tv Face the Nation CBS September 17, 2023 8:30am-9:01am PDT
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i'm jane pauley. stay tuned for "face the nation." and please join us when our trumpet sounds again next sunday morning. ♪ ♪ . i'm margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation" -- a historic strike hits one of america's major industries. >> what are we? >> uaw. >> one more time. >> uaw. >> president biden's economic agenda is in the cross hairs as the united autoworkers go on strike against detroit's big three automakers, demanding higher pay and benefits. >> autoworkers help create america's middle class. >> how close is a deal to end
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the strike and will economic anxiety erode the president's standing in key battleground states. we'll get the latest from shane fain and michigan congresswoman debbie dingell. more bad news for biden as his son hunter is indicted on gun charges and the house gop launches an inquiry alleging corruption by the president and his family. >> i think he could do better. he's trying, but he's not strong enough. plus, we'll have new cbs poll data to gauge how voters are thinking about the president's age and performance. then a prison swap with iran is expected in the coming days. the latest from chairs republican congressman mike turner and democratic senator mark warner. finally, a conversation with actor and director sean penn about his documentary from the front lines of the war in ukraine. it's all just ahead on "face the nation."
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♪ good morning. welcome to "face the nation." we begin this morning with the united autoworkers simultaneously strike against ford, general motors and chrysler parent stellantis. roughly 8% of the union workers stopped work at plants in ohio, michigan and missouri after their contracts expired thursday night. the union says if they don't get a deal, they'll walk out of additional plants. talks continued throughout the weekend and will resume with stellantis tomorrow. senior transportation correspondent kris van cleave is in toledo, ohio, with the latest. >> reporter: hitting automakers and their bottom line for a third day nearly 13,000 united autoworkers have pumped the brakes at plants in michigan, ohio and missouri striking after their union contract with the big three automakers ran out.
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>> i'm here for the long haul. the long haul. if i have to be out here rain, sleet, snow, thunderstorm, tornado. striking. i'm here. >> i don't think they're honking for the ceos. >> reporter: they're getting the backing of high-profile democrats, john fetterman joined the picket line and bernie sanders headlined a rally just feet from the detroit auto show. >> it is totally reasonable for autoworkers to finally receive a fair share of the record-breaking profits that their labor has produced. >> reporter: about an hour south of detroit there are 10,000 autoworkers here in toledo, more than half of them are on strike at this jeep plant. that likely has more to do with what's built here. the popular and lucrative jeep wrangler and gladiator, vehicles that could be in shortly. >> >> most of us can't aford the
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vehicles we're building. >> we're in it until the end and want our fair share. >> reporter: the union is seeking a 36% raise with cost of living increases to counter inflation, unwinding of concessions made during the great recession and worker protection as the companies transition to less labor intensive electric vehicles, want a four-day workweek and return of pensions, full are nonstarters for the automakers. the big three are offering a 20% raise. >> a record from a gross wage increase per spec istive in our 115 history. >> can gm be successful if you met their demands? >> no. the life of the contract, the initial demands over $100 million. we have a ways to go. >> reporter: gm expects to idle a plant in kansas and ford announced 600 temporary layoffs blamed on ripple effects from the strike. >> that was kris van cleave reporting from toledo. we turn to united autoworkers
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president shawn fain. good morning to you, sir. you have said that you had reasonably productive conversations with ford yesterday. does that mean they're going to put a more generous offer on the table? >> good morning. thanks for having us. you know, that's up to them. that's -- you know, the reason we're in this situation right now because all three of the big three companies chose to wait, they chose not to negotiate for the eight weeks we had, we started this in july and told them then don't wait until the last minute or you will find yourself in a bad position. unfortunately they chose to wait until the last week to get down and start talking and get serious and that's where we are now. if we don't get better offers and get down and take care of the members' needs we're going to amp this up more. >> progress is slow. will you order strikes at additional plants this week? are you preparing for that? >> we're prepared to do whatever we have to do, so the membership is ready. the membership is fed up. we're fed up with falling
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behind. it's been decades of falling behind, and especially this past decade, in the most wealthiest times in the history of this company, there is no excuse. these companies have made a quarter of a trillion dollars in the last ten years, $21 billion in the last six months alone. our workers' wages and conditions have went backwards. >> you're asking for a 36% pay raises our reporter laid out there. stellantis said they offered 21%. what are you expecting tomorrow? that seems forward movement? >> we've asked for 40% pay increases and the reason we asked for 40% pay increases because in the last four years alone, the ceo pay went up 40%. they're already millionaires. it's shameful, you know, that one of the leaders of the corporations sitting in his second home in acapulco while we're bargaining rather than
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being at the bargaining table. we're asking for our fair share in this economy and the fruits of our labor. >> so 21% is a no go for you? >> it's definitely a no go and we've made that clear to the companies. >> ford's ceo said last november that electric vehicles are going to require 40% less labor to produce than combustion vehicles. i know it may not be the intention, but i wonder how you think this transition to electric vehicles may be eating away at your union's strength? >> well, i don't believe it's eating away at our union's strength. it is the way it is right now, unfortunately. this is what's wrong with our economy and what's wrong with america right now. the billionaire class keeps taking more and more and the working class keeps getting left behind. the unfortunate part in this transition right now, go back to the great recession, the banks
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got bailed out by our taxpayer dollars and they just kept on doing what they do, while working class people's homes got foreclosed. >> automakers got bailed out too. >> yes. automakers got bailed out. >> taxpayers lost money on that. >> the workers were unfairly -- the workers were unfairly blamed for everything that was wrong with those companies. it was bad decisions on the parts of the companies to put us in that position. the sad reality is, you know, the workers paid the price for that. we made all the sacrifices. and after a decade of massive profits, the workers went backwards. our wages went backwards, our benefits went backwards. the majority of our members have zero retirement security now. >> well -- >> meanwhile, it's insulting that a ceo gets on air this -- in the last few days and says that her $29 million salary is justified by her performance. no, it's not. it's justified by the performance of the worker on the backs of the workers and by paying them poverty wangs. that's unacceptable in this
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country. >> you've said it's a shell game to talk about, you know, ceos handing back part of their money. you're talking about something that's more fundamental to the structure of this entire sector of the economy, and i'm asking you about the transition because many of the factories in this country that make batteries for those electric vehicles are not unionized. and that is where the white house is pushing the industry to go, more towards those electric vehicles. is it -- isn't that part of this challenge for you leverage wise? >> so the challenge is, you know, where we're going to go as a country. again, i get back to this point, our tax dollars are financing a massive portion of this transition to ev. we believe in a green economy. we have to have clean water. we have to have clean air. anyone that doesn't believe global warming is happening isn't paying attention. but this transition has to be a just transition and a just
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transition means if our tax dollars are going to finance this transition, then labor can't be left behind. as it stands right now the workers are being left behind. the companies want to talk about being competitive. it's not about being competitive. competitive is a code word for race to the bottom. what they want is pay us poverty wages so they can keep on making billions more in profits and they can keep enriching the shareholders and the ceos and corporate executives while the workers pay the price for it. and get left behind. it has to stop in this country. >> ford said your demands would more than double the labor costs which are already significantly higher than the labor costs at tests, toyota and foreign own automakers who don't use union labor. how do you make the case that these automakers need to keep investing in more expensive union shops rather than move to these right to work states? >> first off, labor costs are
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about 5% of the cost of the vehicle. they could double our wages and not raise the price of the vehicles and still make billions in profits. it's a choice. and the fact that they want to compare it to how pitiful tesla and other companies pay their workers, that's what this argument is about. workers have to decide if they want a better life for themselves instead of scraping to get by paycheck to paycheck while everybody else walks away with the loot. when we bargain good contracts, going back to the founding of this union. people joined the uaw because we set the standard. people join unions because it's a better way of life. we have to bargain a good contract and then go organie these places and bring these workers in so they get their fair share of the economy that they get nothing of right now. most of these workers in those companies are scraping to get by so greedy ceos and greedy people like elon musk be can build more rocket ships and shoot
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themselves in outer space. that's unacceptable. >> president biden says he's the most pro union president in american history, but you haven't endorsed him. what is it going to take for you to do that? >> our endorsements are going to be earned. we've been clear about that, no matter what politician -- >> how does he earn it? >> we expect action, not words. you know, this fight we're in right now, obviously, you know, people are talking about them trying to interject themselves into our negotiations. you know, this negotiating -- our negotiators are fighting hard, our leadership is fighting hard. it's going to be won at the negoiating table with our teams, with our members manning the picket lines and allies out there. who the president is now, who the former president was or the presidents before them, isn't going to win this fight. this fight is about one thing. it's about workers running their fair share of economic justice instead of being left behind as they have been in the last decades. >> shawn fain a, thank you for
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your time today. we did ask all of the big three automakers to come on the show this morning and they declined. we turn to democratic congressman debbie dingell who has long-time ties to gm and at industry and represents detroit and is in south field, michigan, this morning. congresswoman, you have said these are the most important negotiations you witnessed in your lifetime. you have long-standing ties to these automakers. is it really more significant than when the bush and obama administrations bailed out the automakers? >> yes, it's far more significant and i'll tell you why. those days were -- these companies were facing bankruptcy and frankly it was because of management decisions and the autoworkers were scared for their jobs and they stepped up and they gave away their cost of living increases to help. they gave in 2008 and 2009.
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now the companies are back in a strong position but where the rubber hits the road, margaret, we are in a transition of this industry competing in a world marketplace that we -- some of the countries in europe you'll see in the last quarter the electric vehicle sales are more than 50% of the sales, that's what we're competing in. we have to make sure the worker is part of this transition. it should not be either or. it needs to be both. we have to make sure the worker can afford to buy that electric vehicle, they will have the support they do, and we have to make sure we're paying a fair and decent wage. all workers, everybody in this country, benefits when workers are paid well. >> but those electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants so many are joint ventures, they are partially foreign owned and not unionized. that's a choice. how do you reverse that? >> well, i mean, that is something that's very real and
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on the table right now is really there's probably only one battery plant that may be under the master agreement. we've got -- it's not an easy question. it's not easy to deal with. i want to say something else that everybody doesn't understand. yeah, tesla does have a huge discrepancy in what they're paying their employees and most people in this country can't afford a tesla, even a lot of executives can't afford to buy a tesla, but the fact of the matter is, that most at toyota -- i've looked at the studies, almost all workers at auto plants benefit from where these negotiations go. this is where the rubber hits the road. we have to figure out how we're going to do this transition, from the transition of an eternal combustion engine which -- and pay people who are making that battery a decent wage, similar to what they're making, and there will be new and different jobs that come from this transition.
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it's not a talking a point moment. this is a real intentional, hard moment. >> president biden said he was sending his staff to detroit. they're not there right now. you just heard shawn fain say something about the white house injecting themselves into negotiations. do you think the president and white house should intervene? >> first of all, i do not believe that president should intervene or be at the negotiating table. i've said that from the beginning. if anything that the pandemic a has taught us is that, like who is in an office and who is working, i talk to gene sparling multiple times a day, and it have all summer, so there are -- i don't think they've got a role at the negotiating table. i think every one of us that are policymakers and other stakeholders need to understand what these issues are, what we can do to support those discussions at the table and what we need to do coming out of these to help make a strong,
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viable, competitive industry that's employing american jobs. i'm not going to let these electric vehicles be built in china even though someone else says they want them built 100% in china i'm fighting to make sure they're here with good paying michigan jobs. >> it is a competitive state. we're going into an election year. i asked shawn fain what it would take for the union to endorse president biden who says he's the most pro union president ever, and he says it has to be earned. that's a pretty big -- >> you know -- >> statement. >> well, first of all, he's also said that donald trump would be a disaster and i could go into that at length. but i really have to tell you that i think that we got to keep these two issues totally separate. i'm worried about what's happening at the table and that it's going to set -- it's going to determine the future of the auto industry in michigan. i want to keep presidential politics out of this and do what's right from a policy
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perspective. then we can talk about the presidential election. michigan is a competitive state. it's a purple state, no at blue state. when we get a good agreement that keeps america strong, our workers strong, then i think they'll know who they're going to support and they will support someone that supports the american worker. >> the democrats like to say -- >> that's somebody -- >> sorry? >> well no, i mean, you know, everybody is like, donald trump says he's going to swoop in and do a -- he doesn't care about their pay raises. he doesn't care about cola or retirement. he doesn't care about pensions. he doesn't care. i mean last time he campaigned in michigan he told the companies they should move to other states where they pay people less money. i think that we all as policymakers need to understand the issues, how do we support this transition so that we are staying competitive in this country. i want to do presidential politics after this is done at the table and we are keeping a
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strong, viable industry, which -- the workers are part of the success. >> debbie dingell, appreciate your insight. "face the nation" will be back in a minute. stay with usus. ♪♪ when better money habits® cocontent firsrst started cocoming out,, itit expanded d what i could d do for special l olympics a athls withth developmemental needs. thousands s of bank ofof amea employoyees like s scott spend cocountless hohours volulunteering t to teach pee how toto reach their r financial l goals. itit felt good. it felt like i could take on the whole world. ♪ zyrtec! ♪ works hard at hour 1 and twice as hard when you take it again the next day. soso betty canan be the.... barcrcode beat c conductor.. ♪♪♪
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let's be more ththan our allergies! and for fast allergy relief with a powerful decongestant, try zyrtec-d. our latest cbs news poll shows president biden in a precarious position as he seeks re-election. down 1 point within the margin of error in a hypothetical matchup with the republican frontrunner former president trump he beat by 7 million votes in 2020. questions about mr. biden's age seem to be taking a toll. one third of voters think he would finish a second term if re-elected. as for trump, just over half are sure he would finish his term if returned to the white house. joining us to discuss it is our elections and surveys director anthony sellvanto. the vice president kamala harris told me last week joe biden is going to be just fine. doesn't seem like voters are convinced. >> they're not entirely
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convinced and there is concern and that speaks to uncertainty in this way. when people don't think that a candidate is going to finish a second term, they're less likely to vote for that candidate and that's happening in the case of joe biden. it's also happening with donald trump. now, there's also a component here when people are asked, do you think these candidates are physically fit enough or mentally cognitively fit enough, and neither one of them inspires overwhelming confidence here. it's not accruing well for the president right now. you see a substantial number of voters who aren't sure that he is, and that is helping donald trump. those voters are switching. even in the case of donald trump, you don't have an overwhelming number of voters who think he is physically fit or cognitively fit. the reason that all speaks to uncertainty is that people don't like uncertainty, but when they're making a presidential vote you're thinking ability if this person isn't going to finish their second term, then what am i going to get for my
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vote? that creates a new wrinkle in the decision process. >> what else do voters say they want from a president? >> start with joe biden. voters told us they think he's calm, they think he's predictable. those qualities met the moment in 2020 during the pandemic when he was running against then president trump. today, they want more. they want someone that they think is tough. they want someone that they think is energetic. those are qualities they do not ascribe to joe biden, but donald trump does do better on those quality. that's important and then there's this. donald trump's voters overwhelmingly say one of the reasons they're voting for him, they think things were better under him and that relates to the economy, it relates to people's finances. the pandemic, we've looked at whether people say they're doing better or worse now than before the pandemic and people say that they are not. two to one they say they are still worse off than better.
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and those people are voting for donald trump. that's kind of classic if you're not better off you vote for the out party. >> interested people are focused on the first years of the trump presidency rather than the pandemic years of the trump presidency. we're early in this. why are you polling when we don't officially have a republican nominee, a head-to-head race. >> it is early, but number one, you have donald trump so far out in front in the republican primary, the indictments haven't hurt him, only helped him. you have the presumption that we're going to get a rematch and that is unusual. look any time you have something that's unusual, you want to understand it as soon as possible. another point for context here, right, democrats are going to look at this, that is a shift as you said from biden's fairly comfortable 2020 win to where it is now. in the summer of 1995, bill clinton was down to bob dole in the summer of 2011, barack obama's disapproval rating was hitting all-time highs. both turned it around and got
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re-elected. maybe that gives democrats' hope. this is a shift from what we saw in 2020. >> so what is it that people think is at stake? >> well, i should also say we're polling on a race people don't seem to want. >> okay. >> which is to say, when we ask people how they feel about getting this rematch they think that means politics in the u.s. is broken. look, having said that, they also see really high stakes here and say that not only is democracy and rule of law potentially at stake, but maybe in a sign of the times, it's only going to be safe if their guy wins. >> of course. anthony salvlvanto, thanank you shararing your insightsts. wewe'll be baback with momore " the e nation." stayay with us.. i i got the popower of 3.. i lowerered my a1c, , cv ris, and lostst some weigight. inin studies, , the mamajority of f people rereached an a a1c under 7 and mamaintained i it. i'i'm under 7.7.
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