Of a twoweek campaign of direct action protests. More than 700 people have already been arrested. We will speak to one of the cofounders of Extinction Rebellion. Then some 40,000 workers at General Motors have entered their fourth week on strike. Itit is the longest National Strike at gm by the United Auto Workers in nearly hahalf a centntury. We will get the latest. And we will go to chicago to speak with the head of the Chicago Teachers Union which has voted to go onon strike next we. W we need staffing and errors like nursing, for social workers and special education services. Need enforceable caps on by sizes. Pay and benefits alalone are not enoughgh. We care deeply about the learning and working conditions in our schools. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Turkeys powerful military has massed troops and heavy weapons on its border with syria, as u. S. Troops heeded President Trumps order to step aside as turkish troops prepare an offensive against Kurdishled Syrian Democratic forces. Trumps abrupt decision sunday to abandon the u. S. s kurdish allies in syria came after a phone call with turkeys authoritarian president , recep tayyip erdogan. Trump ininsisteded he had one insurance is that turkey would limit the scope of its fight against kurdish forces, tweeting if turkey does anything that i and my great and unmatched wisdom consider to be off limits, i will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of turkey. Trumps condemnation on both sides of wasashingtons politicl divide. Republican senator lindsey graham, a close trump ally, called the withdrawal short and irresponsible. Nancy pelosi called it a deeply disturbing development. House democrats expanded their impeachment inquiry monday, subpoenaing documents from the office of management and budget, and the pentagon. Its part of an investigation into a whistleblowers complaint that trump withheld military aid to ukraine in exchange for a promise that its leaders would help trumps 2020 investigation by investigating his rival joe biden. On monday, Deputy Assistant secretary of state and ukraine expert george kent failed to appear for a scheduled deposition with three house committees. Those committees are set to interview another key figure in the scandal today, Gordon Sondland, the u. S. Ambassador to the european union. Sondland is a wealthy hotelier and real estate magnate whom trump tapped as u. S. Ambassador to the european union, after he donated 1 million to trumps inaugural committee. Text messages reveal sondland helped to mediate conversations between ukrainian officials and trumps personal attorney, rudy giuliani, aimed at winning a promise by ukraines president to investigate the bidens, and to look into a Conspiracy Theory that the 2016 hack of the Democratic National committees email server was initiated in ukraine. When the top diplomatic official texted are we now sing Security Assistance and white house meeting our condition on land textedons . Son back call me. This comes as the Washington Post reports that House Democrats are considering ways to conceal the identitity of the whistleblower whose complaint spawned the impeachment probe. Democratic leaders are considering having the person testify by video stream, with their image and voice obscured, out of fear that republicans would betray their identity to the white house. President trump has accused the whistleblower of espionage and treason, and suggested they should get the death penalty. A federal didistrict court in manhattan has rejected President Trumps attempts to conceal his tax returns from new york city prosecutors. In a 75page ruling, district judge Victor Marrero rejected trumps claims that the president is immune to criminal prosecution, writing this court finds aspects of such a doctrine repugnant to the Nations Governmental structure and constitutional values. President trump immediately appealed to the second u. S. Circuit court of appeals, which issued an administrative stay that will keep trumps tax documents secret, at least for now. Last month, manhattans District Attorney subpoenaed President Trumps accounting firm, as prosecutors investigate hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 president ial campaign. In ecuador, tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to march in the capital quito today, as protests against governmentimposed austerity measures enter their sixth daya. The protests erupteded after president leninin moreno ended a decadesold fuel subsidy program, spiking the c cost of energy by up to 120 . The austerity met a key demand of the International Monetary fund as part of a 4. 2billion deal agreed to in february. As more than 20,000 Indigenous People streamed toward the capital quito on monday, president moreno said in a National Address he was temporarily moving Government Operations to the Southern City of guayaquil. He accccused his political opponents of attempting a coup and vowed not to restore the fuel subsidy. Labor and indigenous groups whove teamed up for protests say theyre expanding their demands. This is nelson erazo, the leader of the popular f front of workes and stududents. Ourur message to the e federl government is t the struggle it only againstst economic measure, it is in defense of water, teterritories, against expansion of the o oil industry in our coununtry, in defense of the natural environment, the r righs of workers who are t thirsty for justice and are e overshadowedey the nationonal government and te ministry of labor. Amy president moreno has declared a state of emergency, allowing police to raid homes without warrants, while suspending the right to assembly. Nearly 500 people have been arrested. In northern bolivia, heavy rains in recent days have brought raging fires under controlol afr nearly 10 million acres ofof lad burned over the last two m mont. Many of the fires were intentionally set to clear land for agriculture. Climate Scientists Say a combination of increasing Global Temperatures and a lack of forest canopy are exacerbating severe droughts that have made bolivias fires more intense. Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the province of santa cruz, outraged over president evo morales responsee to the fires and his administrations environmentall policies. The e region of santa cruz has been the hardest hit by the fires. More than 700 activists from sydney, australia, to new york city have been arresteted in coordinated d climate protests across the globe, as activists with Extinction Rebellion shut down streets and occupied public landmarks to demand action on the climate crisis. Nearly 300 people were arrested in london after taking over 11 sites in the westminster area. In n new york city, nenearly 90 activists were arrested after staging a diein on wall street, pouring fake blood on the iconic bull statue outside the new york stock exchange. Dozens were also arrested in amsterdam, vienna, and madrid. In brisbane, australia, an activist hung from story bridge in a hammock for six hours. Activists also took to the streets in chile, colombia, and mexico. Well have more on Extinction Rebellions ongoing prototests after headlines. Meanwhile, 16yearold swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joined the global protests from south dakota where she led a march in downtown rapid city. Becausell not back down we know what is at stake and we wiwi never give up. Amy over the weekend, Greta Thunberg met with youth climate activists on south dakotas s pe ridge e reservion. N. Today shell v visit the standig rock sioux reservation, where indigenousled protests in 2016 forced president obama to halt construction of the Dakota Access pipeline before President Trump greenlighted completion of the project as one of his first acts in officece. The u. S. Supreme court opened a new term monday, hearing oral arguments on a case that will decide whether states can eliminate the insanity defense in criminal prosecutions. Notably absent from the bench was Justice Clarence thomas. Chief Justice Roberts said the 7171yearold was s ill with an undisclosesed illness. 86yearold Justice Ruth Bader ginsberg, who received radiation treatment for a cancerououtumor over the summer, was presentnt d asked the first question of the session. On the u. S. Mexico border, democratic president ial candidate Julian Castro on monday escorted 12 asylumseekers to the u. S. Port of entry at brownsville, texas, in a challenge to President Trumps remain in mexico policy. All 12 were turned around by u. S. Customs and Border Protection. The group included a disabled salvadoran woman and her relatives, as well as nine lgbtq people from cuba, guatemala, and honduras. Many of them report theyve been threatened and assaulted while theyve been forced to wait in the Mexican Border city of matamoros. On twitter, castro wrote by law, these migrants are supposed to be exempt from the remain in mexico policy but customs and Border Protection had decided to ignore their due process. Outrageous. In washington, d. C. , acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin Mcaleenan left an immigration policy conference at georgetown universitys law School Monday after he was shouted off the stage by protesters. Mcaleenan wawas billed a as the events keynote speaker. As he was introduced, audienence members rose and u unfurle banners rereading hate isis not normal and stand with imimmigrants. They drowned out mcaleenans opening remarks with protest chanants before recititing the s of children who died after they were jailed in ice custody. Age eight. Is vasquez. Age 10. Amy mcaleenan left the stage after the names of the dead were read aloud. His appearance at georgetown came despite widespread opposition on campus, with over a dozen campus groups and hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni petitioning for his removal. In financial news, paypal has cancnceled participapation in facebooks plans to launch a new Global Digital currency called libra. Paypals exit is a blow against the socicial media giants plans to partntner with credit card companies, banks, and gig economy giants to create a cryptocurrrrency that could reape the woworlds financial systemem. California will become the first state to offffer hiv prevention drugs s without a prescripiptio, after gogovernor gavin newewsom signed a law monday expected to greatly increase access to the lifesaving medication. Newsom said in a statement all californians deserve access to prep and pep, two treatments that have transformed our fight against hiv and aids. I applaud the legislature for taking action to expand access to these treatments and getting us close to ending hiv and aids for good. Hong kongs chief executive carrie lam on monday refused to rule out turning to chinas military to quell prodemocracy protests that have been raging for weeks, as demonstrators defy a ban onon face mamasks that wet into effect last week. Meanwhile, in the United States, the nba stands accused of bowing to chinese censorship after the Pro Basketball League apologized for a tweet by a Houston Rockets executive in support of hong kong protesters. Rockets general manager daryl morey posted the message, fight for freedom, stand with hong kong. Then quickly deleted it as chinas state broadcaster said it would suspend broadcasts of preseason nba games. In related news, c chinese authoritities have banned the longrunnining cartoon south rk afafter comedydy centralired an episode mocking hollywoodoror tatailoring u. S. Films t to plee chininese censors. Southth parks cocreaeators t stone e and tr p parkeissusued fake apology on twitter, writing like the nba, we welcome the chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. And the future of new yorks longtime listener supported Radio Station wbai is up in the air. On monday, the Pacifica Foundation abruptly laid off wbais staff and ended local programming. But then on monday night, a new york state judge issued an temporary restraining order enjoining pacifica from shutting down the station. A court date is set for october 18. Wbai is one of five stations in the Pacifica Radio Network which was founded in 1949 by the peace activist lew hill. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. This is not a drill. Thats the message of thousands of activists whoho took to the streets of major cities across the globe monday to raise the alarm about the climate crisis, gluing themselves to buildings, blocking roads, occupying public landmarks, and being arrested by the hundreds in the fit t day of a twtwowe protetested by exnction r rellion. E Group Reports more than 700 activists frfrom brisbane e to w york city y have been arrested i just the first day and a hf f of protests. Nearlyly 300 were ararrested in london after shutting down major streets and taking over eleven sites in the westminster. One group superglued themselves to a parked hearse in Trafalgar Square as hundreds occupied the area. Other demonstrators shut down Westminster Bridge long enough for a couple to get married before the crowd. This is protester jake lynch speaking from the streets of london. It is now five e months since parliament declared a climatee emergency and yeyet we have seen no emergency l legislation brout forward to take effective action to stem the climate crisis, so we are still subsisidizing fossl fuels more than any other country in europe,e, globally Carbon Emissions a are still inincreasing. Werere heading prerecisely in e wrong didirection. We here at Extinction Rebellion are taking action to interrupt the flow of norormality becauset isis that flow that is carryings towards disaster. Juan Extinction Rebellion launched in london last year and has since grown into a global movement. Prime minister Boris Johnson attacked the groups protesters monday night, calling them uncooperative crusties. Climate activist George Monbiot responded tweeting im proud to be an uncooperativecrusty. Extinctionrebellion continues. Come and see why Boris Johnson hates it so much, and how it challenges the lifedestroying system he defends. Amy in new york city, nearly 90 activists were arrested after staging a diein on wall street, pouring fake blood on the iconic bull statue outside the new york stock exchange. Dozens were alalso arrested in amsterdam, vienna, and madrid. In brisbane, australia, an activist hung from story bridge in a hammock for six hours. Activists also took to the streets in chile, colombia, and mexico. Brbrazilian protesters h held a in. Protesters shut down the street in central paris near the notre dame and hundreds flooded the streets up berlin to demand action to combat global warming. This is German Climate activist and migrant rescue ship captain Carola Rackete speaking from berlin. As extitinction rebellion fought on here we demand that net emissions be reduced to zero by 2025 as part ofof an emergeny program as well as an immediate halt to the loss of biodiversity. We also demand, a and this is te interesting part, there be a citizens gathering which votes on the necessary meaeasures. Extitinction rebellilion will nr make concrete policy proposals. The issue has to be handed back democratically to the citizens who then decide on the measures together. Amy protests continue today in cities around the world. In london, Extinction Rebellion plans to plant at least 800 trees outside of parliament. For more, we go to london to speak with Extinction Rebellion cofounder gail bradbrook. Welcome to democracy now can you talk about the scope of the protests . Once again, remind us how Extinction Rebellion was founded and got its name. Amy. Od afternoon, i just wanted to say what an honor it is to be on democracy now you asked how this started. I think the first thing to say is this movement s stands onon e shoulders of our elders across the world who have been protesting about the environment for many years. In many countries, that means death. I would include democracy now as one of our elders. Yet many fans in the u. K. , so thank you we are broadcast over these years. You have kept us going with your too give thelity voice of many activists across the world. We did quite a lot of research into social r research in science and looked into our hearts abobout how we were feelg and we said a movement would neneed to be driven both by some techniques and we had some training by fantastic organizer based in the states called saavedra. We did research into people like gene sharp. We welcomed people to feel how these times are for them. I think the fuel of grief is important to our movement and the fuel of fear, in all honesty. That means people are willing to open their hearts and feel the love for life on earth and say actually, im not willing to put up with thisis anymore. I guess the thing to add to that in a way is especially for westerners like myself, fitting a degree of privilege, is there something about consumer capitalism that both traumatizes us and then offer says a lot of comfort to stay quiet and silent and you just keep our heads down and keep quietly stressing about keeping our jobs going and so on. Somehow i think this movement has helped breakthrough that mold by welcoming grief and feeling andnd then encoururaging people to o get on the streetstd take risks with the possibility of getting arrested. Juan gail bradbrook, what are the immediate demands of the Extinction Rebellion movement . Have three demands. The first one is for government and other institutions to tell the trtruth and also in t that y it is not Just Lip Service by declaring emergencies and then carrying on with business as usual. That also means reversing policies inconsistent with that troop. In the u. K. , that means we have fracking happening in this country. We are opening up new coal mines. We have the plan expansion of the Railway System but through what is basically an aviation Shuttle Service that is going to do forest britain bigger than has happened since world war i. So tell the truth and reversing consistent policies. The second demand is for a zero carbon emotitions by 2025 and halting biodiversity. The reason we have such a tight anget is this is definitely absolutely an emergency. What we need is for governments to act like it is an emergency. More, thehe u. K. S situation if britain carries on as it is doing, it will have run out of its socalled carbon budget i dont believe there are any carbon budgets myself within a few years time. They keep missing targets. This idea we can have a 2050 target is nonsense. The third thing is, how do you go about seeing these changes . Should we have carbon budgeting carbon taxes . On peopleput pressure to go vegan . Should we look at the Farming Community . With all of that are great ideas and lots of debates and Extinction Rebellion is clear it is not up to us to have a position on any of that within the movement there been lots of opinions and so on. We want a citizens assembly. It is a form of democracy that comes from the older times, from athens, greece. Most things were done by citizens juries. You select through a lottery system like a jury demogrgraphically representative sampmple of your citizens and their given Critical Thinking skills. They are given lots of information by experts and they tend to come up with good policy solutions. It is a good way to handle these kinds of issues that, frankly, our current democracies are just not able to deal with. Juan one thing you. Entioned earlier, capitalism you have talked about the relationship between the mushrooming debt in the world and the climate crisis. Could you expand on that . Is in itswould say first iteration, Extinction Rebellion is about democracy by calling in for these do democratic forms for people to have their power. Frankly, many countries of the world, democracies are an absolute shambles. It certainly is in the u. K. As people understand there is an emergency, this democracy is not working, there will be two directions traveled. One is in the direction of more democracy, so that means people assemblies and really understanding how we can workk together to the other is i in ls democracy, which is the very great risk of ecofascism. That is the focus on democracy. What some of us are looking at, and it is an early focus and as a movement we will write papers and share ideas for feedback, but we are talking about how were going to take on the finance system. So we have an Economic System that essentially is killing life on earth. It is very simple. Said, toonomist once expect that you can have exponential growth on a finite planet, either have to be a madman or an economist. I think increasingly and ive spoken to members of the elites recently, to Investment Bankers and so on people are frightened. Their children are putting a lot of pressure on them. They know change has to come. Rebellion,tinction we well, im not speaking for everyone personally, but as a movement we are not taking a position against one kind of Economic System or for another. We are saying this is not working. We need to have a grownup conversation about what kind of system do we need both politically and legally and culturally and economically that will stop this this are ridges harming were doing to our self outrageous harming were doing to ourselves. It is an intergenerational injustice. How then do we move into a system where we can repair the harm we have done . I think we need to move into a messed up refusal where we say were not going to pay the debts that we have and some of us with privilege might take on some debt and give them money to people at the front line of the crisis. That is the direction i would like to see us move into. Amy dr. Bradbrook, we played the clip of the German Climate activist, the migrant rescue makes that link between immigration and climate. Since this is such a key issue all over the world, the issue of migrants and the industrial polluting countries blocking migrants from coming in, can you talk about that link climate refugees . Yeah, i think this is the issue of ecofascism. Up to one in 10 people will be on the move without wanting to be due to mass drought, places becoming to hide, due to flooding. And the idea that t we canan sin our racism and close our borders is simply not going to work for us. Obobviously, it is a moral issu. Alsoso, there w will be mass migration within countrieies. Withth u. K. , 10 of the popopulation will l be on the me by 2050. E recent ipcc r report, whichchs about ththe cry is faiair and te ocean the levelel r rising, yet again says t things were worse d flooding events that were once every 100 years will move into being every y single year inany locations. So there is gog to be ss migratioand that ialready happening. We have already se somome that. Wh we nene to do is have a ry cpassiona approh to how we tackle that issue and how we look after a planet that is destroying places so they become uninhabitable. Obviously, the people on the front line as well who are doing the migration tend to be the people that did the least to create this damage. So we have a moral responsibility to take care of people. , and i wouldfavor like to see it in international demands, a conversation about that with a lot of ecocide. Higgins died and partially earlier this year, which would put the fifth crime against peace at their own statutes level, at the u. N. Level. That would be to criminalize mass damage and destruction of the environment will stop any of these damaging actions that are happening in Indigenous Lands and elsewhere created by corporations with would literally be criminal. Secondly what that law does is it makes and the insistence that there is a repair of the harm that happens which includes compensating people, finding homes for people. And actually, in order to do this repairing of the harm that needs to happen, yesterday picking, you have so david gog who is saying you cant to 1. 5 degrees. Life is already melting. We are already over 410 parts per million. What needs to happen, we have to go into drawdown and bring and carbon outut of the atmosphere d we cannot wait for these Magical Technologies that are somehow going to suck the carbon out of the atmosphere in the future. Do is reallyto work with nature to repair the climate. That is also going to tackle this people 20 or people tripipt of broad diversity, ocean acidification. All of this has to be cleaned up. Need a lot of human labor. Humanity has to rise u up in a beautiful wayy and tend to the damage we have done. That needs all of us together restoretogether to ecosystems, to clean up the rivers, to plant trees, to basically sort the plastics out of the ocean and so on. There are so many beautiful innovations out there and humanity could do that together. It needs all of us. For me, this is part of reweaving the human family back together again. It is part of dealing with systemic racism and White Supremacy and the wounds of patriarchy that want to separate as, make us feel powerless, and destroy our togetherness and make as think that the whole planet is kind of scares when actually nature is abundant and it replenishes itself. Juan i would like to ask about those your response to those critics who agree with the goal of Extinction Rebellion but oppose your tactics will for instance, new england Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she supports the right to protest but blocking people from being able to go and do their daytoday job doesnt necessarily take is any closer to the Climate Action theyre calling for. Londons mayor has said something similar. Your response . Well, when you look at the results of the protests, you look at how much people are talking about the ecological crisis, it absolutely spikes when the protests happen. There are two data points here. One is how many people are active in our social movements. Thatow from the research you need between one and 3. 4 of the population to come together and to be willing to support people to get on the streets and be on the streets themselves. That means people can be part of Extinction Rebellion without being willing to get arrested. It is not right for everybody. They might have caring duties. We cant guarantee that black people will be treated in the same way as white people and so on. This is a movement for everybody, there is a space for everybody. That does not mean everybody likes our tactics. People dont have to like us in order to Start Talking about the crisis. What happens if you stand passively by the side of thee road with a placard saying stop Climate Change is you just get ignored. When you block a road, people start to have a conversation about this existential what we mean is we are in an apocalyptic situation. You have to use biblical language to talk about what it means to be in a six mass extinction event. The only way to get that information over to people is to be disruptive. When people say, well, we agree with your message but we dont like how youre doing it my my general answer is, if you have a better plan, tell us. Literally, we have tried all of the other stuff. I dont see what else there is other than getting on the streets. S. Frankly, as this crisis worsens and we face things like Food Shortages the academic term is multibreadbasket failure. Droughts means forms can no longer produce enough food. When we are facing that and literally people are fighting over tins of beans in the supermarket, people will wonder while more of us were not on the streets in these times when there were still the possibility of two things. One is making the harm less. The other is starting to repair the heart. The other thing we have to do is a professors agenda which is to start to adapt to the conditions. We have to start planning, for example come the flooding of Nuclear Power stations and what that means, planning for localizing food systems and food crisis and that kind of thing. Amy dr. Bradbrook, your response to your Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling you uncooperative chrusties . He met some stinks and rebellion people Extinction Rebellion n people rececently. He started to cry and shake. I dont think anyone is beyond redemption. We have to reach out to everybody and say, join us. Stop messing about, boris, and get on the streets with us. Gaildr. Gail bread bradbrook, thanknk you for joing us, cofounder of Extinction Rebellion. When we come back, United Auto Workers strike the longest and all must have a century. Stay with us. [music break] amy your capricious soul, a new song by michael stipe. His first solo recording since the breakup of his band. He is donating proceeds to Extinction Rebellion. This is democracy now , im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan about 48,000 workers at General Motors have entered their fourth week on strike. It is the longest National Walkout at gm by the United Auto Workers in nearly 50 years. Workers are seeking higher pay, protection of their healthcare benefits, greater job security, and a commitment from gm to build more cars and parts in the United States. Steve goralski is a striking gm worker in Bowling Green, kentucky. We have a company that had 35 billion dollars of profit than the last few years. We have temporaries that have been here over seven years and are still temporaries and theyeyre asking for more temporaries. Theyre moving our plans out of the country. Theyre taking them to mexico and china. And now theyre asking for concessions on our health h car. I donont know about y you, butt is the only reason i took this job. I used to have my own drywall company. I took it to the benefits. Amy on sunday, uaw offificials announced they had rejected the companys latest offer sayining negotiations had taken a turn for the worse. In a letter to union members, uaw Vice President terry dittes wrote the companys response did nothing to advance a whole host of issues that are imporortant o you and your f families it did nothing to provide job security during the term of this agreement. We are joined now by steve frisque. He is a striking gm worker and former president of uaw local 744. Nothing to advance a whole host he is currently a union steward. He joins us from a studio in minneapolis. Welcome to democracy now talk about the demands of the union. This is historic. It is the longest strike in nearly, what, half a century, against gm. That is correct. Just to clarify that i am from local 722, but that is ok. No problem. Our Biggest Issue, you heard the gentleman from Bowling Green touch on some of it, moving work out of the country, the temporary workers, those are the two Biggest Issues right now and also health care, which has become an issue since we went out on strike. Ago, generalyears motors was going out of business. Groups ofsaved by two people their employees and even more so the taxpayers of this country. If it wasnt for them, they would have been gone. We reopen our contracts voluntarily and gave up a lot of stuff, costofliving increases. We took over Retirees Health care and benefits. That was an obligation of General Motors, and the uaw took that over to alleviate and hopefully bring them back from the brink of bankruptcy. Move forward 10 years, and theyve made record profits for the last three years of just over 35 million. They have never given any of those things back to us that we voluntarily gave up. Not only that, but they want to take more away now. Theyre moving the work out of the country, which should really irritate the taxpayers of this country who bailed them out with the idea that we are going to keep work here in the United States and have people work here and become productive members of society. And now we are moving it out of the country. Obviously, earlier the gentleman from Bowling Green said mexico and china are the two biggest ones. China has more General Motors employees now than does the United States. This is our Biggest Issue. The real top issue is temporary employees and how they use them. There is no path for them to come to fulltime employment. Some of these Assembly Plants have had temporary employees on their roles, like the gentleman said, for almost seven years. They may just over half of what legacy employees of the uaw gm make. They have very few benefits. No Vacation Time off unless it is preapproved. They have three unpaid Vacation Days a year, and they have to be preapproved. Life happens. Children get sick. Weather. Flat tires. These things happen in life and people these people live on pins and needles every day hoping something doesnt go wrong. Because they could be dismissed for any two minor violations. Being late or anything else. It is not right. When this country is making record profits, they treat their employees who bailed them out and saved them, the way they are treating their employees today. Juan steve frisque, over the weekend, there is some indication was progress in the issue of wages, but apparently, one of the big sticking points has been this issue of whether back back some jobs from mexico to the u. S. Could you talk a little bit more about the impact of the gm production in mexico . We often hear President Trump talking about how mexico and china are stealing our jobs, but it is really the multinational u. S. Companies that are making decisions to go into places like china and mexico for greater profits. Well, exactly. It is cheaper labor. That is the bobottom line here. An auto worker in mexico makes just under three dollars an hour. Unionized. T they are not allowed to, unionized. They are not allowed to, basically, by its government control unions. They really dont have a say in anything. The Biggest Issue is ive had people say to me, well, they are working for a lot cheaper. My argument is, are the vehicles any cheaper that are coming from mexico . They are not. It is the profits are going up to the top. They are not working with their employees. Hasou look at ford ford a pretty Good Relationship with the uaw. The ceo came out a few w years o and said if it wasnt for the uaw, ford would have been bankrupt. They sacrificed and saved us in our darkest hour. We did the same for General Motors, but they dont seem to understand that or they just dont seem to think they have to work with their employees anymore. It is very upsetting. These jobs were saved to keep them in this country, and now we are moving them out. The last study that was done, chrysler has 92 utilization in this country of their facilities. Ford had 82 . General motors is right about 70 . I have heard that has gone down more in the last year. You look at the plans that are closing in ohio, couple of transmissions plants one a baltimore and if you michigan. These people are out of work for if they have enough seniority, thereafter transfer. People dont realize what it does to families. I am one of those people who worked in an assembly plant. I worked in wisconsin and that plant close down at the end of 2008. I had to move to where i am now, hudson, which i am lucky because im not too far from home, little over four hours, but i had to leave my wife and kids down there for almost six years because we could not sell our house because the whole economy in that area just went under. It causes a lot of damage to families, a lot of divorces. Fathers and mothers not seeing their k kids. They dont seem to understand that or they dont really seem to care. On saturday, sounded like we were going to have a tentative agreement. It sounded really good. And then it went south overnight. We are waiting. Gm came out with the secret proposal last night to the uaw. We do not what the contents of that is yet. We will wait and see what our leadership says and hopefully, we are making progress forward again instead of taking two steps back like he did this weekend. The leverages of that the United Auto Workers have, given the corporate to just inove to go time production, when do you figure will be the time when General Motors will be forced to shut down its entire chain of operations as a result of the fact that it cant get these cars produced by you here in the United States . We are already seeing some fallout. They closed the silo mexico plant, which makes the silverado and the sierra. That has been closed because of lack of parts. I heard there other major facility down there had some shutdowns, too. It is starting to have a trickledown effect. I guess it is coming to a point where gm has to make a decision on is it worth to keep losing the money were losing on a daily basis . Are we going to come out ahead or behind on this . Illy dont believe think they misunderstood our resolve when we went out. I think they thought they could break us within the first two to three weeks. What this has really done is what i have seen in my local what i have seen in my local facility is it has strengthened resolve. People are mad. People are mad and theyre willing to stay out as long as it takes. We believe in what were doing. We believe in this country the wealth keeps flowing up to the 1 and keeps going less and less to the 99 below. Were going to have two classes of people, the extremely wealthy and the poor. We decided we had to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. The Silver Lining in this situation is the support that we have received from our brothers and sisters of other unions teamsters, seiu, the teachers, the bakers union. I am talking about eveverybody, the steelworkers. They have come out en masse to every facility in this country and helped out. They walked the picket line with us. They brought food. They brought gift cards for some of our temporary employees that are star grueling struggling a little more. The outpouring of solidarity has really been an eyeopener. It is a welcome thing because unions have been struggling for many years in this country and it is nice to see it is making a comeback and people are tired of the status quo. Amy s, thank you for being with us striking gm worker and former , president of uaw local 744. Local 722, currently a union steward. When we come back, we will go to chicago to speak with the head of the Chicago Teachers Union, which has voted to go on strike next week. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan in chicago, Union Leaders and the nations thirdlargest School District are racing to reach an agreement to avert a teachers strike authorized to begin later this month. In late september, 25,000 educators voted overwhelmingly to authorize a work stoppage. They were demanding more staffing and lower class sizes. This is Chicago Teachers Union president jesse e sharkey. We e need staffing in areas we need pay and benefits, too, but pay and benefits are not enough. We carare deeply aut the learning and working conditions in our schools. Juan on monday, chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot accused the union for not coming to the bargaining table with a proposal to counter the offers the district has made inin recent weweeks. My team is ready to go 24 7 to get a deal done. We are working hard. We want to meet t the challenge, and i i think we have comeme abt recentlyly instead of meeting us at the bargaining table to solve problems, our counterparts focus their enerergy on preparing fora strike rather than avoiding one. We cannot bargain alone. Amy this comes as about 7000 School Support staffers with the Service Employees International Union have made preparations for a strike, as have over 2000 chicago Park District workers with seiu local 73. Four for more, we go now to chicago, illinois, where were joined by jesse sharkey, president of the Chicago Teacher union. He taught social studies in Chicago Public schools for 12 years at Senn High School and chicago vocational career academy. Jesse sharkey, welcome to democracy now talk about the issues, why the Teachers Union and seiu locals have decided to strike. Thank you. Right now we are bargaining, trying to avoid a strike civil. We have a a mayor who ran on the promise of educational equity, providing basic supports in our schools. We have a contract that expired at the end of last year. Asking forthe table a nurse in every school every day. Most Chicago Schools have a nurse one day a week. We asked for supports for special education case managers, librarians. We have about 120 librarians in the entire city. , wear the district has said will bargain with you on what does on money and benefits, but not on the other things. S. Like t their danglining money ad when we dont take it, they become upset we are not bargaining in good faith. Our insistence is the things which make school highquality, by Wraparound Services come all the things which students need have to be in a collective bargaining agreement. That is been our position for years. It is just that now receive both a mayor who ran on that platform theres been general legigislaturure in illinois past School Funding bill back in late 2017 which provided an extra 1 billion a year into the schools budget. The money should be there for this. There is political will. Red for edso a Movement Across the country. We feel like this is our best opportunity in a generation to deliver these improvements. Juan jesse sharkey, i want to ask you with the differences between these negotiations and what happened in 2012 when it was mayor rahm emanuel in power. Some people observed theres a new mayor in chicago, Lori Lightfoot, but the people youre negotiating with are the same people that were there when rahm emanuel was in office. Can you comment on that and what that means, willingness to take a new approach to the bargaining situation . Emanuel came rahm out with guns blazing. Even prior to taking office, he was already working to get laws changed in springfield which would take away our right to bargain come our strike over how long the school day was come over crucial parts of our valuation. He brought in and out of town education privatize or who was going to close schools, open charter schools, create basicalllly a test core competition scheme together with School Privatization and attack the union. In a lot of ways 2012 was a defensive strike. It was as tryiying to hold the line in an environment in which the other side had momentum and was coming at us hard. We struck. We held the line in some places, not entirely. This is different and that this is a situation where the tide has turned in thisis country. People want to see highquality education. People dont think the chronic under paper educators is appropriate. They wanant resources going into schools. West virginia, kentucky, oklahoma, arizona, look across the country and there been big movements to that effect. We see that and we think this is our opportunity in chicago to actually win improvements in writing. We need to see a contractual guarantee. What is happening to chicago is there are huguge tax giveaways r the ririch. Nationally, see that with trumps tax giveaways. On a local level, what that looks like is deals which give developers billions of dollars in order to provide help for Development Projects in part of the citity that is already developed. We are saying if there is money for that, there has to be money for schools to do what schools need to be able to do in order to educate children. Juan can you talk about the seiu local that represents other workers, some of them in the School Districts, some of them the parks department, how you are are the unions coordinating their efforts orr cooperatating . We are talking. The truth of the matter is, we share similar goals. A lot of the work is in Chicago Public schools are lower wage workers. The Park District talked about one of its members who was homeless for a period of time while working as a bus aide. We currently have about 75 of our Education Support staff, who we callpara professionals, that group come about 75 would qualify for free or reduced price lunch under federal poverty guidelines, their children. Of folksheres a bunch who work in the schools who actually need fair treatment. Economically. Money and wages do matter in this fight. And we want to schools to be places where wee can be proud, where theres is a high quality education delivered for students. We think the public supports us in these domains. Amy were talking to jesse sharkey. What do you see as thee chronology leading up to next week . What is going to happen and what specifically needs to happen for a strike not to take place . Are you totally coordinating with seiu . Will you agree together to strike or not to strike . If there is no agreement reached, we are standing together and wages, benefits, anand other crucial issues. The district has offered seiu they will get whatever wage settlement we get. And away the district made the argument for us. Yeah, we are Standing Shoulder by shoulder with them. We are talking. Maximizeng to try to our energy in order r to maximie our power the bargaining table. The district does have the ability to avoid a strike by delivering on the promises that mayor made when she was campaigning. What we say is put it in writiting. If youre going to campaign on the idea of basic Education Supports, put that in writing. That could avoid a conflict as for now, she has not been willing to do that. Someone once said earlier, it is tied to the fact t this is a mar comprise of the people who were there from Rahm Emanuels administration, in fact from daleys administration before that. It is about us trying to hold the city clinical establishment to its promises and overcome the inertia of the way the system has been run for so long. Juan has the mayor herself into the negotiating table . At the final hours it is the people in charge have to sit down directly and not through their underlings. Some people are saying Lori Lightfoot is going to have to decide whether shes going to orome a rahm emanuel 2. 0 harold washingtoton two points 2. 0 and this may be the decisive moment for that. I like that. Im going to have to steal that formulation. I think the mayor is s going to have to get personally involved. After coming to the table, there will come a time for that where there are smallll details i n it. For example, the mayor said something in a press conference yesterday criticizing the idea we were negotiating over naptime in prescschool. I wish we did not have to negotiate over naptime, but the truth of the matter is, fouryearolds, threeyearold need naps physically. They are developing physically as well as mentally. There is been a tendency to push down a curriculum although into kids that are that young. Teachers understand what is good for students is the ability y fr them to nap. They have asked to protect the ability to nap and fullday preschool in our contracts. That is something we have negotiated about. I dont know if it is necessarily the case we want the mayor of a city of 2. 5 Million People negotiating that level of we get tot when the transcendent issues about whether we can have enforceable caps on class sizes, reduced class sizes, whether or not we can have nurses, social workers, and other critical staffing needs, whether teacher time is prototected, pay and benefits. If those issues that mayoror was to come in on and do the right thing, then that will be appreciated. Amy thank you for being with us, jesse sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Can i say one more thing . Uaw. Solidarity with the we are rooting for the members of the uaw and i just want to express our solidarity with that struggle. Amy thank you. Breaking news, the state department has ordered Gordon Sondland not to testify lawmakers today. His lawyer said in a statement he is profoundly disappointed he will not testify before Congress Today will step we will have the latest on the impeachment inquiry against President Trump tomorrow. That does it for our broadcast. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ]