at 1:00 p.m., we will be live at that conference in norman spinco speakers include a ron paul and steele. next, remarks from author barbara ehrenreich, chris hayes, and harold meyerson and activists and the obama administration. a spoke at georgetown university in washington. this is two hours >> welcome. think you for joining us for this panel discussion. this is of labor, the left, and progresses in the obama error -- era. before i go any further, i would like to single of several people whose are hard work made tonight's event possible. first, the staff of the kalmanovitz initiative. their help was invaluable in putting the seven together tonight. our student workers -- i would also like to thank rachel from the georgetown university office of communications and joanne who helped with the logistics of this event tonight and put the panel together. her hope was indispensable in many ways to organizing the event. finally, i would like to think the free trade journals that have co-sponsored this event tonight. "dissent,"t"the n-- "dissent," "the nation," and "the american prospect." in november 2009, georgetown univ. formally launched this initiative thinks it to a generous gift from the year kalmanovitz charitable foundation. what to bring together scholars, students, and practitioners who are concerned about the problems that currently confronts working people, the working poor, and the embattled tradition of embattled bargaining and union representation. this was organized in response to a realization that inequality has been on the rise for more than a generation in this nation the struggle of the nation's forest workers have become more difficult in many ways, and yet workers efforts to improve their lives yourself organization has ever harder in a world complicated by globalization, technological change, and increased employer resistance to unionization among our goals is to stimulate discussion of these problems that can in turn lead to action that helps address the problems that workers face today. we undertake that work here at this jazz with catholic university mindful of the fact that social teaching has long championed the right for workers to bargain collectively. workers need a strong voice in some many workplaces this is confirmed by the sad news in today's newspaper about the tragedy in west virginia. this is a disaster that has appeared to take the lives of at least 25 miners. as we open this discussion, we are mindful of the working families that are in pain. how can workers best gain a voice? that is really the theme of tonight's discussion on a labor, the left, and progressives. it strikes us this is an appropriate time to take stock of what has been done since the arrival of the obama administration 15 months ago and what remains to be done. since the new deal, unions have allied with other progressive groups in the support of the democratic party bingo that does not mean the relationship has been without approach in emphasis, so, too, is the situation today. where does labor stand now 15 minutes -- 50 months into the presidency? how can we work with other races? what role can young people play in relation to these questions? these are some of the subjects we will discuss tonight. i would like to introduce the panel to be a starting with the other end of the table with my good friend and colleague michael kazin who is a professor of history and of the nation's for most experts. he, in many ways, was the founder of the union, the democratic party alliance. he is the co-editor of "dissent,"one of the sponsors of this events. next to him is harold meyerson, editor at larger of "the american prospect," it weekly columnist for "the washington post," and a reporter on the american labor scene. next to harold, liz shuler, secretary-treasurer of the afl- cio. she is both the first woman and the youngest person ever to hold this post, the second-highest in the american labor federalization. she worked her way up in the international brotherhood of electrical workers as an organizer, a lobbyist, and campaign organizer. in september 2009, liz shuler was elected to her current office as it richard trumka i's running mate. next is the executive vice president of the service employees international union. he has devoted the past 32 years of his life to the labor movement having joined while he was working at the hebrew home for the aged in 1978. he has since risen to the ranks of what is now the nation's largest union and was elected vice-president in 2004. next to gerry, we are pleased to have ehrenreich have, arthur -- author and intellectual. she is the author of many books, most famously "nickle and dimed," which she recounted her own experience working undercover as a low-wage worker. i am sure many of you are familiar with that book. she has arguably done more to bring this to a mass audience than anyone in america. next to barbara, we are pleased to have chris hayes, the washington editor of "the nation" magazine. he has written in lots including "the american prospect." we are very pleased to have this panel. what we have for tonight is a very conversational format. my colleague, mike kazin and i will inform questions for our panel, but we really want to engage our questions and each other and then after we have had a chance to do that for a little while, and we would like them to engage with you. there is a microphone in the center aisle. after we have had a conversation, i invite you to line up at the microphone and asked were questions to the panel they go again, we are so pleased to have you for this discussion tonight. i think i have said enough at this point and i will turn it over to my colleague, michael kazin. >> thank you. i want to thank joe and the initiative for helping to sponsor this and putting this together. also, to joanne. well, the first question on the table on the leaflet is what is the state of the labor movement today and how is it sharing in the political arena. the way to start this is it to maybe move it to my right hough, not politically but directionally, and start with harold. >> the state of labor is it pretty abysmal. not to put too fine a point on it. in the last year, we have had a truly world-class recession which has been a disaster for certain sectors, represented labor, manufacturing, construction. public employees will -- will probably be the next wave of cutbacks ago it has been a disaster because the chief legislative goal of the union movement which was the employee free choice act which essentially would ease the process of unionizing workers which has become all but impossible over the last 30 years due to weaknesses in the national labor relations act and management's ability to exploit those weaknesses. it is now clear that the employee free choice act, even in a compromise version, is not going to beat enacted. the problem with that is left to its own devices, the number of workers in private sector unions continue to decline. it is currently at 7.2%. at the end of world war ii it was 40%. there comes an imbalance where a de-unionized sector has more and more difficulty supporting a unionized public sector. one of the two developments contributed to the decline in support of unions is quite clear. is evidence in the polling data by the gallup organization would show the decline of unions over the last year ago two factors i think are increasingly the fact that public-sector workers and now, to a certain degree, retain the kind of benefits the private sector workers used to have but not anymore in the current economy. also, the broad perception which i fear the once great united autoworkers failed to dispel which is the decline of the american auto industry is because they are being paid $17 per hour which is untrue. an effective counter measure that would have been the truth never got out. in terms of public opinion, in terms of where the politically, all of those things -- unions are in big trouble. finally, had the employee free choice act, or efca, past there were some major plans to the mass of organizing in many of the major non-union companies around, many of them mass retailers and others. those plans have now been scrapped. the unions are grappling with essentially what to do now. it is my observation, i do not have any quantitative data here, but i believe there is less organizing going on right now of workers than at any time i can remember since i started following the stuff back in the 19th century. my role here here is so people will presumably move on from the somber remarks. despite the fact that there is a pro union presidents and most of the democrats in congress are too in some degree a pro-union, the first year of his presidency has been something between a disappointment and a disaster for the american union movement. >> ok. [laughter] can i just say ditto? however, i will take exception with a few of the things he might have characterized and accurately. i think he is dead on as far as the recession, the jobs crisis, and certainly labor laws. weak labor laws have taken its toll. but it takes a short of a miracle to organize a union now and late today -- in today's climate. there are stores out there of workers who have sacrificed so much to have the basic rights to form a union in their workplace. everything you said is essentially accurate, but there are a lot of good organizing stories out there never led to the point that i want to make. what are the main points i want to make tonight in case i did not get another opportunity to talk? [laughter] the point that i want to make is that the labor union movement is the only authentic voice for workers out there today. it is workers in general and i think that is a misconception about the labor movement that we only care about our workers. go to tack on to that, we are the cornerstone of a more progressive, broad movement. i think if anything is in a sad shape it is that we have not done a good enough job to opening our doors to the way the workplace is changing, the way the work force is growing in terms of the women, people of color, young people, so it is something we are paying much closer attention to now ago in fact, we now women are 50% of the work force officially. women in the audience can clap. [applause] 62% of mothers are breadwinners. one elite four americans are caring for an elderly adults and -- one in four americans are caring for elderly adults. there is in the composition of the work force. the labor movement has not kept up pace with how work is changing. that is the one thing i want to start taking a look at as an officer. we are deeply committed to opening doors wider than ever before. we want to look at how we can change our structure and our system to make it more flexible and start working for the way work is done in terms of contract, freelance, and part- time work. we have challenges in front of us. >> i do not essentially disagree with what harold has said, but i do want to suggest that what fascinates me most about the crisis that we are presently in is that in order to decide what to do to enact new labor laws, we need to build a broad movement out there against inequalities ago -- against inequality. in some ways, we will get efca and then build a movement against inequality. it fascinates me the extent to which young workers do not see the labor movement as a place where you go to fight and equality in this society. it is not a place where you go to build a just society. the days where you see the labor movement as the cornerstone at the social justice movement have long passed. to me, it has been fascinating to get into conversations with young people ago i come from a time where essentially it was a cornerstone of our belief, that the labor movement was a vital part of the building a progressive movement in this country. but that is no longer the case. i was also a part of a lot of other movements that, in some ways, the labor movement was not seen as all that helpful. if you cared about racial justice in this society, if you cared about patriarchy and how to organize against it, if you cared about these other things the labor movement was over here, if you cared about the war in vietnam, the labor merriment was there -- the labor movement was there. we believed we needed to build a way to deal with all those other issues but we had to be relevant to the other issues. 30 something years later, i find that is a challenge to us which is in fact -- which is unfortunate. gefca fight, we should go to the naacp and go every where we can to convince people that essentially it is essential for workers to have a voice on the job and in politics in order for us to achieve the goals of racial equality. in a lot of ways, i think they were more hospitable to us than we have been to them. i think we really have to see ourselves as partners with a whole set of progressive forces out there where we are speaking for them and they are speaking for us in order to build this new labour movement ago -- labor movement. i think it is important for the rest of the progressive movement to see how important the labor movement is it to them a feeling their goals around a variety -- it is to them fulfilling their bowls -- goals about the environment and other things. >> well, there is so much to comment on. i just have one in note -- one note i want to sound off on for now ag. i would say the big challenge facing labor -- i will not compete, but it is to organize the unemployed. we need to welcome the unemployed as members which is not a way that our unions are set up to work. you know the model. you have to have a job than you can organize. before this recession, we knew there are were norma -- there were no more jobs for a lifetime. the experience of people is that many jobs -- they have that many jobs before middle age. there is not that mind-set of being a minor and that is what i do. -- mindset of be a miner. it is volatile. we did not have a structure that acknowledges that people have been laid off are still working people, still in need. now with unemployment close to 10% it becomes painfully ridiculous. i have heard this from people who are laid off in this recession and they say they did not know they would not be a member of the union anymore. that is right. it is all over. my challenge to the union people here is, what are we doing to build a movement? this is not the newest thing in the world. in germany, you can be a member if you are working or not. there is some organizing of the unemployed going on in a few spots in america with some help from the afl-cio. that, it seems to me, is the biggest shift of consciousness. to the working class, it is the same people whether they have jobs or not. >> i start by making a very quick. about the definition of the turn "special interest -- of the term "special interest" which is an amorphous and used in washington. if he were to think, what are the two groups of people in america that have the least to gain -- what are the three groups of people that have the least to gain from the health care reform bill? here is who they would beat. undocumented workers, super wealthy people who, in any conceivable environment aren't going to get very good medical care, and union members and unions with very good contracts. in fact, unions -- the one thing a union can really do for its members in a universe of tremendous medical uncertainty, the bond selling. it has come at the billet -- the biggest selling quite it has in terms of a kitchen table issue is delivering a good benefit package to its members. by creating a system upon of quasi-universal healthcare, they have reduced the marginal advantage that they have to go and yet, when this bill, for all its flaws is the most of the apiece of social legislation, when this was on its deathbed, the american labor movement rushed in shock pads. we should all be extremely cognizant of that fact a =. when we think about what would happen in its diminished state, it still could have happened with slick maneuvering from nancy pelosi to revise this effort to help get it passed a. the labor movement incredible work in pushing it over the finish line. the labor movement remains huge force in the movement. eric massar, his example -- and this gets back to the special. there is a notion that labor is a special interest, but actually the way it comports itself is the precise opposite. in fact, it comported itself -- i said this at a cocktail dinner next to a former republican staffer on the senate committee and she gasped. [laughter] i said it something about how i wanted a more solidaritistic country. now, on the reverse of that, but has never done -- what has the last of what the obama administration has done for labor? not nothing. there is becker who is an attorney who has been in recess appointee -- raise your hand if you have heard of him? you guys are knowledgeable and. there is that and there is also some real piecemeal stuff going on they essentially did not lift a finger to pass that. i wish we could hire the right wingers run the left. they think how can we reward us and punish our enemies. they have no -- have no agenda above that. the bandwidth is not occupied by getting poor people health insurance. it is about -- often, in the midst of government you are making these trade-offs. making unions stronger will help the country. particularly in health care, these are a big issue and are -- -- and are coming at the expense of doing things to empower labor. >> chris is a tough act to follow up and go i think what would be good on the heels of his comments is to put what he said to the panel. there are two ideas, labor being presented as, especially by mainstream media, as a special interest, yet as he pointed out being the foot soldier to help push through this health care bill. i am curious about these thoughts of the other panelists how they read that legislative victory. is it historic, or some people have argued it is a missed opportunity that could have produced more. i put it to the panel for their comments in any order they would like to take this a bigger >> i would argue that it is the most significant piece of luck -- social legislation we have had. i think some part of why in was the best we could do is because those of us who were trying to organize couldn't figure out how to organize a broader public in support of something bigger. that is what left us in the place we are. i agree it is one of the most solid characteristic -- solidaristic things. it would have been smart if we could organize more behind that move. we did not come to the extent it back up -- it is backed us up into a corner and get it is better than what we had. the only way to get to where we go or on a free choice is to begin to figure out how to build a broader movement >> i will follow that by saying -- a broader movement. >> i will follow that by saying i wish i could bottle that and spread it around. we cannot get traction on all of the good things we do social security, for example, minimum wage, none of our members make minimum wage. there are so many examples of this, and for whatever reason we still maintain this sort of negative stereotypes that we are self interest. in this satellite culture that we live in, and the health care bill in particular, we need to find a way to communicate this opposition that can still a health-care bill with two words -- the panel. it is frustrating that we do not get the traction and the ability to spread the good news about what we do. >> one quick thing, and i do not mean to be a spoiler. i have put my time in on a union to get minds and rallies. -- in on the union picket lines. there is a reason a white unions have that reputation. we are over that, right darks i am saying -- as it union inched towards seeing themselves not as being institutions with big