Manufacturing jobs council. This event was hosted by the Christian Science monitor. Here we go. Folks. Here we go, here we go thank you for coming. , i am david cook. From the Christian Science monitor. Our guest today is richard trumka. This is his ninth visit with our group. We appreciate this prelabor day tradition. Our guest grew up in the pennsylvania coal fields. He followed his father and grandfather into the mines. He worked his way to Penn State University and earned a law degree. In 1982, at age 33, he was elected president of the line workers of america, the youngest United Mine Workers of america the youngest person in , history to hold that position. He served three terms as president. He brought the mine workers into the aflcio. In 1995, he ran to be secretarytreasurer and became the youngest person to hold that job, one he held for 15 years. He was elected as president in september 2009 and we elected in and reelected in 2013. Last year, he became a grandfather. Thus ends the biographical portion of the program. I know how important that less detail is, having become one myself. Now onto the breakfast mechanics. We are on the record here. Please, no live blogging. Or tweeting. No filing of any kind while the breakfast is underway, to give us time to listen to what our guest says. There is no embargo when this session ends. He will take several pictures of the session and send them to the reporters. As regular attendees know, if you would like to ask a question, please send me a subtle, nonthreatening signal. I will happily call on you in the time available. Given the size of the group, or limit yourself to one question until we have made it around the table once. We will start with opening comments and moved to questions around the table. Thanks again for doing this, sir. Thank you for having me. I cannot believe this is the ninth time already. Let me start by thanking the Christian Science monitor for hosting the breakfast. I want to thank all of you for being here this morning. I want to say that our thoughts and prayers of the entire Labor Movement are with the people of houston today. Our unions in texas and across the country are mobilizing to help provide the assistance and resources necessary to help the region rebuild and recover. We continue to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the gulf coast. I want to say the word about the job that all of you do. The service that all of you, individually and collectively, provide. Whether you are covering a hurricane or an election, our democracy cannot survive without a free and fair press. Your access and credibility are being threatened by this administration. I want to say how wrong i think that is. At the aflcio we are proud to , represent workers in the media. I know firsthand the incredible dedication and sacrifices americas journalists. All that said, feel free to grill me. I will fire right back. Because thats the way its supposed to work. Labor day is an opportunity to recognize the achievements of working people and to identify areas for improvement. This year, we took a closer look at the tension between work and life. It is an issue that has always been a top concern of the american Labor Movement. Today, work and time off are badly out of balance. You have received a copy of our new report that we are releasing for the first time today. Our survey found the nation overcome by work, as more americans have hardly a moment to savor family, friends, or relaxation. We also found a distinct difference. Union members were much more likely to receive labor day off. For example, and more likely to receive overtime pay if they were scheduled to work. Workers with the Union Contract are more likely to have paid time off in general. Still, the majority of those polled reported working more holidays, taking fewer vacations, and bringing more work home at night. That means less freedom, freedom to take time off when you or a loved one gets sick, rest and recharge after giving birth or attend a childs recital or sporting event, to catch up on some household chores. Paid leave is one area where our economic rules have been written to benefit corporations at our expense. Over the last several decades, it has faced a political onslaught like no other in history. The result has been flat wages, skyrocketing inequality, and diminishing opportunity. When i started, i mentioned our democracy. I want you to really listen to this. A 2016 study shows that only 30 of millennials believe it is essential to live in a democratic nation. At first, that is that statistic absolutely startled me. As i started to observe and a to absorb it a little more, it made more sense area think about what young people have been forced to endure in their formative years. Inequality. Hateful rhetoric and division, skyrocketing student debt. For this generation, the american idea that anything is possible if you work hard and play by the rules has been virtually nonexistent. It is continuing to slip away from workers of all ages. Make no mistake. This crisis helped propel donald trump to the white house. Some working people fed up with working harder for less, sick and tired of a political system that does not address the basic concerns were willing to take a risk on trump. Instead of a bold, new direction all we have gotten his broken promises and dangerous and divisive rhetoric. My message today is this. The change that voters cried out for in 2016 can be found by standing together in union. Union workers, empowered by the freedom to negotiate with our employers, do better on every single economic benchmark. Union workers earn substantially more money. Union contracts help achieve equal pay and protections from discrimination. Union workplaces are safer. Union workers have better access to health care and pension. Heres the good news the popularity of unions is rising. A survey shows over 60 of americans support unions. That number is higher among millennials. The majority of working people said they would vote for joining a union tomorrow, if given the opportunity. So we say, lets give them a chance. Free from the employer interference and intimidation that has become all too common. Whether it is raising wages, paid leave, gender and racial equality, or simply the freedom to negotiate for a better life, unions are needed now more than ever. We can help deliver the economic rules of working people that they are hungry for. That is our focus and mission this labor day and beyond. I wanted to say thank you for listening, and i look forward to your questions. I will do one and then we will go to know noel. You lay out positive things union popularity rising. , we talked about the onslaught you face. You have spoken in speeches about rising popularity. You also said in june that either we grow or we die. We will not settle for merely surviving in the Labor Movement. That is not enough. As you know the Labor Department , figures show Union Membership fell in 2016. What do you see as being able to do that have not done to turn around the membership trend . Let me just correct you a little bit. Membership has not dropped. The percentage of the workforce is what dropped come which means youre not growing as fast as the workforce is growing. We do not have fewer number, we fewer members we have a lower , percentage. Last year you had 14. 6, according to the Labor Department. Thats a long time. There were a lot of newspapers that arent around every anymore. There are a lot of everything that were not around. The aflcio is indifferent. We have lost membership over the years when we had ace light, but and we had a split but over the last several years, we have picked up membership each year. I dont mean to quibble about that. As going to take us Multifaceted Campaign to be able to reverse that trend. There is a strong group of people that are wellfinanced that want to eliminate unions from the play. The republican party, by and large, attacks unions whether its at the state level or at the federal level. We have to work on the Political Climate there. We also have to fight to change the rules of the economy so that working people get a fair shot. Whether thats trade rules, tax rules, labor laws or anything else, that either make it harder or easier for workers to get a voice on the job, we have to attack those. Iss, we have to ramp up the scale that we approach organizing with and we have to become better at coordinating with each other on the organizing front. Acceptable, i guess, no longer a smart strategy, let me put it that way, for us to individually pursue units. Its more important to do so collectively and strategically and thats what we are working on. Is that going to reverse overnight . No, its a long thing. In 25oure being attacked or 26 states of every different level and well financed people like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Abelson and a number of others, some of the owners of , their sole mission is to eliminate workers having a voice so that they can have the Playing Field to themselves. Its going to be a fight but its nothing new. Labor has always been under attack. I cannot think of another a single time in her history when we werent. We will go to you. A twopart question, i was hoping you concert of trace the deterioration of what relationship you had with the Trump Administration that led to your resignation from the two,acturing counsel and to discuss whether it was ever to trulyfor realign the Political Parties by putting pressure on both republican and democratic leadership by doing something that wouldve capitalized more on the working base that he had and won the election with that would have possibly accept leaders of both party but might have gotten Popular Support . All, we obviously did not support mr. Trump in the election. We endorsed and actively supported his opponent. Election, they reached out and we reached out and we sat down and talked. What i said to them at that time was that we will judge you by what you do. If you do things that are good for working people, we will support them. If you do things that are bad for working people, then we will oppose you. We immediately went into that mode. He started attacking things like the burly and Standard Health and safety standards, coal mine standards and those regulations, i had several meetings with the administration and told them the adverse and bad a fact that had on workers, showed them a position that would reverse that and help workers, make places more safe or increase wages and gave that to them, to the ministration. Unfortunately, in most cases, that was not taken. I think the difficulty that you had was you had to factions in the white house. You had one faction that actually had some of the policies that we would have supported on trade and infrastructure but they turned out to be racist. On the other hand, you have people who are not racist but they were wall street ares. Streeters and they began to dominate the administration and has moved his agenda back to everything that i think they fought against in the election. They are beginning to see that. The committee itself, manufacturing committee, it toer really was a vehicle provide real policy solutions. In fact, the Committee Never met. He had a few ceos over to the white house one time to talk about Manufacturing Policy but we were not invited to that. For of the representatives workers, at think there were three of us on the committee, were invited to that meeting. Way to getort of a every regulation that they did not want to have to deal with off the Playing Field. That was their solution are helping manufacturers. Withusly, we did not agree a lot of that. Itself wasittee never much of a functioning thing. We would have gotten off of it anyway. But then we had the charlottesville thing and the president made what i consider to be a terrible statement. The next day he corrected it and then that you day after that he doubled down on the first day. Theree two issues was the symbolism of being connected with him, with that that, as itatement said earlier, was a spirited ense of white nationalists neonazis and other groups of that sort. And we were not going to be associated with that. So we made the decision after consulting with a number of my affiliates, we made the decision to get off the council and i ofss it eliminate one Area Communications in the white house. Even though it was not what i would call the most effective means of medication, it eliminated that but we made the conscious decision that it was intolerable to have a defensive neo, whilesm, not that too, neonazis and white supremacists. We got off of it. Him to bring the theties together necessary predicate for that to happen would have been a strong agenda that he actually believed in that would have been good for the country, good for the economy, good for working people. I think he lacked that agenda. Care for instance he said he was going to Bring Health Care for everybody and we agreed with that. We think health care should have everything. But every proposal that the republicans came forth with and he supported would have eliminated millions of people from health care. There is not going to be a realignment when the policies that anybody a spouses are so far away from the mainstream of American Economic and political benefit. I think that chance became began to evaporate each time they took a position that was so far away from american thought and values. Francine from the monitor . Thanksare being her being here. Along the same lines, the president today is going to missouri and he will be pitching his tax plan as good for the middle class. He is still working on it at least rhetorically, appealing to middleclass workers and he still has some support among his base. My question for you is how can the Labor Movement win back those working class and Union Members who voted for mr. Trump in the year 2018 which will be if theyal for democrats want to regain the house, for instance . First of all, in the last election, President Trump got three Percentage Points more of our members then mitt romney did. Unfortunately, hillary got 10 of our members less than barack obama did. They either did not vote or voted for a thirdparty candidate. That was because they did not , ar an economic message Kitchen Table economic message that really addressed their needs. My members, just like most americans, are angry that the system is not working for them. That it keeps moving them further and further behind, that upward mobility gets less and less, that wages stay flat, benefits stay flat. Well, the country is the richest country on the face of the earth at its most rich point in time. Hear a message that says im going to address the issues you talk about at the Kitchen Table. And Neither Party did that. As a result, i think they were willing to take a risk on donald trump because what he was saying is im going to destroy or shake up significantly the system and i will give you something different. They thought the risk was worth that. They are not getting that because, in fact, the wall street wing of his administration has won out and they are doubling down. On all the policies that got us here. So what we have done since day one is tell the truth about him. What he promised, heres what he did, heres the effect on you and your paycheck. No editorializing, just giving them the simple facts. He said he would do this, this is what he is doing. He said this would be the effect, here is the real effect. You are beginning to see a lot of people come back across the bridge. Our job we will focus on our members in 2018 and have the most robust member to Member Program that we have had in the history of the aflcio and the Labor Movement. Thats where we will be in 2018. Will continue to give them economic information. The second thing is we have tried to experiment with getting Union Members, worker friendly people, to run for office and we started in new jersey. We had a Pilot Program in new jersey and right now, over 950 members, have been elected to union office in new jersey. One is the president of the state senate and we have a few in congress right now and many, many in the state house. There are also freeholders and county offices and things of can get her that we message out. The next thing that is important for us to do and we are addressing it diligently, is to give our members and working people in general a real Economic Analysis and we have a program called common sense economics. It dissects the economy and d bugs the notion that the and notion that you cannot do anything about the economy and you have to go with the flow and the marketplace knows everything. We break that down. Its nothing but a set of rules. Those rules decide the winners and the losers and those rules were made by the men and women we elect. Andso, beginning to go out being agenda oriented rather than people or party oriented. So we will push our agenda, or economic agenda and they will have to come to us. Support thatu agenda, you can earn our support. If you do not support that agenda, i dont care what your title is, you will not earn our support. Go ahead. 2018 on theocus in blue wall. We will work on that wall a lot thatet people out to vote were not interested in voting and show them how important it is to vote. Think several of those states were lost by 1015,000 votes. People whor 15,000 could change the course of history. Npr . Trumped at a couple of things. He coopted some of your most important issues when he talked about nafta and tpp but he also seems to have sub success some success i