We are happy that you are here. So am i. Very glad. We need you to save the world. Yes, we do. You guys are saving the world. You just need help to do it. Lets sit down. First of all, thanks for doing it. I want to thank our hosts. Is this on . Make sure everyone can hear us and stay socially distant. But youome questions, want to make any opening comments . I would like to make a comment. My name is frank. I am with the Pennsylvania State Building Trades council. We represent 16 Regional Councils throughout the commonwealth of pennsylvania and 94 construction unions, which all aspects of construction through the state of pennsylvania, collectively we have about 135,000 construction men and women in the commonwealth who are building Major Projects like the planting Beaver County, which by the way, donald trump didnt start. That was started under the obama administration. I sigh press release he put on that saw a press release he put on that they mandated everybody show up for the event he was at. He stood up there and said he entity outt whole there, which isnt true. But i will go away from that for a minute. We have had the opportunity to meet several times through the years, and you have my highest respect. Our Union Members are better off because of you and what you have done in your career as a senator and as Vice President. We couldnt ask for a better friend to become president of the united states. Us,its just it saddens saddens me personally, with some of the stuff that is going on in our country, starting from the white house. Shipe need, we need the righted again. I really believe that you are the man that can do it. You have my 100 support. Mr. Biden thank you. Union from the time i was a kid. At my house, you didnt grow up, we knew who built country. We figured it out early on. This was an occupation, a fannie mae a family requirement. May i introduce everyone . Countyfrom the skull kyl area. Ill county area. He is a veteran from the vietnam war. Glad to see you. Last time i saw you this close was down in york, pennsylvania, the first time you and president were running. I was on the fence. It was an auditorium crowd. I was going to get your autograph, or at least i thought i was. I had the pen and paper ready. Mr. Biden we can still do that. The secret servants the secret service took my pen. My name is bob and i am with the iron workers local 404 out of harrisburg. I am retired from there, in 2003. Started as an apprentice ironworker, a two year apprenticeship under an excellent program. We cant do away with that. Time, for the 35 years i was working as an ironworker, i am 74 now. It takes me a while to get around, not like i used while t, not like i used to, but because of that, because of the decent wage,e made, the living two daughters i put through college, and the third one i put through nursing school, no help from the government because i made a decent wage as a union ironworker. Now, people can understand. I cannot understand what is going on today. I am lost. I get, and i hope choked up when i think about the direction the country is going in at this time. We need your help. So our next speaker is from the local 520, howard. Plumber. Ipefitter and he just got back from being deployed in afghanistan. Mr. Biden a staff sergeant. My son said that is who runs the military. Howard i used to be an engineer. In the army, i am a veteran. Thing is being concerned about raising my family. I was able to get into the union, a fiveyear Apprenticeship Program, a fabulous program, went all of the way through, and i am fulltime now. I have been to a lot of power plants, worked there, worked with various contractors involving plumbing, operations. Good, butn so far like we said, we have to keep the job market, be able to get the jobs for us to work so we can provide for our family and spend more time with our family, too. We have patty who was with and again, she6, works for you, too. She works for the people of the united states. You are werent you, patty . Patty yes, 1985 at years off 19, did service, just went over 35 years of total service with the federal government last month. The disabled as a result of gulf war, but i could not give up my service, so i continued with the u. S. Navy, where i work in logistics to support their needs. We need you to be our next commanderinchief. Quite a few friends and colleagues heart you are likeminded. Some of the things that have happened under the current regime are devastating to the bargaining employees, namely the three executive orders that 45 well, heck end snuck them in on friday afternoon on memorial day in 2018. There is three of them. 13839, and they get the ability to collectively bargain and represent our employees. As our commanderinchief, i would hope that you would resend those. Mr. Biden well, look. First of all, thank you all for your service, and not just your service for labor but your service to the country. Howard, what made you decide you wanted to join the service . Howard pretty much, growing up, i was born and raised in new york. It was very hard to find jobs. My that was like one of reasons, too, but at the same time, i saw myself being a ildier at the same time, so had the plan to do that. I went in the service. I wanted to do three years. I liked military service and wanted to keep the service, which was one of the reasons. Mr. Biden you were in afghanistan as well as a rat . As well as iraq . Iraq, also. Mr. Biden what do the fellow soldiers talk about out there . Howard we talk about home, families. One of the things they talk about is how theyre going to get out and start a fresh career doing something else, run their own business, go to school, have a degree plan, and sometimes, when they do that, when they go to college, those jobs are outdated, they cannot get those jobs, and now, they are sitting on the fence of trying to find a different job or have to go to school or have to defend depend on loans. Did you think most of those guys and women were suckers . Howard no. Mr. Biden i mean, is there any reaction to that . Because youre in the National Guard now, right . Howard yes. Mr. Biden ok. Well, let me ask you a couple of practical questions, ok . Pipefitter find the Apprenticeship Program . Howard i was getting help. They had a Transition Program for vets. That was the trade i wanted to go into as a welder. Mr. Biden and how do civilian employees what do they not get about the enormous talent veterans offer . I mean, is there concern of a vet getting out does not know what he is doing or she is doing, or is there an appreciation of it . Howard a little bit of both, because once you start a new career, you set your mind and learn new ways. It does not always work, but some jobs, they do always work, but construction is a whole different ballgame. You have to take what you are learning from the guys who are experienced in those construction jobs. Go through the whole training process, start a new beginning. And tell me. Be ablehink you should to unionize, right . Patty absolutely, sir. Mr. Biden so do i. How did you find a way to get into the union, after you got out of the military . Patty i was union all my life, as well. My father was a member in pennsylvania at a steel plant. It was a Natural Evolution for me. As soon i got into a civilian job where i was eligible to be in a union, i sought that out and joined the union, and that was 35 years ago. Mr. Biden what has been the impact of the executive orders . Patty there have been many. Office to pay for any space we use on a military installation to have a union office where bargaining members can come to. Get prior approval to use official time to meet with someone who has a problem that they need to discuss, and that official time has been truncated to the point where it is almost impractical to try to use it, and we are forbidden from using our official time to try to prepare someone for certain grievances and certain processes. We would have to use our personal time, off the clock are, and some locals we fortunate in that we still have an office on installation. Some, for instance, like the one at the army depot in new cumberland, they were forced to leave the installation rent some place to have a union office. Command howries by it has personally affected the locals, but overall, it has gutted our ability to properly represent our Bargaining Union employees. Been doingyou have this a while. Long time, sir. 74 years old. Anybody who climbs up 13 stories and works on a 12inch beam and sits on that beam and has lunch, you have to be crazy, but it helps. What youside, tell me hear from your own colleagues that is most bothering them right now. Not get to talk to too many of them anymore, but just getting out there and doing the days work for a days pay, that was drummed into us along time ago, and today, it is still like that. They want to do a Good Days Work for a good days pay, and i just want you to know that i am a pro cracker from pa. Mr. Biden almost grand. Almost, sir, almost. Mr. Vice president , i also wanted to earlier thank you for your help with the national Building Trades, which helps transitioning military into our Apprenticeship Programs as journeymen. I know you worked with us through the years, and to be over, i would say we have 50,000 to 100,000 former military in the Building Trades nationally, and when someone is coming out of the military, maybe they have never applied for a job before, so they do not know where to go or where to look, and programs like veterans in the pipe trades or helmets to hardhats helps them to transition, and your help through the years through your career has benefited thousands of military getting those good paying jobs where they get health care, they get a pension, and they retire with dignity. Care. For our own health our own pensions. I am concerned now with the pensions, with the economy the way that it is, and we had 8500 people laid off at the cracker plant in Beaver County in one day. 8500 people. Because there was no preparation for the pandemic. We are gearing back up a little bit at a time with different kinds of standards and protocols than we had before, but just think. That was just one job in pennsylvania where all of those people had to go home in one day. Mr. Biden the first president in American History to end up when he leaves office having fewer jobs than when he took office. That is the history in the last got more and you have than 6 Million People infected with covid. Heading towards the above 200,000 range of people who have died from covid, and he still has no plan. I mean, there is virtually no plan about how to deal with it, and you see what is happening across the country. We are averaging about 1000 deaths a day. Take the largest seven European Countries and combined them with a population bigger than ours, and as of a week ago, they were having a total of 57 deaths a day as opposed to our population with 1000 a day. He has raise the red flag on covid, and all he wants to do is reopen, but the way he is doing it is causing us to shut down. Look at what is happening at schools. If you have kids, trying to get them back in school right now, it is tough. Me that things can and should change, because for the first time, unions are respected more for the first time than they have been at any time in the last 50 years. Over 65 of the American People support the union movement, support union growth, so they do not want to stand in the way for people to be in a position where they actually have the ability to make a decent wage, a prevailing wage. It is to make sure that we remove the guy who is there right now. The fact is that we are in a position where we can fundamentally grow this country just by no other reason than investing in infrastructure, roads, bridges, canals, all of things we have to do, airports. We could create thousands and thousands of good paying jobs at prevailing wage, and he keeps an he wants to infrastructure plan. 2016,d he wanted one in 2017, 2018, 2019, and he has not introduced a thing. What are we waiting for . I do not think, he has any interest in it whatsoever at this point, or at least he has not shown any. Unions helpede people get through this pandemic . Be a big investment in infrastructure i mean how much would it mean to your members if we were able to create what is estimated to be tens of thousands are actually several million jobs that are needed now . I mean, we need to improve our bridges, our roads. We rank so low, safety. We are in a position where there is no reason why as president of the united states, you have control of a significant budget of taxpayer money and taxpayer dollars, where you are spending federal money hiring contractors to do things. Under my administration, it will all be made in america. Not a joke. If taxpayer dollars are going to be used to hire corporations to do things from building roads to building bridges to whatever it is, it is going to have to have been made in america, any product, steel, aluminum, any product. It has to be made in america. And also, the supply chain. We now have under this president the largest trade deficit we have had in a long time, and with mexico, it is higher than it has ever been in history, and the product trade deficit with the rest of the world is the highest it has ever been in American History. Found all ofse he these loopholes in the law to allow countries to get a tax break going abroad and hiring people doing things abroad. Not be a violation of International Trade agreements. It will all have to be made in america. If it is taxpayer dollars being spent. But tell me about the attempt on the part of operations to provide their own apprentice programs. There was an effort to shut down you all, and they are deciding they can provide the apprentice programs. As it stands right now, there is guidelines to make sure that people who enter an Apprenticeship Program actually get the training and end up graduating to a decentpaying job at the completion of their Apprenticeship Program, and the plan was to eliminate that, take all of the rules, and let the corporation decide all of the on the Apprenticeship Program. As it is now, they are required under federal law and state laws to make sure that people actually do get the training, and it is not just a venue for low wages. We see a lot in Corporate America where they want to have an Apprenticeship Program, and especially in the construction industry, to have people at 50 of the wage rate, so they can have an advantage on bid day or cut their cost of production, and this is problematic. One of the big ones is warehousing. It is only a 15 an hour job to start with, and then they want to have an Apprenticeship Program where they bring people in fort 7. 50 an hour, and then the people. Rn it ends up that we have people just going through a cycle, and the unemployment system gets drained, as it is now, which has never been drained this far in lack ofania due to the response of the president on the covid issue. We have more dead than we are ever going to have in my lifetime, and that apprentice schmidt scheme that was being portrayed by the department of labor out of d. C. Was terrible. I think we had the most calls and comments on the regulations callst in the history of on regulations, so youre absolutely right. Mr. Biden you have the best Training Programs because you are the best at what you do. A fact. You are the best at what you do. Everything that has been that,ed the fact is you know, wall Street Investors did not build this country. Classry folks, the middle built it, and you built a new class. That is how we got to where we are, and to continue to hollow out the movement and hollow out the middle class is what is going on and has been going on for some time now. You, if i am elected, it stops. It stops. You will have the best friend in the white house, because my dad use to have an expression, and there was no work, and he had to move away to delaware to find work. He would say, joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It is about dignity. It is about respect. It is about your place in the community, and it is about looking your kid in the eye and saying, honey, it is going to. Ok the heroes act provides for significant help to allow people, first responders, whether they are docs or firefighters or police officers, whoever they are, the folks keeping these sewers functioning, the people who make thesystem work and provided money for states to be able to pay them. We all know that states have to have a balanced budget. There is a reason why the federal government was designed not to have one if things got really bad. We inherited one of the worst when the that existed socalled financial collapse was, the worst recession short of depression in American History when barack and i got elected. He put me in charge of a program called the recovery act, and provided over 800 billion in wasulus, but what it did, i able to spend 144 billion making up for states def icits so teachers do not get get fired,ce do not firefighters did not get fired, and those people busting their next putting things on shelves, all of the doctors and nurses taking their shots and risking their lives to keep us going, those firefighters who show up and do not ask, by the way, do you have covid . They just take care of the problem. He has been spending too much time on his golf courses and in the sand traps. Think of this. I have been around a while. I cannot think of any president in the middle of a crisis like this, and there have been other crises, foreign and domestic, who has not called in the leadership of the democratic and republican parties to the white house, to the white house, to the oval office, and sit for agreement, but there is no desire to work on agreement here. It is just to make sure he is able to do the minimum things that are necessary to make it look like he is trying, but he does not meet with them. People areot of hurting. A whole lot of people are hurting right now because of things we could be avoiding and i was going to say i do not get it, but i am beginning to get it, because it is not what he is about. ,e talks about this recovery k, one goes up, that is the stock market, and if the stock market is doing ok, everybody is ok to him, but everybody else is getting clobbered. Everybody else is hurting. There is another expression my dad used to say. He said when you deal with power, the abuse of power. Have power out there to deal , unions,abuse of power labor, the only ones who have the wherewithal to take it on, and that is what every employee should have, the right to organize and to make their case for what they are entitled to have, what they should be being paid, how they should be treated. It is all about just basic, fundamental decency. But i think we have got enormous opportunity, because the public has changed. I will say one last thing here, and then you can ask me any questions. You know, all of a sudden, the last not all of a sudden, the last 8, 10 years, there was a change in the following way. Unions where the problem. Remember unions where the issue . Well, all of a sudden, they found out that you had thousands of employees making an hourly rage having to sign noncompete agreements, so if you worked at burger king, you had to sign a noncompete agreement and could not go across the street to mcdonalds to try to get five more cents on an hourly wage, all in an effort to keep wages down. A secret not go that was consequential, and you could not give away that secret because of going to work for another hightech industry. These are people making an hourly wage, just doing their job. And they could not even bargain for themselves, let alone have a union do it. Theemember going up point is all of a sudden, they figured it out, and they figured out the reason they got overtime pay was because of unions, because look at all of the overtime that is being cut from people who were not Union Members. They are reclassifying them as management. If you worked in a grocery store, and you were in control of the man or woman who brought out the cart that had all of the spaghetti sauce on it, you are management. You control that cart, literally. And that is what people realize. This abuse has caught up with them. This is caused by his failure to deal rationally with covid, not even acknowledging it. Going to make it go away, it was going to be like a miracle, it is going to be passed. Past. It will be like a miracle. Everything will be fine. It is about refusing to deal with the problems that affect ordinary, hardworking, American People, and one of the ways back continually strengthen the union movement. Does anybody have any questions for me at all . I would just like to thank you, thank you for all you have done for unions in general through your career and pennsylvania. If you know pennsylvania, if you go to eerie now, there are no new jeer no new jobs in eerie. There are no new jobs in scranton. There are no new jobs anywhere except for a few jobs, delivery jobs, because people cannot go to restaurants, but if you take all of the people on unemployment and then take all of the people who cannot get today,or just going day that number is greater than what they are showing on tv. Especially those who had to move to parttime and have had their wages cut. They are not considered unemployed. But guess what . Inn you get your wages cut half, it is hard to pay for the new tires when you have bald tires on your wifes car. You have your wages cut, it is hard to figure out how you will put all of the meals on the table. I mean, how many people having conversations, sitting down, who is going to tell her she cannot go back to the Junior College . We cannot afford it. Such and such. These discussions took place in my living room, my kitchen, growing up. And now, and there is an answer to it. Money has been appropriated. The money has been appropriated. But the senate, you know, mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, said, let the states go bankrupt, right . Let the states go bankrupt. I think the American Public knows and knows this is taking place and knows that we have bidens record is a shameful rollcall of the most catastrophic betrayal and blunders in our lifetime. He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history. Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He has failed to protect us. He has failed to protect america. My fellow americans, that is unforgivable. The first president ial debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President joe biden is tuesday, september 29 at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Watch live coverage on cspan. Watch Live Streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org or listen live at the free cspan radio app. Our campaign 2020 Campaign Continues with candidates campaigning and debating. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Aflcio president Richard Trumka spoke to reporters about the economy, the Labor Movement and the president ial campaign. This event held by videoconference was hosted by the Christian Science monitor. I. All right. Hello, everybody. I am the Washington Bureau chief of the Christian Science monitor. Our guest is Richard Trumka, president of the aflcio, which is the nations largest federation of labor unions. This is his 12th appearance at the breakfast and our annual prelabor day tradition. It is also our first zoom breakfast. The kind and gentle. Welcome, everybody. Welcome, mr. Trumka. First, a programming note. You should know that we are being recorded and that cspan is also recording for a leader broadcast. You know, just so you
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