ILA History 1983: President Ronald Reagan’s Remarks at the Quadrennial Convention of the International Longshoremen’s Association in Hollywood, Florida

July 18, 1983

Members of the Cabinet, Senator Hawkins, Members of the House of Representatives who are here, the distinguished people here on the podium, and you ladies and gentlemen:

I want you to know that I thank you for that very warm welcome. If I’d gotten this good a reception in that other Hollywood, I wouldn’t have left. [Laughter]

But it’s a pleasure to be here at this gathering of the International Longshoremen’s Association. And it’s always a pleasure to be with Teddy Gleason. I’ll tell you what I’ve always liked about Teddy, he sticks by his union. He sticks by his friends, and he sticks by his country—the kind of integrity and loyalty that is hard to come by today. And one reason that I wanted to come here was to thank Teddy and you members of the ILA for your generous support and encouragement. Having the support of union members like yourselves has meant a great deal to me.

I hope I’ve returned that support. One of the things that I’m trying to do for union members and for all Americans is to fix things so that you can keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket where it belongs. Not long ago, inflation was public enemy number one. We were told it could be a decade or more before we could ever hope to conquer it. Well, we’ve brought inflation down from double digit to 3 1/2 percent for the last year and less than 2 percent for the last 6 months. And that has helped the working men and women of this nation…

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