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five-member commission minneapolis minnesota and wish you were sitting next
to me she's the circus secretary treasurer of the a_f_l_c_i_o_ ifill
c_i_o_ course
right before this historic outside
which you need to get a little closer that microphone and let me
crank up your volume controls of so whats what's up
what are you doing here what's what's and you know what's your take on
devastation was here fell sick what's what's at the top of your step
one here at narrates nation actually i just for state in the panel on any
quality and
sizes so we've kind of a including cunningham any quality guests on the we
were talking a lot about how the economy as
many at the top bidding richard and those of us some in the middle class and
lower income levels are
not getting our fair share of the pie and it certainly how unions play a role
in
well and they do and spend income inequality and wealth inequality as well
and we we have now of the four hundred richest people in america control more
wealth and one hundred and fifty
millionaire
of the video at the bottom of
basically horrible evidences four hundred people on more wealth
and and uh...
free fair with reverend version one person's work spirit level book spirit
level in his the equality trust dot
org dot u_k_ indignity
they have taken every single state in the united states
and shown how the states that have the greatest levels of inequality
also have the highest levels of infant mortality teen pregnancy of s_t_d_'s of
mental illness of both prescription and illegal drug abuse of imprisonment of
lack of trust in others of i think you know every single failure in schools
when we don't you have a school problem you know it's it's we've got a
inequality problems
so far so how'd houck
what's the union movement to other than the obvious thing that if i worked for
union job
on typically better pay to have better benefits was the union movement to end
it
wake people up inequality
well it's this mission every balancing our economy really ends as you hear very
good with the statistics that offer i went out there which is you know the
average c_e_o_ last year made over eleven million dollars
and there's been a lot of talk about deficits and cutting when in fact that
eleven million dollars you know
buys two hundred and some teachers you know it four hundred seventy five
college grads debt could be a race with that salary so it's really about
educating people mobilizing and bringing people together in kleck div action to
demand their fair share how do you respond to move the
right wingers who inevitably say it may save sneakers
fire call for our class warfare why do you share as a reg people doctors are
all out my hand you are jagger wiretap what they are not there which person you
know i i was like a larger cuts every wickham
and manual idealists and is discussed
set out but seriously how do you respond to that argument that this is class
warfare
well you call it what you will like think the whole point is that we have
hit things are completely out of black in this country ends we have actually
focus on the run priorities thirsty budget debates going on all across this
country they continue to focus on
how do we cut pensions for average americans talia cottages
rate so it's in our opinion the wrong priorities and we need to start focusing
on creating jobs and investing in infrastructure and investing in our
economy so we put people back to work it seems like we have been infected
within films
you know and and i would say a
a psychological illness and that it started
they argue blistered the sixties and seventies with the publication of things
like atlas shrugged and the creation of heritage foundation a really took the
nation
it in its grip when ronald reagan became president and said government is not the
solution to problems governments the cause of the problems and to the best my
knowledge we have not had a president who has given a full-throated republic
for that since nineteen eighty one
even president obama who has done a good joke try to show the government can work
men has talked about it but talk about it meant relatively gentle way that i i
think most americans are not here
how do we changed three years thinkin' he's got you've got kids who
you have done
that kids your people therefore teams who have fifties baby
who grew up knowing nothing other than
this truism business believe
the government is bad and that everything should be done by the private
sector and that in the government protects
like the right to unionize is therefore by extension bad
but we're seeing that all the across the country now with the attacks on public
sector
working people and the fact that they've been denies just by virtue of their
association with the government hands amend also coming out of that
thirty-year trend was this notion of individualism verses
uncollected action in the fact that when people come together
obviously their chances are better of improving their wages and benefits
versus going into your boss's office alone so i think that's what we need to
get back to his is really the power of collective action
you're one of my favorite
cover stories counter narratives is democracy
in the word workplaces are set up as kingdoms
and you get king's inferences and lawrence and and excerpts right
but unions art democratic institutions
unions elector their officers they like their officials recently and
end so unions are democracy in the workplace can we
can we run without thinking get out because everybody seems to love
democracy right now we're
patrolling what they've said harmonized six billion dollar fund to promote
democracy in other countries raywhite place absolutely i couldn't agree more
and i think union some
for whatever reason people have less of an association with them personally so
they don't realize what we're really about where about representing workers
individually as then coming together collectively to demands more and they
create this wealth for companies why not bring them together
have a seat at the table demand you know an equal share of the wealthy help
helped create really right and also be a voice for solutions i mean we've seen
also in wisconsin in ohio and all of these places where they are tacking
collective bargaining
workers have been willing to come to the table and say i know we're all feeling
the pain with budget deficits
why don't we help you fix that and bring up you know our ideas to the table and
listen to us
that's all we have at systems analyst thanks so much for your news thanks for
the great work you're doing this again for your work of it's it's my pleasure