We are in the midst of this terrible pandemic. So many people have lost their jobs and income. We are worried about climate change, systemic racism. We are worried about so many things. Tonight, we are going to be asking, how does this happen . In the richest country in the history of the world, half the people are living paychecktopaycheck. The billionaires are doing well. Does that make sense . How does it happen in our great country, we have millions of workers earning starvation wages. You just heard that on the video. You cant make it on 10 an hour. You cant pay your rent. You cant feed your kids or take care of yourself. How does it happen that the United States of america, our great nation, is the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right . Were spending twice as much per capita on health care than any other nation. 90 million are uninsured or underinsured. How does it happen that today in the midst of a pandemic, becomes because Republican Leadership in the senate refused to pass a covid emergency relief bill. All across america, families are struggling in america to put food on the table. They are worried about getting evicted from their homes. They dont go to the doctor when they get sick because they lost health insurance. What tonight is about is hearing from workers, from Kamala Harris about her plan and joe bidens plan about how we are going to go forward and improve the lives of tens of millions of working families that are hurting today. So again, in the midst of everything going on, we talked about trump and what crazy thing he may have said yesterday or today, we are not talking enough about the specific policies we need to improve the lives of tens of millions of people in this country in desperate economic condition. I think what we will hear tonight is why we need to raise the minimum wage. We are going to be hearing about why we need to end the absurdity of women making . 80 on the dollar. Because they are not paid equally for the work they are doing. The absurdity of so many people who are working 40 hours a week and can afford health insurance. The uncertainty of so many young kids not being able to go to College Without falling in debt. Tonight we are going to focus on the economic pain so many people in our country are experiencing. We are going to talk about how in this great nation with a democratic president and Vice President , a democratic senate, we are finally going to stand up to powerful special interests, deal with inequality, and create an economy that works for all. With that, it gives me pleasure to introduce a friend of mine. A fellow senator from california. One of the leading voices in the u. S. Senate and somebody i know whos going to be a great Vice President. Please welcome Kamala Harris. Thank you for being with us. Sen. Harris it is great to see you. You are amazing. Bernie is an extraordinary leader. One mark of a great leader is someone who requires the country, to look in the mirror and ask, is it doing everything it is capable of . Bernie is someone that has challenged every premise and required people that are knowledgeable people to defend the premise which has been the basis of their opinions for a lifetime. In many ways when he does that, one sees the premise is flawed. Bernie has been someone, look at that mischievous grin. [laughter] he knows what hes doing. The thing about you, bernie, you decided to do it from inside the system. And to challenge everyone from inside. I do believe on that debate to stage you and i shared for almost a year in the primary, that the majority of those debates would not have been on the topic of health care in america if not for a discussion that you started and the way you challenged the status quo. And our thinking about what is possible and what the American People are prepared for and what they want. In front of all our friends come i want to thank you for what you have done and continue to do. You really are a treasure. Thank you. Sen. Sanders i dont want to make this a lovefest. Sen. Harris how often do i get to say these things . Im going to move on now. Sen. Sanders now for the tough questions. What i did want to say, when you are in the senate, we go behind closed doors and have private meetings. What i do want to say, i have seen Kamala Harris behind closed doors. Ive seen the passion and decency she expresses and a willingness to fight for people today they do not have a voice. I want to thank you for the great work you do. I think in this campaign, we talked about trumps craziness. We have not talked about what our agenda is. If you get elected, what are you going to do to help the tens of millions of working People Living in economic desperation. Sen. Harris i appreciate you framing it that way. Enough about that guy. Lets move on. First of all, we cannot overlook the big thing in front of us, the impact of the pandemic on the economy and working people. In so many ways, the pandemic has been an accelerator, meaning it has, for folks that are doing badly, they are doing worse. It has been a magnifier on the inequities that have long existed. For example, the inequity, the injustice and immorality of not paying all workers sick leave. Not giving paid sick leave or family leave to all workers. The injustice of that has been highlighted in a way that for the first time some people have realized, if that worker does not have sick leave, it will impact me. However we get there, we get there. Let this be a moment of reckoning. That is part of what has been fought. Joe and i are committed to paid sick leave and family leave. Sen. Sanders let me interrupt you. How many major countries on earth do not provide paid family leave for their workers . Sen. Harris i dont know of one. Sen. Sanders we are it. I am hearing that you and joe are going to lead us to end the international embarrassment. Sen. Harris we have to. It is morally wrong. Heres the thing also. We talk about premises, you have to understand working people have ethics. They take their work seriously. They take pride in the work they do. They deserve to have dignity. That comes with working a hard day. That includes when they get sick being able to stay home. When they have a parent or child that needs attention, being able to care for them. Knowing they are going to do that because that is a necessity. They will get back to work when they can. Theres something about, we see this across the board, even when weve been fighting for snap benefits. Food stamps. People are hungry. And then theres a suggestion weve heard, if you extend, they wont know what to do with the money. Theres also this ugly premise that people that are low income choose to be that way. Or dont have the same ethics as everyone else, or are irresponsible. This is part of what is wrong with the way we have Economic Policy when it comes to what is right and moral on a global scale. Within our hearts and minds about treating workers with dignity. Minimum wage. Pay equity. It is still the case women are not paid the same amount as men for the same work. When you start looking at black women, native women, the numbers are even more stark. Lets look at when we increase minimum wage to 15 an hour, one in three women will benefit. Four in 10 black workers will benefit. Raising the minimum wage is about the floor, not the ceiling. It is what we need to do to move this thing forward and pay people the value of their work. Sen. Sanders what im hearing, you and joe are committed to fighting for it. 15 an hour. Sen. Harris absolutely yes. Sen. Sanders another area we need to talk about. Mom and dad go to work. They cant find decent childcare. What are you proposing about that . Sen. Harris no family should pay more than 7 of their income in childcare. Again, this is about addressing, the hypocrisy of it all. We say we care about families. Every person running for office will talk about, they are a family person. Families need assistance paying for child care, when we have seen the cost of living has gone up across the board. Wages have remained stagnant. When we see in many places, we are looking at childcare deserts or childcare being more expensive than college. These are the things we have to do. Everyone benefits. Everyone. When any family has the ability to provide for the essential need of the children in their home and, everybody that needs that kind of assistance. In addition, we are going to put in universal prek. Again, the studies are clear. Human experience tells you, when the youngest have that. Not talking about take care. Education programs for the youngest, they have a leg up. People that come from wealthy families have resources to do that anyway. It should be available to all of our children. They have equal capacity to achieve, whatever their dreams are. They dont have equal resources. That is the point of equity. Sen. Sanders i know you have heard in california on the campaign trail young people that would love the opportunity to get a Higher Education. From a workingclass family, they cant afford it. What idea do you have to make it easier for anybody to get a Higher Education . How are you going to deal with the level of student debt today . Sen. Harris any student from a family making less than 125,000 a year can attend a Public College or university for free, including a private hbcu. In addition, so many of our bright minds come out of college with student loan debt. They want to pursue a profession that is one of service, public service. And so we are committed for anyone that goes to a job that pays less than 125,000 a year, we will erase their debt. And by the way, this is not just about what is right to do to encourage students, encouraging bright minds to pursue and education to be productive and contribute. It is also what we have the capacity to do to create economic stimulus. We are looking at, when we get rid of that student loan debt, that gives those students the ability to take advantage of the fact we are going to give a tax credit to firsttime homebuyers for a down payment and closing costs. Can you imagine, the number of students out of college with debt, they dont know if they can buy a home. They are questioning if they can have children. And what it would mean to create a more productive environment, if we relieve them of that debt if they go into jobs that dont pay more than 125,000. Sen. Sanders i know you have to run. Sen. Harris five days. [laughter] sen. Sanders youre counting, i suspect. Youre doing a great job. I just want to summarize for all of the viewers, i dont think we have discussed it enough. You heard kamala outline the Biden Economic proposal for working families. This is no small thing. Raising the minimum wage is an increase for 40 million workers. Equal pay for equal work. Creating millions of good paying jobs and improving infrastructure. Making Public Colleges and universities tuition free for families under 125 thousand dollars and canceling student debt. Universal childcare and prek for three and fouryearolds. This is a big step forward for the working families and little children. When we go to vote, i know we will be talking about trump all the time. Thats fine. It is another thing to talk about what we have to do to improve the lives of tens of millions of people today that are hurting. I want to thank kamala for her Great Campaign and i look forward to working with her. I thank you. Sen. Harris take care. See you soon. Sen. Sanders all right. Let me now introduce somebody who does not need much of an introduction. Mary kay henry is the president of the Service Employees union. One of the large and great unions in this country. It is a union that has helped lead the way to fight for 15. It believes in medicare for all. It is a union that believes in criminal justice reform. Immigration reform. One of the great unions in this country. Think you so much for being with us. The microphone is yours. Mary kay thank you. Im so proud to join you with the 2 million members fighting for 15 in the union. You made a difference in 2016 by taking up the 15 demand that we began with so many years ago. Here we are talking about passing the 15 minimum wage when we elect joe biden. It is great to be here with all the essential workers and their families who are listening today. You and i know essential workers have been putting their lives on the line to keep our country running. We treat the sick, we care for our elders. We clean and protect public spaces. And yet essential workers are completely fed up with the current administration. We have had it with Police Violence against black communities. The covid crisis and economic depression that followed. In each of these crises, together with the climate rices, has made it clear that we are not going to return to normal. It is no accident that people of color have been on the front of these crises and are being hit the hardest. And are risking their lives for less than 15 an hour. You and i see the very people fighting back every day with hope and determination. We have made a decision that we refused to return to normal. Normal never worked for us. We are pulling out all the stops to elect joe biden and progressive champions up and down the ballot that are going to fight alongside us for racial and economic justice. That is why we are thrilled five days out the joe biden and kamala support 15 and the right for all working people to join together in unions no matter what job they do. Sen. Sanders one thing i did not get into is the fact joe biden believe strongly in the need to grow the trade Union Movement to make it easier for workers to join unions. What will that mean for ordinary workers . The proposal we are excited about is 3 million caregiving jobs. Some in elder care that we are proud to stand in solidarity with the National Domestic workers in making jobs that have never been valued. They were paid subminimum wages and excluded from overtime and Social Security because of a racist compromise in the 1930s. We are going to make sure black and brown and immigrant women get included for the first time in the history of the nation. That is a proposal from joe biden to invest in a caregiving economy. That will have impact for jobs like fast food and airport workers all across the Service Sector in the u. S. That is incredibly exciting in how we will imagine growing the economy for everyone. So underpaid nursing home workers, like someone who is going to speak later, will get the ppe they need because they would have the right to join in a union and bargain with their employers to make sure they were protected on the job. Airport workers and fast food workers like chris will get a seat at the table to bargain a better life with the biggest corporations that are earning record profits, but paying poverty wages to their essential workers. I just think we are on the precipice of electing champions we will need to stay in the streets and continue to press our movement to make the boldest change possible in this economy. Essential workers are all in to elect candidates like biden and harris. We are not stopping until we win 15 in a union for the 64 million workers across the u. S. That deserve an equal shot at a better life. I want to thank you for being such a champion in this movement. Sen. Sanders i want to thank you for the great work you when your 2 million members, what youre doing for some of the hardest hit workers in america. Thank you very much. We are going to move forward aggressively after the selection, once democrats controlled the senate and white house. We are going to move forward aggressively to protect working people. Thank you very much for all you do. It is now my pleasure to introduce an awardwinning organizer and author and a leading voice in the womens movement. She holds many titles and is joining us as the Senior Advisor of care in action. Shes the author of the age of dignity, pushing for the change in america. Thank you for being with us. Thank you so much, senator sanders, for hosting this important event. We are grateful for your voice and leadership on behalf of workers. We organize so women of color can be powerful in politics and we fight for policies that lift up our nation. Mostly black and brown women that work in our homes as nannies, housecleaners, and to all the Domestic Workers and caregivers that may be watching tonight, we see you and we honor the essential work you do to care for the families of this country, including your own. Before there was a pandemic, there was an epidemic of lowwage work in america. Millions of workers worked hard and could not pay the bills, as the senator said. Home care workers like susie are doing work that has always been essential and yet most earned poverty wages without job security or access to a safety net. When the pandemic hit, they did not have the ability to stock up on groceries or take a sick day because they could never do those things. 82 of Domestic Workers did not have a single paid sick day. 90 loss their livelihoods in march. Those that continue to work as essential workers did so without ppe, hazard pay, without access to testing or treatment and many lost their lives. That is why we are fighting and organizing as if our lives depend on it. Because they do. Drawnout, fullblown depression for Domestic Workers and all kinds of lowwage workers and a very different path. Imagine a future of work where our voices are heard and our work is valued. Where we can take pride in what we do and offer children opportunity. We can take care of our health and the people we love and have the time to share in the moments of life that really matter. This is all possible in america. Beginning with raising the minimum wage, winning a bill of rights for Domestic Workers, and a care that supports childcare and paid leave for all workers. The workers of this country are ready. The people are on our side. The pandemic has revealed to everyone how lowwage workers are essential, how essential they are to our safety, our health, and our wellbeing, and with all of you, we are building a movement for working people like this country has never seen. We are going to vote like never before. When workers organize, we change the course of history. We have done it before and we are doing it now. Sen. Sanders well said. Thank you. For the extraordinary work you do representing some of the most oppressed and exploited workers in our country. Our next speaker is with the National Employment day of action. An attorney who advocates for the minimum wage and improving workplace protections. Thanks so much for being with us. How badly that i do your last name . It was excellent. I would not go that far. Your first name is easy. Thank you, senator sanders. It is an honor to be here with you and the worker activists tonight. I work on minimum wage and hour federal minimum wage, it has been 7. 25 an hour for the longest stretch in American History since it was first adopted in 1938. It has been frozen. Meanwhile the bottom half of us own just 1 . As you mentioned, senator, nearly half people in this country have zero savings to fall back on. Literally zero. Shocking. Eight years ago, fast food workers in new york city went on strike. They walked out and demanded 15 an hour. They were dismissed if people remember by pundits. They were told their demand was pie in the sky and it was never going to happen. So where are we now eight years later . Seven states have passed laws raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour. States with big populations. California, new york, new jersey, connecticut, illinois, maryland. What does this mean . Right now, one third of workers in this country are covered by a law that will eventually be 15 an hour. This movement has raised the wage for one third of this countrys workforce. Even more, states and cities have passed minimum wage laws just this year. 24 states and 48 cities raise their minimum wages, the most ever. This happened because we demanded it. Workers stood up, often facing repercussions. And in the worst economic crisis most of us have ever experienced. We need a living wage for everyone. We need the federal government to follow these states and cities. Thank you. Sen. Sanders thank you so much for the great work you and your organization let me ask you a question. Nobody thinks i introduced the minimum wage bill in the senate and if Democrats Gain control of that senate, that will be one of the first things we do. How many years should it take in your judgment for us to go from 7. 25 to 15 . The demand for 15 an hour was raised years ago. The cost of living has gone up. The reason we have so much ground to catch up on is because our minimum wage has been frozen for so long. So i would just say, i dont have a specific number in mind right now, i would say it should be we have a lot of ground to make it very quickly. Sen. Sanders that is absolutely correct and let me repeat. Workers in new york city, very brave people marching, that was eight years ago, i was talking about this five years ago, since that point, inflation has taken place. It seems to me we have got to move that 15 an hour minimumwage as quickly as we can. Again, thank you for the great work that you and the National Employment project action do. Our next guest is a cna who has worked for more than 20 years. He lives and works in lancaster, pennsylvania. During the pandemic he has fought for personal protective equipment to protect workers and residents at his nursing home. He is a delegate of his local seiu health care pennsylvania. Thank you for being with us. I would just like to say it is great to be here with you this evening, great to be joining alongside you with your fight to ensure benefits for everyone and equal pay. This incident, this pandemic, has been like the great equalizer especially within my line of work. We have been taking care of the most vulnerable population in nursing homes. We have fought to guarantee paid sick time, job security, when people left for being sick, seiu also provided ppe as well as protection for the hazard pay that so many of us desperately needed. Our residents went through a horrible experience. This is probably the hardest thing i ever had to deal with on top of losing residents. My mother also contracted covid19, became very ill, had to be ventilated, now has returned to good health. I saw in my shop the employees who were nonmedical, meaning not nursing assistance, all on their normalcy to make sure the facility was properly cleaned. These people are not making affordable wages. I am very lucky. I have worked as long as i have, i have been paid pretty well. People that work under me, the essential workers such as the housekeeping, we had housekeepers that went for two months with no weekends off. They just work because thats what they wanted to do. It has been an honor and a privilege to be able to join them and to fight for them. I believe very strongly in the fight for having everyone being able to join a union for the benefits not just for the wage increases, but the dignity and respect of being able to take care of yourself. I know there are healthcare workers who cannot afford to see doctors. In the United States, that is not appropriate. I thank you for your fight. Sen. Sanders thank you not only for the work you and your coworkers to, but i think it should make us rethink what we call critical and important work in america. I have a hard time thinking of work that is more important. And in this moment, more dangerous, then workers in a nursing home who are doing their best to deal with patients who are frightened, providing them the care that they need. As a nation, we have got to rethink how we compensate, you have Hedge Fund Guys up there who do nothing but speculate and gamble, and they make tens of millions of dollars a year. Workers who are providing care to very fragile people make starvation wages. That does not make sense. The work that you and your coworkers are doing is a normal sleeve important. Enormously important. As a nation we have to do a lot of rethinking about how we compensate in america. Thank you again very much. It is my pleasure to introduce chris, a shift manager at mcdonalds. He has worked there three years, he has been a manager for about a year earning 11. 15 an hour. Chris, thank you for being with us. Good evening, and thank you, senator bernie sanders. I am a leader with the union. I am originally from elsewhere. I came here for an education and a better life. I moved from my hometown in columbia in 2009 with my father and my younger sister. At the start of the pandemic, my families life has been turned upside down. My father was laid off from his job in the Hotel Industry but was fortunate enough to find a job in construction. My sister has a compromised immune system and terrified of getting sick. My sister is in the ninth grade and has started online schooling. She struggles with the technology to access online classes. And worries about falling behind academically. I have been with mcdonalds for almost three years as a shift manager, i make just 11. 15 an hour. Even working fulltime as a manager i do not have enough to survive. There have been people at my store who tested positive for covid19. Mcdonalds should have informed employees about positive cases but most of the staff of only been informed about the first case. I have not heard that mcdonalds has closed the store to deep clean after any of the cases. Customers are still allowed to enter the store without social distancing putting staff at risk. Mcdonalds has not taken Workers Health and safety seriously throughout this pandemic. This is the typical life for many essential workers across florida, barely able to make rent. My family has three incomes all over 12 per hour and we all struggle. We are afraid and we are angry. We are risking our lives every day to provide health care, food, and other essential services, but we still do not have necessary protective equipment, sufficient paid sick leave. Millions of working people are being laid off and families are being completely ignored during this crisis. Essential workers you see here today, though our stories may not be the same, one thing we have in common is we cannot survive on less than 15 an hour. Safety and security for our families, and a chance at life in a Better Future. The best way we can make that a reality is by coming together and voting yes on amendment to. To gradually raise wages in florida. Amendment two raises floridas minimum wage from 8. 56 per hour to 10 per hour in 2021, increasing by one dollar per hour each year until 15 per hour is phased in during 2026. We can win higher wages and immigrants like me will make the difference in the selection. Voting for a Better Future for essential workers this election makes this election the most important in my lifetime. I am voting yes on amendment two. Thank you. Sen. Sanders text thank you for your courage. Workers at mcdonalds and other fast food places have helped feed the whole country is grateful for the work you and other fast food workers have done in standing up in the fight for 15. The u. S. House of representatives passed a 15 minimum wage. Eight states have passed a 15 per hour minimum wage. If we gain control of the u. S. Senate, one of the first orders of business will be passing a 15 per hour minimum wage. Workers in america cannot make it on 11 per hour. We have to do better. Thank you so much. Our next panelist is susie rivera. Susie is a caregiver in texas and has been a caregiver for over 30 years. Before the pandemic, she had to work about 110 hours a week. She is the main provider for her household of five people. Thank you very much for being with us tonight. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here, senator sanders. Thank you for having me. I am a Worker Leader for the National Domestic workers alliance. I live in texas or have been a home care worker for almost 40 years. Before the pandemic started i was working over 110 hours like mr. Sanders said a week. Also, now that the pandemic hit us, i am working 80 hours a week. I love taking care of people. I have to work two jobs to make ends meet. But that is not the same for all of my peers. They do not have the benefit of working the way i work. I currently make 15 per hour and this is not the standard, but many of my friends and peers do not get that pay the same rate and unfortunately, many of them have lost their jobs because of the pandemic. But i know they deserve more pay. The financial and emotional toll the pandemic is weighing on me very heavily and my wife is immunocompromised and im the only one who can go out to work. As a care worker, i am an essential worker and i have always been an essential worker. All Domestic Workers have been essential and they will be. We are essential people. Even before the pandemic we were essential. Our work makes all of their work other work possible. We do not have the luxury of working out of our homes like some people have. We just cannot do that. We need a Domestic Workers to be paid. We are risking our lives by working during this crisis, but our survival we have to work to get paid to put bread on the table. Our survival depends on it. But now, now is the time for us to come together and vote for a new administration that cares about us. In this election, we have an opportunity to vote for better wages and a stronger care system, more unity. I am 63 years old and this is my very first president ial election that im voting in. I am voting because i believe we all have to step in. We all have to step in and fight for what we believe in. I believe that we have i believe we have a chance to see Great America change again. We can do it just by voting. Now is a time to vote and i urge everybody, vote like your life depends on it because it does. We are living through different times and like i said, 63 years old, im voting for the first time because there is a need. Everybody needs to step up and do their part. Thank you. Sen. Sanders thank you so much. For the work you have done and for your willingness to get involved in the political process and to get your friends and coworkers involved. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce chrissy from iowa, who has worked in restaurants for 15 years, currently a server in las vegas, nevada. Unemployment has failed as a result of the pandemic. Thanks so much for being with us. I started working as a server when i was 15 in iowa. At that time, the minimum wage was 4. 35 an hour. At this very moment, the minimum tip to wage is still 4. 35 an hour. 15 years. That is half of my life. There has been no wage increase. If you were to tell me when i was in high school that the living wage or the the wages people make are the same, i would not believe you. Now i work in vegas as a server. The issues that people in my city face have always been here. They have just been escalated since march. I myself do not have health care. I have been diagnosed with a Lifelong Medical condition that requires monthly education that i pay for out of medication that i pay for outofpocket. I avoid acknowledging injuries and pains that i have because i know that if i see a doctor, it could put me into debt i cannot come out of. I cannot afford anything that should be a necessity. I cannot afford health care, i cannot afford tuition. The price of rent is going up. My story is not any different than anyone elses here. My story is the same. I have coworkers who cannot afford insulin and go without their shot. I know single mothers with kids that dont have health care for anyone in their family and the best they can do is pray that nothing bad happens to anyone. The situation is only getting worse. 25 of the city is unemployed. We specialize in hospitality and during a pandemic, there is no job opportunities. 100,000 people are facing evictions in december. With mass layoffs and businesses closing, employers are taking advantage of this. They are now offering nine dollars an hour, the minimum wage here, because they know they can. They know they have hundreds of people applying for that one position and that they are desperate to keep a roof over their head. Amidst the pandemic, the rent is increasing. In february, the average cost of a onebedroom apartment in the city was 1100. At nine dollars an hour, that is three fourths of your paycheck. Who can survive on that . You cannot survive on three fourths of your paycheck going to rent. The worst part of this is that they are raising rent. They are raising rent in the middle of a pandemic. People come to vegas to have once in a lifetime experiences, but they failed to realize people are living their lives here. We are surrounded by casinos that have excessive wealth and they offer things to make it seem like it is such an experience, but working in one for nine dollars an hour is not enough to afford an entree in these establishments. You cannot afford to eat where you work. It is time that we support people in this city. They work hard. They deserve to not just make profits for people in control of the casinos. We deserve a working wage and health care and everything that comes with working with dignity. Sen. Sanders i want to ask you a question. Every other major country on earth guarantees health care. It does not matter where people work. What would that mean to you and your coworkers if everybody had health care . You go to the doctor whenever you want, you dont have to take out your credit card. What would that mean . It would mean freedom. It would mean freedom because you are free from your worry of stressing about if something happens, what you are going to do. It would be freedom for, like numerous times i have injured myself and i am terrified i could do damage for the rest of my life and by not seeing a doctor im making it worse, but my best option right now is to take ibuprofen and ice it. It means there is job security. You can change your job and that is not tied to your health care. If i do get health care i would be terrified to leave it even if my employers treated me badly. It is one of the only places that offers it. Sen. Sanders if i could interrupt you again. When you as a human being as a worker are guaranteed health care, it does mean freedom. Not only from the stress about how you are going to pay for a bill, you can leave that job if you do not like it. You are guaranteed health insurance. There are millions of people today who are stuck in jobs they do not like, they dont want to be there. They are there because they have a Decent Health care plan. That is why we are fighting to do what every other country does. Guarantee health care to every man, woman, and child, as a human right. I want to thank you very much. The story you have told us reflects what many, many millions of working people are experiencing today. I appreciate your courage in standing up and fighting for justice in america. Thank you. Sen. Sanders we are almost out of time here. Are you still with us . Yes i am. Sen. Sanders lets go back to you and ask a very simple question. You touched on this in your opening remarks. Every day, everybody hears about donald trump. Putting trump aside for the moment. What does the selection mean for working people . What does this election mean for working people . I think we just heard it broken down for us. It means workers should earn 15 an hour and your leadership together with everybody in this is going to push that and make that a national standard. It means we need to create good jobs where womens work will be valued for the First Time Since the nation was born. She said if we value care for elders and childcare, it makes everybody elses job possible with peace of mind when our elders are cared for safely at home and when our children have access to good quality care, and those providers like susie should not have to work 110 hours a week to make ends meet. She should be able to have one job and a living wage and a secure benefit to care for people the way she does every day. It means that we can join together as a nation and rewrite the rules of all the things that separate us based on race and gender and knock all those barriers down so that we can do what that everybody deserves an equal shot and a secure future and a Better Future for their children. I think the possibilities are endless. Just like the fight for 15, Union Leaders did not care what people said when they made that demand. We have the right to be imagine the best for each and everyone of us once and for all in this nation. I think it is a transformative moment for working people, our families, and for communities of color in this nation. And it is ours to seize. We have to seize this moment and require government and corporations to do the right thing by each and every one of us and our families. Sen. Sanders well said and thank you so much for the great work you do. Let me pick up and close the program by thanking all of our great panelists. Im sure people watching can understand it is not easy for somebody who is not a politician, not a professional speaker, to get in front of hundreds of thousands of people and to talk about what is going on. That is not easy. So i appreciate all of our panelists and all the people who are doing such important work for workers in this country. I want to pick up on a point that mary kay made. When i speak, i quote Nelson Mandela often. Nelson mandela said something that i think is very profound and timely. He said and i quote, everything is impossible until it is done. In other words, people will tell you when you want to fight for decent wages, when you are engaged in a fight for universal health care, a fight to make sure all of our people can afford to go to college or have high quality affordable childcare or that we can create millions of good paying jobs, they say, thats not realistic. What is realistic is that a handful of billionaires have more than the bottom half of america. That half a million americans are homeless. Whats realistic is half hour people are paychecktopaycheck. Starvation wages. That is realistic. We have to get out of that mindset, this is the richest country in the history of the world. People should not have to work hour andto make 15 an not get health care they need. Antrying to survive on 11 hour. Win thishere is to election, and then build a kind of Political Movement that we need to make sure the congress and white house stand up for working families, and not just big money interests. When we do that, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. About, goals we talked universal health care, decent wages, paid family and medical leave, they are not despite what trump and his friends will tell you these are not radical ideas. They exist all over the world. I am 50 miles away from canada. Everybody in canada can go to any hospital they want, any doctor they do not take it out of the wallet, and the quality of care is as good or better than the United States. We are not talking about anything radical, we are talking about human rights, human dignity. We have five days to go in this campaign. Bring out your friends, neighbors, family, coworkers. Get out and vote in state after state. It will be a close election. You can make the difference. Do it, make the difference. Lets win this election for joe, kamala, all of us, then come together to create an economy and government that works for all, not just the people on top. Let me thank all the panelists and Kamala Harris for being with me tonight. Lets go win the election and transform the country. Thank you very much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] with five days until election day, on november 3 when Voters Decide who will control congress and occupy the white house next year, stay with cspan. Watch campaign 2020 coverage every day on cspan. Stream or on demand at cspan. Org, or listen on the cspan radio app. Your place for an unfiltered view of politics. Cspans washington journal, every day we take your calls live on the air. We will discuss policy issues that impact you. Friday morning, we examine the president ial and congressional campaigns in the better ground state of north carolina. Also joining the program the professor of Political Science and director at 7 00 washington journal, a. M. Eastern friday morning. Join the discussion. Coming up live on friday, cspans Campaign Coverage continues with Vice President pence at a Campaign Rally in flagstaff, arizona. Joe biden speaks to supporters in st. Paul, minnesota. Campaignarris makes a stop in houston texas. On cspan2, the Hoover Institution hosted discussion on chinas global influence and relations with the u. S. President Trump Holding a Campaign Rally in rochester, minnesota. President trump spoke thursday at a Campaign Rally in tampa. This is one hour 40 minutes