>> twelve books.com is the website. gerrgary goldstein is director f publicity. >> and up next more live coverage from the 2009 chicago tribune printers row lit fest. coming up can bobo author of wage that in america and john deere who wrote flat broke in the free market. >> welcome to the 26th annual chicago tribunes lit fest. we would like to thank our sponsors and community partners who make this event possible. just a few housekeeping notes before we begin today's program. out of courtesy for our panelists and gas, please turn

off her cell phone and all other electronic devices. flash photography is also not permitted. today's program will be broadcast live on c-span2 book tv. if there is time for a question and answer session with the author at the end, we asked you to use the microphone in the center of the room so the home viewing audience can hear your question. if you would like to watch the program again, note that the coverage will be re- aired saturday evening beginning at 10 p.m. central standard time. please welcome our moderator, author of which side are you on, trying to be for labor when it's flat on its back. >> i'm just a moderator, and the moderator is supposed to moderate and calm people down. [laughter] >> but i don't think that it will be easy to calm people down want our two speakers and authors present the pcs of the book and their arguments. kim bobo is kind of the jane

addams of chicago. she is the head of the national interfaith coalition for worker justice. and her book transi is already a success it is not an ordinary book. it's kind of a political event. people around the country on talk review shows and clubs and organizations and unions have become energized by this book, which is about how people like the kind of people barbour wrote about in nickel and dime, being ripped off. our second author, tranthree, i hope i pronounced that right. flat broke in the free market is a remarkable writer, journalist with the washington post, and though he comes with all these

establishment credentials. i think this is really a bombshell of a book. and i urge people to read it. it is about how globalization has stripped working people of the control over their lives, and he takes us on a journey from the salmon factory in chile to barack obama chicago, and it is a remarkably courageous book to come out at this time which even has a very good word to say about hugo chavez and some criticisms of some of our national leaders. i strongly recommend it. what we're going to do here today is had each author make a 10 minute presentation, and our hope is we can open this up to questions and the dialogue and that you all be roused enough by

what these people have to say that i will have a tough job as a moderator moderating you down. [laughter] >> so let's begin with kim bobo who has focused on a specific and really shocking problem that has a working lawyer labor i see a lot of which is the way people are ripped off in small ways, the money you earned and what we can do about. kim. >> do not take advantage of a hired worker who is four and needy, whether that worker is an israelite or is a foreigner residing in one of your towns. pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and are counting on it. otherwise, they may cry to the lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. that passage from deuteronomy click indicates that there was some sin back then, and i'm here to say that we've got some sand right here in chinatown.

untenanted chicago. wage that. what is it? wage that is when employers illegally don't pay workers for all their work. so two to 3 million workers are not paid the minimum wage, even though the law is very clear. millions of workers are not paid overtime. in fact, a conservative business estimate is that $19 billion a year is stolen in unpaid overtime. then there's at workers and nick unfitness classified as independent contractors when they are really employees. and this steals not only from the worker because the worker doesn't get the employer side of payroll taxes, doesn't get overtime pay, but it also steals from all of us and from the public coffers because it means folks don't get worker's compensation if they are hurt, they don't pay into unemployment insurance.

so it's stealing from the public as well as from workers. then there's last paycheck which is a growing problem in this economy. so workers get fired, they don't get their last paycheck. you resign, you don't get your last paycheck. your entire plant closed down and they don't make you like the law requires. that too is wage that. vendors the stealing of tips. there are major lawsuits out against the companies for stealing tips. i was at my favorite chicago restaurant, tank noodle. any of you been there at tank noodle? good, good food. corner of argyle and broadway. so i'm going to put my bill on the credit card and was going to put the tip there. i turned to the waitress and i say, if i put my tip on the credit card will you get it? no. well, she will get it and

neither will lots of other workers. in fact, my friends at the department of labor advice me just put your tip in cash because the workers are more likely to get it, and you know those lookups at starbucks and duncan donuts? don't assume they will get it either because there are major lawsuits out against both of those companies for taking some of those workers gets. and then there are the day laborers who work all day and don't get paid at all. so these are the major ways, but i have to tell you that every time i think i've heard it all in terms of workers not getting paid, i hear a new story. i heard the story not just a couple months ago about henries turkey service in abilene texas that recruited folks up for a work in a turkey plant in iowa. they recruited mentally disabled man to work in this turkey plant, ship them off to iowa, house them in old rundown

schoolhouse that didn't have a heater that worked. and iowa is a little like chicago. we need leaders in winter. so they blocked up the windows to try and keep the heat in the place, and then they deducted $500 a month for room and board, and another $600 a month for kind care resulting in these workers working full-time at a turkey plant getting paid $60 a month. that too is wage that. so then the question is if you can agree that we've got a crisis in which death and that it's not somewhere else, it's right here all around us because every study shows that 50% of restaurants are stealing wages from workers, 60% of nursing homes, landscaping is notorious, residential construction is notorious. it's not somewhere else, it's right here with us. so if we agree we've got a crisis, then the question is

why? how come? well, i think it's a variety of factors. first it's clearly greed which is nothing new, but it's agreed with virtually no pushback forces against it. so let me just quickly outline what i see as the major pushback forces, and i describe these in the book against the wage that. so first, probably the most effective pushback force as a union. if you have a union in your workplace you are probably not going to have wage that, and if you do they are going to be all over trying to get worker's wages back. the problem is if you are than 10% of workers in this nation are in unions right now. and so they are not providing the pushback that we need which is why, by the way, interfaith worker justice is such a strong supporter of the employee free choice act. now, illinois is not in play, but there are a number of states in play. so if you've got friends in louisiana, arkansas, colorado,

nebraska, maine, pennsylvania, virginia or indiana, talk to them about the employee free choice act because we need more unions in the society. second pushback force ought to be the ethical business community because ethical businesses are undercut by employers that steel wages and put them at a competitive disadvantage. although in my experience over the last few years, the ethical business community is missing in action on this issue. they are not speaking out. they are not taking the lead, and in any of you run ethical businesses i hope you will step to the floor because we need more ethical businesses pushing back on this. third pushback force, our worker centers. there are about 200 worker centers around the nation that are kind of like the settlement houses at the turn-of-the-century, or like the jewish labor or the catholic labor schools from the 30s to the '50s. the drop-in centers for workers who haven't gotten paid, find

help and support. that's actually how i learned about this crisis of which death because we have about 21 worker centers affiliated with us around the country, and the number one problem that we see every day is worker of not getting paid. so these worker centers are doing incredible work. there's one here in chicago that's affiliated with us called arise chicago. every day they see workers have not gotten paid. last year they saw workers from 200 different restaurants in chicago. not a single work of grouper had gotten paid overtime in chicago. for the restaurant work here again it's a huge crisis right here in our backyard. next pushback force our trial attorneys, and i have to say, you know, nobody really speaks all that positively about trial attorneys, but they are carrying a lot of weight on this pushback force right now. in 2007, there were 7000 cases filed in federal court under the fair labor standards act.

and all but 151 of them were done by private attorneys. so that they are really carrying the freight on this issue. there were 62 different lawsuits that wal-mart finally decided to settle right at christmas time, december 24. they're going to end up paying workers between $30,600,000,000 in unpaid overtime. they made that decision to pay that overtime because those trial attorneys filed suit against wal-mart. so the trial attorneys are really doing a lot of the pushback. now the problem with trial attorneys, and some of my best friends are trial attorneys, is if you've not gotten paid $200, you know, it matters to you but it probably isn't enough for a trial attorney to take your case, which is why we have to have a strong that are department of labor that is really stopping and deterring wage theft and punishing those

who steel wages. so i have actually a fair amount of the book has several chapters on how we create a vigorous department of labor that can really enforce the labor laws. and we have kind of a plant at interfaith worker justice for this so let me outline quickly in my closing couple minutes what we're recommending that folks do at the department of labor. one, they have to get more staff. they have 750 investigative staff to protect 130 million workers. that's one investigator for every 173,000 workers. there's just not enough cops on the job here. so we have to get more enforcement staff. secondly, they got to work with these worker centers and other community groups around the country to enforce the law. three, they need to put information on their website about employers that steel wages because you and i need to know because we need to make some choices about where we do business. but we can't do that because you can't find out any information

about employers that steel wages. and finally, we've got to make meaningful punishment for those who steel wages. right now if an employer steeles wages, most likely -- most likely they won't get caught in terms of the department of labor, but secondly, if they do get caught they are probably going to end up paying $0.50 on the dollar of what they owed in the first place. so some unethical business leaders think hey, this is a good business plan. we've got to change at. we have to make some meaningful penalties for those who steel wages. let me close by saying that the good news about wage theft is that unlike many of the problems we face as a nation, like, you know, how are we going to deal with the banking crisis or how are we going to get out of iraq and who knows what else we're going to do in the middle east. you know, this is a problem we can solve. we know what to do about stopping and deterring wage theft. so, you know, it's not rocket science to do this. and it's something that each one of us can be a part of.

if you live here in chicago or if you live where there's a worker center, they are on a regular basis going to employers and insisting that they pay workers. so get on our e-mail action alert list by seeing danny postell in the back who was waving his hand back their work a guy with that cute hand. and get on that e-mail and we will tell you about actions you can do to insist that employers pay. when you hire somebody, ask how are they going to pay the workers. i'm just having some work done on a deck and i got a bunch of bids, and i asked each one of the bidders, and how do you pay your workers? and one of the guy said to me, well, what do you mean? it's not a competent question. how do you pay your workers rights and after a little back and forth he finally said i think i don't want your business. well, i don't think i won he is either, right? asked how people are going to be paid if you go to the the

restaurant asked if the waitstaff gets the tip and if you're not sure, put it in cash. and when we introduce legislation this fall, a stop wage theft bill, i hope you work with us to get past. we can stop wage theft. thank you. [applause] >> that's a wage that in america which is more than a book. it is your invitation to take political action, and it's got a how to get right inside. is a terrific read. it's already become a political bent in this country and you should buy a copy of it. >> our next author is jon jeter, flat broke in a free-market. i don't know if this book is as famous as kids yet but it certainly deserves to be. it's just a remarkable read. i have never come as close to missing and l. stop reading a book as i did last night.

there aren't many books, public policy books in the world that can take you from a hot romance, a whole chapter on this to the salmon interest in chile. it makes sense as you are reading along. and there aren't many books in this country that take a swipe at our own local congressman bobby rush and have a good word to say about hugo chavez when the author works for an establishment newspaper like the washington post. so there's a lot that he has to say. there are wonderful lines in this book. i wish i could read some of them but i think he will force. this is a jon jeter, flat broke in the free-market. >> thank you. [applause] >> first of all let me say what a tough act you are to follow. man, i want to pick that up as soon as i leave here. let me say one other thing, which is i am no longer with the washington post. i left four years ago. but let me just sort of talk a little bit about what this book

is about. my book is essentially talking about what's happened over the last 25 to 30 years all over the world from chicago to bouygues aris to brazil. and so the things that kim talks about sort of this wage that this is the sort of thing we see everywhere. we see this sort of rising inequality everywhere, in south africa, here obviously. wages are being reduced and profits are growing. we see country spending less and less on education. actually about a quarter less than most countries and about a quarter less than they did 25 years ago on education. that the percentage of their gdp. and so on a micro level, what that means is we have things like any loan stores on the southside of chicago. they're all over johannesburg, south africa.

we pay you syria's interest rates on our credit cards. so does brazil. we see crime rising everywhere, so does argentina which never had a crime problem and to basically 1990. we see this sort of dislocation, sort of isolation of people increasingly from their unions, from families. and that's what this integrated global economy has done or at least the way it's been molded and shaped. its isolated people, separated us from families, from unions, from our elected representatives like congressman rush. it has increasingly strained us from these institutions and these people who are our representative because we are no longer their client. their cries are big business and this is all over the world. so you see this in south africa or instance where the african national congress, nelson mandela's party who led his country to its liberation from apartheid and people are growing sort of leery of it.

they still vote for him because there is no alternative but they are leery of the fact that this government has gotten increasingly to the right. and unemployment has risen to 40% for the most part. and people are materially worse off than they were during apartheid. so why do we see these things? there is one simple deficit that we see all over the world now with the exception of southeast asia for the most part, and that is we don't make stuff anymore. we don't make stuff. south africa doesn't make stuff. brazil doesn't make stuff. manufacturing has gone. manufacturing is the key to a prosperous economy, particularly one that contributes to wealth. how did we get here? and this is sort of -- this is the part gets back to the classical theater i'm not an economist. and i want to go over this very quickly because while it's sort of very technical, it provides

answer as to how we get out of this, how we sort of escape this, these last years of widening equality, lowering wages, people sort of being funneled into service sector and low wage jobs. of course the number one thing is the opening of the borders to all sorts of exports, export goods from abroad. that's both here, zambia, everywhere. and what that does is it really sort of puts a disadvantage the developing economies which haven't had a chance to actually develop their industry. so they can't compete. and essentially what you see as i talk about the book in a place like zambia, southern africa country, you see there are 80% of the population now, 12 million people i think you make less than $1 a day. this is because there are things

like their textile industry has been overwhelmed, inundated by foreign made goods, mostly from the united states. and western europe. you know, this sort of blood from imports flowing into the country. a lot of things like even secondhand clothes. things that we donate to goodwill or salvation army are then packaged and sent over there, sold for pennies per pound. but it kills their domestic manufacturing. the second thing and this is really sort of technical but it's very important. in fact, i would say maybe it's as important as anything. this is monetary policy. what we have seen all over the world beginning really in chile in 1973, but sort of really deep here in the united states in the reagan administration is the currency. that seems paradoxical if you are making the currency stronger, making it basically more expensive to buy abroad. but what does here, and it does kill inflation which is the point and that of course is a good thing. but by making it too strong, what you do is you kill your

domestic manufacturing and that's what we have seen over the last 30 years your sort of this gradual death of our domestic manufacturing base as a good flow into our country that are now cheaper because the dollar is stronger and goods that flow out of our country into countries like argentina, countries like brazil, all over the world, people can no longer afford or don't want to buy because there is artificial inflation of the price. that of course it works both ways so it's not just the united states. you see that in argentina. this was really the crux of their problems that they made their peso equivalent to a dollar. for every peso they printed, they had a u.s. dollar in reserve. inflation plunged to zero overnight, but it also killed the domestic manufacturing industry. the third thing is just usery, its debt. it's the fact that not only do

credit card companies charge is 30% on our credit cards but essentially the world bank and international monetary fund and the u.s. treasury, wall street, charges countries like brazil, argentina, mexico, turkey, charged in these usery is a rates 25, 26% on the bonds that they sell to finance usually products, services, bridges, dams like this which only serves there is a. so this is another way in which the game is rigged. we talked to this in the book out essentially the whole world is somewhat become a payday loan store. we are loading money to a lot of these countries and essentially coercing them into paying us you syria's interest rates on this money. everlasting i want to talk about is privatization antiregulation, which work hand-in-hand. so privatization of the public sphere and what this means essentially is that public space

is shrinking, the sort of -- and as a result there is the withdrawal of government from the market. what that means is that our electric bills are higher and we pay more for water. we pay more for gasoline. this is true all over the world. this sort of, you know, it's almost, so you have not just people make them less money but paying more for the basic necessities of life. was my whole point here? my point is that what we have seen in this global integrated global economy is really a continuation of the liberalism, of colonization. in the book i start talking about how i came to this book and i described a conversation i had with nelson friedman, the father of the economy of the university of chicago. at this time he was in california. and i went to his apartment in san francisco overlooking the bay, a beautiful apartment.

in 2006, and we're just talking about the global economy, what's happened over the last 25 years. he described something that i never saw, and i didn't see in my years abroad growing up here in the midwest. he described a world that was excellent in terms of the opportunities that provide people, in terms of just sort of the direction that the world was going in. he described a world i didn't recognize. there was a sense of déjà vu in this conversation because secured earlier i had been in zimbabwe for the washington post, and this was right when robert mondavi a great man to win very bad but that's not in the book i guess. when he was ruining this country by seizing farms and seizing farms from the commercial farms, white commercial farmers and really begin his ranch here. ian smith was the prime minister of the country when it was rhodesia who refused to surrender control to the indigenous people there in the '60s and fought this disastrous war for years even

when the british government didn't want to. ian smith was thinking about running again for prime minister. and i went to his home on the outskirts of the town, and we spoke for about two hours. we only agreed to an hour but he had just been widowed, and much like friedman, this man, i remember about reading about him when i was a child and how he always seemed this figure and he was actually genteel and sort of blunt spoken insincere. but we were talking, and i asked him basically why he wanted to run for political office again. he said because when i was the prime minister of this country, our blacks were the happiest in the world. and this of course this was the connection between the globalization and colonialization. they were speaking for the constituency, both friedman and ian smith. they were speaking. they didn't see any breaks.

they did want to. for their people, of course, the economy was great. of course zimbabwe was great. they were serving sort of their clientele and, you know, if you're getting free labor or cheap labor from indigenous africans, things can work well for you. is your charging a hot tax on land that you basically stolen and charging africans a hot tax things will work out pretty well for your. you can charge predatory loans, which is crazy interest rates, things work out well for your. this is the point i tried to make is that obviously just from a mathematical standpoint, selling more of your goods abroad is a great thing, it's a wonderful thing. no one would ever argue about that. the question is how do you get to that point. how are you able to sell more of your stuff abroad. how do you, in other words, how do you make the terms of trade work for you. and that's the question i try to answer in this book. and the real problem