you know we can't only address their needs where they work. we nee to address the fact that a lot of youlg people goang to college today are drowning. they are drowning in a sea of debt by the time that they come out of colge. there is a story that the writer has posted on our blog about a young man named robert bowman in new york. maybe somef you have hrd about it. he grew up in foster care. heorked his way through communy college and college and law schl. he surved two accidents. one that nearl cost him his life. and all along the way he took out 32 separate student loans, over a period of fou years his debt sed to $400,000. if that's not czy enough, five

appellate judges said that he can't join the new york bar because we hasn't done enough to pay off his debt, his loans. at's just one example. there are literally tens of thousands of other examples. young people stuing to be nurses and tchers and social workers and engineers. college with dreams of good careers and graduating in the near bankruptcy. paying off loans the rest of their lives. now fighting to make college affordable will not be a traditional union issue. but if we care about the economic security of young workers, it really has to become one of our concerns and one of our issues. d that's just one piece of the equation. and i'm not suggesting that the labo movement aught to abandon all of its traditions.

what i am saying is that the no nostalgia for the past is no strategy for the future. and tradition should always have a vote. you just can't let it have a veto. this is a critical momt for the america workers. we need to seize it. that doesn't only mean speaking to the interest of young workers. we need a labor movement that tells american workers in no one certain terms that racism, indeed any kind of bigotry may serve someone's interest but it sure as hell isn't our interest. see in 200930 years after the death of randolph, labor is still haunted by the legacy of jim crow. that's why after the employee free choice act becomes law, our first priority has to be watching a drive aimed at the

country's 5 million poverty waged african-american workers and other minority workers and the women that the economy has left behind. and there's more. we need a labor movement that's ready to partner with every employer who respects workers. and understand that thei employees are an asset to be invested in, not an expense to be cut. but we also need to be ready to push back against any ceo who thinks that he or she has the right to earn a good living but their employees don't. in short, we need a labor movement with the need to compel evey company to live up to the responsibility of corporate citizenship. and i can tell you i know the centers been working to try to bring walmart around on some health care reform.

but there should be no mistake on this point. none. walmart will never ever be app friend of wkers so long as it denies its own employees the right and the dignity that can only come with the ufcw contract. and that's not all. we need a labor mement that's organizing and mobilizg as never before t stand up for workers whether it's at the courthouse, the state house, or the w@e house. today more than er, we need the labor movement that stands by our friends, punishing its enemy, and challengesll of thoseho, well, can't quite seem to decide which side they are on. i'm talking about the politicians who wt to turn out our members. they want us to turn them out for every vote. make phone calls. door knocks.

but somehow they always seem to forget workers after the votes are counted. for example, legislators who don't understand that their j isn't tmake insurance companies happy. it's to make americans healthy. legislators who say their all for health care reform but refuse to stand up to a public system that puts people before period of profits. you know, to hea some of them, you think the objective isn't to come up with a health care plan that works. it's to write a bill that republicans will vote for. they think -- i think they need to understand that you can have a bill that guarantees quality affordable health care for every american. or you canave a bill that's the republans will vote for. but you can't have both.

we in the labor movement, wel we keep our promises. and we damn well demand and expect the people that we elect to keep their promises as well. now what kind of labor movemen does america need? well, it needs a movement that makes senseo aew generation of workers. a movement that challenges all bigotry. a movement with distresso hold corporate america accountable. a movement guided by progressive values and understands if you fight for those values you may not always win. but if you reduce the fight, you are always certain to lose. now, i know that we have se time and we want to he some time for dcussion. but i began my remarks when i mentioned ted knedy. well, there'snother kennedy that also tched my life.

his brother, bobby. it was around the time that i first went into the mine. i volunteered in his campaign. and some of you may recall that all through that year @e had quoted george and say that some men keep thhngs as they are and ask why. i dream things that never were. and ask why not? well, you know something? that's who we are in the labor movement. we're people who dream. we dream of men and women working at jobs where theyre treated with respect and they are paid what they have earned. jobs that they look forward to going to every morning. not the kind that they can't wait to get away from every night. we dream of a nation that doesn't matter what color your skin is, whatex or religion yo are, or whether you are gay or straight orhat country your

family is from. because here in your america we think everybody aught to have a seat at the table and a chance to stand in the winner ccle every once in a while. we dream of parents being able to look into their children's eye and being able to tell tm that if they study and they work hard they can achieve anything. you see that's the america that we dream of. quite frankly, this is our moment to ask:why not? thank you. : >> i'd like to ask mr. trumka to join us. thank you. i'm david madland, the director of the american workerroject.

i'm thrilled to have rich here. >> thank you. >> very good to see you. i'm going to moderate a discussion with the audience but as the@@@8@p@p@p@p@p"' sort of drive the economy and to talk about a major strategy of doing that as to focus on young workers and you leave out sort of your vision for attracting youngorkers, but was a higher level. i was wondering if you could go more into debt. tell us how you're going to target younger workers for the new strategies to do that. thank you. >> first of all we going to bring young workers into the labor movement. we have lost touch with the

generation. you are seeing them pay the pricrighnow so we are going to invite a group of ung workers, union and nonunion into the af0 so we can begin to communicate with one another. i really want t know when i say something what they hear and i want to know that when they say something i am understanding what they want me to understand and i think we have not done that so the first step is to bring them in and start talking about their need and hav them helpless designed a way to reach out. we wanted to know there is a move into the labour movement as in the past there hasn't been that entrée away from them to come in. the last several years we've begun to open up dders for them to be able to come in and doors to come into the labour movement and we need to help place them cook as well.

you will see us more on campuses talking to peopleo get into the labour moveme and come in and know that no matter what you've studied in colle there is place in the labor movement. we need professionals, economists, we need organizers, we need a social conscience, a little bit of everything, all 80 people. everything that is trained out there and we want them to know it is the place to come because we are going tbe the place to be and where the action is at. >> sketched out an exciting future. so i am looking forward to see you put that in action. now i am going to turn the questions to the audience and start first with members of the media. we have 15, 20 minutes or so for questions. if you could raise your hand and i will start with the gentleman right on the island. christine eskridge, now with a microphone darryl with news wire. this new strategy targeting on

the younger workers seems like a move to keep issues alive particularly after, and this comes after much discuion about survival. so give me some comment about that and how concerned are you regarding nafta? >> first of all targeting young people is about the future of the country. when released a study with people are going to be astounded. we didhe same study in 1999 and ten years later a young people are far worse off. it's almost a lost decade for young people. they do need to get involved and collective bargaining will help them get into that. t's talk about the employee free choice act and its importance. anit's not just a union issue. it's a stimulus issue, an econom recovery issue. 1946 to 1973 productivity in this country it doubled and s did wages.

was the largest distribution of wealth the world has ever seen and the most interesting part about that time is the people in the bottom to quartile eir wages were rising faster than the peoe at the tops of the wage gap was closi. from 73 until today, productivity has continued up but wages have actually stagnated, and as a result, workers areoing through four, five different strategies to try to compete. we work more hours. we sentore people into the workforce. we sent not a second or third job, then in the nineties came and we are on the 401k then that bostick and we borrowed on houses and we have pn over this period of time you cannot drive an economy with a debt finance consumer spending. we need a new engine. the only way you do that is put money in people's hands so consumersan actually try it

and growhe economy and a real sense. that is what the employee free choice act is intended to do. it's not the only solution but an interesting and important part of the solution. that is why we are pushing it. we feel confident we will get it passed. we feel we said from the beginning we need three things. we needed one, ability for workers to join a union without being harassed, intimidated or fired. we need greater penalties because of the companies, the employers simply violated fell law and paid the fine as a business cost. so we need larger penalties that act. and number three, a way to dissolve disputes with a drop dead date and no-fault excuse so that people couldn't just surface bargain their way out forever and diman workers and employees the right to have collective bargaining.

i feel absolutely certain we will get all three of those goals might and quickly and hopefully before the end of this year. >> the gentleman against wall. my name is phil dimond, i guess my relevant affiliation would be the book that talks about how labor can revitalize itself and incessantly on page 222 in that book, i talked about a charismatic leader leader named richard trumka who is the kind of person the labor movement ought to put out front to deliver the message so i am gladhat a-cio is following up on that advice. [laughter] >> you have demonstrated y ve great wdom. [laughter] >> my question is it seems to me labour's agenda is languishing now in congress and other venues d doesn't this point out the need for a slightly different political approach by the labor movement to instead of spending

all of its time and energy and resources electing specific individuals that in addition to that labor possiy needs to do more to get its agenda, it's issues and values to be part of the political dialogue and o people's mind when they vote so after an election leader has a mandate for its value its agenda and issues and sleeper isn't completely dependent upon the priorities that legislators and other political leaders choose to enact. >> it's an interesting point you made and i am going get back to and a great teacher i had. the eighth grade teacher said every time you point the teacher at -- and garate somebody ere's always three pointing back. yeah, some of it is our fault. we hav not educated and agitated and mobilized around cler-cut issues. i think you will see us do that, take what you're cut issues, stand beside them and defend.

if you will get a couple of issues when we did that with the employee free choice act, the workers sacked control the proces se that toomeone else the process gets muddy we have a contract for america, chris and i were not going to call that but it will be what we think is necessary to create an economy that really will work for everyone. and we won't be replicating the old economy whereinancial economy did well but the real economy did so poorly. you will see us doing that. you silsee utaking a sharp edge positions where we say this is where we stand. sometimes i think our friends needo go back and take collective bargaining 101 because you can't put out a proposal and have thether side sano if you like this, try

this and they say no. well, try this. you don't bargain with yourself. frequently we've seen some of that. you will see us try to stop that from happening. you will see us helping the president a cgress do what th need to do in their heart and in their head but they need the political marching. we will be there nudging them from this point on i think. >> let's see, i will take a question over there. the gentleman in t back. >> mark, press union news. u mentioned your other top targets as organizing minorities and specifically african-americans. can you ve us some nuts nd bolts and are there other minorities you want opinions to organize? >> you know, mark, bincluded

other minoritiess well a i also said women because i feel they have been left behind in large part because the economy. they get paid less on the dollar than anybody. you will see us looking at low wage groups and come up with strategy for that and try to bring more and more people into the middle class, trying to provide a letter where those left behind get the chance to come up into the middle class. that is when we have an america all of us can be proud of. >> in the last questions before i go to -- it looks like there is one woman there by the tv screen. >> my name is emma ashburn with the japanese newspaper. and i am just wondering, it seems like organized labor does pretty well in the industry and so i was just wondering if you

could comment o that and the effect it might have over the medium term. >> i didn't hear the first part of the question. >> is this on? just thinking about it it seems like there was a posive payout to sleeper from the gm and although restructuring over the first half of this year and if you could comment mn that and whether that is seen as a big victoryr -- and what it might have in termsf an afft on labor over the medium term. thanks. >> you know, american works particularlyuto workerwere responsie for designing cars. in fact the law currently constituted prevents us from having any input in those decisions. and we end up, the workers and up paying the price for bad management.

now, if you look at the number of autoworkers losing their jobs. if you look at their standard of living you would have to say they paid a pretty heavy price. we are saving as many jobs as we can and the auto workers are working as hard they can to preserve the most. it is tough to call that a victory for either the autoworkers were america. we keep producing less and less. there are two economies out there. there is fothen the real economy and there is the financial economy. the financial economy was originally designed thelp the real economy do things. somewhere along the line over the last 25 to 30 years those lines have gotten blurred and the financial ecomy think it is an end of itself and i guess to the people at t very top is

and they have done exceptionally well. but our country, each of the state's, all of the counties, all of t municipalities, all of the workers, all o the retired people and all of the children have paid a heavy price for that. it's up for us to turn that arou and try to start t produce things again, try to create good paying jobs. look, the question i think we need to ask time and time and time again when somebody says it stimulated the economy ask them to put in the because if all we are going to do is create the same economy as before the same result will flow. less manufacturing, were wages for workers, people at the top doing better. ask them what will be the new driver? what will be the new driver for an economy? in the economy 70% driven by

consumer spending can't have that finance consumers' spending as the driver. ask them, all of them. ask us as well what's going to be the new driver because if you don't have one, we are going to do the same thing over and over again and everybody is going to pay the price and this last generation of workers, when you see this study tomorrow, it is hard wrenching what has happened to them, can'tay their bills, can't live alone. the bt they are going to pay the rest of their lives. i mean, we can do better than this. the richest nation on the face of. we can do better than this. no one will convince me we can't. so i sort of have a soft spot in me for all those workers that gave every day of their life the tried to do a good job and try

to create a quality product and now they've lost their job and it wasn't their fault. so maybe we can work together to put some of them back to work and good paying jobs that wil recreate the middle class and form a whole mter sthose at the bottom can walk back into that middle class. that is whe we want to go. >> i see a couple more questions to the back. >> my name is steve brown and life in an attorney about five years now. i'm just here with myself. and i have had health insurae the last -- i have health insurancone year the last 12 years. i know that a lot of unions and a lot of people in the union's support a uversal health care plan. do you find a lot of the business is also support this because it uld lower or change their costs and if so, is there any way to motivate any of the politicians that are friendly to

us to actuay get if we can't get single-payer anymore to get a public plan to make sure this kind of thing happens so we can lower the cost for everybody including people who like myself. >> that is a great question and i empathize with you and sympathize with you. you are in t same position as millions of americans without health care and the first part of the question is to many siness people support that. ye a lot of business people do. all business, medium business, even large business. we used to have a regular conversation with 12 of the largest ceos in the country and i am n going to tell you who they are because ty want to remain anonymous. but we met and they wanted health ce change dramatically. and we had actually worked out to the point we came up with something we both agreed and

they went back to the business roundtable and the association of manufacturers and the chamber of commerce and at them to death saying you can't do this, you can't do this. and so they would not come out publicly and support. how can gm now support a health care bill that would cover everybody? how could they t do it? how could any meta manufacturer not do it? they are getting creamed. it's not that they don't want to help tir employees. all business people do, they just can't afford it. and so there is a lot of support. and hopefully we will be able to drag some of it out. when it comes to the public option 94% of the insurance markets right now are highly concentrated wch means a few come to the companies dominate and ey can charge whatever they want and you don't have anywhere to go. you can't walk away, you can't do anything. so that is why the plic option

is so important. e secretary of hhs to be able to negotiate gd rates with everybody on health ce, on which drugs and be able to create competition so if that company gets out of hand you will have somewhere to walk and go to the public plan thatill keep it dn. the interesting pt i find is disingenuous. a safe and we don't want a health plan and some people come in and say i don want a public run government-run plan but don't touch my medicare. i mean -- probably 50% of the people in the countryhp now are covered by a government plan. if you include government employees, medicare, medicaid, social security and the military, probably have the people already are covered by a government plan and they say keep your hands off of it and

here is the one bit of hypocrisy i laugh at. whenever we talk about having a public option or even single payer plan theharmaceuticals and hospitals started screaming if we allow the government to negoate those tight prices it would put them out of business. so on the one hand they say you can't have a government plan because you don't want em controlling health care, and it's a sloppy. and government can't do anything. all thother hand they say don't let thedo that because if they do they will put us out of business. if the government plan is sloppily run and will put them out of business what is it say about them? [laughter] you'll know w@at is is about them. you pick up your t and it goes up. and last seven or eight years, health care profits have gone up for insuranceompanies 1000% and prices have gone up for you 300 some percent.

so it is time to start asking the questions. it's time to give all of our friends on both sides of the aisle a little bit of backbone and say don't let this small minority of people stop with the vast majority of the american public wan, needs, and demands. >: christina, there is a gentleman and the far back left. >> ibm mark with work-force management. i have a question about efca as it may emerge to capitol hill compromise negotiations. do you believe the majority sign of provision will be in the compromise bill and how do you see the arbitration provision chging in a compromise bill? >> i just said to hughes that --

tn you that sometimes our friends feel at bargaining 101. unless you have the ability to deliver a bill with me i don't think i will talk abt where we are willing to compromise and where we are not. ght now the bill says it is a card check bill. we are pushing for that and think we will get a bill passed that will satisfy the three goals i talked to you about. >> we have a question ithe far left over here by the gentleman standing up. can you wait for the microphone? thank you. >> george gould incorporated and i want to identify with a comment that was made and e days when you were president of the mine workers year showed that kind of vision you preference and ability to talk to people who didn't think the need to participate or be involved in the union. i have been traveli recently and in those travels i he monitored somof the town hall

meetings, and i've noticed,nd it is not scientifibut was pretty accurate in my opinion a lot of the people were young people. a lot them were union people that were retired and they have not put the cause and affect to get there. they were against things to their benefit. given the predominance tod in the internet and the talk radio and a lot publications, how do you plan were to put into place an effective way of communicating with these people so that they understand what their needs are and what are the solutions for their concerns? >> thank you for theuestion. first of all, i think in the past we have been to focus on the top of the labor movement. that is where all of the fun stories get written.

you talk about the big split in the labor movement. well, thstory that was not written as 80% of locals from the ions that left at least with the afl-cio. they were much more in solidarity at the local level. the other thing we haven't done -- so we focused too much on it and we haven' focused enough on creating a seas operation from the federal to the state to local level. we are going to try to be much more grassroots oriented to come out with something we can organize around. the mponents of told you about what take to create an economy that realldoes work for every working people. we are going to work through a process in ordero come up with that a couple of policy people sitting at the and with seniors to come up with a real program th meets their needs and then we will start agitating and

educating and organizing around that and put that out. it's not about -- somebody said this earlier and i may not have answered this part of the question about what are you going to do to get these things done about your agenda. we are going to organize around that and have a little sharper image around that and we are going to do a loof education and use the central labor councils and unions andtate fed to do a lot of that, george, so that whenever an election time comes up the will have a couple of things in tir hand. they will already have an understanding what kind of economy it takes and whathe componen are so ty can begin to ask people that want their sqpport which of these components do ou sport? and then they will be able to hold them accountable afterwards because the other thing we have done, the day aft election day we dismantle our operation and

we put together this operation to get people elected and then we dismantle the operation. bye focusing on the grassroots level we can keethat operation in the fed 365 days a year, and not only educate and pulled people accountable. and that is actually where we want to go with it. >> we have time for one last estion. there is a man up front right their raising his hand. >> my question is very simple. i would like you to say something about trade, trade pocy and how it affects american workers. >> trade policies have had along with tax polica devastating effect on american workers. it has been a one-way policy if you will. let me start by saying this:

every time we talk about trade poli the jump and say your protectionist as if there is noing between no rules at absolute wall around the country. they don't want to talk about what is in the middle. about a country using trade to help its own economic well-being. everybody else around the world doeshat. we don't. and let me give you one example. when we tried to pass by america provision in the stimulus program people screamed about that pticularly the europeans. this is outrageous, you are being protectionist. and we were trying to stimulate our economy and if we didn't stimulate our economy helping a country that has an economy the size of doesn't really help in a lot of ways so if you take the

windmills, if you by the wind mill in the united states it stimulates the economy. if you bought it from off shore, 62 cents out of every dollar went offshore and it didn't stimulate our economy. so, we have that. and hear acream about it and you know at they exclude in their franchise? this is what the european union excludes. no u.s. company or anybody else can bid on anything. anything dealing with drinng water. anything dealing with telecommunications, anything dealing with transportation and the fourth one slips me right now but i will get back to you if it's important if that isn't enough. the are all excluded from what we can bid on but not what they can bid on. so we need to start looking at trted as economic policy and not foreign policy. over the last eight years the tradeaw, as feeble as they

are, have not been enford. have not been and as a result we have sustained a trade deficit that is astronomical and unsustainabl china was $250 billion growing. the overall deficit was 800. it will be down little bit now because ofhe recession and people stop buying and becau the dollar dropped a little bit but it will still be substantial and as soon as things get better will start to grow unless we change the st. laws. we've created incentives for people to produce things offshore and we have given them what the trade agreements guaranteed markeback here. they didn't go to guatemala before becausehey were not sure if they were and what all of t products could flow back. now with the st. laws they can do that. we need to take a look at them

and if we are going to create an economy that sustainable we have to do something about the deficit and ade the tax laws as they go along with it. so we have a long way to go. enforce what we have ce and take inventory about what works and what doesn't and start negotiating trade agreements and actually work for the american economy and the american people and we haven't seen that for a number of years. >> thank you very much. i want to give the opportunity for the guests to thank and richard trumka. [applause] >> we are thrilled t have you and very much look forward to wkrking with of the afl-cio. your vision of leadership will help american workers for the future. thank you. i want to thank the center because you've done a tremendous job. tremendous allies ani look forward to working with you a long time for a better and more progress of america. >> sounds good.

[applause]