holiday tomorrow, we want to get you to weigh in on the future of the labor movement. the detroit free press this morning has this headline -- "labor of hope." it says here that the uaw plan is to tap into worker discontent and focus on social crisis. justice.al "u.s. unemployment stands at 9.6%, with michigan at 13.1%. those who do not have jobs are anxious about losing them and watching their benefits declined. incomes are down, and many people are fighting health care expensive or lacking coverage altogether. for many, retirement seems but a dream. the the union is trying to tap into worker discontent and re- commit itself to broader social and justice issues in an effort to rejuvenate its sunken membership level." in "the new york times" there is an article about anna burger. "after all light and labor, a union leader retires, frustrated. she has dedicated her life to building the labor movement but has in nonetheless grown smaller and weaker. beyond a stepping down debt from of federation represents 5 million union members, she is retiring from her job of 14 years as secretary-treasurer of the powerful service employees international union, representing 2 million janitors and other hospital workers. many women have far too hard a time of balancing jobs and family. she is frustrated that union membership continues to shrink when workers should be flocking into unions during this time of stagnating wages. in a time of democratic majority that union members fought so hard, that could be over in november's election." "ms. burger was not going to get your progress of majority and that it was partly labor's fall. they were successful in electing a more pro-union house and senate, but the advocacy of the unpopular health care bill will mean losses for many house and senate members in november supported unions." we want to talk about the future of the labor do it. mike on the independent line. california. you are the first phone call. caller: does not look very good for the labor movement. a lot of the main jobs that used to be controlled by unions -- where people could count on a living wage -- they no longer exist. remember ross perot? he said he would hear of a great big sucking sound. that has all come to fruition in my opinion. you cannot any longer just a graduate from high school with a skill or trade and thinking be part of the middle class. host: mike, what is your advice for those that had up unions? caller: the unions have supported candidates that are not really for the people. here in inglewood, they did that. they did not support those people actually were in support of their positions. these people only wanted to get elected, and the leadership of the unions, that is who they chose to put their money behind. they did not put their money behind those politicians who wanted to support the labor truly and stand up to big corporations. instead, they took their money and supported politicians who supported their position and supported the very same corporations that wanted to send our jobs overseas. and that is what they did here in inglewood as well as in other minority communities across the country. and that is why the labor movement is suffering today. bottom line -- they put their money behind the wrong candidates, those candidates who were not sincerely supporting people who are working every day but instead, put their money behind candidates who were playing both sides against the middle, getting money from corporations as well as from their position. in the end, we are where we are today. host: let's go to bridgeport, connecticut. stuart, you are up. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment about your question. well, i want to make a brief background remark. if you go back, the economic history of the united states since 1952, you will see that every time the country has been in recession, a republican president has been in the white house. what does that have to do with your question of the day? it is because, in a recession environment, the labor movement suffers very badly because, first of all, they lose their membership with unemployment. more importantly, the labor movement is in a weakened position to make demands for the membership. the desirability of belonging gets reduced because they cannot achieve a very much for their membership. so the future of the labor movement is going to be a very much proportionally related to the future of the economy of the country. host: the front page of los angeles times this morning has this headline -- ugly reality. it could be years before the labor market recovers. many will run on a bed of his before that. out of benefitst o before that. caller: republicans do not believe in keynesian economics. it does work, it is just that when you do not apply correctly, you will not stimulate the economy of the country, which you need to do. you need to put a massive investment in the infrastructure and that will automatically create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, not only for the people who will do the work but also people who have to prepare the materials and the machinery and are to get the work done. host: in this article in "the new york times" about anna burger, she has been an outspoken member of the president's recovery advisory board. she urged the president to appoint a jobs czar and adopt an industrial policy to rebuild america's manufacturing base. she supports establishing a federal infrastructure bank that would spend to build roads, bridges, and mass transit, creating millions of jobs. fort worth, texas. jerry on the republican line. what are your thoughts? caller: a want to give you a little history about the job market. started shrinking greatly under president reagan, and people did not seem to realize it. i had two divisions that were shipped to mexico. i lost a lot of my friends which have the same experience. this is been going on for a long time, the shipping of our jobs overseas and the reduction of manufacturing. it has completely restored our country. host: you are calling on the republican line. some would say you may not sound like a republican. caller: i voted republican. i am trying to explain to what has happened. that is all. and that is basically what has been going on for such a long time that it is going to take a great deal of time to ever restore the jobs in america. primarily, we have shipped those jobs overseas to benefit the major corporations in the world, to increase their bottom-line profits, it is just the way it is. i do not believe that we will, in my lifetime, i do not believe we will see it come back. i feel sorry for my children and grandchildren, because i have seen it passing. host: we are talking about the future of the labor movement. in mid-august, the gallup poll came out and said that u.s. approval for unions remains near a record low. the second lowest approval rating in the and the history of this trend, behind only last year's 48%. 72% in 1936 approved. 75% was in 1953. support for unions declined in the late 1960's and early 1970's, but hubbard or around 60% until last year when it dropped below the majority reading for the first time. approval widely varies among political party affiliation. 71% of the democrats compared with 34% of americans and 49% of independents, all three groups showed very low approval of the union's last year. the future of the labor party does not look good. significantly more americans say they want labor unions to have less then, 40%, rather than more influence than they have today. 27% want their influence to stay the same. 40% say they should have less influence, compared to 29%. 46% of americans say unions will become weaker in the future. this general pattern has held each time gallup has asked the question since 1999. minnesota. democratic line. good morning. what do you think? future of the labor movement. caller: i absolutely think the labor movement will be stronger, because if people have faith in the union, it will be very powerful and strong i absolutely think the last caller was absolutely right. . workforce started weakening along time ago. the last administration, the job market started losing jobs, 700,000 per month. if this administration and the democratic party started focusing on that and let's the american people know all they want to do to go back -- to bring policy. so i think they should be ok. host: caller, do you think unions should tap into the discontent out there? >> caller: people forget what happened yesterday. they just focus on today and tomorrow. i am working right now. what i tell a lot of my friends at my workplace, they do not even remember what happened to them yesterday. i think if the democratic party focused on this, campaigning hard, they should be absolutely ok. host: jay in huntsville, alabama. on the republican line. what do you think? caller: i think people have forgotten one of the laws of economic reality. when i asked people what made there were twosouth grow, things that took place early -- the labor movement in the north and -- in the economic laws there is one law that is as powerful as supply and demand -- wages, jobs when wages are low. when you have people in the labor movement making $70 an hour, you cannot afford it. you cannot sell your product. i will relate to real quick stories. as a kid riding a bicycle throwing papers going to a doughnut shop, living in burning birmingham at the time, and the union guy gave me a hard time of going into the shop to buy doughnuts. the other thing is that my father was a policeman in birmingham at the time. for months, he had to have a sign policeman whenever at&t was on strike at the time, because the union people were absolutely thuggish. host: unions have changed since then. what do think the future hold? caller: has anyone tried to repeal the law of supply and demand lately? you cannot repeal that economic lot. jobs and go where wages are the lowest. so get your demand into reality. my cousin is a labor organizer in california. he and i have had some conversations over time, but guess what? his union continues to shrink, shrink, shrink, particularly the later in life -- had a job as a senior in college, i was a warden in a county jail, and the teamsters or on strike. they were shooting up trucks. we ended up having the president got arrested, brought to jail, and hoffa would not even bail out. host: "falling into poverty. job losses hit states middle income families large. two years ago, he was getting to see the results of his labor. a week ago, instead of bringing his newborn son home to a condominium he had rented for 12 years, johnson and his wife when, to the health and garden inn and milton. in this recession, thousands of once comfortable connecticut families have fallen into poverty. the reports shows that the heaviest job losses have been in the middle of the pay scale and that connecticut has seen more long-term unemployment than anywhere else." independent line, los angeles. freddy, go ahead. caller: i think the future of the union movement is in dismal trouble. unfortunately, they will bring the rest of us down with them. job losses overseas. is the labor movement itself that cause that. they virtually brought down the steel industry in this country. and that is what ships jobs overseas. i suppose the crisis is going on in every state government in the nation -- it is the public service employee unions. as the caller said, you cannot violate the law of supply and demand they ridiculous salaries. the passionate -- they have ridiculous salaries. if you -- if you are public employee, there should be no unions. the private sector is bad enough. right now they are running an extortion on the american taxpayer. host: let me get your reaction to a piece for "the washington post,"about this being no holiday free labor unions. unions represent less than 30% of the work force. when union is represented over 33% of private workers in the 1940's, they drove wage increases for everyone. now union firms have to compete for good workers. unions struggle to defend their member wages and benefits. before the recession, productivity soared, profits rose, and ceo pay skyrocketed but most workers lost ground. what do you make of that? caller: henry ford was the first one to boost up wages for workers. even before henry ford, carnegie did it. wages were going up before unions came into existence. it was up tracking during the halt industrial revolution. unions got the credit. when the steel companies took over and have these ridiculous and work rules, it made it impossible for americans to compete against other steel mills over the world. the facts do not bear it out. they can run the company as they see fit. it is not some outside union leader who should run the company as well. i challenge any union member out there to run your own company if you think everything is so unfair. host: we will go to springfield, massachusetts. on the republican line. louise. caller: i wanted to comment on some things that i see going on in the -- industry, which is definitely shifting to mexico and other countries. this includes non-food items like toothbrushes and various things like that. the insurance costs have gone up tremendously for employees. obviously, that is a reason to move. the equipment costs, the wages, the equipment costs, the ingredient costs -- there is no water for agriculture in california. the questionable tax situation. ingredients like sugar are much lower in mexico than here, so a lot of cookie companies are moving there. and then you have the equipment costs. and of course low wages with undocumented workers. so, who would want to do business here? , you have a hard time finding out in the fine print in the package, which you cannot and the food market because you are concerned with what it will buy for dinner bid what the relative price will be -- for dinner and what the relative price will be. so, all in all, i would like to have some comments about the things that i have talked in favor of. by the way, in california, our government shut off the water, agriculture and the middle section of agrtghehe state. those farmers are going to food banks to get food. host: front page of "the washington post" this morning. "housing market out of sync." "buyers, continuing jitters lead to discontent. next to that is the headline this morning that craig's list has stopped offering adult advertisements, say that one of the world's biggest providers of internet classified advertising abruptly shut down the adult services section of his website. if you go to the website, there is a black box containing one word -- censored. the associated press is reporting this morning that palestinian president abbas says he warned israel's prime minister that he will quit peace talks unless israel extends a curb on some construction. benjamin netanyahu has not said what he will do but he told his cabinet on sunday that creative solutions are needed to make the talks succeed. the front page of "the new york times" this morning has a long piece about secretary of state hillary clinton's role in these peace talks. clinton is facing a crucial test in these talks. mrs. clinton will be in the thick of the negotiations between prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the palestinian authority president abbas when they meet on september 14 and egypt. her role will be -- will be to take over from george mitchell when the two sides run into serious obstacles. it may prove the greatest test yet for mrs. clinton ought -- one that could cement legacy as a diplomat in she solves the riddle that foiled even her husband, president bill clinton, but it could propose soon begin risks to any political ambitions she may harbor. dave on the independent line. we are talking about the future of the labor movement. what do you think? caller: obviously the more manufacturing we have done by the union, the higher our costs will be, and that is why they do it in the other countries. but my concern is that trumka and sterns seemed to be wanting to go for a global union. if i was a union member here, i would be worried that i was being used as a useful idiot in the meantime. host: why you say a global union? caller: there is plenty of youtube video on this of them talking about uniting global workers. to get into the -- i do not want to say new world order stuff, because that is so far out there. they're trying to globalize the unions and other countries, and it is just a giant power grab. host: let's go to democrat. stan in philadelphia. caller: i am a union. \ the reason we have no unions is the republicans. they hate unions. host: y do you think membership has fallen for unions? caller: they sold the country out. they sold out for money. all about free enterprise. they do not selling out to other countries. they ship the jobs down south. some of them people do not have good sense. i hate to say it. host: stan, do you pay membership dues? caller: this is always been a union place. people that ship their jobs down sell or of the country, they do not have no benefits. i am retired. we have union meetings still. host: stan, move on to charles on the republican line. caller: good morning. supply and demand is what it is. it is the union leaders that are the corrupt people. the union workers are good people, but it is the leaders. the leaders take the money and their dues and spend it on politicians to get a vote so they can keep the leaders in a position. the textile industry moved from the northeast down to the south because of the corruption and the wages. now, in nebraska, an omaha, they asked the unions, the public unions and just to take one day off without pay. and they said, no. they just needed that to make the budget better. the unions, in a sense, have created their own problem. they lie to people. card check. that is a bogus name. they will take a secret ballot away from the union man. if he wants to vote for union or against it, he ought to be able to do that in private. host: rasmussen is out with their presidential poll. votersthe nation's strongly approve of barack obama. 45% strongly approved -- strongly disapprove. out yesterday with their latest poll on the president. new york. michael, independent line. caller: good morning. i think this discussion about unions it is on the private side is going in the wrong direction. unions are mandatory. i want to bring that out directly. unions are mandatory for all county, city, state and federal workers. so sanitation, teachers, clerical workers, police, fire -- they earn about 50% more than the private side. it's mandatory. now, the situation is funny. i am a professor. and my projected retirement is like $45,000. social security is $12,000 per year. i was out with a sanitation person. his pension is $68,000 per year. no education, no higher education. trump pointed out the real problem with ben bernanke. bush change the inflation number in 2002. he put a person in from texas. so trump said the following question which everyone should consider -- how can there be to% inflation if medical costs are going up 14% per year and a college education is going up 11%? it is not possible. the inflation rate has to be well over 5% or 7%. if medical costs -- host host: of around 8:30 a.m. eastern time we will talk to kevin hassett of american enterprise institute, whether or not the stimulus has worked. the president will be unveiling more stimulus, looking at tax credits. we will talk more about that later. for "newsmakers", we sat down with the new commandant of the coast guard, admiral robert papp . here is what he said about the coast guard's response to the bp oil spill. >> are you confident that you have the resources and the structure from the coast guard, the government assets and industry assets, to deal with an equals bill or are greater event -- an equal spill or