and after 13 long years our war in afghanistan has come to responsible and which mean more of our brave troops have come home and spend time with their families during the holidays. [applause] so the point is we are moving. these years have been tough demanding hard work and sacrifice on everybody's part. you guys know that more than most. which means that as a country we have every right to be proud of what we have got to show for all that hard work. america's resurgence is real. don't let anybody tell you otherwise. we have got the best cars and we are doing better than just about anybody else on earth and now that we have got some calmer waters now that the worst of the crisis is behind us if we all do our part, if we all pitch in, then we can make sure this

rising tide is actually lifting all boats, not just us. ..

americans are tough. [applause] plus i wanted to see the new mustangs. let's take a a minute and think about what you had to fight through. a punch in the gut . the year before.

400,000. sales plunged 40 percent. we faced what once seemed unimaginable. on the brink of failure. this is the heartbeat of american manufacturing and we had a choice to make. we could have killian -- given billions of taxpayer dollars without asking for accountability and return but that just would have kicked it down the road. we could have done nothing but think about the meaning for the country, the suppliers, communities all

of them would have gone under. no one was in a stronger position you could have had a scare skating effect. plans would have shattered we would have lost this iconic industry. the men and women who built these companies with their hands would have been left hanging out to dry. the communities you depended upon. and let's face it, the barkeep.

i'm just saying. [applause] it is more than that. the jobs in the auto industry have been more than a paycheck. it was representative of what it meant. you work hard on this job. retire with taking the. making the. making something that people could count on. it meant something. every card you sent off the line.

giving something to your kids and having a sense of security in your life. that was worth more than fighting for. [applause] it changed. we demanded the responsibility. plants retooled, restructured labor and management work together. everyone made some sacrifices. whatever is in the boardroom

and folks on the floor they understand they are in it together. businesses or unions could not succeed. the workers have to get there share as well. and rejected the false choice that they can either take care of their shareholder or worker. they did both. we believe in the shared sacrifice. i have to tell you i want

everyone to be clear. even in michigan and was not possible. in michigan they were in favor. you do not not have to be a genius political analyst to no that 10 percent is not very high. i ran not just doing the popular things. that has paid off for america.

it's not just because i want to see the new mustang. we mark the milestone. and now we paid taxpayers every dime and more. created about 500,000 new jobs. last year they turned out

cars faster than any year since 2,005. eighteen 18 other new jobs right here in this planet. -- in this plant. and after more than one century sense henry ford invented the new assembly line you are reinventing it. right here in michigan, the first in the world. [applause] it is always cool when you do something first. you are helping rebuild the middle class. an apprenticeship program.

an average starting wage of $50,000. for more folks we get an apprenticeship some more folks we get from middle-class jobs. create more and expand to more apprenticeship programs and have seen the largest increase in more than decade. we want young people to see that they have opportunity. they don't have to go to a four-year college. start working. [applause]

get some went tickets. everybody came together here and work together year. heart pounding good-looking, well-designed, fuel-efficient cars in the world are once again designed built right here in the united states of america. right here in america. manufacturing has grown faster than other parts of the country.

america is back. the middle class has a future in this country. and by the way so has motor city. motor city. today under the of the mayor detroit is charting new courses. a tech startup incubator downtown. residents are fighting securing, cleaning up neglected neighborhoods. those who left town are

suddenly saying maybe i want to get back to detroit. like the auto industry. it is never going to stop. we have to stay hungry. we cannot be complacent. just like they still have to come up with a little more work. they may not all routes for the ryan -- the lines. [applause]

behind plants and cities and economic data it is all of you. i will close with a story he spent eight years in the military served in afghanistan and iraq. is he here? raise your hand. [applause] ramon is someone who fought for our freedom, security but sometimes we give lip service to our troops,

troops, men and women when they come home and get lost. he he had a hard time finding a job in a tough economy. he did not want to be a burden on his family, so he moved into a homeless shelter and took whatever work he could get. one day in 2012 a veterans affairs counselor he had been working with handed him an application. ford was hiring. imagine what he felt the day he knocked on his grandfather's door, i grandfather i grandfather who had spent 25 years building mustangs and was

able to tell his grandfather he got a job at ford and he has his own place and a good a good job and every day is doing what his grandfather did, building some of the best cars in the world. america is about growth and determination and hard work and sacrifice and looking out for one another and not giving up think about ramon , detroit the auto industry the midwest michigan america when our assembly lines fall down we get them going again come back harder than before thanks to the hard work of people like you. you. i will be on your side every step of the way. thank you. god bless you. ♪ >> coming up on t1 afl-cio

summit on worker wages. the republican legislative agenda and pres. president obama visits and assembly plan in wayne michigan. >> thursday the defense department holds a briefing in europe on the consolidation of military bases. watch it live here on t1 and online at c-span.org.

>> part two of the movie after the war, reconstruction, the heart of the war and the protest the blanks are appalled by the idea of freed slaves. what happens when you give former slaves the right to be elected, vote, govern. the south carolina legislature where their first there first and primary order of business is to pass a bill allowing the right for interracial marriage. black men are solely interested in pursuing white women. ♪♪ ♪

>> the controversial story behind the birth of the nation sunday night on c-span q and a. >> a a summit in washington dc on workers wages including remarks and discussions about collective bargaining, the minimum wage, and income inequality. this this is three hours and 20 minutes. >> welcome. [applause] welcome to the afl-cio first

ever national summit on raising wages. to all of you who have joined us in person or via live stream on the web thank you for participating, and i expect expect we we will have many more people join and trickle in, so please make them welcome. i also i also want to thank the university for hosting us today. the afl-cio organized to the summit because any quality has become the defining economic story of our generation. for too long worker productivity has gone up but wages have remained flat. here in the richest country in the world we have bank tellers who count money all day and not a dollar of there own to save grocery

clerks to stock shelves full of food and nothing to feed their family construction workers who build houses and have no home to call there own. it is no accident that workers are struggling. lawmakers have deliberately created policies that have driven down wages undermined bargaining power and weakened our safety net. inequality did not just happen. inequality is the result of deliberate policy choices by lawmakers. it is not random or inevitable. there is a a simple fix, and it is not rocket science raise worker wages. [applause]

brothers and sisters sisters, if we did that, if we paid workers a living wage consumer spending would increase and the need for public assistance would decrease. if working folks got their fair share our economy would work for everyone. today is about shifting the narrative and debate. we should be asking how much it we will cost if we do not. from the pope to the president, there is growing agreement that inequality hurts our people and economy. let's do something about it. today -- [applause] today is about solutions

seizing this historic moment and forging a a future where all workers have good jobs and living wages, and we mean all workers laborers and professionals nativeborn and immigrants, men and women from new york to california to my home state of north carolina and all through the south we we will fight for policy changes, hold politicians accountable and when fair wages for all workers no matter what they do or where they live. today -- [applause] -- today, brothers and sisters is about action and the power we have to change economic policy.

look around and overflowing crowd, over 360 people top ranking clergy, the leaders of afl-cio, community leaders policy experts. we are building a movement and we want you to be a part of it. help us raise wages by asking questions during the roundtable. help us expand this conversation by tweeting -- tweeting using the hashtag raising wages. for those of you joining us in person we ask you to join us to continue this important conversation. the power is ours.

we can change the inequality plaguing this nation so let's get started. to begin our program we will here from workers about their struggle in this low-wage economy. it does not matter if you are a fast a fast food worker brick mason, or college instructor per. workers are working harder and harder for less and less our next to speakers know that all too well. our first speaker will be a public school counselor in detroit and a member of the american federation of teachers followed by chantelle walker a papa john's worker in new york and a member of fast food forward.

brothers and sisters, please welcome wikia and chantel. [applause] >> good morning. i i am a native of detroit, michigan and i want to let you know i have worked hard to achieve the american dream. i earned a degree in elementary education and taught first grade for five years. i am an educator. it is what i do, and i love my work. i wanted i wanted to raise myself further and pursue a passion of mine, counseling. i went back to school and earned a masters degree in

counseling. i realized i would need extra income to buy a house so i picked up a second job as an adjunct professor at a community college. i purchased a home in 2004, thousand four, and then the college cut its adjunct staff. unfortunately, i lost the extra income i needed for the american dream lost my home and was foreclosed on. i was able to buy it back but losing your house is a horrible experience. i had to cash out my retirement. my credit is shot and it is embarrassing. i am not here for pity or a handout. i work hard to be successful and have so much education. to do that and still be

struggling -- my mother was a teacher, and when she retired she was making $60,000 a year 20 years 20 years ago. i am making $60,000 a year right now but my costs are not the same as hers. all of our costs go up and up and up. i have something else to say. i say. i have respect for walmart workers, fast food workers. i am i am proud of the work they have done and continue to do yet i do not want to forget the workers who spent time and money on education who did everything possible to be well-equipped for a good job to make it to the middle class and have the american dream become a

reality. raise worker wages. that is why i am here at the side to raise wages. [applause] >> hello, brothers and sisters. my name is chantel walker and i worked at papa john's for years. we all did a good job. the subject at hand is raising the minimum wage and make it a living wage. raising wages completely -- [applause] everything we go through as workers is hard.

we have to do more to ensure there is justice in the workplace in new york and across the country and the world. when i was young i wanted to be a fiber optics technician with computers. i had other jobs at movie theaters, warehouses. when i started at papa john's it was just another job until something happened i saw coworkers not being paid my boss never being put on the clark and said they never worked for them. one was a teenager, and it made me upset but i am proud to say that we took things to the next level. the whole community came out i i want to say at least

8200 people came. we spoke to the owner managers and received the money for the worker. [applause] that was a big step for us, for me the beginning. i feel like my eyes are open it is wrong to steal wages from workers. i want to stand with them and not condone this behavior because it is wrong and illegal. that is why i do what i do to raise the wage in america and is why we are here now and do what we do every day to assure people in america have a fair shot in society and make our lives better and our communities better and our country better.

i want everyone in america to fall in love with the bigger picture and the idea that we can do better and be productive people out here. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, that is what america was built upon why we are here what democracy looks like why we have a society that we have. now is the time to stop the poverty wages in america. raise the wage. [applause] thank you. thank you lakia wilson and

shantel walker, for telling us your personal stories and telling us that we can do better. they are fed up and standing up not just for themselves but for everyone. we need policymakers policymakers who we will make it happen for everyone. we are fortunate to have one in our secretary of labor. sec. thomas secretary thomas perez does not just talk he takes action. he has helped implement a minimum wage increase for hundreds of thousands of government contract workers and help expand the minimum wage and overtime protection

for over 2 million home care workers and currently is seeking to update federal overtime rule to include up to 6 million more workers, from showing employers how they can raise wages and improve there bottom line. secretary perez is an advocate for workers everywhere. brothers and sisters, please welcome a leading voice in the fight to raise wages our secretary of labor, tom perez. [applause] >> thank you. good morning. how are you doing? [applause] [applause] how is everyone doing?

one of my favorite universities and a wonderful venue with wonderful friends. love -- long time no see. it has been ours. shantel walker, i met her in the bronx. i come here with optimism and encouragement. you listen to people like shantel walker and kaytoo. we talk data and all of that, but this is about real people, the struggle as americans. hey how are you doing? you get distracted. this is about who we are as

a nation. i will be with my wife's uncle this afternoon. this is really about biblical teaching what is taught in the quran and the torah and what we learned about making sure we do onto others. there is a guy named jim wallis who does this exercise with his students or he asks his students to rip the pages about helping the poor. this is about who we are as a nation. i come here to say thank you to all of our friends at the

afl-cio. you continue to give voice. communities continue to give voice. people in the front line. papa john's, give me some love here. that is what you are saying. this this president was a community organizer and continues to be. he understands that change comes from the bottom up. i am excited to be traveling with the president to detroit because we we will be talking about where we have been where we are and where we need to go. it is important, and i with a sense of optimism because we all remember where we were. before this president took office the country shed 2 million jobs.

some folks did not want to bet on the american worker. they said let them go. the 2012 election, a candidate said there was a plan a plan in ohio that would be shipping jobs to china. well, it has added 1500 jobs in the last year and a half.

[applause] guess what, there are things being shipped overseas. the product we are making. in sourcing is the word of the day. the president will be at ford motor company later today. the average person in america is working 42 hours a week. the economy is coming back. we have more work to do. i see people every day. an event highlighting the plight of long-term unemployed who did everything right played by the rules single mother of two who walked into work one

day and told her services were no longer needed. she had to where a coat in her house because she had to turn the heat down to make ends meet. a couple months ago we visited her. she punched her ticket to the middle class as a result of her resilience and so many are doing the same thing. fifty-seven consecutive months. the best month of private-sector job growth since the late 1990s. we are moving in the right direction but today is about the unfinished business, to make sure there is shared prosperity a

nation where you do not believe if you blow out your neighbors can do little make yours shine brighter. yet there are are so many who believe in zero-sum politics the politics of i take from you and you take nothing. the labor movement was about to leave the economy for decades into a nation of shared prosperity for everyone who worked hard and played by the rules can realize the american dream and that is the unfinished business of what we are doing today. indeed, a little over a year ago unemployment was down. very few people would have predicted that progress. yet yet we have made it and

continue to move in the right direction. we see and hear your voice. we hear your struggles. america works best when we field a full team. there are too many people on the sidelines. to many people working hard to have not seen a raise in years. this is a phenomenon of decades. prosperity must be shared. you look at productivity and it has gone up over 90 percent. real wages have not gone up. american workers have helped bake the cake of prosperity but are not sharing in the

fruits of prosperity. false choices would be rejected. the ford motor company proved that. in 2008 they had an existential crisis. now there are over 4,000 employees and growing. shared sacrifice leading to shared prosperity working together all in this together. we all succeed only when we all succeed. the the pathway to prosperity has led countless

other businesses i meet day in and day out which is why i come with a sense of optimism. ic business leaders who understand that the most precious asset is my worker when i treat my worker fairly they reward me by sticking around and being productive. when you look at the data, it is proven out. inflation adjusted spending has increased over 15 percent. increased about 1 percent the other 90 percent. wages are flat prosperity has not been shared.

false choices have been the order of the day. it is a structural problem. i categorically reject that notion. low wages are a choice not a necessity. this president stands for the proposition that everybody -- [applause] everybody -- [applause] -- everybody should be able to share in that prosperity and that is the unfinished business of this prosperity. broad-based and wide shared. we build it together by making sure we have every step in the staircase well fortified starting with

taking every effort to lift wages at every opportunity and it starts with the minimum wage. no one who works a minimum wage job should have to live in prosperity. that was the principle that underlay the fair labor standards act that fdr signed. there were what he called a number of calamity haulers folks who said if you established a minimum wage it would be the end of the world as we no it. it was it was remarkable to hear some of the things that were said. the businesses said it would be a tyrannical, industrial dictatorship if we had a minimum wage.

in 1892 was two there was a trade journal calls manufacturers and builders railing against a radical notion that an eight hour workday would be " about as vicious a a piece of demagoguery that could be perceived. there is dignity. that is not who we are as a nation. i sat in my office a few months ago and heard their

stories. this is not the america we should be. i heard from one worker who said, i was so sick i did not go into work at a fast food restaurant. call me nutty. he nutty. he told me he got to work the next day and his employer said, you are fired unless you bring in a doctors note. he said how can said, how can i bring in a doctors note if i cannot afford to go to a dr.? not my words. a union organizer making $9 an hour. why can't i get access to medicare? if you were a governor you would.

talk to your governor. why do people wake up everyday thinking that that might candle we will shine brighter. that is not who we are as a nation and why we need to keep moving forward and working on raising the minimum wage. you should not have to when the geographic lottery ticket a fair wage. this president will relentlessly work to increase the minimum wage because there is no dignity and working a 40 hour work week and going to a food pantry to get your food. we will continue to work overtime to put in place and overtime regulation. they were in the middle class. today people who are

managers working 60 to 70 hours a week making as little as $450 per week. the managers the managers make less than the people they supervise. you cannot survive on that. that is why the pres. that president directed us to revise the overtime regulation. making sure people have a standard of living is a critical reason why the president did what he did. i appreciate the afl-cio business communities and leaders. this is a bipartisan issue.

if that bill had come to a vote in the house it would have passed. that would be the law of the land. nebraska south dakota alaska arkansas overwhelmingly passed state initiatives. his father before him every president except to. these are bipartisan issues. we cannot give up. we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday you do not ever give up.

that is why we we will keep moving and have more work to fortify the staircase. it is not simply immigration reform but making sure we enforce laws on the books. what i have seen in this job is that wages remain a rampant problem across america. wage and hour violations in two states california and new york. we saw violations primarily targeting low-wage workers over $1 billion a year and

many were losing 40 percent of there already meager wages. 40 percent. if you wonder why elections matter laws are only as good as the political will of the people and forcing them. they recent agreement with a large retailer in which it would give notice prior to entering the facility to conduct child labor investigations. i do not think it is a best practice to announce to drug dealers i will be at a certain corner conducting drug investigations. i don't think that is a best practice. i don't think it is a good idea in this context either which is why as we build

this stairway we need to make sure we fortify the enforcement staff because it is critically important and people are not making enough to begin with or receiving the money they have earned. that that is why we continue to work on this issue the issue of misclassification. workers a big part of our challenge is the changing nature of what we call an employee. so many workers who act like an employee but are called independent contractors. why? in many cases it is perfectly permissible but they are called and dependent independent contractors so they do not

have to be paid fair wages unemployment insurance workers insurance the worker employers who play by the rules. i do not cheat and cannot compete because my competitors to. the tax collector is the victim. we call this problem what it was. i put my paper in the wrong place. we we called it workplace fraud because that is what it was. [applause] because as we build -- [applause] because as we build this staircase to shared prosperity we need to fortify that wrong and make sure people are working and honest days work get paid fair wages and make sure as we have this wage stagnation and talk about how people

like so many in this room who are working hard can get wages that they deserve. expanded to not simply fair wages but benefits as well. i i have traveled to australia canada, germany, uk, and what they have in common and what every other nation on the planet has in common is that they have some form of paid leave because when you give birth to a child or are taking care of a parent who is ill you should not have to make a choice between the job you need and the family you love yet we are so behind the rest of the world because we have not gotten into the 21st century on paid leave i met a guy in germany who

is from ohio about to have his second child who said to me, i would never come back because my wife and i are about to take a year off to care for our child. time spent with your family. i asked every business if you had the ability to water down or repeal paid leave laws. there were two answers. one was no and the other i cannot describe. it it is not simply the moral and ethical thing to do that but in the enlightened self interest of the economies that want to thrive. about 15 years ago our

participation rate of women from 25 to 54 were identical you fast forward today women in canada translate to something like five and a half million more women in the workplace. i talked to employers including global employers with a us footprint who figured out how to comply with paid leave laws in canada the uk, germany, and are thriving. so as we have this conversation that's not settle but talk about benefits, scheduling, those things that keep us up at night because this is about the dignity of work which

includes when your son cannot go to school because he is sick. you you should not have to put him on the bus some of the most learned people in america. i see that mom at the bus stop and know exactly what is going on. she is putting a sick kid on the bus because she has no other choice. when when families succeed, america succeeds. [applause] that is why you will here a lot from this president about paid leave, wage fairness, and the need to make sure that we lift up worker voice because one of the most important steps in this stairway to shared prosperity is the issue of worker voice. ..

teachers are all about making sure that we have, we being

teachers, students, parents we all have the tools to succeed and we are all in this together. we see examples everywhere across this country of employers and unions and other worker organizations whether it's folks organizing domestic workers, cabdrivers, lending a voice and faith communities and responsible businesses saying i am there with you. and if we are going to continue success in lifting of wages, this is the area where we have to redouble our efforts making sure that we have voice, understanding history and the history that when we work together collectively we all succeed. i come to you and i leave you with the same sense of optimism that i walked in this room for. i'll tell you i have a great job. i feel like the luckiest guyana face of the earth.

this president, he gets it. he's a community organizer at his core and he understands that change comes from the bottom-up, not from the top down. that is why he is here in spirit and he is here in his values and that is why we understand that the ark of the morrow unit forced -- universe bends towards justice and also bends towards people who expand opportunity for everyone not people who seek to muzzle workers voice, not people who believe if you blow out your neighbors candle your candle will shine brighter, not for people who believe it's only those who win the lottery that get good wages at work. you know we are celebrating martin luther king day in a couple of weeks. we are not celebrating george wallace day and a couple of weeks because martin luther king sought to expand opportunity and we see some examples in our nations history. the labor movement was

side-by-side with dr. king in that effort. that is why i am so optimistic because yes there are days when you will undeniably look at some of the headwinds and say where do we go? but what we have on our side or the facts. what we have on our site are the american people, the middle-class. so many folks who understand that we all succeed when we all succeed and as a result i am absolutely confident that we will translate and transform some of these headwinds that are out there into a tailwind of inclusion, a tailwind up opportunity a tailwind of shared prosperity. that arc of the moral universe bends towards justice but it doesn't been on its own. today's conference is about making sure that we are all part of that because dr. king also said you know we will live to rue the day not only of the acts

of people like jim clarke campbell connor but the appalling silence of the good people. and so we cannot be silent in the face of this remarkable challenge of ensuring shared prosperity. we can do this. the difference between the late 90s and the prosperity we saw them in the prosperity we are beginning to see now is the prosperity of the late 90s were shared prosperity and we need to make sure the prosperity of today also becomes shared prosperity. we can do that. low wages are not structural. they are not inevitable. they are choices and there are marketable business leaders out there. there are remarkable labor leaders out there. there are remarkable faith leaders out there. there are remarkable workers out there who are doing this for everybody building an america that works for all making sure that that's their way to shared

is fortified. i am confident, i am absolutely confident that we will prevail justice dr. king prevail. it won't be easy and it won't bend on its own but with all the people in this group and with the millions of folks we meet in our travels i am confident that the stories of success that we see are the stories of success. have a great day and let's keep it up. you need to hold us accountable. you need to tell us what we should be doing and we will work together because there are so many people in this room, philanthropy, business leaders labor leaders, faith leaders serial activists who are moving forward and i'm confident we will get there. so have a great conference. thank you for shining a light on this and thank you for all you do. [applause]

>> please give it up for secretary perez. [applause] [applause] as secretary perez says, we are here today because we are optimistic. we know we can do this. we know that when workers do well, we all do well. next we are going to hear from to workers who will talk about how much better our communities and our economy would be if more workers had opportunities to learn and advance and provide better lives for themselves and their families. our first speaker will be lisa henson a corrections officer in maryland and a member of the american federation of state

county and municipal employees local 1427. she will be followed by leon speller an electrician in washington and a member of the international brotherhood of electrical workers local 26. please welcome lisa and leon to the stage. [applause] [applause] >> good morning. my name is lisa henson and i am a correctional officer. this has been my job for 20 years. the job i do goes unnoticed. it's a dangerous job but it's also a very important job. we assist and provide inmates

with services so they can go back into society to be productive. we have a simple mantra about the work we do fair firm and -- the public -- in enforcement and makes their staff and the public. i always try to conduct myself as a professional. i try to think of each inmate as a person as a human being who deserves decent treatment and dignity. some come from broken homes. some of them don't come from homes at all. they raise themselves. that's why i don't look at the crimes they commit. it helps me to look at them as individuals. helps me to provide the services i need to provide.

i am here at the raising wages summit because wages are too low. people want a way up and away out. people won't -- will provide for their family members if they can. if they can't our communities fall apart. that is how we give young people growing up in broken homes raising themselves. it's a cycle that we need to break. raise the wages. thank you. [applause] >> good morning everyone. thank you all for being here. my name is leon sellers and i'm an electrician. i have been a member of the ibew for the last three going on for years. i grew up in the d.c. area. i graduated high school and was

accepted to pennsylvania state university which i attended for one year. when i came on the era had a son and later two daughters. i was only 19 years old. i knew my family wasn't going to feed itself so ultimately was up to me. money became a priority. love school and got a job as a courtesy clerk as they play. growing up in the d.c. area you don't hear too many jobs of teachers firefighters are doctors and for me i was lost i didn't know what i wanted to do. so later on i landed a job working at lowe's home improvement and was paid a little bit more because my salary at safeway was not enough. sometimes i like to see a window you climb through to your destiny on the other side. later i got a job at petco and this was my introduction to the world. it was something i love to do and i got to work with my hands in the field. unfortunately it eventually come to an end. i was dropped -- that of drawing

board. gratefully to my brothers and sisters at local 26 i found out about the electrum program. i don't know too many programs where you can get a paycheck for working and get paid to go to school. we need more programs like this. when i wake up in the morning i noticed what i want to do. i'm proud to be an electrician and i'm proud of the work i do and i decided to learn everyday. i can take care and provide for my family. i also have a savings account for three of my children right now. i'm here at the raising wages summit because i want everyone to know it does feel good when you raise wages and you're able to take your family and your loved ones. thank you. [applause] >> thank you lisa and leon. as you have heard from workers this morning something has got

to change and it needs to happen now. enough is enough. that is what senator elizabeth warren said so eloquently in a recent speech on the senate floor and that's what she says every chance she gets. enough with the corporate greed that is wrecking this country. [applause] senator warren speaks truth to power. she always has and we know she always will. that's the thing people love about her. if there is no question where she stands. senator warren does not waiver. she does not back down. she does not shed poll numbers and donor list before taking a stand. [applause]

it doesn't matter where she is or who she is talking to everywhere, every time she stands up to corporate greed. she gives voice to the concerns of we the people and she challenges all of us to do better. we can and we must do better by american workers. and with a leader like senator warren i am confident that we will do better. brothers and sisters, please welcome a fierce steadfast champion for working people senator elizabeth warren. [applause] [applause] >> hello. hello. good to see you. thank you.

good morning. it is good to be here on this cold morning and thank you for the introduction. also thank you for your good work at the north carolina afl-cio. you are making a difference in the lives of many people so thanks for all you do. [applause] i want to begin this morning by thanking rich trumka and damon silvers. i want to thank you for your leadership on economic issues. i want to thank you for your good counsel and most of all i want to thank you for your leadership. thank you very much. thank you. [applause] i also want to say thank you to my friends for massachusetts. steve pullman is supposed to be here today. there he is. thank you. [applause] i have got to say the guys from massachusetts made it happen so thank you very much. you are why i'm here today.

i love being here with my labour friends and i'm especially glad to have this chance to be here at the afl's first-ever national summit on wages. you follow in the best traditions of american labor movements for more than a century always fighting for working people, union and nonunion. today you spotlighted an economic issue that is central to understanding what is happening to people all over this country. i recently read an article in "politico" entitled everything is awesome. it's true. the article hails all the good news about the economy. 5% gdp growth in the third quarter of 2014, unemployment under 6% now, a new all-time high that dow, low inflation. the authors did recognize that not everything is awesome but

his point has been repeated several times. on many different statistical measures the economy has improved and is continuing to improve. i think the president and his term -- team deserve credit in particular job growth. it's a really big deal and we celebrated. good for you mr. president. [applause] i have spent most of my career studying what's happening to america's middle class and i know that these four widely cited statistics given important snapshot of the health of the overall economy. but the overall picture doesn't tell much about what's happening at the ground level to tens of millions of americans. despite these cheery numbers america's middle class is in deep trouble. think about it this way.

the stock market is soaring and that's great if you have a pension or money in a mutual fund that if you and your husband or wife are both working full-time with kids in school and you are among a half or so of all americans who don't have any money in stocks how does a booming stock market help you? corporate profits in gdp are up but if you work at walmart and you are paid so little that you still need food stamps to put groceries on the table what is more money and stockholders pockets and an uptick in the gdp do for you? some have a full-time -- part-time job and can't find full-time work but you don't give it up because you can't replace the job you have. how much is your economic situation improving?

inflation rates are still low but if you are young and starting out life with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt locked into high interest rates by congress unable to find a good job or save money to buy a house how are you benefiting from low inflation and? a lot of broad national statistics say our economy is getting better and it's true. our overall economy is recovering from the terrible crash of 2008 but there have been deep structural changes in the economy, changes that have gone on for more than 30 years, changes that have cut out hard-working middle-class families from sharing in the overall growth. now it wasn't always this way. coming out of the great depression america built-in middle-class unlike anything on earth. from the 1930s to the late

1970s as gdp went up wages went up pretty much across-the-board. in fact listen to this number. 90% of all workers, everybody outside the top 10% got about 70% of all the new income growth growth. sure their richest 10% gobbled up more than their share. they got 30% growth but overall as the economic high got bigger pretty much everyone was getting a little more. in other words as our economy and our country got richer our families got richer, as their families got richer, our country got richer. that is how we built a great middle class in america. [applause] but by the 1980s wages had flattened out while expenses

kept going up. the squeeze was terrible but in early 2000 families were spending twice as much adjusted for inflation on mortgages as they had a generation earlier. they spend more on health insurance to send their kids to college. mom and dad both went to work but that meant new expenses like childcare, higher taxes and the cost of the second car. all over the country people tighten their belts where they could but it still hasn't been enough to save them. families have gone deep into debt to pay for college to cover serious medical problems or just to try to stay afloat a little while longer. and today's young adults may be the first generation in american history to do worse than their parents did. remember how up until 1980, 1935

to 198090% of the people middle-class, working folks and the poor got 70% of all new income created in this economy in the top 10% tip of the rest. since 1980 guess how much of the growth in income over the last 32 years how much of the growth in income to the 90% get it? zero, none, nothing. in fact it is worse than that. the average family not in the top 10% makes less money today than they were making a generation ago. so who got it? all of the increase in income over the last 32 years? 100% of it went to the top 10%. all of the new money earned in

this economy over the past generation, all of that growth in gdp went to the top all of it. that is a huge structural change in this country. and when i look at the data here and this includes years of research that i conducted myself i see the evidence everywhere. the pounding that working people are taking. instead of building an economy for all americans for the past generation this country has grown an economy that works for some americans. for tens of millions of working americans who are the backbone of this country this economy isn't working. these families are working harder than ever but they can't get ahead. opportunity is slipping away. many feel like the game is rigged against them and they are right.

the game is rigged against them. since the 1980s to many people running this country have followed one form or another of us will supply-sider trickle-down economic theory and many in washington today still support when all the varnish is removed trickle-down just means helping the biggest corporations and the richest people in this country and claiming that those big corporations and rich people could be counted on to create an economy that would work for everyone else. no surprise trickled down was popular with the corporations and their lobbying but it never really made much sense. george bush senior called it voodoo economics and he was right but why not call it for what it is trickle-down is nothing more than the politics of helping the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful and

to cut the legs out from underneath america's middle class. [applause] trickle-down policy is actually pretty simple. first fire cops. not the cops on main street the cops on wall street. pretty much the whole republican party and if we are going to be honest too many democrats have talked about the evils of big government and called for deregulation. it all sounded good but what it was really about was tying the hands of regulators and turning loose big banks and giant international corporations to do whatever they wanted to do. turning them loose to rig the market and reduce compensation. turning them loose to outsource more jobs. turning them loose to load up on

more risks and hide behind taxpayer guarantees turning them loose to sell more mortgages and mark credit because they cheated american families. in short turning them loose to do whatever choose to short-term profit even if they came at the expense of working families. trickle down have a second part to it and that is cut taxes for those at the top. cut them when times are good and cut them when times are bad. that meant there was less money for road repairs, less money for medical research and less money for schools and our government would need to squeeze kids on student loans -- so be it and look at the results. the top 10% got all the growth in income over the past 30 years, all of it and the economy stopped working for everyone else.

the trickle-down experiment that began in the reagan years failed america's middle class. sure the rich are doing great. giant corporations are doing great. lobbyists are doing great that we need an economy where everyone else has a shot to do great. [applause] the world has changed beneath the feet of america's working families. powerful forces like globalization and technology are creating -- that are disrupting our economy altering employment patterns in putting new stresses on old structures. those changes could create new opportunities or they could sweep away the last vestiges of economic security for 90% of american workers.

those changes demand new and different economic policies from our federal government. but too many politicians have just looked the other way. instead of running government to expand opportunity for 90% of americans and to shore up security in an increasingly uncertain world instead of rethinking economic policy to deal with tough new realities for more than 30 years washington has far too often advance policies that hammer america's middle class even harder. look at the choices washington has made the choices that have left america's working families in a deep hole the choice to leash up the financial cops, the choice in every session to bail out the biggest banks with no strings attached while family suffered. the choice to starve our schools

and burden our kids with billions of dollars in student loan debt while cutting taxes for billionaires. the choice to spend your tax dollars to subsidize big oil instead of putting that money into rebuilding our roads and bridges and power grids the choice to look the other way when employers quit paying overtime reclassifying workers as independent contractors and just plain old stole people's wages. [applause] you bet. and the choice to sign and trade pacts and tax deals that let subsidize manufacturers around the globe cell here in america while good american jobs got shipped overseas. for more than 30 years too many politicians in washington have made deliberate choices that

favored those with money and power and the consequence is that instead of an economy that works well for everyone america now has an economy that works well for about 10% of people. it wasn't always this way and it doesn't have to be this way. we can make new choices. we can make different choices choices that put working people first, choices that aim towards a better future for our children children choices that reflect their deepest values. one way to make those choices is to talk openly and honestly and directly about work, about how we value work and we value those who do the work. we need to talk about what we believe. we believe that no one no one

should work full time and still live in poverty and that means raising the minimum wage. [applause] we believe that workers have a right to come together to bargain together and to rebuild america's middle class. [applause] we believe in enforcing labor laws so that workers get overtime pay and pensions are fully funded. [applause] we believe in that. we believe in equal pay for equal work. [applause] and we believe that after a lifetime of work a person is entitled to retire with dignity and that means protecting social security, protecting medicare

and protecting our pensions. [applause] we don't make things better for workers if we don't get out and talk about work but we also need to talk about jobs about how we create jobs here in america. we need to talk about how we build a future and let's make it clear we believe in making investments investments in roads, bridges and power grids and education and research investments that create good jobs in the short-run and help us build new opportunities in the long run. we believe in that. [applause] and we believe in paying for them not with magical accounting

scams that prevent -- pretend to cut taxes and raise revenues but honest-to-goodness changes that make sure that everyone including corporations pays their fair share to build that future for all of us. and let's get ready for what is coming. we believe in trade policies and tax cuts that will strengthen our economy, that will raise our standard of living that will create american jobs because we will never give up on these three words made in america. we believe in that. [applause] we need to talk about jobs. we need to talk about work. we need to talk about one thing more and that is politics. if we are ever going to a break

the system then we need to make important political changes and let me give you a place where we should start. we know this democracy does not work when congressmen and regulators vowed down to wall street political power and that means it's time to break up the wall street banks and remind politicians they don't work for the big banks. they work for us. [applause] changes like this we know are possible because we have seen the data. we have seen it through our miseries. we saw it when we fought for

consumer protection bureau. we fought when we pass health care reform. we fought when president obama took steps to reform our immigration protective order just a few weeks ago. change is hard that change is possible. that is what we know. this is personal for me. when i was 12 my three big brothers were often military. my mom was 50 years old a stay-at-home mom and my daddy had a heart attack and it turned our little family upside down. the bills piled up. we lost the family station wagon we came about that close to losing our home. i remember that day when my

mother scared, crying pulled her best dress out of the closet put it on put on her high heels and walked to get a minimum wage job. that minimum-wage job was enough back then to support a family of three and that minimum-wage job meant that we saved our house and we saved our family. my mom kept working at sears and a community college that costs $50 a semester. and i ended up in the united states senate. [applause]

[applause] [applause] i tell that story because i believe. i tell that story sure i worked hard but i grew up in an america that was investing in its kids and america that was building a future. i believe that not america. i believe in what we can do. i believe in the future we can build and i will tell you this i'm going to fight for that america and if we fight together

that is the america we will have today. thank you. [applause] [applause] [cheers and applause] [applause] >> brothers and sisters -- senator warren. [applause] the american people are hungry for a message like we just heard. american workers are ready for shared prosperity.

we are ready to get to work, we are ready to raise wages. and coming up we are going to talk about how we do that. we have one of the most dynamic the first roundtables you will ever see but before we get to that we are going to take a 15 minute break and we will be back here right at 10:45. do not be late because you don't want to miss this roundtable. and when you come back and get an index card so you can write down your questions for experts. take a break, see you back here at 10:45. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> ladies and gentlemen we would like to start.

[applause] please take your seats at the back of the room. if everyone can find a seat quickly. thank you. welcome back everybody. welcome back. is it working now? okay. welcome back everybody. if you could please take your seats. before the break senator warren beatty got a bold vision of an america where there are shared prosperity for everyone everywhere. this summit is about making that vision a reality and this roundtable will be a discussion about how to do that. and it will be a conversation.

this is not your typical panel of talking heads great after all it's not every day that you have workers, a small-business owner a golden globe nominated actress and hopefully a mayor of a major city altogether on one panel. the diversity of this panel speaks to the breadth of the problem. inequality affects us all and we are here because all of us are committed to changing it. this promises to be a lively interactive conversation and we want you to be part of it. please write down questions you have on the index cards and we will collect them later. we are also taking questions via twitter with their raising wages hashtag. to tell us more about the roundtable and our participants i'm now going to turn it over to our moderator, dr. dorian wore

an associate professor of political science and international public affairs at columbia university. please give it up for dorian. [applause] >> good afternoon everyone. i think we have free coffee so we can try that again. good afternoon everyone. that's much better. thanks for joining all of us. we are very excited to engage in this conversation on raising wages and we have a very esteemed and diverse panel. i'm not going to read their bios, because we want to get right to the conversation. you have their bios in your packets but i want to start off by saying a few things about what we have heard this morning and then start the conversation. first i think it is appropriate to say in a week we will be celebrating dr. king's birthday

and i highly and strongly recommended. he lost his life fighting for sanitation workers and garbage collectors in tennessee in the south to have a better life and to raise wages and to have a voice at work. if we could just take a moment to honor his life and legacy and that the unnamed heroes of the civil rights movement as well i would appreciate that just for one quick moment. thank you. also to remind you tweak us throughout. that was a nice transition right? tweet us at hashtag raising wages. write your question on index cards and then about a number we will take questions from twitter

and questions from index cards. secretary of labor present senator warren said a few things quite rousing and inspiring speeches. obviously senator warren and i are not related but i'm going to start a rumor right now but maybe we are. a few things that the senator said. we note corporate pockets are up in a wages have seen record profits since world war ii did she mention since 1980 the growth in income is not gone to 90% of americans. it's all gone to the top 10% and she said something profound for me. the younger man although maybe i'm middle-aged on this panel here looking this way but today's young adults -- [laughter] i so did not mean that. i was looking at kolbe who was 19. [laughter] today's young adults the

senator said today sent adults may be the first generation in american history to do worse than their parents. that's very profound and that essentially means that the american dream does not exist right now. what we are here to do is to talk about how we recover the american dream and the century and respond to the decades of wage stagnation and it's true that 20 states, 21 because new york dated new year's eve so 21 states have raised the minimum wage. that's not enough. that's a start but we know it's not enough. given in particular with the secretary of labor in the senator said i'm going to turn to neira first. the president of the center for american progress and ask you to respond to something senator warren said. she said washington makes choices and we have to look at the choices washington has made and she gave one of the best critiques i have heard in explainers of trickle down economics i have heard. first by the cops on wall street and she mention there are too

many democrats that were part of that. second cut taxes for those of the top them in times that are good and cut them in times that are bad. those are choices. how should we think about those choices washington has made? >> i think she is absolutely right. there r. a. friday and i would add to that mix the erosion of collective bargaining at the state level and the fact that we are fighting in so many states. we have to look at inequality in the country. there are a variety of forces that are driving rising inequality but a clear force is actually 20 to 30 to 40% of rising inequality is because of the weakness of workers to basically bargain for higher wages. one of the important things to point out that these things are not just trends and we shouldn't

be fatalistic but there are things we can do. if you look at histories they have had globalization and technology and they have seen wages rise. they have a variety of things that they do. they have collective bargaining agreements and governments willing to invest in their -- so infrastructure to investment. what is really critical issues absolutely right. so many people in washington and in the country are pessimistic about the country and believe this story out there that's stagnating wages in the united states purchased the way it hits. that is false. there are other countries and states that are doing things to raise wages.

companies should recognize that raising wages and their firms means more customers. the big problem we are having in the united states and economists in washington will talk about it as a demand problem. there's not enough demand to get growth up. what does that mean? that means people don't have enough money in their pockets. why don't they have money in their pockets? because their wages have been stagnant for a decade. one of the things one of the reports we have put out in the last 12 months which was one of the most important analytical reports for cap is then we demonstrate for typical family in the united states, two to workers, $80,000 of income and kids. they made $80,000 in 2000. they make the same money now because wages have been stagnant for a decade. costs have risen. education, health care, the things in middle-class life have

all risen so they have $5000 less in income today than they had a decade ago. they have less disposable income. they can buy less today than they could then. so if you are wondering why people are mad why we have these great statistics and people are anxious and concerned it's because they can do less today than they could decade ago. the last point i will make that's just not a moral failing democratic politics are politics writ large. that's an economic challenge because most folks have less money to spend. we have a demand problem. that i believe is the economic challenge of our time and everyone from workers to leaders to company leaders who engage in a strategy raising wages in the country so we can have shared

prosperity. that is the tool for strong economic growth in the long run. >> i want to get some other voices in and get david's response as a business leader but i want to go to kolbe and jennifer and asked the question, we know the problem. there are lots of policy ideas out there but the question i want to ask the two of you is how do we build the movement to raise wages in this country and how do we build and sustain a movement, powerful movement to raise wages in this country? i know you to were up late last night charting out a strategy for doing this so kolbe and that jennifer and then i want to turn to the business argument. >> oh wow. senator warren said it's all about choices and elected officials have choices. they can choose to stand on the site of working people. they can choose to expand access to opportunity to a greater number of americans where they can choose to do what has been

happening business as usual partisanship bickering and really focus on their campaign contributors rather than everyday folks. but we have choices too and what you have seen over the last year or two years with a movement that started with fast food workers in new york what you have seen that has taken a grip across this country is people making a choice. making a joystick, and say it's not just the typical rank-and-file way that we want to do labor organize where we are going to go to a shop and when a contract at the shop and we will be happy if we have something even if her neighbors have nothing. instead they put a demand on the entire economy. they said nobody in this country should make less than a living wage. they're not talking about minimum wage. raising the minimum wage is great but it's not going to be solving the problem of mass inequality in this country. we need a living wage for every hard-working american. we have the opportunity to be bowled by thinking about organizing in new and innovative

ways by following the young people who are leading us back to this time of civil disobedience back to this time of stepping up and stepping out. i think about a wheel and a wheel is made to turn. it just keeps turning khedama something gets in the way it stops at anatomy is our political machine. that machine is going to keep going. people are going to take campaign contributions. they are going to keep lobbing. they are going to keep doing that unless people given way that machine. when you look at what's happening in the streets whether tandberg is in our new york and what's happening in my hometown of the walkie where people are saying our lives matter our economy matters, our wages matter. the connection between racial justice and economic justice matter. being willing to put bodies in the street and take -- that is the piece to me that made me

emotional about senator warren. she talked about what she believed in growing up in this country. i feel so in line with that. my grandmother was born into sharecropping which is basically slavery just a generation out and started picking cotton at the age of four. she was able to get an education and she moved to nobody because she heard there was work in factories. that woman with basically no formal education although one of the smartest women i have ever met she was able to build a decent life. he was able to go on and go to a public university service country in the armed forces and become a public defender. that happened because we invested in people. along the way we stopped investing in people and started investing in corporations and our country is worse off for it. how do we do at it? we believe in the american dream and we say we are willing to fight for it and then we get our bodies in the streets and do it. [applause]

>> kolbe the secretary reference walmart earlier in his remarks and talk about working out walmart and having to rely on food stamps. you were a walmart worker and legally retaliated against for speaking your voice with your colleagues. tell us how we build a movement to lift wages and why you have taken a risk you have and what you've seen. >> i would like to start off with someone has to take the risk and i feel like me losing my job was a part of the process. there are several people from several different demographics in several jobs walmart and the wall -- and low-wage jobs. someone has to be willing to go out and lose their jobs very that's part of the process. i felt like i was a good thing for me. first of all i knew it was legal. i worked for walmart and was

illegally fired for participating in strikes in 2012. i think collective bargaining, these companies don't expect us to have the right to speak for ourselves away free do we get silence. writing them up for saying we need better wages and benefits. these are the realities of the american people. we aren't allowed to say things like well if you work at walmart or papa john's you deserve those wages but we also want the services. we want that coffee for mcdonald's in the morning but we don't want to talk about the fact that people deserve a minimum wage. the average worker makes less than $22,000 a year and that's definitely a poverty line. i myself had never made that amount of money. we have to talk about the fact that these companies don't have

respect for workers and view us as part of the corporation and building it. it needs to be a co-op experience in the workplace because workers know what we need. that needs to be heard. [applause] >> i want to turn to the side and get mayor walsh and angie and because we heard from the secretary of labor and we heard from senator warren around the problem of national policy change but i want to hear from the two of you what you see at the local level mr. mayor in terms of the best policy ideas for raising wages and angie from you at the state level in california. what have you seen and what are the innovations that you have seen and advocated for at the state and local level? >> first of all in a city we set the example by doing it ourselves. in massachusetts and the afl-cio was here we were able to raise the minimum wage and of the next

three years to increase the minimum wage. we have controlled the city of boston of the living -- [applause] we have a living wage ordinance in the city of boston and when i took over as the mayor of boston i realize we have to relaunch it and fix fix it because it hasn't been put into effect. we are working on relaunching the living wage peace. when i ran for mayor the laborers union and all the people. >> i'm sorry did you say you are a union member who is mayor now? [applause] i just had to clarify. >> yes. [applause] >> and my dues are paid for the year. when iran one of the concerns people have in the business community saying we were going to stop business and what we are able to do in boston in 2014 is

have a aaa bond rating. the first time in the history of the city of boston. groundbreaking work in the city of boston. we were able to prove $4 million in the future of boston. we were able to negotiate five union contracts that have been passed to with a mutual respect. we were able to get extended school time for 40 minutes extended school time working with the teachers union. we were able to save 45 minute dollars in health care costs. that doesn't change the plan from place but give savings. in order to raise the wages what i had to do in the city of boston to show we can do it through mutual respect and conversation and pushing good-paying jobs in the city of boston. as we look to grow boston in the future part of that is offering good jobs. we instituted a housing plan to

build 53,000 units of new housing by the year 2030 to increase our population to 700,000 people. the first time since the 1950s. the reason we did that as the workforce needs the workers. i think an urban city or any city really or the leadership can do in a lot of cases what's not happening in washington d.c. and showed that people get treated fairly in the wages get treated fairly. the conference of mayors put together an inequity tax force. i am cochair that. we were looking at different areas of how we allow people the opportunity for earning capacity to go up. we have issues around crime and what we did in boston was what created a program, pilot program to identify some of the players in the streets and give them an opportunity to get into the building trades so they get a chance to make good wages and earn her living so their life