host: what is your comment for richard trumka?ler: i have seen where it is reported that the labor unions are contributed money and some of these protesters had been brought in from other areas. but i think the labor unions have a huge part in what is going on in this country and the problems we are having. to me coming unions are basically corrupt. not the members, but those at the top. it is scary when you have such a powerful group that the president is in their pocket, and we all know that. host: let me ask you about the corruption charge for what is corrupt about the the leadership of the union? guest: they forced people to pay dues and give it to candidates that they really do not support and they are forced to do that. in some states, you can i get a job unless you are a member of the union. guest: i am tempted to say that i will pray for you. many of the overgeneralizations that you said are just that, the armed myths. i cannot believe you are blaming the working people in this country for the problems caused by corporate

tom donohue and richard trumka, the strategy they share for putting america back to work. >>> good morning. lots to get to today. but first some news since your morning papers. breaking news to report, a powerful 7.2 earthquake has rocked turkey, with its epicenter near the city of van a local mayor reports there are so many dead several buildings have collapsed. there's too much destruction, he says. rescue workers are struggling to reach victims trapped under the rubble. >>> milestone in the middle east this morning, the first election of the arab spring, the uprising began in tunisia last september. today, tu knnisitunisians heade polls. results will be announced tomorrow. >>> in libya, a day of jubilation, as they formally declare the nation liberated. presidential elections within a year. >>> meantime, an official atopsy report that moammar gadhafi was killed with a shot to the head. secretary of state hillary clinton is in the region. i spoke to her about the changes in libya and the administration's decision to pull all american troops from iraq. thank you for joining us. are you an

joining us now is richard trumka, president of afl-cio. mr. you very much for your time tonight. >> rachel, thanks for having me on. >> your new jobs plan includes the kind of goals labor has been long calling for. big infrastructure investment, energy and education investment. manufacturing investment. aid to state and local governments. home mortgage aid. wall street reform. things you have called for in the past. but this is put together in one package. is it meant to be different than what the president is proposing? bigger than what the president is proposing? how does this fit in with what we're hearing from president obama? >> i think the president made a very, very important step when he introduced the american jobs bill. he switched the debate from deficit hysteria that really doesn't put anybody back to work, to job creation. and his bill is a very, very, very important first step. he'll tell you it's only a first step. we want to support that bill. we want to put millions of americans back to work. if you want to cure the economy, i

labor leader richard trumka and chamber of commerce president tom donohue on the strategy they share for putting america back to work. >>> good morning. lots to get to today. but first some news since your morning papers. breaking news to report, a powerful 7.2 earthquake has rocked turkey with its epicenter near the city of van. a local mayor reports there are so many dead, several buildings have collapsed. there is too much destruction, he says. rescue workers are struggling to reach victims trapped under the rubble. >>> and a milestone in the middle east this morning, the first election of the arab spring. the uprising began in tunisia last december when a food vendor set himself on fire in protest of an oppressive regime. today, tunisians headed to the polls. there are 11,000 candidates from 80 political parties, and results will be announced tomorrow. >>> and in libya, a day of jubilation as leaders formally declare the nation liberated. the clock now starts for a constitutional assembly within eight months and parliamentary and presidential elections within a year. meantime, an

president richard trumka took his case to the top. have you told the president that you think these bills are bad for the country? >> on numerous occasions. >> reporter: and what does he say? >> well, we have adisagreement about that. >> reporter: proponents say these bills will create tens of thousands of new jobs, just not right away, scott, because the agreements can take a couple of years to implement. >> pelley: nancy, it seems the most remarkable thing about this is that democrats and republicans agreed on something and passed a bill. what should we make of that? >> reporter: that's right, republicans like these agreements because they open up new markets to u.s. goods. many democrats do, too, as long as they include some funding for workers who lose their jobs as a result of free trade and need to be retrained. so, yes, bipartisanship did win out here but only, scott, after several years of trying to reach a compromise. >> pelley: thank you very much, nancy. businesses make big profits buy hoarding drugs in short supply. a life

-cio president richard trumka also spoke out in favor of occupy wall street some politicians have also publicly supported the message of the protests people like congress members don't is considered ellison russ feingold and even g.o.p. presidential candidates buddy roemer and ron paul the number of arrests have increased over the past few weeks as well most notably the seven hundred people who were detained while the brooklyn bridge having a standoff against the police but last night's academy park also got violent or perhaps this comet for a member of the n.y.p.d. foreshadows what was to come. just. right. yeah you heard him right that officer said he was excited to use his nightstick just a short while later seems other officers were sharing the same sentiments about their weapons when demonstrators started spilling over a barricade it became clear that nobody will say from the n.y.p.d. as night sticks or pepper spray. oh in that clash twenty eight people were arrested and although wednesday was a violent night the movement still continues the number of arrests continue to go up act

-cio president richard trumka was individually said he supports the movement also reportedly met with his board today to a union like endorsement now some welcome the unions saying that they can bring funds resources organization but others have cast a wary eye feeling that big organizations who bring out big numbers for democrats in elections are trying to co-opt the movement and drive into a certain political direction so let's get some perspective or somebody who's actually been part of occupy wall street since the very beginning and see how they feel joining me from our studio in new york is attorney and activists martin who's a member of the occupy wall street library committee janice i want to thank you so much for joining us and if you can first start by just telling us how long you've been with occupy wall street what day you've got there how much you've been participating. well first of all thank you very much for having me it's great to be here i wouldn't say i was there from the beginning i my first day i believe was day three and i've been coming whenever i can i work full

richard trumka will take your questions about labor rolls in next year's election. we will talk about how drugs are approved by the fda. our guest is the ceo of a pharmaceutical company based in san francisco. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 eastern. several live events to tell you about today. the homeland committee looks at the defenses against by a terrorism threats. that is at 10:00 a.m. eastern. also, the treasury secretary will testify on capitol hill about the effect of the small business jobs at last year. and ben bernanke speaks regarding federal reserve bank of boston conference. that is at 1:15 p.m.. >> i am a proud businessman. the opposition have attempted to picture me as an opponent of liberalism. i fought for the reforms of theodore roosevelt and woodrow wilson. that is before they adopted and distorted the words a liberal. >> he was a member of the democratic party for several years. he switched when he sought and won the republican nomination for president. although he lost the election, he left his mark in political histor

host: 80 minutes left with richard trumka, the president of the afl-cio. caller: mr. trumka, my name is joe and i retired union minor. i would like your opinion and i would like to ask a follow-up question. are you in favor of preserving blair mountain as a state or natialark that creates a preservation of the middle class? we fought a war. i like your opinion and to ask a follow-up. guest: i would be in favor of supporting that just like i would be in favor of preserving the gettysburg battlefield or any of our other historic events. once that history is lost, is lost forever. i think that is an important part of west virginia culture. you will recall that is where the term "redneck" first originative because miners, in order to -recognize themselves wore a red neckerchiefs around their neck. that is all that it was. the answer is we need to preserve o history and heritage because it is so important to all of us. host: are you still there? caller: since blair mountain is currtly scheduled for mountaintop removal mining and somewhere between 18-22 side to reports that

let me show you something that was said by richard trumka of afl-cio, and tom done hue of the chamberhey came together on a sunday morning show. you're talking about having church on sunday, this was real gospel to the american people. pinches unless we have infrastructure that allows us to be in agreement. >> we're in great agreement. you can tell based on the healthier infrastructure what your gdp is going to be. you are on target, no growth, no jobs. >> this is really a no-brainer simplgts rick, does that mean that there's hope that the republicans will vote on this infrastructure bill next week? >> there's no doubt it would be an important component in growth for the next couple decades. i know governor rendell has been involved in a lot of innovation. we ought to be pursuing that. that is an important piece. what i hesitate about is calling this all stimulus. we ought to be making smart investments for the long run, projects of regional significance that make sense, we're getting good return. you have the high-speed rail plan in california. so far about $10 billion allocated, not

afl-cio president richard trumka endorsed the protests today saying "we need to bring back balance tocial economy and calling attention to it and peacefully protesting is a very legitimate way of doing it. god only knows you can go to the hill and you can talk to a lot of people and see nothing ever happen." the protests started in new york city's financial district 14 days ago and has spread to san francisco, chicago, denver and boston. more protests are planned tomorrow in washington. msnbc's chris hayes spoke with some of the wall street protesters today. >> what brought you down here the first time? >> just because i feel like there's a ground swell here. that i think this thing could catch fire and people can realize, this might punch through what's going on in this country. >> what do you want to see happen here? >> what i'd like to see happen is i would like to see people in this country start taking an interest what's going on, what's happening on wall street and how it directly affects them. look at this, a bunch of stinky hip hippies, this doesn't affect me at all. they don'

let's talk about this because you have richard trumka come out and saying, look, we're growing! nine new hospitals. brought 30,000 new members into the fold. is that true? is that what you believe? >> well, i think there is real challenges out there because the states like wisconsin, we're giving workers the right to choose, part of our reform said they actually get to make the choice whether or not they want to be part of a union or not. and that means unions have to work hard to earn their membership. and for us, that's fine. if the union is doing a great job, that's been the strength of at least some of these national union bosses has been the fact that they've been in states where they're allowed to force people to be a member. i don't think they should be and i think at the end, that's the best interest of the worker. >> gretchen: now we see these occupy wall street protests going on and word is that the unions are now helping them to organize. you felt like -- you know what that feels like 'cause that happened in wisconsin to you and we're looking now at the more violent v

arne duncan talks about the benefits of a longer school day and afl-cio president richard trumka on jobs and the economy. on tomorrow's washington journal george mason, economics professor garrett jones on government spending and jobs. discussion about gay rights with brian wilson of the human rights campaign and washington times congressional bureau chief stephen diamond on a bill to create a database to check workers' legal status. washington journal begins at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> the head of the american association of university professors says tenure and academic freedom are in jeopardy and need to be protected. >> tenure creates an atmosphere where people can speak friendly not just in teaching but in terms of university governance. if you don't like the proposal of the board of trustees or the president makes you have to speak freely. administrators should do that as well. the shared governance speech is part of what academic freedom protects. without that you don't have the expertise of the faculty available. >> kerri nelson, author of the university is an island sunday nig

they also invited afl-cio president richard trumka to speak. years congress to pass the presence jobs bill and made other recommendations were lowering the unemployment rate. this is an hour and a half. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> good morning everybody. i am strobe talbott of the brookings institution is my great pleasure to welcome you here today. and it is also a particular pleasure to be able to welcome our speaker, rich trumka. rich has devoted his entire repression alive to the labor movement. he is a third-generation miner, he spent 15 years as the head of the united mine workers union. in short, i think you could say that his job but low these many years, has been looking out for other people's jobs. and the same can be said for john sweeney, one of his predecessors that they afl-cio. it is great to have you here with us this morning and jim bolin of the bricklayers union. and, the same statement i just made about those three gentlemen can also be made about john wilhelm. he is the president of unite here and

coming up, we will turn our focus to the economy and talk with richard trumka of the afl- cio. >> ontoday's "washington journal", a discussion on state and federal education funding. the president of the american federation of teachers and joins us. then we will talk with tucker carlson about the republican presidential race. then we will look at the help of the nation's largest bank. yalman onaran is our guest. "washington journal" each morning on c-span. later, janet napolitano will testify about homeland security oversight. live coverage from the senate judiciary committee begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern. after that, natalie cole will be at the national press club talking about hepatitis c. the singer was diagnosed with the disease in 2008. that gets underway at 1:00 p.m. eastern. in one of the activists behind egypt's arab spring is giving advice to the occupy wall street protesters. then vincente fox discusses mexico's violence and advocates for legalizing durgs. rugs. topics on "washington journal" include education spending, last night to convey, and regulating banks. >> during t

the occupied wall street protests, and then richard trumka will talk about next year's presidential election. then peter hirth on developing new drugs. he has developed new drugs, including those for kidney cancer. president obama is on the road this week, talking about his jobs plan. his remarks in north carolina are next. in 40 minutes, more about jobs from senator john mccain. then a preview of some of the senate races in next year's elections. >> because i am a businessman, of which i am very proud and formerly connected with a large company, the doctrinaires of opposition have attempted to depict me as an opponent of liberalism, but i was a liberal before many of those heard the word. >> he was a member of the democratic party for over 20 years, switching in 1940. in 1940 he won the republican nomination, and although he lost the election, he became the former ambassador for his former opponent, franklin roosevelt. ndell willkie, friday at 8:00 p.m.. >> president obama criticized republican proposals aimed at creating jobs. his three-day road trip began in asheville, north carolina. thi

unlikely allies like a chamber of commerce, donohue and afl-cio president richard trumka are putting their full throated advocacy behind transportation investment. bipartisan. talked with both of them about it at great length. many governors also are rejecting the premise that jobs on transportation projects should be proxies in congress is political warfare. at the sherman commit and bridge, kentucky governor steve bashir, a democrat, any and governor h. daniels, a republican work together and are working together to repair and reopen that bridge. i mention i served with a public and later bob michael there he knew how to play partisan, and he could be very tough when he wanted to be. but he also knew how went to sit down across from the other person to hammer out a deal because it was the best thing for the american people. this is one of those moments when the american people are counting on their representatives in washington to set aside their differences and achieve the possible, not the perfect. they should expect nothing less. we've had a rich history in this country of bipar