we ask richard trumka of the afl-cio. ance of power" on bloomberg television and radio. ♪ david: this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television and radio. i'm david westin. a key part of the democratic strategy for this election was rebuilding the so-called blue wall across the rust belt. it appears to have accomplished that task with wisconsin and michigan going for joe biden, and pennsylvania headed -- apparently headed in that direction. we welcome someone who was committed to have the midwest workers turn out and vote joe biden. is the president of the afl-cio, representing 12 million workers. too simplistic to say that you got the blue wall backup? richard: member support for biden grew over all, and in specific states, and savino, wisconsin, michigan, arizona, nevada. in the battleground states, union members made the difference. support data was about the same, but the support for biden grew in the election, and the numbers grew as well. david: do you have a read from your members why they came out to vote, what

rights in the same way as maa, mea appointed out to me earlier the seiu is affiliate would with the afl-cio, for whatever that is worth. my hope is that the we send this forward without recommendation as suggested by chair mar, there may be other relatively modest but important concessions that we may be able to get in the intervening period. i would conquer with that sentiment and want to add my voice to thanking members of the public and our various city staff for their attendance and presentations. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor haney? >> i said a lot of -- i thought about this and asked questions earlier. i want to thank everybody who called in and the staff here. i hope we have all held how strong the demands are for change for the systematic sweeping changes to policing in the city. i think we are in a position with this m.o.u. that frankly is very frustrating. we have the choice to vote it up or down. voting it down means the police get raises immediately and we have been told as we have heard from some of the folks who called in this could mean layoffs of other city wor

and president of the afl-cio. as really encouraging frankly to get people, business and labor together agreeing on the way forward. which i'm coinced the american people will -- are ready to do when the cure we havin mind. i am very pleased that we all came together around the same table to advance areas of common ground and we agree we will continue these conversations. they reprent very different perspectives but i'm convinced we can all come tog around the same table to advance areas of common ground which are really, i wish i you could've heard the conversation. it was really encouraging. and that is what we are ready to discuss today. we all agree that wwant to get the economy back on track. we need ourorkers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control. we are going in a very dark winter. things are going to get much tougher before they get easier. that requires sparing no effort to fight covid so we can open our businesses safely, resume our lives and put this pandemic behind us. it is going to b

the president of the afl-cio. it was really encouraging, quite frankly to get people, business and labor together, agreing on the way forward which i'm convinced the american people will be willing to do when they hear what we have in mind. i'm pleased it all came together around the same table to advance areas of common ground and we agreed we're going to continue these conversations. they represent very different perspectives but i'm convince wed can all come together around the same table to advance areas of common ground, which are really, i wish you could have all heard the conversation. it was really encouraging. that's what we are ready to discuss today. we all agree we want to get the economy back on track. we need our workers to be back on the job. by getting the virus under control. we're going in a very dark winter, thins are going to get much tougher before they get easier. that requires spare nothing effort to fight covid so we can open our businesses safely, resume our lives an put this pandemic behin

the afl-cio wants the boston mayor. the uaw president wants congressmen and 11. progressives want senator bernie sanders. >> i sometimes find it amusing when our opponents talk about the far left agenda. it's a common sense idea that the majority of the american people support. >> progressives are being blamed for fragile rings in the house, throwing a wrench into the biden administration's hiring with moderate democrats saying defund the police costs the party. sanders explained. >> nobody i know who's running for office talked about defunding the police. what we talk about is making police officers accountable. >> congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez also spent 6 minutes explaining the defund the police movement in a virtual town hall this weekend but her twitter reply to senator joe manchin speaking out against it said just as much without words. >president-elect joe biden will meet with intelligence, defense, and diplomatic experts tomorrow. government officials will not be present. they are having to bring in experts because biden's delayed ascertainment h

. >> president biden says he's a supporter for unions, its welcome news to groups like the afl-cio who the election, its members are hungry for a bigger voice in our economy and politics. the biden promises to strengthen public and private sector unions even if union membership has decreased. to the labor department reports 14.6 million workers, roughly 10% of earners, were union members, that's down from 20% of the workforce in the early 1980s. >> joe biden is a tool for organized labor. >> freedom foundation, a group that encourages public and private sector employees not to join unions, he argues increasing union membership now may kill small businesses struggling to survive. >> what unionization would do to these business, it would make them pay for things they can't afford, they can't afford to hire more employees, they can't afford to increase employee's wages right now, they are struggling just to stay open. >> biden's campaigns as empowering unions levels the playing field for workers, under his plan the government would rage minimum wage to $15 per hour, hold executives accoun

leaders and president-elect joe biden's meeting pushing for different candidates for secretary, the afl-cio once marty watch, others want andy leven and others want senator bernie sanders. >> i find it amusing when our opponents talk about the far left agenda. these are common sense ideas the majority of the american people support. >> reporter: progressives are being blamed for fragile ranks in the house, throwing a wrench into the biden administration's hiring, moderate democrats and even the police, sanders explained. >> nobody i know who is running for office talks about the funding the police. what we talk about is making police officers accountable. >> reporter: alexandria ocasio cortez spent six minutes explaining the defund the police movement in a virtual townhall this weekend but her twitter reply to senator joe manchin speaking out against it said as much without words. president-elect joe biden will meet with intelligence, the content of medicare for 10 tomorrow's national security briefing but government officials will not be present. they are bringing in experts because biden'

the head of the afl-cio was there the head of the uaw was there he talked about the fact that the taxesaise will be on corporations and the most wealthy in society. and he is talking about creating a lot of jobs and he says i'm a union man. a lot of these will be union jobs that have been lost over the last several decades. the unionized portion of our workforce has dropped dramatically. he has got some stiff head winds, neil. it takes on average 46 months after a recession to repair the job that had been lost during the recession. 46 months. in the 2007 through 2009 recession, john has written on this wsj.com our economics reporter. in that recession it took fully six years and of the private sector economists at the "wall street journal" has surveyed they don't expect to see jobs return -- this is assuming kind of success with vaccines jobs that have been lost in this current setback they don't see those returning until the end of 20023 or perhaps even later. so something on the order of 22 million jobs were lost. we have repaired that by regaining about 12 million jobs. there's a lon

richard trumpka president of the afl-cio. really encouraging quite frankly to get business and labor together, green on the way forward. which i'm convinced people are willing to devote when they hear what we have in mind. i'm very pleased it all came together around the same table, to advance areas of common ground and we agree we will continue these conversations. they represent very different perspective but i'm convinced that we can all come together around the same table to advance areas of common ground which are really -- i wish you could have heard the conversation, it was really encouraging. and that's what we are ready to discuss today. we all agree we want to get the economy back on track and we need our workers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control. we are going in to a very dark winter and things will get much tougher before they get easier. we can open our businesses safely. we can resume our lives and put this pandemic behind us, it will be difficult but it can be done. they all agree, that m

brian cornell, the ceo of gap but also top union leaders were there including the president of the afl-ciohard trumka, and also the president of the sciu, mary call henry. it is notable on the guest list there were five labor leaders but only four ceos. charles? charles: yeah, well get used to it i guess, hillary. thank you very much, joining me now on what a biden economy would mean for your wallet, bianco research, jim bianco. cancellation of student debt long an item on the progressive agenda. when they talk about this elizabeth warren, wishing into the cornfield, someone has to pay the money no? >> someone has to pay the money, worse yet what is the problem? the problem is college education is too expensive. you're not giving colleges any incentive to compete on price. if you will let them charge 60, $70,000 a year and then can sell the debt, they will charge 80 or $90,000 a year after that. the cycle will keep going and going forever. you will just have massive oneaway education inflation that doesn't fix the problem that you're trying to get at. charles: so i want to switch gears a l

president of sciu, mark perone, lee saunders, and sonya single, president of gap, the president of the afl-cio really encouraging, quite frankly too, get people, business and labor, together agreeing on the way forward. which i'm convinced the american people will rally to do when they hear what we have in mind. i'm very pleased it all came together around the same table to advance areas of common ground, and we agreed we're going to continue these conversations. they represent very different perspectives, but i'm convinced we can all come together around the same table to advance areas of common ground, which are really -- i wish you could have all heard the conversation. it was really encouraging. and that's what we were ready to discuss today. we all agreed that we want to get the economy back on track. we need our workers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control. we're going in a very dark winter. things are going to get much tougher before they get easier. and that requires sparing no effort to fight covid so we can open our businesses safely, resume our lives and put this

where do america's workers stand on this election joining us now the afl-cio president. lot of union leaders endorsed joe biden what about the union members themselves president trump appealed to the workers last time around with goals of going up against china and bringing back american manufacturing. >> well, our members have known joe biden for a lot of years i have known him personally for 40 years plus. joe has always been a friend of the working people our members are overwhelmingly supporting joe biden in this election we are making our voices heard in this election and we are voting for change and we are voting for a better tomorrow joe biden is going to be elected president of the united states when all the votes are counted >> what policies do you care about the most we have had you on in recent weeks to talk a lot about coronavirus and worker protections, osha. do you actually expect a lot of that stuff to change if biden does win >> it will change immediately. president trump has made osha into a cadaver it has fewer inspectors than it has ever had it does not

number of employee -- labor organizations representing city employees that are not affiliated with the afl-cio either nationally, the state or locally. nevertheless, we have the exact same obligation under law to meet and confer with those organizations. >> supervisor haney: chief, i wonder if you can answer this question as well. obviously the police commission sets policy for the police department. you know, we are all concerned and the board of supervisors is concerned about the pace of changes that need to be made, particularly under the recommendations from the d.o.j. and what's your view of the way in which the contract obligati obligations, either prevents that or slows that? and whether there's more that we can do to have a contract that allows to us make the changes that need to be made. >> thank you, supervisor haney, for that question. we worked out a significant amount of hurdles that we identified previously that were causing the slow pace that we were on in the first year, year and a half, two years of this engagement. miss preston is on the line, our labor relations director. bu

florida -- i was disagreeing pretty wildly with the gore lawyers and m employers, which was the national afl-cio saying it was one thing for the democratic party to behave in a way that trusd counti and lal process, but if you are a union organizer -- which i am -- and i have experienced one election after anher where the employer cheats and voter suppression is rampant and massive in a way that it is now in the united states in this presidential election, we understand narrative creation matters. we understand that legal cases are not madin a vacuum, which allan nairn was also signed. i want to really emphasize this. you, forant to ask those many of our listeners and viewers who were youngsters probably back in 2000, people don't understand even back then, there was a mobilization by the supporters of president bush in the streets outside a lot of these counting places and quite a bit of intimidation that occurred. could you talk about what was happening on the ground when you were there? >> it was absolutely intense and violent. i think you're right that the reason i have been writing and talk

number of employee -- labor organizations representing city employees that are not affiliated with the afl-cio either nationally, the state or locally. nevertheless, we have the exact same obligation under law to meet and confer with those organizations. >> supervisor haney: chief, i wonder if you can answer this question as well. obviously the police commission sets policy for the police department. you know, we are all concerned and the board of supervisors is concerned about the pace of changes that need to be made, particularly under the recommendations from the d.o.j. and what's your view of the way in which the contract obligati obligations, either prevents that or slows that? and whether there's more that we can do to have a contract that allows to us make the changes that need to be made. >> thank you, supervisor haney, for that question. we worked out a significant amount of hurdles that we identified previously that were causing the slow pace that we were on in the first year, year and a half, two years of this engagement. miss preston is on the line, our labor relations director. bu

rights in the same way as maa, mea appointed out to me earlier the seiu is affiliate would with the afl-cio, for whatever that is worth. my hope is that the we send this forward without recommendation as suggested by chair mar, there may be other relatively modest but important concessions that we may be able to get in the intervening period. i would conquer with that sentiment and want to add my voice to thanking members of the public and our various city staff for their attendance and presentations. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor haney? >> i said a lot of -- i thought about this and asked questions earlier. i want to thank everybody who called in and the staff here. i hope we have all held how strong the demands are for change for the systematic sweeping changes to policing in the city. i think we are in a position with this m.o.u. that frankly is very frustrating. we have the choice to vote it up or down. voting it down means the police get raises immediately and we have been told as we have heard from some of the folks who called in this could mean layoffs of other city wor

the of it which is run by afl-cio, it is more protectionist than average, so this will be an issue. can i ask you what the biden administration will do to reach out to europe and settled the dispute between airbus and boeing? airbus-boeing dispute has been going on for the last 20 years, when the u.s. stepped out of the understanding which existed at that, according to which they recognized that they have to subsidize. the question is, are boeing and to better this? between airbus and boeing in agreement that they both subsidize in different ways but in porch portion -- but winning -- but in proportion with both? that is the main question. if that is the case, it has to go to the political level, and i think if boeing and others think it is a good thing to do, which i would advise them to do, stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees, with -- with both sides of the atlantic, then the question is, will they agree? i think with trump answer was no way. with biden, there's a good chance that the answer is yes. francine: is the timing of it? is it a miscalculation on th

the economy. >> reporter: exactly right met with leaders of general motors, microsoft also uaw, afl-cio. union leaders and ceos the vice president and now president-elect stressing positives there saying they're all coming together with a unity agenda for building the economy back the vice president also saying, though, that he told the ceos he is a union man and that unions will have more power under his administration. >> eamon javers, thanks. >>> as president trump refuses to concede and continues to say or at least tweet that he won the election, his own national security adviser said the obvious. it looks like biden won. >> if there is a new administration they deserve time to come in and implement their policy we may have policy disagreements, but, look, if the biden-harris ticket is determined to be a winner and obviously things look that way now, we'll have a very professional transition from the national security council. no question about it. >> the national security adviser robert o'brien went ton say america passed the baton and peaceful transitions even in the most contentiou

reporter: some of the leaders on the call monday with biden and harris, general motors, mary barra, microsoft satya nadella, target brian cornell and afl-ciosident richard trumka and leaders of the united auto workers and service employees international union. union membership has been on the steady decline for years, from 20.1% in 1983, to 10.3% of workers in 2019. if you break it down from the private sector, decline of 16.8 during the same time period to 6.2% last year. in public sector unions are more represented, 36.7% then. now standing at 33.6%. union workers on average make a little over $1000 a week. non-union workers make $892 a week on average. that is a national average. additionally unemployment is higher in states with heavy union membership, hawaii, new york, washington, rhode island, arkansas. biden, charles, committed to passing protecting right to organize act which would amend decades old labor laws, expanding worker collect bargaining rights and sanctions against companies that retaliate against employees for forming unions. charles, back to you. charles: thank you very much. with me now, we've been through this before.

it has been almost officially poo-pooed by the biden camp but no doubt that will come up. also part of this event, head of afl-cio.n. workers, mary barra of gm. satya nadella of microsoft and a who's who on the business and union front. we'll keep you posted on that. much optimism about how they might be short-lived, especially if vaccines get in people's hands sooner rather than later. moderna is the latest to say we got one, maybe out there in weeks. more after this. ♪ ok, just keep coloring there... and sweetie can you just be... gentle with the pens. okey. okey. i know. gentle..gentle new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database so you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. adapting. innovating. lsetting the course. but new ways of working demand a new type of network. one that's more than just fast. you need flexibility- to work from anywhere. and manage from everywhere. advanced tec