Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words Steven Greenhouse Beaten

CSPAN2 After Words Steven Greenhouse Beaten Down Worked Up July 13, 2024

Where companies, starting with the president of the United States really attacked workers and their unions. And then you tell hopeful stories about different creative and innovative ways that workers have been organizing in unions and other forms. And make policy recommendations. One of the things i have to say, a lot of books like this are criticized because they come up short on the policy recommendations but i hope we get into that because you really made quite a few, i thought, interesting suggestions on what might be done to restore the voice and power of workers in this country. Why dont you start by laying out where you see things right now . What is the status ofworking people in this country and their ability to shape their own lives at work . Sure. I covered it at the New York Times for 18 years. One of my concerns and interviewing people all over our nation is so many people have no idea what unions are and what unions do and how they help bring us the 40 hour work week and bring us pensions. The bumper sticker, unions, the folks that brought us the weekend. I wanted to explain to people, unions have achieved a whole lot in American History but now theyre in decline. Theyve been taking it on the chin and as a result, things are considerably worse for workers there was the case 3040 years ago. I think far too few americans realize that American Workers have it bad in many ways compared with workers in other industrialized nations. On basic things. We are the only industrialized nation that doesnt have a law that employers dont pay parental leave. The only nation that doesnt guarantee paid vacation. Four weeks vacation in france. For decades, our workers have been suffering terrible wage stagnation while corporate profits have reached record levels. I think a lot of workers get in their gut that something is broken and they are very frustrated. In my book, i tried to explain why things have headed south for workers in many ways. Worker power in the United States is arguably the weakest its been in decades. The percentage of workers, one in 10 workers are in unions. Down from one and three when unions were at their peak. Unions have their faults but despite those faults, unions have played a key role in building the middleclass and helping give workers a voice. Whether on job safety or pensions. Stopping bullying by bosses. Unions havehave played a key ro in washington. In recent years, unions have been on the defensive and Corporate Power has really trumped union power in many ways. I think we as a nation have to figure out a way to give workers more power to help create a fair nation. To enter wage stagnation. For example, we havent raised a wage in over a decade. That the longest time that the minimum wage hasnt been increased. I argue thats because workers have worker power is so weak in congress. Theyre unable to persuade members of congress to raise the minimum wage and its hard for millions of americans to live on 7. 25 an hour. One of the keys of the book is to educate leaders about the problems workers have and look at strategies to increase power for workers to help create a more prosperous nation for millions of americans and workers. Right, so, i think to a certain extent, a lot of people dont realize how few rights they have. For example, one of your suggestions is that we might go away from our Current System in almost all states. Accept i think montana. In which workers can be fired, a good reason, bad reason or no reason at all. Basically, you have no right to your job in this country. And use a just going towards just cause system where workers could be fired if they did something wrong. Or not just because the boss doesnt like were going out with. Literally, they can fire you for that. Most workers dont think that can happen to them. Until it does. As a reporter, i get a phone call from someone out of the blue saying my boyfriend got fired yesterday at work because he came into minutes late and his boss was angry about his attitude. That he wasnt smiling. Theyd say, isnt that illegal . The United States has at will employment meaning your employer can fire you for any reason or no reason. Except specifically illegal ones like race discrimination. And people dont realize that their jobs can be very precarious. Very uncertain. To my mind, one of the big problems in america that workers dont have enough power. Theyre scared to exercise their voice at work. I write about the Upper Big Branch mining disaster where more than a dozen workers were killed. The workers know about the dangers in the mind but they were so scared of speaking up that they didnt speak up about the dangerous gas filling the minds. Worker voice, workers are way too scared to speak up. Some people argue, we should move from an at will employment to just cause so that workers can only be fired for a legitimate reason. And a just cause system which makes workers more willing to speak up when they see safety problems or encountering Sexual Harassment on the job. The other issue you mentioned, raising the minimum wage. Its unbelievable that weve gone this long in this country without a raise in the minimum wage. As you know, the house we passed the raise the wage act. Which would raise the minimum wage in the United States to 15 an hour by 2025. Gradually, over the next five years or so. We would end the practice of having sub minimum wages for tipped workers who are disproportionately women and people of color and their taken advantage of. And that would put millions and millions of dollars into poor peoples pockets. Working peoples pockets. Workers, i think your point, have not had the power in politics to just get a decent shake in the United States in recent years. One thing that always kills me. I read some editorial pages, lobbyists complain about big labor and that lobbyists are extraordinarily powerful. I did some research and looked at, whos really powerful and big . I saw in 20152016 campaign cycle, business gave more than 3. 4 billion in donations. Which is more than unions. According to a respected, nonpartisan group. Each year in washington, corporations spend just under 3 billion on lobbying. Which is more than 60 times as unions. Which spent 48 million. I think that explains the problems we are seeing in washington. To me, it was clear that congress rushed to enact a 1 trillion Corporate Tax cut for business when corporations already making record profits and wall street already at record levels. How far can we go with this kind of income and on the inequality . Thats the question. Absolutely. It explains why to many folks in congress is doing nothing to raise the minimum wage because they are listening to their corporate donors. Want to talk about these policy ideas but i just want to emphasize to our viewers that i at least got so much out of this book from your stories. And i think its a great part of the book. Really the bulk of the book is telling stories of workers today. But also, throughout American History. So i want to ask you, dont you think that a lot of the stories you tell from 100 years ago say, really have a lot of relevance to today . Why dont you talk about the uprising of the 20,000 for example tell us about that story. I thought that one had a lot of relevance to a lot of the struggles workers go through today. And even a lot of the issues people would think, thats actually not just about work. Issues about immigrant rights and the rights of people of color in society. Minority groups. Sure. Happy to i read a lot of labor histories. Theres been a character that has fascinated me over the years. Her name is clara lem. She was born in the ukraine. She was jewish. Her father was very religious. She worked writing a lot of kids and relatives have moved to new york. She would write letters for them. Because she was very literate. She did some [indiscernible]. Her family moved to new york from ukraine. She has a very awas a very bright young lady. She was hoping to be a doctor someday. When she arrived in new york, she only spoke guinness. Only had a high school education. So what did she do . She worked in a sweatshop. And she was appalled at the conditions. She said i would often work from 7 00 a. M. 7 p. M. I going before the sun came up and i to leave work after. 67 days a week. Yes. Some of the bosses would sexually harass the women. Sometimes they have to theyd be rushed out of the bathroom for not more than a minute or two. Sometimes they have to pay five cents a week to use Drinking Water when theyre just making five dollars a week. She thought, this is appalling. She became an activist. She said im not going to take this. This young woman in her late teens and early 20s became one of the most prominent garment worker activists. People got set up and they started going on strike. There were long strikes at 12 garment factories. It was the decision that, there was a huge meeting saying should we have a general strike of garment workers to try to put maximum pressure on the factories . There was a big debate. The founder of the American Federation of labor was the siding over the meeting. And he was temper rising, well, i dont know if we should have a strike. I dont know if women workers are dedicated enough to their jobs. And clara, just 23 years old, stood up and said i think its time to call a general strike that im tired of being a poor working woman, struggling day after day. The place went bonkers. That began what was the largest trike to date by women in American History. Even to this day. To this day. They were calling for a 52 hour work week. We have a lot of young people that seem to think the 40 work week 40 hour workweek was handed down by god. It was won by struggle by thousands of workers and their unions. It was a strike that lasted two months in the dead of winter in new york. A lot of these women mainly jewish and italian immigrants, their families really went hungry for many weeks. After two months, they won. The 50 hour work week. They won the right to no longer pay for needle and thread. Most of the factories, they won the right to join a union and have union recognitions. One of the few factories that refuse to recognize a union was the factory. Two years later, there was the surrenders tragedy there were 146 workers died in the triangle fire. They were beaten up by sent in by their employers. So my question is, today, when we have these inspiring movements that we should stop mass incarceration. Black lives matter. That immigrant lives matter. That the daca kids are demanding our rights and the rights of other undocumented people. And the movement about climate change. When i read your account, i thought how inspiring for young people and activists today who are fighting for rights in this country. But i dont think in their minds they think, i better look to the early 19th Century Labor Movement for inspiration. One of my themes in the book is that is important. Active protesting to lift themselves up and improve their wages and the climate. But i also stress that agency is very important. They need to be willing to stick their next out and stand up and try to demand justice. Like kara in the uprising. At one point, thugs beat her up and broke 11 of her ribs. How many ribs do you even have . She didnt want to tell her parents because she thought they wouldnt let her go out and lead strikes. Also, explained that the thugs and goons would beat the jesus out of these young women. Police would come and arrest these women and let the thugs go. The police were so onesided back then and it shows how the establishment, the police, courts, or so aligned against the workers. Even despite that, the workers were able to win the strike. In the book, i write about modernday workers who used their agency to fight for better lives. He helped to fulltime fast food jobs. Like kara, he left for work at 6 00 a. M. , come back at midnight. He had three daughters. Hed leave home in the morning, returned after a second job. He complained and the daughters complained, you work so hard trying to make ends meet. He doesnt see his daughters most of the week. For a while, they became homeless when the hours from his job were cut off. It was crazy that someone that was busting his derricre, working two jobs could hardly make ends meet. He became an activist. As i explained in the book, i was the very first journalist in the United States to write about the. When it began 17 years ago and the workers were demanding 15 an hour, i said thats super ambitious. That pie in the sky. Here we are seven years later, new york, california, illinois. Massachusetts. District of columbia have all enacted 15 minimum wage. It shows when workers are willing to stand up. They really can achieve big change. A lot of the lessons todays activists, whether its climate activists or black lives matter or metoo, they learn a lot from the Labor Movement of old. [indiscernible] when workers stand up and come together, they can achieve historical change. Recently as i explained with the strikes in West Virginia and oklahoma and arizona. The teachers were tired of being beaten down. They said we are tired, we have to do something not just to increase our pay but to be sure the schools are getting funding they need. That classsize doesnt alone. That we have enough money to buy modern textbooks. The teacher strikes have sent a message to the nation about how worker power can help build a fairer nation. Lets talk about strikes as a mechanism. They were very important in building the middle class in this country. Talk to worse, you share information and storiesin the book , how many strikes and there were in the 50s70s. Why both because of law and weakness in labor, theyve fallen into near complete disuse. Tell us what your thoughts are today when we are starting to see the teachers, but also hotel workers. The auto workers at gm recently. My kid is on strike as a graduate employee at harvard. Tell us about the sweep and how you see it going forward. So in the 50s70s, there were far more strikes than there are today. In the 70s, there were 300 large strikes. A year. And ahad only been about 13. Far less. Workers had become intimidated. I think a lot of it happened in the 1980s. There was fairly Good Corporation between employers and unions. Employers were very prosperous after world war ii. And come to the 1980s, the United States felt pressure from globalization. Imports of german cars. Imports of closing. Tvs and radios. There was a horrible recession in the 1980s. Those two things put unions under pressure and made employers bold or about confronting unions. [multiple speakers] shortly after when he became president in 1981, air Traffic Controllers went on strike demanding large wage increases. And the four day work week. They engaged in an illegal strike. Reagan, it was a make my day, wet. Even though he had been president of the screen actors guild, he was very tough toward unions but i think hes trying to show, hes not going to let labor push him around and he fired 11,300 air Traffic Controllers for going on strike illegally. The union really mishandled the strike. They didnt work to get enough public support. So they were really clobbered. That was a major setback that really discouraged unions from going on strike. At the same time, reagans crackdown on the air Traffic Controllers really embolden corporate america. We saw this major decline in strikes. And also, we saw corporations getting much tougher whenever there unionization efforts. That made it harder to unionize. Thats a big reason why the percentage of workers in unions is half is what it was in the 80s. They engage in so many sophisticated tactics. They often spy on workers. If workers work to form a union. The number of strikes each year but has fallen to its lowest level in more than a halfcentury. But last year, something happens. I turned in the manuscript of my book, it was a quiet time for unions. And it was the only thing going on. Tens of thousands of teachers wearing red shirts went on strike in West Virginia. It explained how these two teachers, jay oneill, a spanish teacher named those two people really got the ball rolling. They were leadership formally of the union. Yeah. West virginia teachers unions are not allowed to bargain collectively. To give them raises. Cutting taxes to the rich. That really created a freeze in the education budget statewide. Was the richest man in West Virginia. He said, im going to give you a raise of one percent a year for five years. The teachers are upset about that because they have the 48th worst pay level in any state. It often led up, 300 500 a year. The government is offering 400 a year while their premiums would go up more than that. Two teachers started a Facebook Page. Once the governor said, we will give you this tiny raise. The Facebook Page exploded. Thousands joined it. Suddenly, you have this big movement. People are like set up. Fed up. The heat was turning up and up and it was getting worse. They were moving backwards economically because they werent getting raises when their Health Care Premiums were going up. They saw these tax cuts for the rich. They went on strike and they won a raise. They want the ability won the ability so that their Health Care Premiums wouldnt go up so much. They forced the governor to pay more attention. After years of starving the education budget. And then teachers follow suit and multiple others. What surprised many of our viewers where unions are supposed to be weak. Oklahoma, one of the reddest states in the union. I was watching tv and saw what the teachers are doing in West Virginia. I said we can do that in oklahoma. It was really an effort by the teachers and it happened in chicago. That the system is broken. The government is not spending enough on our schools. We are tired of austerity for our schools. Our kids are falling behind in our class sizes getting bigger. We have obsolete textbooks. The teachers went on st

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