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October 27, 2004    DOL Home > Newsroom > Speeches & Remarks   

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
2004 Opportunity Conference
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Good afternoon and thank you, Armando [Ojeda, President & CEO, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce].

Welcome to the 2004 Opportunity Conference! What a terrific turnout—for the second year in a row!

I want to thank Melanie Sabelhaus, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, for the terrific support the SBA gives us every year.

I also want to thank other members of President George W. Bush's Administration for their participation: Brian Montgomery, Special Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary; Eddy Badrina, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders; Karl Reichelt, Chief Acquisitions Officer of the U.S. General Services Administration; Sam Mok, Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Shinae Chun, Director of the Women's Bureau.

And of course special acknowledgements go to our 14 Hispanic and Asian Pacific American partner organizations as well, including those led by Susan Au Allen, J.R. Gonzales and Karen Kerrigan. And I want to thank our special guests who traveled here to participate—Illinois State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, Diamond Bar, California City Councilman Wen Chang and Maryland Secretary of Labor James Fielder. We are so glad to have you here.

And many thanks to Anna Hui and Karen Czarnecki and their teams for making all the arrangements for this great event.

And I want to thank you —1,140 strong from 39 states and territories—for traveling from as far away as American Samoa to invest in yourself and your community at the second annual Opportunity Conference.

We have a great program for you today. Whether you're a small business owner, a new entrepreneur or a faith-based and community organization leader, we want you to leave here today with new knowledge, new contacts, new opportunities and new tools to grow and succeed.

All of you are key players in your community because you contribute to economic development at the grassroots level. The goal of this conference is to help you—and also to help the government, by understanding your needs and how federal government agencies can serve you better.

The Asian Pacific and Hispanic communities are at the forefront of entrepreneurship in our country, opening up record numbers of small and medium-sized businesses. And faith-based and community groups have an important role to play in economic development by providing critical support services through housing, job training and other services to workers.

As President George W. Bush has said many times before, small businesses are the engine of economic growth, creating two out of every three new jobs. So not only are you building a better future for your family and your community, but your hard work is strengthening the economic security of our nation.

The two Opportunity Conferences sponsored by this Administration are the only ones devoted exclusively to strengthening the economic development of the Asian Pacific and Hispanic American communities. These are two of the fastest growing population groups in the 21st century workforce.

That's why the menu of workshops is so inclusive. You'll find panels on accessing capital, financial literacy, marketing and partnering with faith-based and community organizations.

There are panels to help you with key workforce issues, including complying with our nation's labor laws. And there are workshops on accessing federal grants and the federal procurement process. These are very important opportunities.

Each year, the federal government purchases billions of dollars of goods and services from the private sector. Learning how to access these opportunities is important not only to you, but to the federal government.

This Administration values diversity and the skill sets that the Hispanic and Asian Pacific communities bring to the table. The President and I understand that as our country becomes more diverse, it is crucial for the federal government to be able to serve the unique needs of all communities.

I know that for those of you who are relative newcomers—and entrepreneurs starting out in this country—it's tough to know what information, services and programs are available. This conference will help point you in the right direction. That's why I initiated the Opportunity Conference—to help fulfill the President's vision of a society that respects and reflects our nation's diversity.

The ability to network and gain new knowledge is so important for newcomers. I remember how difficult it was for my family and me, when we first came to America, to understand how things are done and where to go for help. It's difficult to learn how to work within mainstream American culture, to speak a new language and to master a new way of doing things. I know for many, the challenge is to maintain our individual heritage for ourselves and our families as we participate fully in mainstream America.

The workplace today is becoming much more diverse. It is common to find workers from many different cultures in the same workplace. That means communication skills are more important than ever before. Whether you are trying to sell a product, a service or an idea—or supervising others—you will be more successful if you can communicate effectively. Effective communication is the key to articulating your goals and motivating others.

You will find that teamwork is another key building block in creating a successful business or organization. So today I want you to think of this Administration, under President George W. Bush, as part of your team.

I am very proud to work for a President and an Administration that has done so much to reach out to our communities—both in terms of appointments and programs. President George W. Bush has appointed more Hispanic and Asian Pacific Americans to top positions in the federal government than any other President in United States' history.

Let me name just a few. Some of the President's top Hispanic appointees include former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez; Alberto Gonzalez, Counsel to the President; Hector Barreto, Administrator of the Small Business Administration; Gaddi Vazquez, Director of the Peace Corps; Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General; Cari Dominguez, Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Fred Juarbe, Assistant Secretary for Veterans Training and Employment; and Eduardo Aguirre, Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

President Bush has tapped the Asian American community for top positions in his Administration, as well. This includes for the first time ever two cabinet members.

Over 220 APA appointees have been named to the highest levels of our Government. They include: Sichan Siv, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council; David Chu, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; Dr. Margaret Chu, Director, U.S. Department of Energy; Phyllis Fong, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Michael Liu, Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public and Indian Housing; Joseph Jen, Undersecretary of Agriculture; Karan Bhatia, Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs; Chiling Tong, Associate Director for Minority Business Development, U.S. Department of Commerce; Marina Tse, Principal Associate Deputy Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education; Ed Moy, Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel; and Susan Ralston, Executive Assistant to the Senior Advisor to the President. Also with us today are Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Peace Corps; Dr. Paul Jhin, Director of the Office of Planning, Policy and Analysis of the U.S. Peace Corps, and several members of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Betty Wu, William Afeaki, Vellie Dietrich-Hall, Jimmy Lee, Rudy Pamintuan, Ken Wong, Nina Collier, Joe Mellokaran and Derrick Nguyen.

And I am proud of the fact that the U S. Department of Labor has the largest number of Asian Pacific American appointees in the federal government.

At the Labor Department, we are doing our part to reach out to the Hispanic and Asian Pacific American communities. This Administration's goal is to protect Asian Pacific and Hispanic American workers and to help faith-based and community organizations and entrepreneurs thrive and succeed.

So the Labor Department is translating its publications and Web sites on health, safety and fair compensation into multiple languages. And the Department is aggressively enforcing worker safety and fair compensation laws to ensure that vulnerable immigrants are protected on the job and are fully compensated for their work.

For the Hispanic community, this year the U.S. Labor Department sponsored the first-ever Hispanic Safety and Health Summit. The Department signed a worker protection agreement with the Mexican government to improve workplace protections for Mexican workers in the United States. And the Department launched a special initiative to help Hispanic workers develop greater English proficiency and workplace skills so they can move up the economic ladder and access new opportunities in high growth fields.

As a result of these and other initiatives, there has been a historic decline in workplace fatalities and fatality rates for Hispanic workers. In 2002, workplace fatalities among Hispanic workers declined for the first time in seven years. This shows that the Department's aggressive enforcement programs and policies are working.

For the Asian Pacific American community, the Department has formed partnerships with Asian Pacific American organizations all across the country to educate Asian Pacific Americans about their workplace rights and to encourage workers to report violations. The partnership with Asian Pacific American community groups in Houston, Texas, for example, has helped the Labor Department collect more than $187,000 in wages for 248 employees.

The Department is also aggressively enforcing wage and hour laws in the garment manufacturing, health care and hospitality industries where many vulnerable immigrants are employed. Last year, the Labor Department recovered more than $212 million in back wages for workers. And the Department obtained more than $1.2 million in unpaid wages for several hundred Asian garment workers in Northern California.

And to keep track of the big-picture employment trends in the Asian Pacific American communities, the U.S. Department of Labor's monthly unemployment report now includes, for the first time in history, specific data on Asian Pacific and Hispanic Americans.

In addition to this conference, the Department has also launched many programs to help entrepreneurs in your communities. Project G.A.T.E.—Growing America Through Entrepreneurship—is one of them. It promotes small business development, especially in historical underserved Asian Pacific and Hispanic American populations.

You can learn more about this—and other programs for your communities—by visiting the DOL booth in the exhibit hall. We are also distributing a copy of the Labor Beacon —a publication of hope and opportunity outlining many recent initiatives for your communities—to everyone at this conference.

Many in our communities are unaware of these and other resources to help them. So that's why this conference is so important—to support entrepreneurs like you and others who are the foundation of our free enterprise and job creation system.

As we try to play a greater role in mainstream America, I hope you will know that you are contributing to the diversity that makes our country the strongest economic system in the world.

America is the land of opportunity. I hope you believe that with all your heart. If you have a plan, have the courage of your convictions, and never give up, you will succeed. Maybe not in the way you originally planned, but you will succeed. We want to help you make that happen. We hope this conference—and the resources it offers– will help you and your family realize your dreams.

So please enjoy this conference. The whole purpose of this Conference is to serve you. God bless you. God bless America.

Thank you.

 

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