If youre on the go, listen to live coverage using the free cspan radio app. President flcio discusses the Labor Movement, the 2020 elections, local trade and tariffs and the trump administration. This event hosted by the Christian Science monitor. I am the Washington Bureau chief of the Christian Science monitor. Our guest today is Richard Trumka president of the aflcio the nations largest federation of labor unions. Ats is his 11th appearance the breakfast so you have become a liberty tradition for us. Welcome. First a bit of background, President Trump got was born in pennsylvania where he followed his father and grandfather into the coal mines and worked his way through college and law school. He graduated from penn state then received his jd from villanova. Then he joined the legal staff of the United Mine Workers of america and eventually became president at the age of 33. Since 1989, he has been working on the aflcio executive council and was elected president of the federation and 2009. Now for the ground rules. We are on the record here. Please, no live blogging or tweeting. Kind while they breakfast is underway. Once the session ends, the embargo is lifted and you can file away. We will end at 10 00. We will email pictures of the breakfast to all of the reporters here as soon as the breakfast ends. As you know, if you like to ask a question, please send me a signal and i will call you as time permits. If you like to make a brief opening remarks, the floor is yours. I cant believe it has been 11 years. And happy early labor day to everyone who is here. As always, i want to thank you and Christian Science monitor for hosting us. I want to thank each one of you for being here today. I have been in the Labor Movement for more than 50 years. Actually, 52 years. I have never in my lifetime witnessed a moment like this and i have never felt this much energy and determination from working people. I have never seen this movement so driven to take our own future in our own hands. Working people are rising to becauseoment in history we know something is deeply wrong. Poisoned bys being hateful rhetoric and divisive tactics at the highest levels of government. Are beingcolor scapegoated, minimize, dehumanize, and told to go back where they came from. Beent dog whistles have replaced with megaphones. Women are openly degraded and discriminated against. Americas welcome mat along the beacon of hope for immigrants, refugees, and asylumseekers including my own parents is being bulldozed and paid over replaced with the clear message that you are not welcome here. Meanwhile, the rich continue to court unprecedented money and power. While people who build the wealth are working harder and longer for less with less dignity in harsher and more dangerous workplaces. Top 1 last 30 years, the has increased in wealth by 21 trillion. In that same time, the wealth of bottom 50 the Labor Movement, our Labor Movement is offering a path forward that is lit by solidarity. Than a quarter of a Million People joined unions. Three quarters of those were below the age of 35. In 2018, nearly 1000 of our members were elected to Public Office, ushering in a series of coworker related victories working people in the past, that is positive, and people always say to us what do you want in a candidate. That wantsandidate what workers need, and if that candidate wants what workers need, we have a chance to those candidates have freely supported and have a history of supporting unions over the years, and we will see what case they make on how they intend to change the rules of the economy so they make america work for workers. Is the besthink person to be President Trump or is that the labor message. It is a workers message and it is a combination of those. If they make the case for changing the rules, they will be able to have success in an election. It is not either or. It is a combination of both, and the more they talk about changing the rules, and it is lawjust change it is tax , health and safety, health care, pension, Bankruptcy Law that have stripped workers of their pensions over the years. What case they make on all of that, and then our members will say that is the one we want and that is where we will go. Newsmax, right to your right. The afl cio was formed and a republican secretary of labor, there has always been tension between the andident of the aflcio republican secretaries of labor. Trumpghts ago, president nominated Eugene Scalia to be secretary of labor. Oppose thelcio nomination actively and if so, why . Glia wasugenes laborted for solicitor of , Eugene Scully i was nominated for solicitor of labor, we opposed him. Since 2002, his record has only gotten worse. He called repetitive injury one time junk science. He made a career of trying to bust unions and do things like that, and as a result, i would ,ay that it is most likely though not that it is most likely we will continue to back im, and his record has only gotten worse. His views are dangerously outside the mainstream and leave us no choice but to oppose him. The buffalo news to your left. About what i would call the starbucks of buffalo, workers voted to unionize. This is somewhat unusual for a small coffee shop, for people to unionize. Are awareering if you of this situation and see it as oppressive for workers to organize even in the smallest of companies . At alloesnt surprise me because it is happening everywhere. Mediumsized,l, and large unions need the voice of a union. We are seeing for instance in the airline industry, jetblue organize, spirit airline, Customer Service agent, united catering, fragile it workers at brown, at columbia, at georgetown, at harvard. Journalists at the l. A. Times, onion, andb, the boss media, they all voted to organize. People all over the country are organizing and heres why. Workers do not believe that either the political system for the Economic System is working for them, so they have turned to each other and understand the only way they are going to get anything is by joining together and using their collective power. Whether you are in a coffee store, equal mine, a classroom at college or kindergarten, the only way to come together get something is to come together and bargain collectively. It surprises me not the least. We have starbucks and other places that are organized. We have different types of things, doctors that are organized, nurses are organized. They organize for multiple different reasons. Nurses organize in a number of places to protect patients. Staffing was getting so thin they could not do their job. No one would listen to them, so they organized unions to bargain for fair staffing and fair training. That is sort of why i am so excited about this labor day and where we are, because that type of momentum and that type of belief in workers believing in each other is really catching fire all over the country. , this particular situation the three employees trying to organize the union were fired. I think that kind of got the other employees joining. I was wondering, is it more difficult in a smaller environment for workers to come together . Unfortunately what you just said, is not atypical. It is typical in smaller environments. Let me tell you about our antiquated labor laws that were done in 1947. 1935 and thenwas 1947, and an amendment in 1959. A group of workers want to organize because they want to bargain collectively with their employer. The employer immediately calls what are called union buster firms who specialize in doing nothing but preventing workers from getting a union. They do these captive audience meetings where they will bring you together. You must come, it is mandatory, and they spend two to three hours talking about how bad unions are. Many of them, you are not allowed to speak. One case someone tried to speak, uped to leave, and ended firing them and the board withheld the fire firing. They take away your job. Guess what happens . When you get fired under todays laws, and it may take you three or four years to get your job back. That means you will have to work somewhere. All of the money that you make gets deducted from what the employer who legally five illegally fired you has to make. If you dare try to exercise your right, your statutory right and have a union, i will fire you. After you get through all that ,ou still vote for union sometimes they wont recognize the union. They appeal it for four or five years so you fight in the courts. Then when you get recognized, used down and they say, we will negotiate with you. We call it surface bargaining. They mouth empty words with no attempt to reach an agreement. In 50 of the cases, after going through all of that, you end up not being able to get an agreement. Typical thatal, workers want a voice on the job and typical that the response of an employer is to fire, threaten, and violate the law because there is no effect, no cost for them violating the law. It costs them virtually nothing. They get to deduct penalties they have to pay. We are trying to get the pro act passed. That would be a rewrite of the law that would put real teeth employer whoake an fires someone illegally pay triple damages, three times what they do, just like you do in antitrust. It would do a number of other things as well. It would make it so in first contracts if you come to an impasse, it arbitrates that contract so you get an agreement and you can get going again. That is why the pro Action Department has support in the house, 41 sponsors in the senate, and we will keep pushing for it. Hopefully we will get it done and when we do, the president will get a chance to sign it and demonstrate his real love for workers. Ap to your right. I am wondering if you think strength inumps 2016 in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin has had an impact in the way that Democratic Candidates are talking about trade, unions, and workers in this election . Backuld you mind if i went and sort of answered that with a little bit more of an expansive answer to give you the framework . I can give you a three word answer but would not really answered the way it is. Look, there is just harvard did a study on millennials and asked them how important it is to live in a democracy. Said it isennials important to live in a democracy. An of those,s not 24 said it is bad to live in a democracy. That is the first generation in this country that has lived their entire lives under the rules of globalization. All they have ever seen our wages going down, their Parent Health care taken away, pensions taken away. They probably see their parents or someone they know lose a home or a household, but then they are told, dont worry, go to school and everything will be hunkydory. They go to school, come out with a mountain of debt and cannot find a job. They are starting to believe is equals low wages, insecurity, and poverty. Those same workers over three decades have seen stagnant wages and have been attacked in pennsylvania and michigan and wisconsin and West Virginia and a number of state. They dont believe the political system works for them and they dont believe the Economic System works for them. Along comes donald trump the last time and says, im going to change your rules. Change the rules so they work for you. People said, i want somebody to change the rules. I am going to give him a chance, so they voted for him. I think the lesson getting to your question the lesson the democrats, and these candidates have come to understand is unless you talk about the Economic Issues that affect working people, you are not going to get elected. They have begun talking about the Kitchen Table economics that affect workers. The more they do that, the more workers will connect with them and the more support they will get. Will argue she talks about Kitchen Table issues and working people. Is there Something Different desh in the way democrats are talking about it now . It is the centerpiece of their campaign. They are trying to change the country to make it better for workers. The economic talks were secondary. Now, Kitchen Table economics are first and foremost and workers are starting to listen. They are having those conversations on the ground in iowa, philadelphia suburbs, pittsburgh, columbus, ohio, all over the country they are having those conversations with workers and workers are listening because they want somebody who is going to change the rules of the economy and make some make the country work for workers. We will start to reverse the trend and see more kids say, living in a democracy is important. The fact that there is a potential implosion was just reflected a few days ago by the ceos of the business roundtable. 181 came together and signed a new agenda about what is the purpose of a corporation . Purpose of a corporation was to maximize shareholder value, and that helped create the inequality that we see, growing inequality. Now they are saying rightfully so, that corporation has an obligation toward workers, the wete where they live in and will see if they translate that into real action. Pitch because of the amount of respect and i guess credibility that the corporate ceos have in this country has diminished dramatically. This could be an election where both candidates are not beholden to them, and who have talked partially to them. We will see. Amanda becker from reuters. On the 2020 race, as you said, you have a field of candidates talking about issues that are important to the Labor Movement more than we have in years. Do you see any early differentiators between the candidates, what those issues might be . Is one of them medicare for all . That is one thing that has emerged dividing the field and some of the candidates not supporting at say the reason is labor. I was wondering your thoughts on that issue and how important that will be, and if there are any other issues emerging at this point. First of all, those issues are going to continue to evolve. We still have, i think a year and some time for that to happen. On the issue of medicare for role, there is no question that ultimately we need to establish a singlepayer system, but there or hardfoughte for the high quality programs we negotiated. You cannot mask ask an American Worker who sacrificed wages and everything to simply say, i will accept this plan here whenever i currently have this plan here. If in fact there is not a way for us to get from this plan to this plan. When we do go to a plan like that, or medicare for all, it will generate huge savings for employers, tremendous amounts of savings. The question will be, what happens to the savings . Do they all go to the corporation . Do we get to share them or split them . Have negotiated hard and given up wages to get there, there has to be a way for workers to recoup some of that, that their employer will get when the system becomes affordable. Our plan should have some role in it, and we ought to be able to go go she ate a higher level of benefits and in fact negotiate a higher level of benefits and in fact, we are. Sanders tried to put out something just last week to do what you are talking about. Are they getting into the nittygritty yet, and what would you say to the candidates on the left who say now you can negotiate for other things and focus on wages . This is going to continue to evolve, and guess what . I didnt have to talk to any of them. They heard that from the members on the ground. Me going and talking to any of those candidates probably would not have much effect, but when they hear it in South Carolina and they hear it in iowa and they hear it in pennsylvania and michigan and wisconsin and nevada and arizona on the ground , they start to take heed, if they are smart. Unless you are a tone deaf candidate, you have to understand what people want and try to figure out a way to meet that need. That is what they have not done in the past, and this is a good sign that candidates are actually listening to what workers really want and what they really need. I think it is a positive sign. Is about hoagland from inside u. S. Trade. Discussionshe between ustr stakeholders and democrats going . To ustr pitched a solution the panel blocking issue . Solution toched a blocking issue, and what specific evidence are you looking for next week in mexico city for that guarantee . There are actually three levels of enforcement that we have a problem with right now with the trade agreement. The first level is, mexico has for years kept their wages artificially low. That has been their model, to keep them low, and to do that they have used a protectionist contract where they had government dominated unions that were not unions at all, that would negotiate with an employer for low wages. Let me give you an example of just one of those so you know what i mean low wages. Last year, the biscoe monda nabisco no biscoe mondelez closed down plants and created the most modern bakery in the world. It is massive, the most modern plant on the face of the earth. They have three wage levels. Level one is . 97 an hour. 1. 28 and top dog is 1. 78 an hour. That was negotiated with nabisco mondelez last year using a protectionist contract. There are in minimum of 700,000 protectionist contracts in mexico, and unless those are gone, unless they are gone, we wont be able to see wages rise to where they should. Here is what mexicos promise in the agreement is. They promised first to change their labor laws. They had done so. However, they were almost 1000 thosenges launched by protectionist unions against those, and in one case they got an injunction against the enforcement of the new law. That,y promised to do they promised to create a new court system. They promised to create a new department of labor, to train people, to do away with all 700 of those protectionist contacts contracts and have an election each year. Each year, they have to do away with 175,000 contracts and hold 175,000 new elections. The department of labor is incapable of doing that, and they are going to create one, and they promised to do that. If t