the weather and coming out, and thanks especially to the co-sponsors who joined ips in this and the afl-cio for making in the room available. it's wonderful to see so many people here and so many old friends here. so thank you all very much. i will try to not talk for too long. i have my watch. i didn't have it one time when i was speaking at yale, and i'm delighted to see some of my students from yale here, and i ran over real badly, and i apologized for not having my watch and letting things get out of hand, and students said, that east okay, dean speth, there's a calendar on the wall behind you. [laughter] it's good to be here, also, on the first anniversary of occupy wall street, a momentous event. i want to tell you about the book, and i hope it'll interest you enough to -- i'll interest you enough to read it. let me begin with a personal note. i decided to get into this subject thinking about my grandchildren. we have five already and six coming soon, and i began to ask myself, you know, what's the america that we'd like to see for these children when they grow up? what is the america

the decline in power of the unions and now and the fact that public sector unions now dominate the afl-cio is a key reason for that. the other thing is kind of a dirty secret, which you may not agree with is that fundamentally barack obama's pretty conservative. he really is. he's an eisenhower conservative. he's not a liberal. i mean, he's -- and i think that's one of the problems with the democratic party is they're looking for leadership to a guy on an issue like why aren't we creating jobs? why isn't there more aggregate demand in the economy? and it's because their guy doesn't really want it. >> i agree 100%. i mean, obama has been -- i'm always shocked when people call obama a socialist, because he's in fact, i think you might be doing a disservice to eisenhower. and even, you know, nixon is to the left of obama on many, on most social issues. i mean, nixon proposed a negative income tax, which everybody forgets about. and the other point is that this is reflected broadly in the democratic party, at least in the sort of elite level of democratic party. i mean, you know, i've seen peo

the afl-cio says the average worker in right to work states earns $1,500 less than workers in states without those laws. >> these so-called right to work laws, they don't have to do with economics, they have everything to do with politics. what they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money. >> reporter: but supporters say the law encourages business. chris beckering owns a construction company and predicts the bill will allow his company to hire more workers. >> this will attract more businesses to michigan. those businesses will need space and we're here to build it for them. >> reporter: what's remarkable about what happened today is that it happened in michigan, the heart of union country. home of the united auto workers. now michigan will become the 24th right to work state. alex perez, abc news, lansing, michigan. >>> and we have another milestone tonight for american taxpayers. perhaps the most infamous bailout of the whole financial collapse was the rescue of corporate giant aig. taxpayers, you may remember, poured $182 billion into the company to

the afl-cio gave up on that. two years ago something remarkable happened. in major american union, the steelworkers union, signed an alliance agreement with montr o montregon corp. and announced they would now explore steelworkers in the united states, whether they might once again begin to think of a strategy in this country in which unions not only fought a defensive battle to help workers collectively bargain with their employers but also begin to organize, support, gather money for the development of an alternative enterprise. here are some thoughts for you to think about. imagine the union that was confronting an american employer who said you have to give me concessions, want to take back the pension, charge you $60 a month for parking your car in the lot over there and if you don't do these things i am leaving for china. imagine the union desperate and terrified of calling the bluff, in case it isn't a bluff, imagine a union that said to the employer not only is that an awful thing to do but we have news for you. if you do, we are going to take the wo

we're talking again with karla swift, the president of the afl-cio in michigan. web site, i believe is miaflcio.org. is that correct? >> yes, that's right. >> bill: miaflcio.org. this leader from wisconsin john nichols said one of the first things they did in wisconsin is they hired a good group of lawyers to challenge their legislation in the courts. is this another option? do you see some possible legal action to challenge the law? >> yeah, we have a legal team that has been looking at that and we'll be making decisions soon about how to move on that front as well. so we'll be moving on the legal front. we'll be moving on the electoral front. we'll be moving on the organizing front and the political front and that's our job for the next two years. >> bill: absolutely. i'll tell you one thing karla we all know this. it would not have happened if current tv's jennifer granholm were still the governor of michigan. no doubt about that, right? >> we absolutely know that. the direction this state has gone in the short two years since she's been out of office is just -

listen, the aarp, the national committee to preserve medicare, the afl-cio, the veterans organizations, the vast majority of the american people are saying you do not balance the budget on the elderly, people who are making 15, $16,000 a year, who are struggling to keep themselves alive should not be taking cuts when we have growing wealth and income inequality in america. yes, the wealthiest people and the large corporations who are doing phenomenally well are going to have to start paying their fair share of taxes. >> president obama's plan would bring in $1.2 trillion in revenue and extend unemployment benefits, which is pretty important. are these and other aspects of the president's counteroffer agreeable with you? certainly the unemployed are going to need some help. and we still have millions of people who are out of work in this country. what about that? there are some good things to this, but is it worth the gamble? >> obviously we want to do everything we can to protect the unemployed. but what we also have to understand, ed, and also what is not talked about enough is a resu

and if this guy, who was actually elected to represent 12 million members of the afl-cio today, no one will go live to him either. and so what did this man have to say today? this man who got all of this attention. this man who is the ceo of a $200 million business that plays with the dues money of 4 million people, most of whom disagree with this man on some of the issues he cares about most. >> now, we must speak. for the safety of our nation's children. no one, nobody has addressed the most important pressing and immediate question we face. how do we protect our children right now? starting today. in a way that we know works. >> and then he suggested something that you cannot do right now starting today. put a police officer in every school in america. that would require hiring at least 132,133 new police officers. now just based on the median salary for police officers in america, that would cost $6.7 billion a year. there is not a town or city or state in america that has extra money lying around today to hire extra police officers. if $6.7 billion had to be raised from new taxes,

. >> more broadly, politico is reporting today the afl cio is trying to down gubernatorials, what do u see? >> they've been on assault now in several states, we're talking about michigan today, but similar fights in indiana, ohio, wisconsin, and the common theme is they are losing. they want to fight back, largely in a lot of these states in the off-year elections, particularly in gubernatorial races, scott walker in z wisconsin, john casic in ohio, labor still has a lot of money, one of the better-organized constituencies in the country. they want to put that to use to show there's still a force in politics, they want to make sure they can push back what they see as a hostile anti-union tide that's sweeping across the midwest and hitting other countries that really is a lethal, if not mortal, threat to the union movement. so they still do have the resources we talked about. they still have a lot of money, still have a national network. i think they want to deploy that as much as they can in the next couple of elections. >> they've got real resources and a real history and tradition i

the afl-cio has made it clear that they're targeting these races. is this the way the unions now see to protect themselves, to elect democratic governors? >> absolutely. they turn out more than the average voter. union members are only one in eight workers is a union member. one in five voters on november 6 was a union voter. so they voted at a much higher percentage than the average one of us. and they are going to push that number up. this is going to energize them. i think there's a bear getting baited here. >> even before this legislation was signed yesterday, i was getting union sources writing to me saying we're getting ready to fight this. this is just another step in this struggle. david, great to have you here. erin, thanks so much. >> thank you. >>> nations across the globe are now expressing anger and condemnation over the north korean rocket launch. take a look at this video from inside north korea's command center. the white house says the launch is quote, a highly provocative act that threatens regional security. even china, the north's

they're affiliated with the afl-cio, stalwart allies of the obama administration.ould they really hurt the economy this way? because, a similar strike for 10 days along the west coast ten years ago cost a billion dollars a day in lost revenue to the u.s. economy. so would the unions that helped reelect president obama actually be willing to hurt the economy and hurt the obama economy at a time when you've got a big backlash against unions? worry on the part of the public about pension costs for government employees. michigan passing a right to work law so you don't have to join a union in one of the most unionized states anywhere and demise of twinkies when a bakers union refused to accept any concessions at all on retirement costs. it is always money at heart of the these disputes and unions seem to be getting harder and harder edged about this. let's remember unions represent less than 7% of the private workforce in this nation. they represent 40% of the government workers. here we've got a private union strike that could happen starting this coming sunday t coul

joined mcel fee, and she's worked with the afl cio among others. argest union, the national education association. the question i want to begin with is -- why now? why is this happening now? >> oh, i know. >> please. >> this is a lot of political payback. there's a three-prong approach that the coke brothers and their illi it were are taking. it's all about winning something for them so up to say, corporations are people, meaning money is people. you have to vote suppress. when moms and grandmas and college students and minorities show up, the brothers lose. why did we see six-hour waiting lines? they understand that. the third thing, labor unions. where was the ground game for this? where are the people that got people to the polls and did the phone calls? more than that, labor folks are your neighbors. one in every 100 americans is a member of the national education association. we live in neighborhoods that -- >> if you live in a big enough apartment building. >> you'll know somebody that's a teacher and works in a public school. >> right. >> so

if you look behind me the afl-cio with a silent protests. you see tape across their mouth. $1500 less that's what they believe on average workers will make here in michigan now that it has become a right-to-work state. this is sharp contrast what we saw yesterday, hundreds and hundreds of angry demonstrators on the capitol ground and capitol building itself. the democrats say this does in the mean the fight is over. a spokesman for the democratic party says all options are on the table. the trend we've seen, democrats offering to fight but not offering think specifics. we saw the same thing from bob king from the united auto workers yesterday, giving same lack of specifics. only broad concepts they're looking to challenge right to work laws in court. they will go after the speed which the laws moved through the legislature. democrats and union political machines will go after republicans in elections in 2014. they are looking to change the majority that the gop holds in both the senate and the house here in michigan. and they're looking to p

but all of labor, all of the unions within the afl-cio and the unions are meeting on a regular basis.ies plans and strategizing. and identifying where we need to put resources so we are on the same page. we are going to have a coordinated plan for 2013. just as important is we are working with those community organizations and those coalition partners so everyone is on the same page and we are dealing with the same book. >> bill: i remember when maybe you and i had this conversation when it was just wisconsin and just scott walker, you know somebody said, it might have been rich trumka who said scott walker turned out to be the most effective labor organizers in the country because he brought everybody together in a common fight. if you look at how something like this could happen, have those of us in the labor movement failed to really educate people on how important unions are and what unions do for working families? >> i think that we can definitely improve upon that. i mean we need to educate the public about the importance of unions. if it wasn't for unions we wouldn't have a mid

same front-page stories documenting the "over my dead body" resistance of richard trunka, head of the afl-cio, and the aarp toward entitlement spending structural reform, which everybody knows we've got to do if we're going to keep medicare going. i don't think anybody in this body doesn't know that within ten years it will be broke unless we make the appropriate structural reforms now. the president continues to call for a balanced approach to deficit reduction, but in practice he's offering up all tax increases and no spending discipline. he has offered up nothing meaningful on entitlement reform. the proposal put forward last week by secretary geithner was embarrassing. i happen to like secretary geithner. i stood up for him under some trying circumstances on the finance committee before he was approved by the senate. and i did it because i believe he's a hard worker. i believe he's an intelligent man. and i personally like him. but my gosh, if i was the treasury secretary and the president gave me that plan to go up and show it to the leader of the house, the speaker of the house, i would

amanda, my understanding is from talking to steve cook and also reading the afl-cio post on this morninggh the legislature on friday. no public hearings. no debate on the floor. no public input as to -- which would get at a hearing. for or against it. and that the public wasn't even allowed inside of the building, the state capitol while they were debating it -- or passing it. so this is really -- like a coup d'etat, right? >> there were some -- ten republicans in the state legislature who voted against it. >> bill: that's a good point. it wasn't just the democrats who opposed it. >> i talked to a couple of them. one of them, for example said look, i actually haven't made up my mind on right to work. why i voted against it was they should not have pushed it through this way. he's like i didn't have time to read the bill. i wanted to hear from my constituents on this issue. i didn't get a chance to do it. so i couldn't, in good conscience, vote for it. so that issue was a major issue for many of the republicans who voted for it with also some of them saying right to work is wrong for mich

the afl-cio has been very sig russ in -- vigorous in protecting working families and saying do not cut social security, do not cut medicare, do not cut medicaid. so here we are, mr. president. the american people want the wealthy to pay more in taxes and not cut social security and medicare and medicaid. organizations representing tens of millions of people are saying ask the wealthy to pay nor in taxes, do not cut social security and medicare and medicaid and what are we talking about here? we're talking about cutting social security, medicare and medicaid and asking the wealthy to pay more but nowhere near as much as they should be asked to pay. and we wonder, we wonder why congress has a 9% favor ability ability -- favorability rate. mr. president, i will tell you my phones today -- and ayotte i don't think this is an organized effort. my phones, you might want to check your office but my office phones are bouncing off the hook. from people in vermont and all over this country saying do not cut social security. so i would say to the american people, right now a deal is being hatched

the $3 level. how about that? afl-cio trumka, remember, he visited president obama in the white house after his reelection. at that time, he said, america should tax the rich, promise spending cuts way down the road and ignore the national debt. that was a trumka plan and that's exactly the kind of deal that's shaping up in washington right now on the fiscal cliff. joining us, kirsten powers, this is upon, i say this is a lousy deal. may be good politics, but for the economy it's bad news. so, kirsten, moderate democrat, i know what you are. should we take this lousy deal or should we just go over the cliff? what do you say? >> well, i think going over the cliff would be very bad because it would send a message that, i mean, the truth, honestly, that we have a completely dysfunctional system and the markets would probably not react well and we may see a credit downgrade and so that's not an ideal situation. and that said, i agree with you, it's a lousy deal. and the idea that they're just going to sort of kick the can dow

. >> it's sort of interesting, michigan, the united auto workers, the teamsters, lots of unions and afl-ciobers. this is sort of interesting to watch this happen in your state. i'm curious, what do you hope to achieve economically by this legislation, this right to work legislation? >> well, it should have very positive economic consequences. step back and look at it. the history of unions have been strong in michigan and they did a lot of good things in terms of working conditions and work issues and people wanted to join unions. but today shouldn't we give workers the choice and give them the opportunity do they want to belong to a union or not? i don't view it as anti-union. they are more proactive to presenting it to workers and say they should want to join it be part of it. this is first and foremost about worker choice. and second thing it is about economic development. we've watched what has gone on in indiana since they passed similar legislation and they have seen a significant increase in the numbers of companies talking about thousands of jobs to their state. first about workers

the cold truth! >>> stung about michigan's decision to ramp through a controversial right to work law, unions are preparing to fight back. how? revenge. in two years. michigan afl-cio president carla swift told the detroit free press, "the sleeping tiger is awake now. we have 2014 as a goal to shift out and win justice." in other words, they're gearing up for a major battle to oust michigan's republican governor rick snyder in 2014 as well as conservative politicians who swept into statehouses across the country in 2010. according to politico, unions already have the infrastructure in place to wage battles outside michigan in states like pennsylvania and wisconsin where they unsuccessfully fought earlier this year to recall prn governor scott walker. joining us now from washington is a look at labor strategy going forward is the president of the service employees international union, sciu, mary kay henry. mary kay henry, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> so give us an insight into this strategy. obviously the union movement going directly after ohio and wisconsin and now in michigan, so give us a strategy in 2014. what does sciu and sister union, what do y

kent sager, poth of this -- president of the iowa federation of labor, afl-cio wrote congressman boswell was a representative who would take the time to listen to iowans. he paid special care and attention to all veterans. he was a friend of working people. when home visiting, he would make an effort to meet with the labor leaders in the state. he spent his time listening to their concerns and would give honest answers on his positions. not always to the liking of the union. but always honest and upfront. john murphy, director of government affairs and policy works sums up the assurances we all have that leonard will continue to serve his state and nation. i'd like to thank congressman boswell not only for his support of me personally but also for his service to our country. as a soldier and statesman, there are few people who have given more of themselves to our nation. i wish him and dodi well as they move forward in their next adventure in life. i would ask them to take some time and get some rest. but i know that won't happen. that's not the boswell way. mr. speaker, at this point i'

host: jacqueline simon, public policy director of the american federation of publicly employees -- afl-cio, representing federal employees in the district of columbia. thank you. coming up next, the electorial knowledge me to later on today in just a few hours to ratify last month's presidential election. coming up, we will talk to professor james thurber on how it works and proposals to change it in the future. later on, our weekly "your money" segment looks at homeland security grants for states and how the money is being spent. but first, this news update from c-span radio. >> is spokesman for senator daniel in no way -- onouye says that ohio democrat the stable of new timetable for his release from walter reed. the spokesperson says the senator is fighting respiratory complications but is in stable condition and communicating with doctors and family. the 88-year old is the countries longest serving senator, now completing his 15th year in the chamber. turning to international news, gilled ellgood writing for reuters says each of the opposition is calling for nationwide protests against

the mid-1980's. that evolved into pride at work, an lgbt labor associated affiliated with afl-cio and howard served as vice president until before his death. howard is preceded in death by his parents and his older brother john of denver. he is survived by his sister barbara, nieces linda, gwen, the social movements that he led and those that continue to howard was that unique individual that remained true to his beliefs throughout his life. and i think that those of us who know him can fairly say that he certainly made the world ah nj better place, and the world was extremely lucky that he was a part of it. and for those of us who had the opportunity to have him in our lives, we are eternally grateful. there will be(n% ]$÷ a memorian january 6 at iowu local 34 next to the giants ballpark from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. and we will have figures like dolores huerta and others who will be there to honor howard's life. its is with great sadness we announce his passing and respectfully ask that we adjourn today's meeting in howard wallace's memory. thank you, howard. may you rest in peace. >> clerk calvillo: than