hoffa general president of the international brotherhood of teamsters mr have great to have you with us good to be here first of all that question ohio it looks like a since you were there i would argue all day we had forty thousand people was excited a lot of great speeches and a lot of people are fired up about you know the heaven their jobs taken away and demonstrating that they want to fight back and they're mad as hell about what's going on public employees losing their right to negotiate right to collective bargaining that was the issue and it was a tremendous demonstration the same thing i was also in madison wisconsin the same thing we had a tremendous demonstration there and last saturday there were over one hundred thousand people showed up in madison so we're speaking out and the people are speaking out but we've had such a overwhelming republican majority in the house and senate in these various areas it's hard to fight it back so what we've got to do is to demonstrate get this word out create a buzz to talk about what's about fairness in america that's what we got to tal

teamsters were right at 20%. i guess the cement masons are a big chunk of the work, and that is where the biggest challenge will be. overall, in 2010, we were about 23% for paving and sewer projects. supervisor avalos: with machinery, who does that work? >> the operating engineers have a good chunk of that. they were at 38.5% in 2010 on fading and sewer projects. livers were at 20%. not much electrician work, but they were at 64%. within the paving well, it is cement masons -- within the paving realm. they have challenges, and kind of moving from challenges to strategies and solutions, i think that data is a big part of where the opportunity lies, as information with the contract in committee, with the work force advocates, with labor, so that folks know where their shortcomings are and where we are all going to need to focus -- being able to share this information with the contract in community -- contract aning community. again, there are some trades that are not at the 20% level, so having the data -- i want t

supervising nurses represented by teamsters local 856, 124 employees. moving to the safety unions, approximately 1700 firefighters, approximately 2500 police officers, and about 950 either deputy sheriffs or employers of the -- employees of the sheriff's union or management union for the sheriff's. then we have a reference to the miscellaneous safety groups. these are groups largely represented -- whose retirement is kept under calpers. the probation officers, the district attorney investigators, the juvenile probation officers, some of the institutional police officers. last year, we ended up reaching a historic agreement with almost all the city's labor unions. there was an effort led by a san francisco labour council which brought in 30 unions into a concession agreement in which employees gave back a total of $235 million over a two-year timeframe. the members of this labour council group or of the so- called public employee committee is compromised -- comprised of by the unions listed on page 4 and represented a complete cross section of labour in

unions have always had is that oftentimes they're very competitive with each other but here we're teamsters here was president the. machinist's aerospace sitting next to the former retired secretary treasurer of assamese so basically a private sector representation and in the farmers there were well over fifty tractors and they've got involved because the cuts now to people who would be basically republicans or in the middle are now filling these cuts there's another factor that is going to take place and watch this and that is that it is a tradition that once of budget is. agreed upon or before it's really passed there are hearings that take place in different parts of the state i talked with a delegate turner out a very sane and says he doubts now that the majority leader of the senate in wisconsin will have these hearings because if they go to the farmlands of west france and they're going to get an earful if they go to the urban centers. milwaukee they're going to get an earful and he says traditionally they've always done it he doubts if it will take place finally i will say this boils

. >>> let's talk about the union right here we are seeing the pictures, teamsters, service employeeswe are talking about some of the biggest donors and foot soldiers for the democratic party is that what we are talking about? to lessen their power as effective bargaining units take away enthusiasm they have with workers? they are very big money makers or contributors to democratic policy. >> sure let's compare california for example to wisconsin. in wisconsin what is going on you have the governor who cut out of his budget deal police and fire. which is kind of ludicrous if you are looking at this from a fiscal perspective why would you take out certain units they aresupportive of the republican party in wisconsin n. california, they are not talking about cutting out certain unions in fact unions have been at the bargaining table part of the thing i think governor brown has done in addition the try and negotiate this deal on the budget is bring public employees into the discussion. >>> one thing the governor was talking about the power these unions have whether teachers, police and f

when i was a teamster truck driver, i was making good wages d benefits. i did not care what the teachers and the cops or the school bus drivers were getting because i was getting those good wages and benefits and all boa were rising. since the 1980's, all boats have not been rising. the public sector and the private sector has been separated. the problem to me is not that we should drop the teacher wages and benefitsf the public sector, which is a race to the bottom, if but we should be trying to be -- bring back the wages and benefits of the private sector so that all boats will rise again. guest: an interesting point. i think that what we have seen is that private-sector unions have declined in power, a decline in membership, if you are in private sector who are unionized to put that pressure on the private companies to increase union benefits. perhaps all of the growth in union membership has been on the public sector. perhaps that is some of what i going on here. i do not know enough about the details to say this for certain, but i think that it is a

when i was a teamster truck driver, i was making good wages and benefits. i did not care what the teachers and the cops or the school bus drivers were getting because i was getting those good wages and benefits and all boats were rising. since the 1980's, all boats have not been rising. the public sector and the private sector has been the problem to me is not that we should drop the teacher wages and benefits of the public sector, which is a race to the bottom, if but we should be trying to be -- bring back the wages and benefits of the private sector so that all boats will rise again. guest: an interesting point. i think that what we have seen is that private-sector unions have declined in power, a decline in membership, if you are in private sector who are unionized to put that pressure on the private companies to increase union benefits. perhaps all of the growth in union membership has been on the public sector. perhaps that is some of what is going on here. i do not know enough about the details to say this for certain, but i think that it is a lot ea