political crisis and urged the audience to respond by organizing, voting and building political power. He encouraged affiliates to join the AFL-CIO’s summer “freedom, fairness, and security” bus tour and said the labor movement must translate public anger into organized campaigns to protect worker rights.

The speech connected national policy to local labor wins in Washington state: Smith praised recent organizing victories (hotel workers, grocery workers, health care contract ratifications) and said increased union density makes the movement more resilient to federal-level attacks. He also previewed an upcoming AFL-CIO report on executive pay that he said would highlight growing inequality between executives and average workers.

Smith’s keynote prompted applause and standing responses from delegates and was followed by a panel and workshops that expanded on strategies for organizing and protecting public-sector work.