@ray suarez news. we'll see you for the next "inside story." in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> richard trumka president of the afl coy, representing 12,000 workers, a long time low. trumka says the workers need a better deal. >> we've given with our wages, we've given with our jobs, we've given with our homes. >> you can't look and say it's the president's fault. he's tried. now would i have done some things different?

you bet i would. >> fighting for more jobs. a better deal on obamacare. >> it's a national disgrace. >> from washington, d.c, richard trumka joins us on talk al jazeera. >> thank you. >> this is the lowest level in 100 years. you come from a mining family. decades spent in unions. did you ever think it would get to this point? >> no, i never did because i know the need for union and i know how workers need union. i never thought it would get to this. but i never also thought that there would be the concerted attack that we have seen in this country by big business, by politicians going after workers and their ability to have a voice on the job and in politics. >> do unions though bare some of the responsibility for not keeping up with the times? >> absolutely. we haven't done all the things

we should be doing either. we get pretty i'd say comfortable at times. instead of reaching out i'll point to a couple of examples young people. the workplace was changing around young people and we would go to them and say come and join us. and they would say yes unions are really good but it doesn't quite fit my circumstance. that's all right. we know but come and join us anyway. now we're doing it differently. we're going to them and not asking them temg them what they need. we're asking them what they need us to be in order to meet some of our needs. so some of the problem is ours as well. >> we'll talk about your plans in just a second but overall how big a problem is it now? are we at a critical mass for unions? >> i think we're at a crisis state where wages are stag instant for workers they're being attacked. benefits are disappearing and unless unions come back strong i think you'll see the economy continue to favor the 1% at the

top and the other 99% will be left out in the cold or be so stagnant or so left behind that we won't recognize this country. the middle class in this country is under assault. it was the trade union movement, labor union movement that built the middle class and we'll build it again. >> crisis those are pretty strong words. >> absolutely. pretty strong challenges that we face but i also say this: with those challenges are great opportunities. and that's what we're looking at. >> one of the opportunities you're looking at at the convention you have coming up ask reaching out to environmental organizations like the sierra club, the naacp. why are those organizations, the naacp, sierra club others why are they a good fit for af afl-cio? >> we work for issues now. none of the groups, progressive groups out there whether it's in the civil rights group oring religious group community groups, student groups, senior groups none of those progressive

groups are big enough alone to be able to change the economy and make it into a shared prosperity where it works for everybody. so it's incumbent that all of us come together. and you ask about our faults in the past. one of the things we did in the past was we would say here's our plan come and join us. now we're doing it differently. we're going to our progressive friends our progressive allies in the community and say threats sit together and make a plan that works for all of us. so we're jointly planning and strategizing and jointly executing those plans together to try to create an economy that really works for everybody. >> the plans that you have with these organizations doesn't that rely on them paying dues? >> not necessarily. we're going to be partners. we have members, they have a structure we have a structure, they don't have to pay seduce to us to create a partnership. it's like a family.

>> one of the key issues for environmentalists is one you have a differing of opinion on, they hate it, you support it, the keystone pipeline. >> there are 90% of the things we do agree on and those things, we shouldn't let the things we disagree on separate us. the other thing is even on issues that you disagree with, by us being able to sit down and talk with one another we can reconcile those and minimize those differences. will there be differences in the future? you bet there will be. and on those things we'll just have to go our separate ways that's what will happen. but we won't let those differences divide us overall and prevent us from working together and forming a real partnership. >> you understand a lot of people when they hear richard trumka some the afl-cio, they're reaching out to graduate students it sounds to some folks like desperation. >> we've always reached out to each one of those groups as a

matter of fact, we've had a good working relationship with those groups. we're trying take it to the next level. they can think what they want. they can think it's desperation. i think it's us facing the situation that we have an economy that doesn't work for everybody. we're not big enough each of us individually to change that economy. it's going otake us all building together to build the critical mass so we can change that economy and create the values that the vast majority of the people in america agree on. >> how will it work at this convention where you go to your members and say okay here is my plan for saving these unions, here's what i'm going to do in terms of reaching out. what's the message? >> that's not how we did it. we did it completely different than that. in the past we would have committee meetings three days before a convention, and then go to a convention, have a bunch of speeches and a bunch of resolutions and the convention would end and quite frankly nothing would change. we started six months ago. we brought people together. all of our friends, our

partners, our allies from the community we brought in rank and file workers, we brought in students, we brought in academics, we brought in all the best thinkers that we could. and we said let's sit and talk about what we need to become, in order to meet the needs of working america today. what we have to do. and we jointly developed that plan. and what we'll do at this convention is, we'll take the plan that was jointly dwol developed by all of us dps developed by all of us and we'll mobilize so they can go back to their communities and educate and mobilize in their communities and we can execute that plan. >> but what happens if this doesn't work? suppose union membership continues to slide, finances continues to be a problem what does it mean for working families for the next five, ten years? >> well if we're not able to change the economy, what it means by, for working families is that wages will continue to stagnate, pensions will continue to be a thing of the past,

health care will be beyond the grasp of most americans, education won't be the kind of thing you can count on for your kids. but we don't think that is going to happen. all of us coming together we can start to reverse that and build a shared prosperity where everybody benefits. what we're trying doesn't work, my hope is hey it didn't work, let's try something else instead of sticking with the tried old didn't work thick in like we've done in the past. >> when we come back we'll talk to richard trumka on education and obamacare.

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>> and i thought that was such a touching thing. because this has been -- this country has been a haven for jews often a difficult home. but arguably, one of the greatest gifts to the jewish people ever. >> jews come to newport, they come to new amsterdam, where they run into levites immediately, one of them, the governor, but may also come to newport in the middle of the 17th century, and newport is significant, because providence economy, is founded by roger williams. and roger williams is a fierce chris man of the radical 17 century terms left, his view is there is no church that is not corrupt and imperfect, therefore, no food

christian is ever entitled to form a government. and not entitled to bar anybody else's worship. that includes american indians and that certainly includes the jews. and there's incredible spark of fire of toleration that beginning in new england. and roger williams is himself a refugee from persecution from pure tan massachusets. but the crucial big point, i guess, is that jews have had a hard time, when nations and nation states have founded themselves on myths about soil, blood, and tribe. we are wanders, we are never going to make people feel easy if essentially they are aiming to have a country built out of territory, and one language, and the sense in which you belong to an exclusive tribe to which people have to conform almost biologically.

the world is still fighting those terrible battles. america is truly special because it is founded on an idea. that's the equivalent of a forless guard. as you know, it is again, the only great country in the world that it also is formed out of words. so the union, the communion between american words and jewish words, is a natural and surprising. remains to this day absolutely unique, so it isn't surprising that the point of existing outside your own boundaries in the holy land, in israel, or whatever, existing as part of other people from other cultures with other memories with other languages who unitedded in committing themselves to these extraordinarily noble words represented

by the declaration of independent came about. >> you have written a lot about america, the american future. you have also done t.v. around it. >> right. >> looked at america, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. but now you are an insider and outsider, how does the country look to you now? >> one thing that american has trouble with is a sense of limits. america is not founded on calculating limits. in the american future, and kindly referred to there's a chapter called american plenty, and the film which is filmed in the year of the first obama election in 2008, and there this year as those years ago, the essential drive to remain

special in the world, and to keep a national community as driven by it's extraordinary sense and determination, and self-motivation, depends also on the calculation of what you can't do as well as what you can do. this is not an election winner of course, but the same thing will be true of the irrational exuberance of the money markets really. this is no limits to what we can do with trading, or that cannot be true. so we are wrestling with this dialog between a kind of political anguish which says that's that pitchlation, that's for the sorry addicts of government regulation, always telling you whatnot to do, we are american, and we can do anything and on the other hand, saying no we are

all knitted together in this world, there are some things we have to calculate, that possibly we can't do. or we do with a more modest sense of what our horizons are. >> well, there's a baby in the bath water problem there, because part of the american genius, is that sense of no limits driving you to do amazing things. but then there's a ridged reality or a limit to money that can be conjured out of thin air. >> i think the way you project your military power. we are talking oen a dangerous day, i am not a pacifist, i don't believe in the dismantling of american power, but you have to improvise. partly benjamin franklin walks among us, where his adaptability by seeing being very conscious of not being behind the curtain. of seeing what the limits to an old way are, so you can have a particularly adaptive jean use, those

that don't have that adaptive general use will go the way of i.b.m., remember we always used to have big blue computers. so we have to think more nimbly, rather nan assume that the whole world is our oyster. >> isn't the tough balancing act, doing that without giving into declinism? when the president tried to rally the international community in libya, and then again in sir is yeah, and now with at least more partners and more support in ukraine and crimea. you are seeing a different kind of projection of power. yob can't just simply speak power into being. >> no, you can't. you can't run away from it either. it is unbelievely tricky, it is the most tricky thing of all, really. and for all his foughts there was a way -- he didn't have to cope with the catastrophic

recession, or just barely pulled out of. but bill clinton did have a way as did franklin roosevelt, even his way ronald ragan did too, they all had a way of saying what request be done in the new way without sounding depressing. that was the problem jimmy carter had very important things to say, but it was appallingly hopeless the way he said it. was just making everybody feel naughty and wicked and having to stand in the corner. we had a very very serious moment today, and it struck me this morning that whatever happens as a response to the possibility annexation of crimea, there was a gigantic issue out there. which america supremely fitted to believe, namely, the definition of what free europe is.

this sounds a little -- i couldn't be less. but we need to say, we need to make it absolutely clear to the russians that the days of reconstructing a soviet empire are gone. there is such a thing a free europe. we need to worry about where it's borders are but we need to do this, the american be et the atlantic charter, be it the gettys burg address, are very very good at pitly articulated statements of principle. which the world immediately understands. >> there are probably some people picking off paper, turning on this broadcast, hearing about it oen the radio, and thinking why is this my fight? why is whether crimea is russia or ukraine my fight? it turns out, unexpectly, that the great issue of our time is how do people of different beliefs and different cultures share

the same common space. and. the answer to that to problems about sharing a common space, is you invade a part of a one, in order to sort out problems with minorities you are in an unbelievely suddenly violently dangerous world. and we have after all along with russia in this particular case, we are signatories to a treaty, they gave up nuclear weapons nod to be guaranteed the territorial integrity of the ukraine. if that papeser worthless, we are in a 1936uation, in which money of the countries that feel close to an ex-passionist russia will feel say. the scandinavian countries all these countries that used to be part of a long reach of the soviet union and europe, are going to say we cannot possibly rely on american power, so the

answer to our if you belief that america and not just simply about our parochial shared interest in the western hemisphere, but whether we like it or not we have been saddled with this global role, in which the world has benefited by an american presence, since the second world war, then there is a moment to stand up for what we believe i'm talking with historian, you are watching talk to al jazeera, stay with us. >> scared as hell... >> as american troops prepare to leave afghanistan get a first hand look at what life is really like under the taliban. >> we're going to be taken to a place, where they're going to make plans for an attack. >> the only thing i know is, that they say they're not going to withdraw. >> then, immediately after,

an america tonight special edition for more inside and analysis. >> why did you decide to go... >> it's extremly important for the western audience to know why these people keep on fighting... ...it's so seldom you get that access to the other side. >> faultlines: on the front lines with the taliban then an america tonight: special edition only on al jazeera america >> al jazeera's investigative unit has tonight's exclusive report. >> stories that have impact... that make a difference... that open your world... >> this is what we do... >> america tonight weeknights 9et / 6pt only on al jazeera america

first blush, may nott realize it is the first of two massic faulks. are you going to land that plane on the deck of the carrier. >> jewish missioning accomplished. >> right, you have to -- >> i don't know, stay tuned. i am writing as fast as i can. but it turns out, who knew, the jews got around a lot in the muslim world. >> you are a man of many parts not just sitting with piles of dusty notes and scripbling away. you like to sing and dance. >> i like to cook. >> i think a lot of people work with their writing, need some sort of break from it.

and something that is really -- and in my case, i am very impractical person, i wouldn't know a carburetor if it fell on me from the sky. i wasn't great at sport, but i knew instantly, that i could do it, there was something about smell, flavor, the chemistry of it, sometiming. >> a bit of performance to that. >> there's a lot of performance to it, you are giving pleasure, and a lot of antics. >> i have had more emails my recipe for a souffle, i have more than any history have ever done. >> put on this earth, it turns out in this case. >> so some arc vests centuries hence may know you for that. >> they will know me as souffle sham ma, yes. >> great to talk to you. >> you too, thank you. >>

>> this is al jazeera america. i'm david shuster with a look at the day's top stories. fort hood shoote shooter lopez d arguments. in israel. [ sirens ] the fragile mea