First candidate was going to tell us why we should elect him. Former great senator from the state of delaware, former Vice President joe biden. [applause]. Mr. Biden ok. Welcome. Mr. Biden thank you. It is good to be home. Vice president biden, we are in a room full of teamsters and i want you to tell all of them here and all of them watching, why they should vote for you. But no malarkey. [laughter] first of all i should thank you. The only reason im sitting here is a 1972, i was losing in the polls the sunday before the election. The newspaper went on strike. Ct the printers, you guys put in a gigantic insert in the sunday paper to go out on the republican party. Wouldnt cross the picket line, and i won by 3100 votes. [cheers and applause] you guys dont like secondary picket, youre wrong. We, the reason is, look, i am as my grandfather say, labor from belt buckle the shoe soul. I understood very basic notion. Wall street didnt build the United States of america. The middle class built it and unions built the middle class, unions. You can clap. You may be for someone else but on the real deal. [applause] and look, the mlb windows past didnt say there could be labor. It said the government should promote labor unions. For a simple basic reason. When you are strong, when labor, the only one that can keep the barbarians at the gate, not a joke, they only understand power, power, countervailing power and the only, and you guys have been getting killed, organized labor. We are down to 6 . When i started off off as United States center that was 34 of all of, all people working that were part of organized labor. Theres been a war on neighbors house for the last 30 years. I gave a speech 12 years ago to the National Convention and said they thought i was exaggerating to everything on here is about keeping you from being able to compete with corporate power. About unions being strong, were in deep, deep trouble. Fast but ill make mi time i guess as a producer deal. Folks, it used to be theres a direct correlation, a basic bargain in america. If you contribute to the wealthy and apogee work with you got to participate in the profits. Guess what . From the end of world war ii and by the way this is dday, excusing, this is pearl harbor day, everyone of you for veterans out there thank you, thank you, thank you, for all you do. [applause] but look. Think about this. Productivity went up 92 from the end of the were intelligence on it. Wages went up because labor, 94 . Wages went up. From that point on as the war and labor house begin can guess what . Productivity went up 68 , wages went up 8 . Eight. Notably thinks the only obligation we have Corporate America has according to milton friedman, god rest his soul, i hope he has a little contrition on the way up, the fact of the matter is, think what is being said these days. The only obligation a corporation has is to stockholders. They said no obligation is to employees. Not a joke. Ob obligation to the community. Whats happened . Workers are being killed. Last point i would make. As labor has war on labor house has succeeded, theyve not only said to labor, look what theyve done, then got out on the right and made sure its impossible for you to compete for your own, represent yourself. You work for jimmy johns, yo sign a noncompete agreement, you wont walk across town to work for mcdonalds andna get three cents to fivehe cents more. Of the fortune five oh companies, over 350 make you sign an agreement if you come to work for them you will never discuss the way to make with another employer you get penalized. You were doing the same job hes doing and youre doing and you are getting paid less because youre a woman, then the money but you know aboutr it. The third thing is last year 1. 2 billion in overtimet was denied for hourly workers who are not unionized. 1. 2 billion. You stack spaghetti sauce at a store, in a supermarket. You control the guyuy or woman o brings out the cards on a forklift. What s happens . They make you management. You cant get o paid overtime. You see it happen with labor as well. Because America Needs you to grow. We need to to grow. When labor does well, the whole country does well. [applause] i am sorry. Im really angry about this. [applause] thank you mr. Biden, and we have a video question now from a member of the teamsters local 817 from new york who provides transportation for film and Stage Productions throughout new york city. I just wanted to find out exactly what provisions are there going to be and what promises are made to make sure the collective bargaining is always going to be available to us as unions, as Union Members and as brothers . Its the 64 question, man. Heres the deal. Folks, number one, i was original sponsor of the employee free choice act. And by the way my employees in my Campaign Just join the teamsters. Theyjune signed us. [applause] but all kidding aside, you have to do at least three things. The employer free trade act and the proact, i can rose state the when i ran the first time was right to work state. We should change the federal law that there is no right to work allowed anywhere in the country. [cheers and applause] for real. Not a joke. Not a joke. Number two, the way we should be moving, i say to the gentleman from freeport, is that right now were in a situation where last year on a yearly basis employers spent 1 billionon a year trying to bust unions from being able to start off in the first place. Under the proact and under the lewis act, what we are going to be able to do is to things. When they engage in, preventing unions from being able to be formed in the first place, they should be subject to significant fines when, in fact, they engage. Heres the deal. I know im on a short time i wont go into all the detail but heres the bottom line. 50,000 fine, second fined 100,000. For hundred thousand dollars. For Major Corporation that doesnt mean a t thing. That doesnt mean a thing. But heres what will change it. Want to get somebodys attention . N . Find the managers personally. No, no, no. Not a joke. Fine the managers. They should be held accountable for a multimillion dollars corporation, to be able to take out 50,000 fine, their shareholders pay the price. Take it out of the pocket, take it out p of the pocket. It becomes a series of serious offense we should think about criminalization of some of these im not [applause] but i really meanus it. If you engage in trying to prevent people from voting in the polling place in regular election, whatat happens . You canli be held criminally liable. What is the fundamental difference between saying to you that a a powerful employer can intimidate workers to not get engaged and vote for union, such of a right vote for, okay . And, in fact, if its egregious enough why is that not similar to denying the right to vote in an election . I dont think it is dissimilar. As they saysi in southern delaware, an altar call. They see the lord and they see pretty quickly. There are very few of those kinds what would be criminal prosecution but some are so egregious that we should think about that. We also have to do a lot of things that relate to pensions, all range of things abut the boe a position where you enforce the ability of unions to be able to organize. And if there is interference, and the rules are pretty clear, you make sure that it is enforced and the penalties are imposed. And if it is because of a particular management and it is a repeat offense, it should be a higher fine, and it should be directed to the person who was in charge of putting it together. [applause] am i going too long . [applause] am i going to long . You have a little more time. We have a question from our audience, and this individual is mr. Frank pastor rini, a 36 year ups member out of local 238 which is writer and i will. Hes also a board member of the National United committee to protect pensions and is question is regarding pensions. Frank passed arena . Right here. Over here. By the way i may be irish but im not stupid. Thank you for being here to answer our questions, like she said, frank passed a reno come unretired teamster from winterset i would. I saw you a couple weeks ago after town hall meeting over there. I of course have gotten involved in this to the union to protect my pension, my coworkers pensions but its also for my grandson here because i am worried about thats another franklin d. Im worried about the Work Environment hes going to inherit from us when it comes to education, when it comes to opportunity, when it comes to compensation. I think these are all important things. Familiar with the ongoing crisis we have in a multi employer Pension System. Thats going to hurt the retirees as far as devastating cuts to their benefits. Were going to have a negative affect on actives in their retirement when it comes along. We are reaching a point where we are going to have a pension benefit guaranteeee corporation, the pbgc, go bankrupt. That is the federal Insurance Agency which is responsible forr covering these pensions. They are going to collapse and go bankrupt. These are good hardworking people, all the way through this. They work their entire lives in order to earn these pensions. They pay their taxes more than their fair share of taxes to our nation and many of our people are veterans. Probably better than 50 of my group in des moines are veterans. Many of them are vietnam veterans, and we cannot disrespect them again. We need to make sure that we honor these pensions get my question to you is, what is your plan to address the pension crisis in america and restore Retirement Security to American Workers . [applause] number one, there was a great senator in ohio who introduced the bush lewis act. Heres thehe deal. Folks, look, look, the fact is these multi employer pensions are the only way it works for the significant number of labor unions, particularly you all, particularly teamsters. , and i, according with the act and may and maybe go beyond it, that we open up to use the fancy term of the trade, open up a window at the Treasury Department meaning that can provide 1 , loans, 1 loans to make sure multiemployer pensions are able to sustain themselves so they dont go bankrupt so , that you are able to maintain the pension, number one. Number two, the way that works is youre going to have, in addition to that, we have to be sure that we deal with the larger sections. You talk about veterans, you talk about other means. I remember, i grew up in a household where my dad did not belong to a union, although the folks up in scranton where i came from, if you listen to barack, you would think i climbed out of a coal mine with a lunch bucket, scrappy joe biden from scranton. But my dad was a whitecollar worker. And when coal died in scranton, pennsylvania, everybody lost their job. My dad, we moved to a little steel town called claymont, delaware, which has been eviscerated now, but that is another story. I remember my dad, we lived in a threebedroom splitlevel home with a grandfather and four kids. We were not poor, it was just the normal, technically lowermiddle class home. And the walls were thin. And i can remember my dad being so concerned and restless and i asked my mom, what was the matter . And she said the outfit he worked for, there is no more pension. The pension went under. And i remember my dad saying, your job is about more than a paycheck, it is about your dignity, about respect, it is about your place in the community. And he would say to me at all of my siblings, it is about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it is ok, and mean it. All the people can no longer say that. Go back to the old neighborhoods where people are not Union Members. And how can they say it . They do not have faith. For the first time in American History, you have more than half, no longer the wealthiest middleclass in the world. We have over 55 of all people thinking their children will never be able to reach the state they have reached the economic , prosperity they had. And it has got to change, and it gets back to all of you. The reason that has happened is because of the loss of power of unions in america. So when you talk about pensions, we have to talk about the Pension Guarantee Fund that is able to be funded, funded through federal government funding at a low, 1 rate, so that we can maintain the hundreds of billions of dollars time to needed over sions alive. With regard to your grandson, you asked a separate question, at least i view it as separate. What you do to make sure he has a shot . What you do to make sure he or she, your granddaughter has a shot . Two things. Number one, the idea that anybody in america works, and works 40 hours a week, and lives in poverty, is absolutely barbaric. It is not who the hell we are. So immediately we should move to, it will not affect you all. But a 15 minimum wage. We also have to change the way we educate people in america. Ladies and gentlemen, you have an awful lot of kids growing up in title i schools, where the tax base is low, not based on color. It is based on income. But guess what . The teachers are leaving. They are not getting paid enough, so they cannot stay there. There are increasing class sizes. Number two, they find themselves in a situation where there is no social workers in the school anymore. They do not have people, School Psychologists. There is one School Psychologist for every 1500 kids in america. Kids coming from tough homes, no matter what their background is. They need help beyond learning how to read, write, add and subtract. I would triple the amount of money from 15 billion to 45 billion per year for preschool, so everything a child in america aged 3, 4, and 5 can go to school, school. And we can do it. [applause] and every study shows, by all the great universities, that increases exponentially the prospect that that student no matter what their background is, that the student will do very well in school and go beyond high school either to trade , school or to Junior College or college. It is about opening opportunities. You know better than i do it is about giving opportunities. 12 years of education in the 21st century is not enough. It is not enough. Is my time up . No, ive got another few minutes. I see you looking at your watch. m boring the hell out of you it is your wife . Well, answer the damn thing. I answer mine when she calls. , 12 years of education is no longer enough. There are a hundred thousand jobs out there, 100,000 decent paying jobs in Hightech Industries that we are fully capable of being able to do, but no one has been trained to do them. Companies are not spending the money. If you look at the details, theres a guy from the university of massachusetts who did this long study. Corporations made trillions of dollars. Guess what they did . They took 35 of it and gave it to their stockholders. They took another, over a 12 year period, they took another 59 and used it to buy back their stock. They buy back their stock and it increases the benefits the management gets, because they get paid in stock. They left 9 for everything else. 9 for new wages, research and development total. , 9 for new development. 9 , thats it. That is what is happening today and it is wrong. , its simply wrong. And i come from the corporate state of america, delaware. But guess what . I have been a prounion guy and have a better record than anyone you are going to be talking to, for that entire 36 years i was a senator. [applause] because what happens is, again, when you get people a shot to get into the middle class, everybody benefits. The wealthy do very, very well. Very well when the economy is growing. Because guess what . Middleclass folks like my dad and my mom and you guys and you , women, you spend everything you have. Not because there is a lot, not profligate, but because you need it to get by and hope you have a little bit , of breathing room. And guess what, that grows economy for everybody. Everyone. And that is not happening now because were denying access. Denying access. And we should have Free Community college for everybody. [applause] it is only 6 billion. We can put everybody into Free Community college. Cutting in half the cost of college. And by the way, im talking about people coming back. We are in the middle of an industrial revolution. I wont give his name, because i dont have permission, but one of my buddies i went to school with in claymont, i went to a Catholic High School called holy rosary. And afterwards i went on to the local Catholic School that was a prep school, it was an academic academicallychallenging school. I worked in the summer to be able to get the tuition on the , school grounds. This guy went on and became a trucker. Guess what . As used always point out to me, he made more money than i did over time. But i saw him three christmases ago. I will end with this. I am sorry but it is important. , we wonder why people have anxiety. We treat people where i come from and the neighbors i come from, with high school degreesi did not have any friends who had parents who had college degrees. We would treat you like all dummies if you do not go to college. But heres the deal. He sees me and walks up and goes joey, baby, and grabs my cheek. I thought the secret service was going to shoot him. [laughter] i said no, he is my friend. I said, how are you doing, buddy . I will not mention his name. I said are you still driving . And he said no, only guys like you who never worked in your life can continue to work. [laughter] and i said how is your son . His son is the same age as my son who died. I said how is your son . And he said, he is in trouble, joe, he is in trouble. I said how can i help . , i thought maybe he had a drug problem or health problem. He said no, joey, he is still driving, joey, but he knows that in five years hes not could have a job, because of automation of trucking. We treat people in this country like theyre stupid. You think you all do not know exactly what the rest of the world is saying and doing . And that there not reason to have anxiety, about the mechanization of trucking . So what is going to happ