thank you, alysabeth alexander from the seiu. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

el sindicato internacional de trabajadores de servicio en sus siglas en ingles seiu es responsable dedicha publicidad... "estos anuncios han sido muy eficaz en enseÑar a la comunidad latina quien es mitt ey y cuando louncios eloncecolo enorado obame acuea "cada dia estamos saliendo con el mensaje del gobernador romney, el mensajeen las dos lenguas espaÑol e ingles mucho mas estan en desacuerdo con mitt romney" republicanos defienden la trayectoria de romney y dicen que su agenda politica para la comunidad hispana es transparente... "este es un mensaje que va a resonar entre la comunidad latina,vemos que especialmente una ciudad como orlando donde es una de la ciudaen lo que si campaÑas es sobre la importancia que los hispanos salgan a votar el seis de noviembre y que cada voto hara para l elenes...o alta10as sobrozuchar.a acer brran mainfo earlington el ejercito ayudar a las familias de bajos recursos a adquirir los implementos escolares de sus hijos... advertencia de temperaturas muy altas en los proximos dias... tambien se esperan tormenaisl... sa t este a~no asistencia de utiles es

henry, president of seiu, the service employees international. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> seiu was the top spender in 2005 to 2011 according to this analysis. $320 million. and all unions during that period, again, from this analysis, spend about $4 billion. the journal paints this at least in part as unions trying to hang on to political clout at a time of diminishing membership. is that what this is about? >> no, this is about unions trying to make sure that all working people can work hard for a living and have a shot at the american dream. we are trying to organize like never before to make sure that we participate in this election in numbers like never before because, as you know, chris, unions are being outspent 10 to 1 by corporations and the wealthy since citizens united. and before citizens united, we were outspend 3-1. >> and you also face some unprecedented challenges. last night the san bernardino california council voted. they became the third california city in less than two weeks to declare bankruptcy. scranton, pennsy

he has worked with seiu and the united auto wkers, among others.e's the author of this upcoming book "they're bankrupting us and twenty other myths about unions." welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> corporate profits are at an all-time high. wages as a percent of the economy are at an all time low and fewer people are employed than anytime in the past 30 years. why isn't this the opportunity for an old-fashioned, good old fight for the working people? >> the question is less is it the right moment to organize, but what are the ways we organize and what are the things that we have to start doing that really let us take on corporate power. >> such as? >> massive, nonviolent civil disobedience. the labor movement was built when it occupied factories which wasn't legal either. that we need to look at a set of tactics and be willing to take risks and things that we haven't done in years because when somebody wants to destroy you, giant corporations, they pass laws to make it illegal for you to exercise your democratic rights. then we

unfortunately, seiu says it's okay for that to happen. >> representatives of the union say they didn'tant this either. >> we are not about the money, we're not greedy's that's not what it's all about. all we want for them to do is be fear. >> reporter: communications between the labor union and the city soured after -- the sei oourks workers are now demanding more information about the court's finances. >> how could we possibly know that the 5% pay cut is really needed? we don't know if it's needed or not. we want the truth, we want to know where the books are. >> the court executive director t michael ewing says the final budget numbers won't be in until the end of the month and his office needed to make a decision now. >> make no mistake, the court is not asking seiu for anything more than what we have already received from our other free unions. >> reporter: this was meant to be a one-day strike, but they will be meeting to discuss any further action. >>> in spite of what's happening in san francisco, santa clara county will start building a new family courthouse next year. the stat

[applause] >> hello, i am mcchrystal -- crystal java, and i work for seiu 1021. i am also the daughter of a homeless man. when nonprofits are cut, it impacts not just the folks that work there, but also the people they care for. for the last five years, san francisco city funded nonprofits have not gotten an increase from the city. during that same time, health care costs have gone up an average of 10% to 20% for these organizations, workers' comp costs have gone up, workers are under more pressure. flat funding is a cut. along with the budget justice, we are asking for an increase this year for nonprofits. we would like your support in getting that. thank you. [applause] >> my name is darnell boyd and i am a tenant organizer. i am also a tenant representative at the mission hotel. when i got here two years ago, i used to run from the emergency shelter to the hospitality house, in the rain. the hospitality house helped me a lot. i used to have to run past people huddled over in doorways, in the rain, sleeping in wheelchairs'. i used to think, how can a city -- a

anyway, i am retired as a business agent for seiu. i would like to thank you for this award that we're going to get. it took me quite a fuse -- quite a few years to get it together. there was so much confusion about the fillmore and what was going on and being the president of the blues and r&b music foundation, i decided to find a location for a mural. at that time, the mayor located, park and rec -- mayor ok'd and park and rec ok'd it. we came up with -- the mural is beautiful. on the -- jim side. there was lots of confusion as to what was what. i decided to get permission to put a mural on stender and post. for those of you who have seen it, you know it is beautiful. it is not a mural. it is art. h. personality on the merrill looks exactly like himself. being that i knew each person, i tracked them down and we got together. it took two years to pay that merrill. it took a long time, lots of effort and love. the gentleman who did the painting is right here with me. standing by my side like we were for two years. every day with him,

. >> i am the san francisco political coordinator for seiu 1021 to speak in favor of supervisor avalos'sue measures. because they are progressive and the underlying principles are ones that we support. we do want to also indicate we're willing to look at some kind of compromise as long as there is an escalator for more. after looking at pulling some of our leadership, there is no objections to something like that but it is a little disappointing to us to go below $40 million precisely because of the lawsuit and the cuts we have sustained. we believe it should be revenue positive and we support supervisor avalos's initial measure of $40 million but we're willing to a little that number as long as there is an escalator. thank you for everyone's work, supervisor kim, supervisor chu. we have been working on this for so many years and i would love to c.s. get to one measure -- c.s. get to one measure that we can all embrace. thank you for your work. supervisor chu: thank you. are there other members of the public who wish to comment on items one through 14? seeing none, public comment is

andy stern, labor leader seiu said there is a huge unresolved set of issue in the democratic party betweenof wealth and people who work. penny is a living example of the issue. so having helped elect the president they wanted now they throw her under the bus. there is intraparty class warfare. a lot of democrats this week might be on the fence about donating to the obama campaign. they may direct to senate campaign. i don't think they want to give to them. >> greg: what did harry reid say this morning? seven odd white men -- >> eric: can't get elected. >> greg: trying to get romney elected. >> dana: angry old white men. >> greg: are the left going to operate on the stereotype of business they're all greedy white men? >> eric: it's scary that president obama went off prompter on the virginia speech on friday did what he did. he demonized business again. this will reverberate throughout the left, pull talking points out from under trump. donald trump. the labor leader. he had a hard time today talking about what we wanted to talk about. he wanted to demoonize romney but hard to do that given

they ruled seiu, the service employees international union must earn approval from dissenting members before they collect dues to pay for political campaigns. speaking 7-2 majority, justice alito wrote, this aggressive use of power by the seiu to collect fees from nonmembers is indefensible. it is that kind of pressure imposed by unions on its members that helped turn off some workers to big labor. >> the membership in the american federation of state, county and municipal employees has fallen by more than half since union membership and paying union dues became voluntary. part of the reason the unions have so much of the power, in most states workers don't have any choice. they simply have to pay the union dues or get fired. >> reporter: but union members make up a sizable percentage of democratic party base. no wonder the obama campaign is making a strong appeal to that core constituency as vice president biden did earlier this week speaking to the national education association. >> but there's a pretty uniform view held by mr. romney and republicans in the united states congress to

if the democrats are surging in, this seiu, the union that represents janitors and hospital workers and combining with the house majority pack that is funded principally by other unions and trial lawyers and other groups associated with democrats and pouring money in and investg wisely. they think they can target small media markets and sacramento, california, they will pour money in because there four congressional races that can go either way where the voters wah in sacramento, california. a little bit of money can go a long way. >> fascinating stuff. thank you so much for coming on. speaking of congress, today's tweet of the day is about one member. it comes from amanda terkle. loretta sanchez dances to call me maybe. this in our continue is must see tv. home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance, where the costs to both repair your home and replace your possessions are covered. and we don't just cut a check for the depreciated value -- we can actually replace your stuff with an exact or near match. plus, if your home is unfit to live in after an incident, we pay for you to s

seiu case which involved a controversial issue of when unions take mandatory fees from you, can they send it for politically-related expenditures and the law prior to knox had always been that as long as you gave the employee the nonunion employee the ability to opt out of the fees that were going for political advocacy, that was comported with the constitution, i think there was a strong indication in justice alito's opinion that from now on the constitutional rule is not to allow the employee to opt out of the payments that go for political advocacy but to make him affirmatively opt in to endorse it and if that's where they go with the law, i think that could have a very significant effect on public union employees' ability to engage in politics and would have an even more significant effect, if it's extended to private sector unions under this case. but i'll leave it at that. thank you. [applause] >> now please join me in welcoming professor richard epstein. [applause] >> thank you so much for having me here. again, i'm obviously going to have to say something about the nfib case.

nothing's been done about that, and the democrats have the seiu have him out pick him out of a crowd. if it hadn't have been for the people in the crowd, they probably would have beat him to death. also the black leaders all looked the other direction. i'm just wondering, are we going to see that again this time? i'd like to have your comment, thank you. >> guest: i'm not entirely familiar with the issue that you brought up, but i think what you'll see, you know, broadly in terms of race relation issues, you know, this has been something that obama and senate democrats have pushed. you've definitely seen a movement in terms of civil rights issues, gay rights issues. i think you're going to, i think that's another issue that will be decided largely by the presidential campaign. >> host: when we look at the presidential election and all the things that are being delayed until after -- not just the presidential election, but the senate and house elections as well -- refresh for us, paul kane, what else is being put to the back burper until we with see -- burner until we see who wins cont

seiu case which involved can unions take mandatory fees and send it for political expenditures.nd the law prior to knox had always been as long as you gave the nonunion employee the opportunity to opt out of the fees, that comported with the constitution. i think there was a strong indication in justice alito's opinion that from now on the constitutional rule is not to allow the employee to opt out of the payments that go for political advocacy, but to make him affirmatively opt in to endorse it. and if that's where they go with the law, i think that could have a significant effect on public union employees' ability to engage in politics and would have an even more significant effect if it was extended to private sector unions you should this case. but i'll leave it at that. thank you. >> okay. [applause] >> and now, please, join me in welcoming professor richard epstein. [applause] >> thank you so much for having me here. again, i'm obviously going to have to say something about the nfib case. i should say i wrote brief on three parts of it attacking the mandate, speaking about

the democrats had the seiu pick him out of the crowd and they beat him up and if there had not been people in the crowd they probably would have beat him to death. also, the black leaders of all look the other direction. will we see it again this time? i would like your comment, thank you. guest: i am not entirely familiar with the issue you brought up. is think what you will see broadly in terms of race relations issues, this is something that obama and senate democrats have pushed. you have definitely seen a movement in terms of civil rights issues, gay rights issues. i think that is another issue that will be decided largely by the presidential campaign. host: when you look at the presidential election and all of these things that are being delayed until after -- not just the presidential election, but the senate and house as well -- refreshing for us what else is being put to the back burner until we see who wins control of both the why house as well as the bodies ofgress? guest: you have the expiring bush tax cuts that we talked about. first enacted in 2001 and in 2003. they expire de