Dear President-Elect Trump,

Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) and its 4,000 member-employers congratulate you on your election as President of the United States. Massachusetts employers, large and small, from all sectors of the economy, affirm our commitment to unifying this great nation and to restoring faith in our economic and government institutions.

AIM employers proudly provide jobs that allow 650,000 people to build lives for themselves and their families. We embrace the notion that private sector has the unique ability – and responsibility ” to create the common wealth for the citizens of Massachusetts.

The days after a hard-fought presidential election have traditionally been a time to mend the divisions in our country, with political parties and nominees moving beyond the harshness of the campaign season and putting our nation, and our democratic system, first before all else.

We take encouragement from your words early this morning:

“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”

The rancor and divisiveness of both the presidential campaign and the general political discourse make unity not just a polite platitude in 2016, but an essential part of reinvigorating our democracy. We are reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Associated Industries of Massachusetts looks forward to working with the Trump Administration to strengthen the United States economy and raise the economic fortunes of all Americans. We certainly will not agree on all issues, but AIM believes in the transformative power of political debate and will make our voices heard respectfully on all issues affecting employers.

We commit to maintain a constructive dialogue and an approach guided by an unwavering commitment to a greater purpose. AIM has already taken that approach by creating a long-term economic plan for Massachusetts called The Blueprint for the Next Century.

The Blueprint articulates the objectives, priorities, hopes and dreams of Massachusetts employers:

1. Develop the best system in the world for educating and training workers with the skills needed to allow companies to succeed in a rapidly changing global economy.
2. Support business formation and expansion by creating a uniformly competitive economic structure, a structure that must include a reliable transportation system.
3. Establish a world-class regulatory system that ensures the health and welfare of society in a manner that meets the highest standards of efficiency, predictability, transparency and responsiveness.
4. Moderate the immense long-term burden that health care and energy costs place on business growth.

Those objectives inform the position of Massachusetts employers on a host of issues you will confront upon taking office, from encouraging fair agreements on international trade to creating a balanced National Labor Relations Board to correcting problems with federal health-care reform that threaten the economic survival of small companies here in the commonwealth.

Most immediately, the employers who create prosperity in Massachusetts eagerly anticipate your efforts to accomplish the “urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream.”

Congratulations again.