Next, remarks from cio Richard Trumpka on his relationship with President Trump. He said he would be pushing the president to broaden workers bargaining rights regardless of whether or not they are Union Members. This is an hour. Before we get started i want to remind our audience to silence your phones. Feel free to follow along today using the pressclub. Secretary treasurer of the cio. Thank you jamie. Skipping over our speaker for a moment, lead automotive investigate reporter for consumer reports. Michael smith, a bakery worker at nabisco in chicago and a member of the bakers union. Our guest today has been president of the largest nation federation. Before that he served as a secretary treasurer for 14 years and as president of united mine work workers of america. Many of the 12. 5 million members voted for donald trump last november. After the election, surprise result. Mr. Trumpka offered to Work Together on issues like trade and manufacturing where their views overlap. He has taken a different tact than clinton supporters and has met with the president. Overtime eligibility that the Obama Administration enacted. Millions of white collar workers were poised to gain overtime eligibility last december until a federal judge blocked it. Health care is another area where the new president arent seeing eye to eye. There is widening income inequality making the work of unions that much harder. Im pleased now to turn over the microphone who will lay out the aflcio political strategy and discuss what he sees as the labor federations role in this new political environment. Its an honor to be here on behalf of the 55 unions and 12. 5 million members to talk about how to win progress for americas working people. As i start, id like to note that today is equal payday. For anyone unfamiliar this is truly not a celebration. Its a reminder that for a woman to earn as much as a man, she has to work a full year, plus 100 extra days all of that ends today. All the way up to april 4th. And for women of color, its even longer. The pay gap between women and men is one symptom of a much larger problem. Our economy is historically out of balance. Tilted steeply against working people and in favor of corporati corporations. In each of the last three years corporate profits have reached record highs. One year after the other. Yet, workers havent gotten a real raise in a half a century. Corporate ceos are making more than 300 times the average worker and despite living in the richest country in the world, at its richest point in history, our overall standard of living is going down. Now, this is amoral and its an economic crisis. You see, the imbalance in our economy causes real people real pain. Mothers and fathers are forced to choice between paying the rent and paying the doctor. Consumers are being cheated out of hard earned money. Seniors are taking jobs instead of enjoying retirement. These are the realities for working people while corporations cart more and more riches to the bank. So how did we get here . Well, republicans and too Many Democrats have rigged our economy to enrich a select few at the expense of everybody every day hard working americans. Its been a direct assault on our deeply held National Values of unity, justice and broad opportunity and its been done under the guise of creating jobs and justified by an economic theory that seeks to remove or destroy anything seen as a barrier to the free market. Most especially unions. We see it in our trade deals that creates special rights for corporations. We see it in our Health Care System that is a windfall for Insurance Companies and a complicated unaffordable mess for patients and families. We see it in the Financial Sector thats become the master, not the servant of the real economy. Above all, we see it in our outdated labor laws that allow employers to steal wages and unfairly restrict the freedom of workers to form unions. But inequality is not inevitable. Inequality is a choice and we can choose to do better. Let me be perfectly clear, we will never, never solve the problem unless ever worker has the power to bargain with their employer. Nothing else raises wages better or more fairly. Now, it was seen that the bill of rights with its freedoms of speech and assembly affords every work are the right to bargain with their employer, but thats not how the system works in practice. You see the law today only requires employers to bargain with recognized unions. So were proposing something bold. Something better. Every worker, everybody, everybody deserves a job and the power to make it a good job. To bargain for higher wages. Safer working conditions and Retirement Security, whether youre black or white, whether youre gay or straight, whether youre immigrant or native born or whether youre union or not yet union. If youre an engineer in seattle or an auto worker in mississippi, you should have the right to bargain with your coworkers for a better life and employers should have to abide by that. Now, some might say thats pretty radical idea. Quite frankly, i say its about the most fundamental thing that there can be. And theres never been a more important time for workers to assert our collectively power. You see, when all workers have a say in our pay and working conditions well start to close that gap. Well lift up more families and communities. Well build the america that our founders envisioned, that our parents built and that our children deserve. Now, this is what the vast majority of americans cried out for in 2016. Whether they voted for donald trump or Hillary Clinton, they were crying out for new economic rules. A new way of doing business. Changing an economy so that it worked for them. See, were closing in on the first 100 days of president Trumps Administration and two very different factions have emerged. Theres a wall street wing that seeks to undermine Donald Trumps promises to workers and theres a competing wing that could actually win some progress that working people need. Now, President Trump needs to decide, decide who he stands with. The coal miners, farmers and Steel Workers and other regular americans who he promised to help in his campaign or the wall street tycoons who are rigging the economy at our expense. And that decision that decision will be the single greatest test and the most defining thing in his presidency. Even before taking office, President Trump used his bully pulpit to Tell Companies to stay put. Dont move jobs offshore and a few of them have listened to him and thats a good thing. Every president should fight to keep good jobs here because every single job, every single job saved means one more family can pay down the mortgage or save for college or retire with digni dignity. But thats not enough simply to demand companies to stay in america. If the jobs that are ultimately saved provide low wages and little voice. See, President Trump should use his office and influence to call for an end to workplace intimidation, reject right to work once and for all. Promote and protect the freedom of every single worker to form or join a union and bargain for a better life. Tweet that, fight for that, accomplish that, and thats how well make america great. Look, from my very first meeting with President Trump, i let him know that we will judge his administrations by its actions. Were watching. Were keeping score. If the president does something good for all working people, something thats consistent with our values, well, well support it and well work hard for it. And if he does something that threatens who we are and what we stand for, then were going to fight it. Were going to fight it as a unified Labor Movement. This isnt just talk. See, we oppose the American Health care act because it was an allout attack on Workers Health care security. Taking money away from medicare and medicaid, increasing the number of insured, taxing our health care plans. We Want Health Care for all, not for few. So by defeating that bad legislation, we sent a powerful message that if you pull a bate and switch on working people, if you say that youre with us and then attack us, youre going to fail. Were applying that same standard to the important issues of the day. Quite frankly we were very thankful that President Trump signed the tpps death certificate, but working People Killed that unfair agreement. We did that. Nafta nafta will be the real test. And despite the president having called it the worst trade deal in history, it appears that the Trump Administration could leave its most oppressive pieces in place. I got to tell you, thats the right scale to be talking about and the Labor Movement is ready to hit the ground running with it. But will he invest the right way . Well, high wages and standards for workers be there who built the roads and our bridges . Will he be there the right way . Just last week the Republican House voted to eliminate plas in all federal projects. What will he do with that . Will he sign it or will he veto it . See, quite frankly im concerned that the wall street wing of the white house is starting to hijack the agenda. President trump has already rolled back important federal regulations that keep us safe on the job. His executive orders immigration criminalize our work places and violate our basic principals. By delaying the fiduciary role which says that Financial Advisors must act in your best interests imagine that. How outrageous that is. They have to act in your best interests when they give you advice, by rolling that back working people could lose more than 250,000 of our retirement money. Then theres the president s budget. In the end a budget is more than a set of numbers. Its a values document. Its how we know if you put your money where your mouth is and this budget unfortunately fails the test. See, you cant say youre for working people when your budget starves programs like the Appalachian Commission and the Delta Regional Authority which trains workers and grows local economies. You cant say that youre for working people when your budget cuts infrastructure dollars for hundreds of necessary projects like upgrading route 640 in elkhorn city, kentucky. Their life line. You cant say youre for working people when your budget slashes funding for osha and msha while 150 workers die every single day, 150 workers die every single day in this country from workplace injuries or illnesses like silica dust and other toxins. You see, those are the wrong prioriti priorities, the wrong values, but there truly is a different path. In pennsylvania where i grew up poverty were once brutal facts of life. When i was a kid, the local Public School gave us a topquality education. And college was an affordable reality. Back then the working economy worked better for working families then, largely because of the wages and benefits bargained by workers in unions like mine. The United Mine Workers of america and today umwa retirees are on capitol hill. Theyre lobbying for a fair retirement deal. Over 20,000 health care cut off notices have been sent out. And their benefits are set to expire on april 30. See, we have a responsibility to keep our promises to americas coal miners and congress should send the miners protection act to President Trumps desk today. See, mining is a dangerous job, but union was a step to middle class and i got to climb it, but too many people in our country, that ladder is gone and we have to rebuild it rung by rung. See, we want to rebuild the ladder and change the rules of our economy for workers like michael smith. Michael worked at the oreo plant on the south side of chicago, yet the Parent Company of in a nabisco moved its Parent Company to mexico. Mike, would you please stand up . Thank you. See, the members of mikes union, the bakery workers, they want to make oreos in the united states. This isnt just about a few cookies. See, this factory is an icon. Its a place where you could make a decent wage. You could raise a family and places like that should not be a thing of the past. Irene rossenfield makes over 9,000 an hour. She just went over the 200 million mark that shes taken out of the company for her, one person. 9,000 an hour and in that same hour nabisco workers in mexico earn a little more than 1. Thats unacceptable. We ask of President Trump do whats right. Stand with us. Stand with michael. Stand with the bakery workers. Bring the jobs home, protect our pensions and invest in america. Thats what you said you were going to do. It requires putting our issues and our values first and as a result we will not be an atm for any political party. Well stand up to the corporate republicans who attack working people and the neoliberal democrats who take us for granted. See, when our fidelity is to working people and economic rules, politicians will have to come to us. Thats how well stop choosing on election day between the lesser of two evils and start choosing between the better of two goods. And momentum has been building for working people over the last few years. People want good jobs. They want fair trade. They want rising pay. A powerful majority of americans support unions and our popularity is growing, especially among young people. And as i speak about unionism and the gains that we can win and the power that we can build, look, im not asking anybody any one of us to disregard reality. I know it wont be easy. I know we face long odds, but nothing is set in stone. Nothing. The future is truly ours to shape. Because in the Labor Movement, we understand that quality jobs dont just grow on trees. They dont just happen. Mining and factory jobs used to be dangerous and dirty. We made them better by standing together. You see, solidarity works. Unity actually works. Its as american as apple pie, only better. When we stand together, we win and our success spreads. Its happening right now as we sit here. Workers are organizing for a seat at the table and a chance to improve pay and benefits. Emts and paramedics right here in d. C. Recently joined the state, county and municipal employees. Hard working women and men at an electric bus factory in los angeles won recognition with the sheet metal workers. Employees at baltimore gas and electric said yes to the electrical workers. Thousands of teaching and Research Assistants at columbia and yale voted for a voice on the job with the auto workers and with the nine here respectively and more and more are on the way. And speaking of unite here, trump Hotel Workers in los angeles not only secured a first contract, but they won a union at Trump International hotel just a few blocks from the press club. Workers of all skills and background coming together in pursuit of a common goal. As i close i want to mention a recent study from harvard. It showed that only 30 of those born after 1980 believe its essential to live in a democratic nation. Let me repeat that. Of all the people born after 1980, only 30 of them believe its essential to live in a democratic nation. Now, thats a startling sta stisic and i believe its the simple truth that the young people are bearing the brunt of an economic imimbalance, the id that if you work hard and play by the rules has been fading away for this generation. And unfortunately for too many others as well. See, the Labor Movement can and must change this. Were in the fight of our lives to reclaim america as a land of opportunity and weve never been more committed to getting the job done than we are right now. In the end it all comes down to this, everybody deserves a good job and everybody deserves the power to win better wages and benefits and Retirement Security whether youre in a union or youre not in a union. Thats how we build an economy that works for everyone. So President Trump, the Labor Movement is moving forward. You should join us. Sooner, rather than later, use the power of your office to help us raise wages, to help us strengthen unions and give all workers a better life. You do that and well take it from there. Thank you very much. You mentioned in many ways in which the economy is not working for working people lately. What is the one most impactful move that you call on President Trump to make. One . One . One. Give every worker out there the right to bargain with their employer for better wages, better working conditions. Whether you have a union or not. It seems to me that in a country that prides itself in democracy, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of association, that workers should be able to bargain for their employer for a share of what they produce. Help us do that, help us arm every worker in this country with the power to increase their own wages, benefits and Retirement Security and well eliminate the inequality gap. Well grow an economy because, remember, our economy is 72 driven by consumer spending. Putting money in consumers hands, they will spend, create demand, demand will create jobs and the economy will hum and that 30 , the other 70 who dont believe its necessary t