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The Rick Smith Show 9-23-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_06]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:14
[SPEAKER_06]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:18
[SPEAKER_06]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:20
[SPEAKER_06]: That's so much for being here.
0:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Today on the big program, I must get too lots to talk about.
0:27
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, our dear leader, going after Labor Day, you know, those radicals, those leftists, those union people, those people want to destroy America or his America.
0:42
[SPEAKER_06]: And look, you know, Labor has never been more popular than it is right now, and we see the approval ratings, public approval ratings right now for organized labor sits somewhere
0:56
[SPEAKER_06]: The sad reality is the actual Union memberships around 10% of the country, 6% in the private sector.
1:04
[SPEAKER_06]: And there's a reason for that.
1:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Now the right would tell you that, you know, if people just don't want to join unions, like Jeff Bezos is Washington Post, who's headline-screened Americans approve of unions, they just don't want to join them.
1:19
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's the popular refrain on the anti-union side of things.
1:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, but people just don't want them.
1:26
[SPEAKER_06]: They love, man, they're okay.
1:29
[SPEAKER_06]: But we're better than that.
1:30
[SPEAKER_06]: And I love that's my argument.
1:31
[SPEAKER_06]: It's the argument I love the most.
1:33
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, we don't need him anymore.
1:34
[SPEAKER_06]: That was something for the past.
1:35
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, when inequality was bad, when workplaces were unsafe, you know, when workers were disposable, you know, back then,
1:46
[SPEAKER_06]: And you sit and you stop and you think about where we are in this moment.
1:49
[SPEAKER_06]: It's not shocking that workers are looking for something in the labor movement is that place.
1:56
[SPEAKER_06]: And understand that the labor perspective, from my perspective, the fact that we only have about 10% of union density in this country is not an accident.
2:10
[SPEAKER_06]: This was a concerted effort by corporate America, and by policymakers to not address the abuses that they have, that our corporate law overlords have, have heaped upon us.
2:21
[SPEAKER_06]: It's not that people are rejecting unions.
2:24
[SPEAKER_06]: It's structural obstruction standing between desire and reality.
2:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And as someone who's done a little bit, not an awful lot of organizing, I've worked on campaigns over the years.
2:40
[SPEAKER_06]: haven't talked to and you know, better round organizers who that's their existence, there are some common threads in all of this and one of the big ones is the fear that corporate America has put into working peoples into their heart and their soul, the fear of retaliation, the fear of you're going to get fired because understand, you know, in in this country, it's not really a crime to fire people.
3:07
[SPEAKER_06]: In fact, you know, we got a president who his tagline was, you're fired, no, no, no, no, just cause no due process.
3:16
[SPEAKER_06]: None of that, just you're fired.
3:17
[SPEAKER_06]: And that says a lot about us.
3:20
[SPEAKER_06]: That says a lot about us as a working class that we're willing to have a guy be our leader who takes great glee and joy at firing people.
3:31
[SPEAKER_06]: And understand employers are charged with violating federal labor law in over 40% of all union election campaigns, yeah, and in fear of retaliation even where it's illegal, two thirds of U.S. professionals believe their employer would interfere if they tried to organize.
3:57
[SPEAKER_06]: So just in our minds, we're already, hey, we're going to get fired.
4:02
[SPEAKER_06]: They're going to retaliate against us.
4:04
[SPEAKER_06]: And understand, they're very, very little penalties.
4:07
[SPEAKER_06]: We don't lock anybody up.
4:09
[SPEAKER_06]: And the back pay game is ridiculous, because understand, if you got fired and then got another job making, let's say the same amount of money, there's no loss.
4:19
[SPEAKER_06]: So the employer doesn't have to pay anything.
4:22
[SPEAKER_06]: And also, you know, firing you to send a chilling effect across the bargaining unit saves them tons of money because what we know is unions demand higher wages better health care better retirement security job security you good on the list.
4:41
[SPEAKER_06]: And they got this way because well, they're able to to abuse their employees.
4:47
[SPEAKER_06]: These captive audience meetings this mandatory company run anti propaganda meeting.
4:53
[SPEAKER_06]: designed entirely to coerce, surveil, harass and intimidate workers who may even be thinking about it.
5:02
[SPEAKER_06]: And then you could on the list of the legal things we do.
5:05
[SPEAKER_06]: I was just reading a minute ago that Trump has stacked the NLRBs administrative law judges with five more anti-worker folks.
5:15
[SPEAKER_06]: uh... you've got right to work laws in this country that have blood union resources and all by the way bend the pendulum that's swung onto the side of corporate america and i come back to this moment of we all know what the problems are inequality has never been greater
5:40
[SPEAKER_06]: It's getting harder and harder to put food on the table.
5:43
[SPEAKER_06]: So yeah, when asked, would you join a union?
5:45
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I'd really like to have one of those union jobs.
5:47
[SPEAKER_06]: I have yet to meet a person face to face.
5:50
[SPEAKER_06]: I get a lot of online trolls who I think are bots because understand we just passed a pretty interesting milestone that more than half of online traffic and this blew my mind.
6:03
[SPEAKER_06]: More than half of online traffic is non-human.
6:09
[SPEAKER_06]: Think about that.
6:10
[SPEAKER_06]: So when you're reading through those comments, more than half of them are basically troll bots set out to well deliver the message, which is unions are bad.
6:23
[SPEAKER_06]: We don't need them anymore, we're so much kinder and nicer and better.
6:30
[SPEAKER_06]: And the thing is, is,
6:32
[SPEAKER_06]: you get these big complexes, these industrial parks, where they wall organizers off, it's hard for unions to get in and talk to those people.
6:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Employers have access to them 24-7, whenever they want.
6:46
[SPEAKER_06]: And you would think that nobody would ever join a union when companies know that the reason most people demand some type of representation,
6:59
[SPEAKER_06]: is because of respect, because of treatment.
7:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Not so much wages, which surprises me, but respect.
7:08
[SPEAKER_06]: The fact that you can't put food on your table for your kids and your family, the ultimate disrespect.
7:13
[SPEAKER_06]: Want to hear your thoughts?
7:14
[SPEAKER_06]: Where can the Ricksmithsshow.com right back?
7:21
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
7:25
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1919.
7:28
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the day that the Boston Police went out on strike.
7:32
[SPEAKER_06]: The police in Boston had not had a raise for over six years.
7:36
[SPEAKER_06]: They worked long shifts, sometimes even more than 80 hours a week.
7:41
[SPEAKER_06]: The police force was predominantly Irish.
7:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Many had served as U.S. soldiers in World War I.
7:46
[SPEAKER_06]: fed up with their working conditions, the police formed a union and joined the American Federation of Labor.
7:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Boston's police commissioner, Edwin U. Curtis, refused to recognize the police union and fired 19 police officers for their organizing efforts.
8:02
[SPEAKER_06]: In response, the new union voted overwhelmingly to support a walkout.
8:07
[SPEAKER_06]: More than 1100 police officers voted to strike with only two, voting no.
8:12
[SPEAKER_06]: Across the country, newspapers made dire predictions about the collapse of law and order in Boston.
8:18
[SPEAKER_06]: While there was an upsurge in crime due to the lack of police on the streets, the press wildly exaggerated what was happening in the city.
8:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Newspapers ran stories about gangs running wild with rioters and communists attacking women fueling red scare fears.
8:35
[SPEAKER_06]: The entire labor movement came under attack.
8:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge declared, quote, there is no right to strike against public safety by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
8:47
[SPEAKER_06]: This hard line against the striking police helped propel him to the national stage and eventually to the Oval Office.
8:54
[SPEAKER_06]: The striking policemen were fired and replaced with unemployed World War I veterans.
8:59
[SPEAKER_06]: In response to the National Outcry over the strike, the American Federation of Labor revolted the charter for other police unions.
9:07
[SPEAKER_06]: The Boston Police Strike is the subject of the page-turner the given day by author Dennis Lehan.
9:13
[SPEAKER_06]: A fictionized account of the events surrounding the strike, the novel follows the experiences of one Irish policeman during this tumultuous time.
9:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
9:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
9:34
[SPEAKER_06]: Kim Grosin is urging peace over at the Guardian, written by our good friend Stephen Greenhouse.
9:39
[SPEAKER_06]: The most anti-union president how Trump turned his back on U.S. workers was the headline, and the underside of it, the other line, the second tagline, is Labor experts stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been with actions since last Labor Day that have hurt Unis.
10:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, and that's why I've asked Stephen Greenhouse to come share some thoughts and maybe talk about just how bad Donald Trump has been and if maybe he's shocked by how bad he's been Steven Thanks for looking time for us
10:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Good to be hearing.
10:15
[SPEAKER_06]: So let's talk about this.
10:16
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, the reality is, I think he's been exactly what I thought he would be.
10:20
[SPEAKER_06]: I actually thought his labor secretary would be even more functional than the drunken one he had, and would be doing much more damage, so I'm grateful for the ineptitude, but I'm surprised that someone thinks, oh my, we didn't see this coming.
10:36
[SPEAKER_05]: So Trump's a complicated man.
10:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And he said, I'm going to fight for forgotten Americans.
10:46
[SPEAKER_05]: The White House keeps saying, every action he takes has the good of American workers of average Americans in mind.
10:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And he's done a few little things to help workers, the no-tips, the lower taxes not over time.
11:02
[SPEAKER_05]: But I was going to be in one later,
11:05
[SPEAKER_05]: She was stunned that on his very first day back in office, he erased the men and women's weight that federal contract is much play and poised from 1775 an hour down to 13 period an hour.
11:17
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a big decrease, you know, 40 or 12 an hour.
11:21
[SPEAKER_05]: And as a result, a lot of people lost 9,000 full-temperature cost 9,000 dollars in pay.
11:26
[SPEAKER_05]: And she was stunned that even for someone whom she didn't trust, then he would still kick the workers
11:35
[SPEAKER_05]: and such a painful way.
11:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And I did love Trump.
11:41
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't vote for him, but he's turned out much worse than I expected.
11:45
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, what did, you know, so another thing he told that kind of is like, how is it possible, Stephen?
11:50
[SPEAKER_05]: How is it possible?
11:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I think I'm a naive, I'm a naive, babe in the word, I'm not naive.
11:54
[SPEAKER_06]: I live through the last, the first term.
11:56
[SPEAKER_06]: What is even worse now?
11:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I know.
11:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
11:59
[SPEAKER_05]: So this term, you know,
12:03
[SPEAKER_05]: people in our states who work as home care workers taking care of the elderly and the disabled at home.
12:09
[SPEAKER_05]: And he's Trump is erasing the minimum wage protections and overtime protections for these workers who are among the lowest wage workers in the country to start.
12:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's like, how can anyone pretend, you know, presumed to say he's pro-worked or it always has workers in mind when he does such
12:27
[SPEAKER_05]: He really stabs him in the back as, you know, as several people as I interviewed said.
12:32
[SPEAKER_06]: But Steve, you've been doing this a long time.
12:34
[SPEAKER_06]: I know during the first campaign, you were interviewing the same people that I was who were saying, look, you know, as a contractor, as him building buildings, he stiffed us at every turn.
12:44
[SPEAKER_06]: He stiffed every working person, he could get a get away with.
12:47
[SPEAKER_06]: And I know in New York, you have to build with unions and with union labor because it's New York.
12:52
[SPEAKER_06]: And I know he said he did, but we've got him on tape going, he's all in favor of right
12:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I, yeah, come, come on, oh, so, you know, Trump, you know, is very good at fooling people, better than probably better than anyone in American history.
13:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And he, and anyway, he, you know, the fact is, and as my story explained, he's extremely anti-union, he's extremely anti-worker.
13:22
[SPEAKER_05]: And the ways the headline of my gardening story saying is that much anti-union
13:27
[SPEAKER_05]: only says half of it because he's incredibly empty worker across the board.
13:31
[SPEAKER_05]: He wants to weaken unions.
13:33
[SPEAKER_05]: He wants to weaken the voice of workers.
13:35
[SPEAKER_05]: He's, you know, he's sought to weaken protections for workers.
13:38
[SPEAKER_05]: He sought to weaken the voice of workers.
13:40
[SPEAKER_05]: Because he's so gone home and help in corporations.
13:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And he doesn't want those damn little people and those damn nuisances of unions getting in the way of his corporate friends.
13:50
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
13:52
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, he may believe is a friend of units.
13:55
[SPEAKER_05]: So I keep those favors for the team's disunion.
13:57
[SPEAKER_05]: He just, you know, ended, you know, federal oversight of the team's disunion.
14:01
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, which, you know, Sean O'Brien really wanted.
14:04
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, some work rather could say was time to end.
14:07
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, he's, you know, so one of the insane things wrecked the menu, and perhaps some of your listeners don't know about.
14:14
[SPEAKER_05]: So unions were among the leading, and Minnesota, you know, when Trump sent in a gazillion
14:23
[SPEAKER_05]: intimidate harass, scare, bully, you know, men of sotans, labor unions really help lead the way in pushing back against dice and, you know, protect in their neighbors.
14:35
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you know, immigrants who live in a neighborhood, hard working immigrants who just want to, you know, work hard and make a decent living and support their family.
14:43
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you can just, you know, run among those who
14:46
[SPEAKER_05]: that protest against ICE, you know, who hunk their horns when ICE agents were pressing.
14:51
[SPEAKER_05]: So Trump's prosecutors in Minnesota, it seized obtain the financial records of some of the leaving most respected unions in the nation.
15:02
[SPEAKER_05]: The service employees and international union and my union and the communication workers of America, the newspaper fields union.
15:09
[SPEAKER_05]: because they suspected of engaging in domestic terrorism because they had the audacity to stand up to Trump and stand up to ICE.
15:19
[SPEAKER_05]: And not only that Rick, you know, the AFL CIO, you know, this middle of the road, you know, a very sturdy, respected organization representing over 15 million workers and retirees.
15:34
[SPEAKER_05]: You'll prosecute his total grand jury that the AFSC might have been part of a conspiracy to promote domestic terrorism against ICE.
15:43
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like, wow, Trump may believe he was a friend of unions and these investigative actions he's prosecutorial actions in Minnesota.
15:53
[SPEAKER_05]: He's showing how much he dislikes unions, distrust unions, and you know,
16:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Walks good weekend now.
16:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, but here's the thing.
16:03
[SPEAKER_06]: And this is what I said from the beginning.
16:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Look, unions are the only count of counterbalance to corporate greed and and the only way we're going to hold the wealthy in corporate America and any bit of check.
16:13
[SPEAKER_06]: So any power that is is a challenge to what they want or to to Trump's government has got him is the enemy.
16:21
[SPEAKER_06]: And we've heard Trump say for years that he gets even with his enemies, that he crushes his enemies.
16:28
[SPEAKER_06]: So I guess I'm just sitting here going.
16:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
16:30
[SPEAKER_06]: It's Wednesday.
16:33
[SPEAKER_06]: It's exactly what I expected him to do.
16:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
16:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Fun.
16:39
[SPEAKER_05]: So another thing we should discuss very quickly, Rick, is, you know, the Gallup organization, the Gallup poll, does a survey every year to ask Americans to your proof of labor units.
16:50
[SPEAKER_05]: So a few days before Labor Day, there was this big news release by Gallup saying 71% of Americans
16:57
[SPEAKER_05]: approve of unions.
16:58
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the highest number since 1959, 67 years ago.
17:02
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a long time ago.
17:03
[SPEAKER_05]: And it shows that people are fed up with corporate dominance.
17:07
[SPEAKER_05]: They're fed up with, you know, the billionaires controlling everything.
17:09
[SPEAKER_05]: They're fed up with Republican to Democrats and Congress not doing enough to help them.
17:14
[SPEAKER_05]: They're fed up with, you know, feeling that they're falling behind because wages aren't going up enough while inflation is outpacing wages.
17:24
[SPEAKER_05]: And so, you know,
17:27
[SPEAKER_05]: who but unions, you know, no other institution, except unions fights every day to raise the pay to raise the living standards that have it to America.
17:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that's a big reason that many Americans approve of unions and for this only the second time in the past 25 years, a majority of Republicans say they approve of unions, 52% of the Republicans approve of unions.
17:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm throwing out so many numbers, and there's another one, another fascinating number in this gap.
17:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Survey 47% of Americans say they think unions should have more influence.
18:01
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think it shows they've despairing that the parties, that the Congress, that the president isn't doing enough to fight for average Americans, and I think who fights for average Americans labor gangers.
18:12
[SPEAKER_06]: But what do you say to the Jeff basis, his newspaper headline, that said Americans approve of unions, they just don't want to join them.
18:21
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's wrong.
18:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, again, there are these surveys studies by folks at MIT and elsewhere showing that basically 40% to 50% of workers say that they would vote to join a union today if they could.
18:36
[SPEAKER_05]: But only 10% of American workers are in union.
18:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And so certainly, look at that, is that if workers got their way, you know, half of the net, you know, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net, half of the net,
18:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And the reason workers are not joining units is that corporations like Amazon and Starbucks and Trader Joe is fight extremely hard to prevent their workers reunion.
19:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And even though a lot of workers want units, but they're scared to stick their net out to support one because they were they get fired, they were in, you know,
19:13
[SPEAKER_05]: businesses and they say, oh, our business will close if you're unionized.
19:16
[SPEAKER_05]: So workers really want to union because they see unions as a way to lift themselves up and lift the co-workers up, but they're often scared and they're often, you know, pummeled by, you know, corporate folks saying, union is a bad for you that, you know, this and that.
19:32
[SPEAKER_06]: No, your point of the people are afraid that the retaliation will come is very real.
19:37
[SPEAKER_06]: I know corporate America does a great job of scaring the you know what other people.
19:41
[SPEAKER_06]: But I look at the Trump administration right now and this your article should be mandatory reading for every worker in this country because what this administration has done in this short period of time in this second term.
19:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Should be the greatest recruiting tool for unions to go out and say, hey, look, he's been going after those federal workers.
19:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Everyone of you federal workers should now be joining the defend what you've got.
20:03
[SPEAKER_06]: He's gone after, you know, as you point it out, the contractor minimum wage, every one of you contractors and everyone of you workers should be fighting for this.
20:11
[SPEAKER_06]: You think about the overtime protection rollback.
20:13
[SPEAKER_06]: You think about the fact that we're making workplaces less safe.
20:17
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, you're allowing independent contractors to do the
20:21
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems the heat protection rule so much.
20:24
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems like this should be a great opportunity to go, this is what you're fighting against.
20:30
[SPEAKER_06]: This is the poster child of why you should be joining units.
20:33
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
20:35
[SPEAKER_05]: This is true, but Fox News is not reporting all that.
20:38
[SPEAKER_05]: The Washington Post is in, Washington Post has a great labor reporter, Lauren Gurley, but the op-ed page that's for a pages
20:49
[SPEAKER_05]: And the word is hard for the word to get out there that unions are the institution that will help.
20:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean,
20:58
[SPEAKER_05]: It's getting, we're getting a sum up because setting a percent of people approve of unions, but it's hard to organize unions because employers are so beam in the against them.
21:10
[SPEAKER_06]: No, so why we need major comprehensive labor law reform.
21:12
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, the fact is, and I've organized places where someone got fired and it was, there was a chilling effect across the whole, whole bargaining unit and the penalties that the employer paid for firing somebody were not existed.
21:25
[SPEAKER_06]: They didn't have to pay any penalties because the guy got a job doing something else, making a little bit more money.
21:30
[SPEAKER_06]: So there was no penalty.
21:31
[SPEAKER_06]: There's no penalty, Stephen, to breaking the law.
21:34
[SPEAKER_06]: We talked about wage theft the other day.
21:36
[SPEAKER_06]: Nobody seems to go to jail for a wage theft.
21:38
[SPEAKER_06]: This is as a union guy as someone who's been a union my whole life.
21:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Never been a victim of wage theft because my union fights for that.
21:45
[SPEAKER_06]: This is this guy's the poster child.
21:49
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the nation's laboralizing discussed the previous times.
21:53
[SPEAKER_05]: The nation's laboralizing is very weak.
21:55
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it's illegal to fire a worker for supporting a union.
21:59
[SPEAKER_05]: It's done all the time.
22:01
[SPEAKER_05]: The companies can't be fine for that.
22:03
[SPEAKER_05]: So like, why not fire someone for supporting a union?
22:06
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, you're not going to be punished.
22:07
[SPEAKER_05]: You're not going to be a fine.
22:09
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's like open season to fire people.
22:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, the laboralover will, you know, that the proposals and Congress to make it easy.
22:19
[SPEAKER_05]: companies, you know, $50,000 for a legally firing a pro union worker, $100,000 if you do it a second time.
22:25
[SPEAKER_05]: That might begin to make a difference.
22:28
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, as long as you need 60 votes in the Senate, that's going to be very hard to ever enact legislation that makes it easy to unionize because there's so many red states.
22:40
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, here's the thing, you were I break the law.
22:43
[SPEAKER_06]: There was a shiny set of bracelets for us.
22:46
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, corporate America breaks law.
22:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, promise you won't do it again.
22:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Yep.
22:53
[SPEAKER_06]: And tell you do.
22:54
[SPEAKER_06]: So in the list of things that you've gone through in your article, of all of the attacks that Trump has done in this second term, one of the top three, one of the worst three things that you think he's done, because I want people to understand that it affects their lives.
23:09
[SPEAKER_05]: So again, he ran to someone who
23:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Early on, he wanted to deny he stripped a million federal workers of their ability to bargain collectively and he wanted to basically, you know, end their unions.
23:26
[SPEAKER_05]: And your interviewed Lissula, the president of the FSA, and we talked about how it was terrible in Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controls in 1981 because they walked down at the legal strike.
23:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, let's do a set of, you know, it's by far the most anti-union action that any President ever took four Donald Trump to strip a million workers of their ability to bargain.
23:49
[SPEAKER_05]: That's one in 14 union members of the nation.
23:51
[SPEAKER_05]: Trump says, you know, screw you.
23:53
[SPEAKER_05]: We don't want you to have a union.
23:54
[SPEAKER_05]: I usually don't really take away that power from you.
23:56
[SPEAKER_05]: That's that's one.
23:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Another thing that gets me because, again, Trump ran both in 2016 and 2020 again, 2024 that he's a great friend of coal miners.
24:08
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe these aren't the most important actions, but he cut back ocean inspections, he cut back mining inspections, he cut back stricter mining rules.
24:16
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's this important rule that Biden was pushing, the silica, silica rule, you know, silica dust is causing serious black, black lung problems now in coal mines, many people are driving from it and Biden wanted to get serious on that.
24:33
[SPEAKER_05]: and Trump is basically delayed delayed delay kicker can of down the road kicker can't down the road on the silver roll.
24:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And he's, you know, many minors feels, again, stepped in the back by Trump.
24:44
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, he may believe he's going to be their best friend.
24:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, the third thing.
24:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, you know, taking you, you know, taking you away.
24:57
[SPEAKER_05]: taking away minimum wage and overtime protections from home care workers.
25:02
[SPEAKER_05]: They are arguably the most exploited workers in the country.
25:08
[SPEAKER_05]: And to take away those very basic protections from these women, off a women of color, it's just like inexcusable, unconscionable.
25:16
[SPEAKER_06]: No, look, I'm now in the role of a caregiver from my wife.
25:20
[SPEAKER_06]: And I deal with a lot of people who are in this world and aren't as fortunate as I am, and they are struggling.
25:27
[SPEAKER_06]: And this, this is, well, I think it's just another kick to people who are already down.
25:32
[SPEAKER_06]: And I look at the video that he put out with the Canadian Prime Minister, while he's beaten him with a stick while he's on his hands and knees.
25:39
[SPEAKER_06]: To me, that's, that's who Trump is.
25:41
[SPEAKER_06]: So none of this stuff is surprising.
25:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Let me ask you about that real quick.
25:46
[SPEAKER_06]: What reaction did you have to seeing Trump in the USA, hockey uniform, you know, beating somebody on his hands and knees?
25:54
[SPEAKER_05]: It's disgraceful.
25:55
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just, it's just, it's just, you know, you and I are well over 60, I think, I'm well over 60, maybe you are not over any.
26:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Anyway, yeah, we can have a long time, you know, I was born one, you know, right the Eisenhower was present at, you know, very respectable guy, a great general,
26:16
[SPEAKER_05]: You don't expect the president to act so to the base, the presidency, to act so
26:23
[SPEAKER_05]: So infant, you know, like an infant and then the way he treats people and the rights people makes fun of people.
26:29
[SPEAKER_05]: He's so cruel to people.
26:30
[SPEAKER_05]: He insults people.
26:31
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just no, you know, person, no friend of if a friend of mine did that I'd say, you suck, we're in a longer fence, we're like to see the president of the United States doing this.
26:40
[SPEAKER_05]: It's such a disgrace and Canada was our closest ally for years and years and Trump is treating like dunk like dirt like.
26:49
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, how dare you talk back to me, Mr. Curney, you should be by Vassal and for talking back to me, I'm gonna stop on your head and make fun of you all the time and threaten to cut off all trade and it's, it's ridiculous.
27:02
[SPEAKER_06]: No, look, I saw the video and I go, you know, this is the suit Trump is.
27:05
[SPEAKER_06]: As a kid, you know, I fought all the time as a kid.
27:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Group and I housing project in the West Side of Cleveland, we fought every day.
27:12
[SPEAKER_06]: But you never kick someone when they were down.
27:14
[SPEAKER_06]: You never hit somebody when they were on the ground.
27:17
[SPEAKER_06]: When they were defenseless.
27:18
[SPEAKER_06]: And I saw that and I'm going, yeah, this is what I expect.
27:21
[SPEAKER_06]: There's no surprise for me here.
27:23
[SPEAKER_06]: But I guess we'll see, come November, how the country is going to weigh in on this.
27:28
[SPEAKER_06]: But Stephen, I appreciate the time.
27:30
[SPEAKER_06]: Great work.
27:31
[SPEAKER_06]: I look forward to talking to you again real soon.
27:33
[SPEAKER_06]: OK.
27:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Our good friends, Steve and Greenhouse, one of your thoughts.
27:40
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you think is the worst thing Trump is done for working people?
27:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Is it the inflation?
27:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Because of his war?
27:46
[SPEAKER_06]: Is it all of the list of things Steven pointed out?
27:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Rick at therixmithshow.com.
27:49
[SPEAKER_06]: I want to hear it back after this.
28:00
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
28:03
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1910.
28:06
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the day the protocol of peace brought an end to the clubmaker strike in New York City.
28:12
[SPEAKER_06]: The garment industry had been rocked by the uprising of 20,000 months earlier.
28:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Young women had struck hundreds of small shops over pay, recognition, and working conditions.
28:23
[SPEAKER_06]: They won ILGWU recognition in all but a handful of shops.
28:28
[SPEAKER_06]: 60,000 cloak makers in the city were inspired to walk out of the sweatshops that July.
28:33
[SPEAKER_06]: The mostly male strike force demanded shorter hours and increase pay the clothes shop and more.
28:40
[SPEAKER_06]: Union membership, sword, and most of the small shops cared.
28:43
[SPEAKER_06]: The larger manufacturers would not, however, and by the end of the summer, the protocol of peace was negotiated.
28:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis figured prominently in the negotiations.
28:55
[SPEAKER_06]: The protocol established higher wages, shorter hours, and overtime pay.
28:59
[SPEAKER_06]: It also guaranteed the Union shop, elimination of contracting, and monitoring of peace work rates.
29:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Even more significant.
29:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Workers won a Union Health Center, a board of sanitary control, a board of grievances, and a board of arbitration.
29:13
[SPEAKER_06]: For the first time, garment workers had access to health care, a way to eliminate sweatshop conditions, and a way to mediate and resolve shop floor complaints.
29:23
[SPEAKER_06]: The price to be paid, however, was that workers would give up their most powerful leveraging tool, the right to strike.
29:29
[SPEAKER_06]: The agreement was lauded as a step forward for industrial democracy.
29:34
[SPEAKER_06]: But soon, many workers complain that the protocol failed to answer a number of shop floor issues.
29:39
[SPEAKER_06]: Grievous is piled up, and workers were penalized when they attempted to strike to resolve their problems.
29:45
[SPEAKER_06]: The protocol would be scrapped for a return to militant strikes during the 1920s.
29:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Scho for more information go to laborhistoryintube.com.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: to cope with the imminent danger posed by today's arrogant profiteering AI Billionaires Donald Trump says that the only thing American needs is they quote strong and smart high IQ president.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yes, let's try finding one of those.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: The president we have now is quite the opposite.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Take the politically explosive issue of massive AI data centers, suddenly intruding into thousands of communities across America, taking people's land, water, electricity, and democratic control.
30:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Even red-state maga conservatives are infurious rebellion against what amounts to a corporate sneak attack on millions of us.
30:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the president when we really need him?
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: He's plotting with the tech invaders, publicly trashing us grassroots rebels and deploying big government autographs to rig the rules to silence us.
30:54
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, a little-known Trump-operative named Lee Zilden has been embedded as the R of the EPA.
31:01
[SPEAKER_00]: He's now decreeing that there's no need for local communities to be notified that a data center is moving in on them.
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Nor should there be any public comment period on air pollution issues.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: This means that residents first notice that a sprawling data center is coming will be the roar of bulldozers.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: worse, zeld and wants to let that a center billionaire start building their acres of polluting facilities before permits are approved.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, this Maga bureaucrat insists that such massive facilities be reclassified as minor air polluters, like a car repair shop or a laundromat.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: This is to my tower saying, Zeldon has also unilaterally refrained the purpose of the EPA.
31:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He has declared that its top priority is no longer environmental protection, but to quote, make the U.S. the artificial intelligence capital of the world.
32:11
[SPEAKER_06]: So last week, we were talking about this labeling thing.
32:16
[SPEAKER_06]: You go to the story, and you see on the shelves, there's a little electronic tag, and that's where the price tag is now, evidently, in a lot of places.
32:24
[SPEAKER_06]: And we talked about the FLCIO's tech institutes, priced out, pushed out, studied.
32:30
[SPEAKER_06]: And interestingly enough, a bunch of people had questions that we didn't get to.
32:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Part of it was,
32:36
[SPEAKER_06]: I've never seen one.
32:38
[SPEAKER_06]: Where are they?
32:39
[SPEAKER_06]: How do I find them?
32:40
[SPEAKER_06]: And are they in stores near me?
32:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Which I thought would be a great opportunity to reach out to the folks at the AFFL CIO's Tech Institute and talk about their report, price, doubt, push doubt.
32:50
[SPEAKER_06]: That's why I've asked Sunnyglotman to come share some thoughts.
32:52
[SPEAKER_06]: She's the co-author of the piece you can check that out at AFLCIOTechInstitute.org.
32:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Sunny.
32:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks for looking time for us.
33:01
[SPEAKER_03]: happy to be here.
33:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Good afternoon.
33:02
[SPEAKER_06]: So last week we talked about the study we talked about, you know, just the whole use of technology and AI and all this stuff.
33:09
[SPEAKER_06]: And I guess I didn't hit the baseline stuff.
33:13
[SPEAKER_06]: So for people who have never seen one of these these dohikis, these electronic shelf labels.
33:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Where are they?
33:20
[SPEAKER_06]: What are they?
33:22
[SPEAKER_06]: And why is a labor group?
33:23
[SPEAKER_06]: Why is the FLCIO spending this much time effort
33:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, happy to answer that question.
33:31
[SPEAKER_03]: So first off, as you well know and I know and everyone probably listening knows who anyone who eats food knows, grocery prices are just unaffordable for many Americans and they are continually rising.
33:43
[SPEAKER_03]: These technologies, electronic shelf labels are being implemented across the US retail sector.
33:49
[SPEAKER_03]: at a time when food prices have surpassed inflation and wage gains, increasing 33% over the past seven years.
33:56
[SPEAKER_03]: We're looking at companies like Whole Foods, Groger, Walmart, they have plans or have already implemented these technologies in their grocery stores.
34:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And I guess going back into the concerns we have, these labels connect to the same exact algorithm pricing software, the online retailers are already seen.
34:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Dynamic pricing.
34:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
34:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is the technology that, well, the retailers claim, oh, it lets us take an expiring banana and mark down the price.
34:33
[SPEAKER_03]: It's also the very same technology that lets them raise the price of allergy medication
34:39
[SPEAKER_03]: in a given town or city.
34:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, according to the, from what I read, and you built this entire thing off of basically what the industry that builds these electronic shelf label makers, what these things, it's their marketing material that you've looked at.
34:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly, so I mean, you know, the reality is is these tools, these electronic shelf labels, they are being implemented two day.
35:05
[SPEAKER_03]: We wanted to take the companies out their word.
35:07
[SPEAKER_03]: We wanted to better understand what a world would look like if everyone who walked into a grocery store, when they went in, it became the norm that they would be picking up groceries, looking at electronic shelf labels, instead of traditional paper price tags,
35:22
[SPEAKER_03]: And what is that going to look like for the workers who are in these stores?
35:26
[SPEAKER_03]: So what we did, and it was, it was, was we took the marketing claims, which there were claims from two manufacturers, one arguing that a store would cut up to 5,200,
35:46
[SPEAKER_03]: and then we said okay well let's assume that every single grocery store in America adopts these and what would that mean?
35:54
[SPEAKER_03]: We found was that it would lead to potentially 1.6 billion to $6.9 billion in lost wages annually and would impact anywhere from $44,000 to $191,000 jobs.
36:06
[SPEAKER_03]: What that looks like in terms of lost wages per worker per week year, it would be anywhere from $600
36:13
[SPEAKER_03]: to roughly $2600 for prospective sake, median rent in America as of 2024, which is when they published the most recent federal data set, was at $1,413.
36:26
[SPEAKER_03]: At the high end of these estimates, a grocery worker could lose close to two months rent.
36:31
[SPEAKER_03]: These are very, very real implications.
36:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Beyond that, my in-laws actually, they were in town visiting this weekend, and I told them about their report.
36:39
[SPEAKER_03]: They had the same question that many of your viewers have.
36:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And in fact, they live in a small town of New Hampshire and they have not seen these yet.
36:46
[SPEAKER_03]: But when I describe to them as I was like, imagine you go to the grocery store, you're doing your shopping.
36:51
[SPEAKER_03]: You pick up, you know, your weekly bag of coffee and it's 999 and you put it in the store in your cart.
36:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you go and when you check out, it's maybe 30 cents more expensive.
37:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, there's two problems with this.
37:03
[SPEAKER_03]: One is that you're not typically going to grocery store and just buying one bag of coffee.
37:07
[SPEAKER_03]: You're buying your whole week's groceries.
37:10
[SPEAKER_03]: So prices might be much higher than you anticipated.
37:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And two, there's also something to be said for.
37:17
[SPEAKER_03]: You should have perfect information when you were buying a good as a consumer.
37:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You should know how much a good cost before you get to the register.
37:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And with these tools, what's going to happen with you with electronic shop labels is you won't know until you're getting wrung up and then it's too late to leave.
37:33
[SPEAKER_06]: No, and in some assurance that it's not going to change from the time you picked it up because here's the thing I don't know about you, but Rarely now now before you know years ago, I would go in for one or two things.
37:43
[SPEAKER_06]: So yeah, I knew what they were, but now I do the grocery shopping in our house.
37:47
[SPEAKER_06]: So now I'm not getting just one or two things.
37:50
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm getting 30 40 things.
37:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm not going to remember every price for every item and who's to say that every time I put something in the carcass and I looked at it together That was a decent price in that moment But by the time I walked to the front all of them haven't changed now I know the argument is they could have come down But I'm I'm going to say they're probably not going to I mean if you look at the facts Food grocery prices increase 33% over the past seven years
38:17
[SPEAKER_03]: We know that grocery prices are going up.
38:20
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't need a PhD in economics to understand that.
38:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So even if one day you get lucky and your cup of coffee is a few cents cheaper, the skew is going to be higher and you're going to have these prices snuckily added in as you go into the stores over time.
38:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I remember the first time I came across dynamic pricing and I've told this before.
38:40
[SPEAKER_06]: I went to a Pittsburgh Pirates game where we were in Pittsburgh and he said, what the heck?
38:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Let's go see a ball game.
38:45
[SPEAKER_06]: So it was the Thursday night we showed up, tickets for way out in the middle of nowhere in the nosebleeds were five bucks.
38:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Like that's fabulous, five bucks.
38:54
[SPEAKER_06]: So we saw that game, we went back, hey, let's go to the next night.
38:56
[SPEAKER_06]: We went back the next night.
38:58
[SPEAKER_06]: It was like 35 bucks.
39:00
[SPEAKER_06]: and I'm going to explain well people want to come now so there's more demand we're getting more out of it and that's the first time I heard the term dynamic pricing and then I started thinking and going yeah this isn't going to end well for we the consumer because this is going to happen a lot.
39:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think one thing just to take, I keep going back to this is it's bad, not just for consumers, but consumers and workers.
39:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Electronic shelf labels are squeezing profits out from both sides.
39:30
[SPEAKER_03]: What they're doing in effect is they're reducing potentially worker hours from stores.
39:34
[SPEAKER_03]: so it's going to be coming out of worker paychecks.
39:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And at the same time, they're taking all of our information and knowledge and using it to charges higher prices at the register.
39:45
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a two-fer.
39:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It's bad for consumers and workers and workers or consumers and consumers or workers.
39:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, as you point out in the piece, and I got to wonder, the claim is that by reducing the number of hours changing prices, you know, when you need to raise them or lower them or whatever, that will free up the current workers to be able to then go help.
40:08
[SPEAKER_06]: We the consumers and yet again, I'm going to call BS on that because good luck finding anything other than the the the mobile robot beeping around the the the aisles the people aren't really there to answer questions anymore in fact every time I go to the checkout they keep pushing me towards the self checkout so I envision a moment where there's nobody in the stores and I'm just going to be the guy who eventually has to stock the shelves before I could not pay for them on the way out.
40:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And that would be fair.
40:36
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many that just makes such a worse grocery shopping experience and it makes it less safe like imagine if they're spills all over the stores because they do what they can to get the smallest number of workers and give them store to give them time.
40:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so if it's sunny, we've got Marty Marty the little machine robot he goes around.
40:54
[SPEAKER_06]: Marty's job is to look for spills and and Marty's always in the way, but you know what he'll he'll tell you if there's a spill right in front of him.
41:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but you know what, Marty's kid doesn't need to go to college.
41:07
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
41:09
[SPEAKER_06]: true.
41:09
[SPEAKER_06]: So when you when you look at these numbers because these are some pretty big numbers that you've you've put out somewhere's a 44th over 44,000 jobs to potentially over 190,000 jobs.
41:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Who are we talking about?
41:22
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, look, I look at my wife for her first job in high school and in college was was a cashier and you know the person who stocked the shelves and did the the gotten thing with the numbers.
41:33
[SPEAKER_06]: Are they the first to go and as a society are we okay,
41:39
[SPEAKER_06]: Is that or is it more?
41:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, to be fair, I am not a business operations specialist at a major grocery retailer.
41:48
[SPEAKER_03]: So there will be business decisions made in certain retailers might decide not to do that.
41:53
[SPEAKER_03]: But what we know is here's what the electronic shelf label companies are advertising their products to do.
42:00
[SPEAKER_03]: So that in and of itself is concerning.
42:02
[SPEAKER_03]: These are how these products are being advertised and not being advertised to help us charge less for bananas.
42:11
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, as I understand, I didn't see a lot of specific retailers.
42:15
[SPEAKER_06]: Is it just a handful?
42:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Is it more persuasive or evasive?
42:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Is it something we fear is going to be the norm?
42:24
[SPEAKER_06]: As I understand, look, be honest.
42:28
[SPEAKER_06]: If corporate American can get rid of us, if they can make their profits a little bit higher by making our experience a little bit worse, they're going to do that.
42:37
[SPEAKER_06]: But how far into this are we now?
42:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think that that's where it's, you know, we are seeing planned rollouts, national retailers, including Groger, Aldian Holt Foods, have already started rolling out electronic shelf labels across thousands of stores.
42:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Walmart has deployed them in 2300 of its 5200 US locations.
43:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And they have plant, they've announced that by the end of the year they will have electronic shelf labels and all of their stores and to be fair in many European markets these are already widely widely if not universally adopted.
43:15
[SPEAKER_06]: So let me ask you this because, you know, this seems like like small, I had someone say, you know, come on, that's not such a big deal and given the fact that we have given so much of our personal data away and look, I fought the store card thing for years.
43:29
[SPEAKER_06]: I fought not putting my personal information in there and linking it to my credit card.
43:33
[SPEAKER_06]: I fought all of this stuff all along on the grand scheme of things of everything that we've surrendered thus far.
43:40
[SPEAKER_06]: How big of a deal is this do you think?
43:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I don't want to weigh in on how big of a deal or play the what's worse or better, but all I know is that for the worker who's out two months wages, two months rent with, two months wages and rent, that's terrible.
43:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And we shouldn't have to choose that.
44:00
[SPEAKER_03]: We shouldn't say do we want a new technology that
44:02
[SPEAKER_03]: potentially raises prices makes it so we don't know what we're paying when we get to the register and on top of that's it's going to be taking away someone's rep money that's going to be taking away someone's kids college fund.
44:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think that that's innovation or progress.
44:15
[SPEAKER_03]: That just seems like the exploitation.
44:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, but we're told that's progress.
44:18
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, we're going to retrain those people to do other things.
44:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Sonny, come on, you know, they do they really want to work in a grocery store.
44:25
[SPEAKER_06]: And the reality is my grandmother spent 20 some years working in a department store.
44:29
[SPEAKER_06]: I was very happy doing it.
44:30
[SPEAKER_06]: A lot of people supported their families off of those jobs because, you know, that's the best they could do given their situation.
44:38
[SPEAKER_06]: And in an economy, don't we have to have jobs for every skill level up and down the spectrum?
44:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, and also grocery store workers provide a service to the community.
44:49
[SPEAKER_03]: There is something not pleasant about going into an empty grocery store to your early appointment.
44:54
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, but the future, I guess, is I'm told, because AI is going to solve all this.
44:57
[SPEAKER_06]: We won't have to go.
44:58
[SPEAKER_06]: AI will just shop for us.
45:03
[SPEAKER_03]: That I will say, I think, is beyond the scope of the research.
45:07
[SPEAKER_06]: No, because, you know, you look at all of the tech stuff that's going on, you know, this is just another part of another simple way to get in our pockets, another simple way to cost working people, their jobs.
45:20
[SPEAKER_06]: It's another way to see a massive redistribution of wealth from the people who are just just trying to get by, just trying to make a living.
45:29
[SPEAKER_06]: To people who are trying to game in the next system, to line their pockets at the expense of people who can't defend themselves.
45:35
[SPEAKER_06]: I see this as another one of those technologies.
45:39
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think there is something to be said for asking ourselves when a new technology is being introduced.
45:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Who does the surf and what good does it do?
45:48
[SPEAKER_03]: The public does it do the industry, does it do workers?
45:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And when it comes to electronic shelf labels, it just doesn't add up.
45:57
[SPEAKER_06]: So that's a very nice way of kind of wrapping this part of this up, but the reality is is I don't think you guys think a lot of them because you're not saying to regulate it, at least this is what I'm understanding from the report.
46:10
[SPEAKER_06]: You're not saying, hey, we need to regulate this, need to have better rules, like Maryland's trying to do.
46:14
[SPEAKER_06]: You're saying this should just be outright banned.
46:17
[SPEAKER_06]: It should not happen.
46:18
[SPEAKER_06]: Am I getting that right?
46:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I would say what we do say is we call for a ban because the technology is
46:27
[SPEAKER_03]: It's that there's no benefit to consumers, there's no benefit to workers.
46:32
[SPEAKER_03]: That is why the ban is needed.
46:35
[SPEAKER_03]: There are plenty of technologies where they can unlock immense benefits with regulations.
46:41
[SPEAKER_03]: This doesn't appear to be one of them in that, where's the upside to it beyond helping companies be more profitable at the expense of workers and consumers?
46:51
[SPEAKER_06]: It's that I've got to get one more question out of you on the AI front and I it's probably not your area You can go at not my area.
46:58
[SPEAKER_06]: That's somebody else for the tech institute, but I'm sure you've been paying attention to all of the You know AI's gonna end the world.
47:07
[SPEAKER_06]: It's either gonna save the world and we're gonna have a abundance beyond our wildest fantasies And universal high-end coming all the wonderful things that Elon and company are promising or it's it's the end of humanity
47:21
[SPEAKER_06]: And we've got a president who says we shouldn't regulate it at all.
47:24
[SPEAKER_06]: We just need a strong, strong president, we need him evidently.
47:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Any thoughts on where we are currently in the AI world?
47:34
[SPEAKER_03]: To be fair, that is not my expertise, but I always go back to asking yourselves, progress is only what the technology does for the public for workers and humanity.
47:44
[SPEAKER_06]: There you go.
47:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Sunny, I appreciate the time, I appreciate the work you do.
47:47
[SPEAKER_06]: I hope folks will check out the report price out, push out.
47:52
[SPEAKER_06]: You can find that at AFLCIOTech Institute.org.
47:56
[SPEAKER_06]: We'll get links out on social media.
47:57
[SPEAKER_06]: Sunny, Galatman, thanks so much for your time.
47:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
48:00
[SPEAKER_06]: Want to hear your thoughts?
48:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Email me, Rick at theRicksMithShow.com.
48:04
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you think?
48:08
[SPEAKER_06]: This is good.
48:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Is this bad?
48:10
[SPEAKER_06]: Would you be okay with it?
48:12
[SPEAKER_06]: Let me know, Rick at TheRixMith show.com right back, stick around.
48:25
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
48:29
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1845.
48:32
[SPEAKER_06]: 5,000 female workers at the Allegheny Cotton Mill went on strike for a 10-hour work day.
48:39
[SPEAKER_06]: The fast streams around Pittsburgh and Allegheny City were ideal to power cotton mills.
48:44
[SPEAKER_06]: The mills were overheated and filled with dangerous dust.
48:47
[SPEAKER_06]: Many of these women and child workers suffered from work-related lung diseases.
48:52
[SPEAKER_06]: The seven factories of Allegheny City employed about 1,500 young women.
48:56
[SPEAKER_06]: These women earn between $2.50 and $6 a week.
49:00
[SPEAKER_06]: They worked from sunrise to sunset, six days a week.
49:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Children made $3 a week at most.
49:07
[SPEAKER_06]: In 1843, factory owners cut wages even further.
49:10
[SPEAKER_06]: In the 1940s, a woman who had worked in the mills noted the ear filled with the noise of thousands of spindles.
49:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Anger over the deplorable working conditions grew.
49:19
[SPEAKER_06]: In early 1845, the women and children had had enough.
49:24
[SPEAKER_06]: They walked off the job and demanded a 10-hour workday and a living wage.
49:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Men supported them by gathering to protect the women from police attacks.
49:33
[SPEAKER_06]: After holding out for a month, the women began to return to work to survive.
49:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Some of the remaining strikers decided to try and remove the returning workers from the mills.
49:43
[SPEAKER_06]: They armed themselves with axes, but could not dislodge the workers.
49:47
[SPEAKER_06]: Public opinion turned against the striking women.
49:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Then, in September, workers marched on one of the largest area mills.
49:54
[SPEAKER_06]: The women broke down the factory gates and forcibly evicted the scab workers.
49:58
[SPEAKER_06]: The strike lasted for six months, but slowly out of desperation, more and more of the women workers went back to the mills.
50:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Although the women did not get their demands, the strike drew national attention.
50:10
[SPEAKER_06]: On Independence Day in 1848, the Pennsylvania legislature put into effect a 10-hour day law.
50:16
[SPEAKER_06]: But sadly, the law had numerous loopholes and had no real enforcement.
50:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Like what you hear, check out more at LaborHistoryInto.com.
50:46
[SPEAKER_06]: The bottom of the tank actually 35% Disciple approval rating 63% not a lot of middle ground there.
50:55
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems to be you love him.
50:57
[SPEAKER_06]: You hate him not a lot of people in the middle going Not what we fight we're finding out a lot of news reports going on around the AI stuff
51:07
[SPEAKER_06]: And, and look, you know, I, I wasn't expecting, uh, you sonny to, to come out with anything, you know, breaking, uh, there from the AFL Tech Institute, uh, but you wanted to get, uh, just wanted to get it out there.
51:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, the reality is, is Trump, we find out now met privately with saw Sam Altman at the Republican convention in Dallas on Thursday.
51:27
[SPEAKER_06]: And, and again, this is another one of those moments where you go,
51:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, who knows what they talked about, who knows if Sam Altman is actually as freaked out as the claims are, or if this is just a way, you know, the pump up, who knows?
51:45
[SPEAKER_06]: But on Monday, the Washington Sun reported that Trump unexpectedly called into a business and technology conference with the NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang, on his cell phone, you know, good national security stuff and dismissed the urgency of the moment.
52:08
[SPEAKER_06]: called it, well, he said robots will not be taking over the AI will not be taking over the rest of the world.
52:15
[SPEAKER_06]: The whole thing's in giant hoax, it's a hoax, it's a big hoax, it's a hoax.
52:20
[SPEAKER_06]: And again, I really, I don't think it can open an open email is now saying, you know, it's a hoax,
52:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And I do find it interesting that the same Washington sun reported that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that they don't want to jump in, you know, they don't want to get involved.
52:38
[SPEAKER_06]: They don't want the reflex of legislative bodies is to cover things up with red tape and hyperregulation.
52:46
[SPEAKER_06]: And if you do that, then you lose your edge.
52:49
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's a national security concern for the American people, according to Mike Johnson.
52:55
[SPEAKER_06]: so what he's saying honestly what he's saying is we're doing nothing there will be nothing done by the congressional legislative body uh don't hold your breath
53:07
[SPEAKER_06]: J.D.
53:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Vance came out and said that's well, if there's any regulation that comes of it, it should be a consensus between both Congress and the administration.
53:20
[SPEAKER_06]: He said if there's any chance, Congress will enact comprehensive AI regulation, it will require presidential leadership.
53:29
[SPEAKER_06]: vanset and clearly Trump doesn't believe there's any role for lawmakers in the AI department.
53:35
[SPEAKER_06]: So again, what he's saying is we're doing nothing.
53:40
[SPEAKER_06]: We're going to let this monster roam free because it's what we believe in.
53:45
[SPEAKER_06]: Now the Chinese, the Chinese have criticized calls from US tech leaders to put the kind of put the brakes on because they don't want to fall behind.
54:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, and this is where Trump is not entirely wrong, whoever wins AI, get a dominate the globe.
54:09
[SPEAKER_06]: And this is one of those things where you go, should we have such technology, should there be such technology?
54:17
[SPEAKER_06]: This is the scary part for me.
54:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, do I think that they're going to be, robot, at least in my lifetime, angry robots around every corner, on a furiously plotting to destroy humanity?
54:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Not right away.
54:34
[SPEAKER_06]: But I do have some real concerns.
54:37
[SPEAKER_06]: And the sad reality is our congressional body for too long has been way behind the curve on everything.
54:45
[SPEAKER_06]: They have been doing too much culture warrior.
54:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Hey, look at me, mugging for the camera, trying to get their attention, because after all their job is a popularity contest, where hey, look at me, gets votes.
54:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Instead of going, we need to do a job of ensuring that the American people are safe, secure, and all by the way, we have an economy that works.
55:07
[SPEAKER_06]: So the question that is, how's Wall Street responding to the AI crisis situation, hoax, end of the globe, potential, end of work, and end of need for money, and, you know, future abundance of, of, of plenty?
55:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, they've, they've reporting, they've kind of he-on.
55:27
[SPEAKER_06]: There's kind of been, kind of been really nothing.
55:31
[SPEAKER_06]: That's come out.
55:33
[SPEAKER_06]: Axiots has reported equity investors largely on Monday at warnings about AI wiping out humanity suggesting traders aren't pricing and and and and the existential threat so it's one of these things where my mind goes has Wall Street not figured out how to put a price on the end of humanity
56:02
[SPEAKER_06]: I have a not figured out how they can profit yet from our humanly demise, it makes one wonder.
56:18
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, look, I'm not entirely in the camp of smash the machine, but I do think there has to be some transparency.
56:28
[SPEAKER_06]: I do think that creating this monster without any oversight, probably not a great idea.
56:36
[SPEAKER_06]: And I do find it interesting, Trump's positioning.
56:40
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, Barack Obama has come out and said, you know, Democratic candidates, you've got to be talking about this.
56:46
[SPEAKER_06]: You're going to have to start taking a position.
56:48
[SPEAKER_06]: This is where Democrats, I think you're going to again take the position that I've taken is we've got to kind of,
56:55
[SPEAKER_06]: Tap the brakes, we've got to put some guardrails in place, not the kind of guardrails that Donald Trump thinks we need just a strong president, a good unitary executive, a good Trump.
57:06
[SPEAKER_06]: No, some actual oversight, some actual accountability, some actual regulation.
57:13
[SPEAKER_06]: So you've got an interesting moment here for the Red Hat crowd, because in 2024, and I
57:23
[SPEAKER_06]: My red hat friends were so freaked out that Joe Biden and the Democrats were going to institute a social credit score.
57:32
[SPEAKER_06]: And it was all because they're horrible terrible people.
57:35
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, this is the weird thing.
57:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Most of my red hat friends, they do terrible horrible things.
57:41
[SPEAKER_06]: So it's one of those things where they go, yeah, we don't want to have to be nice to our neighbors.
57:45
[SPEAKER_06]: We don't want to have to not drink and cause a ruckus and not just be Americans.
57:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, we don't want to have to pay for it, we don't have to be responsible for it.
57:54
[SPEAKER_06]: We want to be able to rip and tear a man and look, I'm not entirely opposed to it.
57:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Your freedom is to do whatever you want to do as long as it doesn't infringe on mine.
58:02
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm good.
58:03
[SPEAKER_06]: And this is why I've got a lot of red hat friends.
58:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I'm okay with them doing dumb stuff, especially if it's to themselves.
58:10
[SPEAKER_06]: But they were freaked out by the prospect that someone would be watching their stupidity and potentially charging them for their idiotsate.
58:20
[SPEAKER_06]: this is an interesting moment because you know I think they believed Trump would be their hero you know coming out against flock cameras and license plate readers and all of this stuff not you know not entirely against it because we need those things in those neighborhoods to keep those people in check but now that it's in their neighborhoods it's watching their public parks it's watching their lives
58:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, little freaked out by a little concerned, you know, so I'm going to be kind of interesting to watch the temperature either rise or fall with the red hat brigade in, in, in how Trump response because it's, I've done it.
59:04
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a hoax.
59:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Where are the, where are the, uh, where all those folks, the conspiracy nuts?
59:14
[SPEAKER_06]: or here's the other thing did the meeting with Altman come up with a way for Trump the profit off of off of killer AI.
59:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Is this a way he's going to stay in power?
59:25
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know why don't hear your thoughts email me ricketerrixmitcer.com.
59:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Miss any portion of the program grab the podcast and as always thanks so much for being here.
59:35
[SPEAKER_06]: We'll see you back your next time.
59:42
[SPEAKER_04]: you've been listening to the Rick Smith show.
59:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Email rack at rack at rack at the Rick Smith show.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Until next time, this is Ben, the Rick Smith show.
59:57
[SPEAKER_04]: We're working people, come to talk.