an informational fair will be held next thursday at the united steelworkers union hall. session includes presentations about unemployment insurance benefits and career services. it takes place from 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. >> and now york 11 insta-weather + forecast with meteorologist john collins. >> if you like yesterday, you certainly like today with all the sun and warm temperatures. we have had a few thin clouds moving overhead. does not show up well on this satellite image. we also have a lot of jet contrails in the sky. the atmosphere is set up right for that. that adds a little bit to the cloudiness filtering the sunshine. so we do not have a perfectly blue sky. but it is a very nice day. let's look at the current conditions as far as temperatures. annapolis, 59. cambridge, 55. boardwalk, 56. only 49 at edgewood. that is all right. 52 at westminster. farther south, to riches of getting closer to 60. for the north, further away from 6 to come closer to 50 degrees but only in the 40's in the mountains out to the west. i want to show you a black and white satellite imag

james sanderson, president of the united steelworkers local union 7898 in georgetown, south carolina. sanderson, good to have you with us tonight. we keep hearing the stories about bain and mitt romney's involvement. what can you tell us about this? what happened here, what does the public, in your opinion, need to know? >> good evening, ed show. the first thing i would like to say good evening in the labor movement, brothers and sisters that also understand the dilemma we face here in south carolina, south carolina has over 10% unemployme unemployment, we are very much in need of jobs. to hear mitt romney running around this state talking about that he's a job creator is very disturbing and is not true. he does indeed like to fire people like he already said. we go back to 1997, whenever bain capital becomes very much involved with our plant, at georgetown steel, and he basically just took a lot of profits, assets away from the company and forced it in bankruptcy. >> mr. sand esanderson, explain carolina. the story does not seem to be hitting or hurting mitt romney's campaign at all.

they're looking for more actually over here now trying to help set up set up companies with the steelworkers union and others around the country at leo gerard has been yes he's all all over you know loves the topic yeah it's happening here they're coming over the coming year really looking for markets for jobs and so forth and if you go back to what i was saying about going to seris or these hospitals i think it's a more interesting model though some of the work in cleveland has been based in part on monday but trying to use these institutions that are partly publicly funded hospitals that got a lot of medical money and universities to stabilize the market by purchasing some part of what they produce they're not always up against the competition you get more stability at the local level so those kind of mixes of almost a planning system to help stabilize but also be in competition so you get don't get to too much you have to yourself without competition and the really interesting developments of this kind or are happening i was in madison a few months ago and talk to the people who run the union c

and information fare will be held next thursday january 12 at the united steelworkers union hall. it will include presentations about unemployment insurance benefits and the career services. 11 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. the holiday season paid off for most retailers. holiday sales were not as robust as 2010 but still finished on a high note. the stores with the best deals did the best business. >> the majority of retailers are bringing in the -- bringing in the new year thanks to holiday shoppers. >> the economy was a little better. i did a little bit better shopping than last year. >> sales were up this season 3.3% over all. stores have to go all out because consumers waited until the very end to spend. >> we have been calling it a white knuckle christmas. it came late and it was on sale. >> still on a budget shoppers looked to get the most for their dollar. >> i was shopping with discounts. i wanted to get all the discounts i could. >> there was a twist on stores that did well this season. big department stores like macy's and nordstrom's saw an increase. discount

leo gerard, national president of the yen is steelworkers union. i don't think when i was in the government i was necessarily the favorite economist. those days are past. relative to the current political spectrum. anyway, next to him is john surma, the ceo of u.s. steel, and next to him is elizabeth jacobs. as i already previewed, she has written a paper which is attracting a lot of attention. a very good paper on what has happened in germany and some of the differences with germany. now, gary told us in the first panel of the morning that the biggest problem for employment that we have is lack of demand. so this is still a business cycle. it is not a recession because recessions are defined as the part where you are falling, and we are not still falling. we are rising, just not fast enough. we are essentially what feels like recession given the high unemployment, and the biggest reason is because of caution about spending by businesses, consumers, and government. so we are not filling capacity in our factories and offices, and we don't have anyth

one session featured the president of the united steelworkers union and president of the united statesel corporation. >> -- studies program and i am very pleased to be here with this very distinguished panel one to talk about some of the aspects of manufacturing and technology and we are also going to look a little bit about germany and what's happened in the german labor market over the last few years and how that may be different from what we have had in the u.s.. so we have a terrific panel. leo gerard come to my right is the national president of under the united steelworkers union. >> [inaudible] >> mabey. i don't think when i was in the government i was necessarily the afl-cio's favorite economist. those days are past. relative to the current political spectrum. next to him is john surma, the ceo of u.s. steel, and next to him is elisabeth jacobs, a fellow here at brookings and government studies. and as i already previewed has written a paper which is outside and has attracted a lot of attention. it's a very good paper on what's happened in germany and some of the differences wi

the united steelworkers union is telling refinery workers to prepare for a strike as early as 12:01 a.m. wednesday. most refine ers are expected to reject the shutdown offer and begin assigning temporary replacement workers to operate the refinery units. talks between the union and oil company representatives for a new three-year deal are said to be continuing. about 6% of refining capacity is expected to shut down if workers walk off their jobs and another 5% is expected to shut if it lasts up to three months and, to this day, i haven't seen gas -- it's $3.40 at $101 -- whatever oil has been and it's got to be -- it's different this time as the crack spreads. but it hasn't been -- >> it hasn't been a very cold winter. >> that's true. >> you haven't seen the demand. >> it is a game changer, though, for the economy and the election and everything else and it's strangely staying down. >> spring you'll see more. >> the situation in iran will get worse. >>> let's get to the markets. the stock markets. last week the dow turned in its first weekly decline in 2012. of course the blue chip inde

how have you been able to be competitive and survive and remain as a union operation and i know you and the steelworkersve had your fights along the way but at this point you have a pretty good relationship. can you tell us about how that has been accomplished? >> a lot of credit to my distinguished colleague of the last decade has changed the way that we have viewed things in the early part of the 2000 sector the company was really in a tailspin and heading over the edge. about 35, 40 companies. we began to talk about how we tad to change that to deliver the it together and letting fed be agreed on a number of things. we agreed that our employees work hard under potentially dangerous conditions and they should be rewarded on a competitive basis and they should do better when a company does better they should be safe and have a retirement that would allow them a dignified career and retirement and the company should be able to make money to invest so we agree on all those things and we can argue about the saturday premium should be. we can argue about that but i think the basic elements of save compensa

steelworkers and i am sure the znc will pick up some of the cost. >>eric: democrat strategist and fox news contributor says big labor and the dfc have every right to help this unionget his story out. chris, happy new year. why in the world is the dnc and steel workers union bring this guy to iowa to tell the story on the eve of the caucus? >>guest: well, listen, you cannot attack romney on his position. he changes his position more than an adjustable bed. >>eric: what is the point of attacking romney today? >>guest: listen, he is the most electable so break them down. this is politics. this is hard ball. we don't wait for the guy to be picked we troy to make our bad person, and put our best chances out there and the best person for us seems to be surging, rick san dorm is the biggest loser in the history of the united states senate having lost the re-election by the largest margin of any incumbent senator in the history of the united states senate, so, i would love do see him as the republican nominee. it would be go nominal for the democrats. >>eric: so the dgc and big labor endorse romney? >>guest: to they want anyone but romney for the nominee. the guy --. eve