Latest / The Rick Smith Show / The Rick Smith Show 7-20-2026

Transcript

The Rick Smith Show 7-20-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_06]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:17
[SPEAKER_06]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_06]: That's so much for being here.
0:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Today on the big program lots to get to lots to talk about.
0:25
[SPEAKER_06]: Did you happen to catch the Thursday night speech?
0:30
[SPEAKER_06]: History is going to remember that speech as one of the most consequential moments in this country's history, I believe.
0:38
[SPEAKER_06]: While I went into watching the speech going Trump's a buffoon, he's going to ramble off on grievance, he's going to get sidetracked into, you know, what, what he normally does, his ego being the center of attention.
0:53
[SPEAKER_06]: And it was, don't, don't get me wrong.
0:54
[SPEAKER_06]: It was there.
0:55
[SPEAKER_06]: The ego was there.
1:00
[SPEAKER_06]: read from the teleprompter, poorly, but the words on the teleprompter were dangerous.
1:06
[SPEAKER_06]: It was a, I walked away going, did we just start World War 3?
1:13
[SPEAKER_06]: The accusation that China rigged our elections and at all bad news, anything negative about Trump is because of China's doing.
1:24
[SPEAKER_06]: while we're, we're, we're, we're screwing around with Iran.
1:27
[SPEAKER_06]: Now again, I was saying look, if this isn't about how we're getting out of Iran, if this isn't about how this is going to work, this is all going to be a distraction, I was wrong.
1:41
[SPEAKER_06]: this should be our focus.
1:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Because it is clear that this person does not believe in democracy in the person who wrote this speech, because trust me Donald Trump didn't sit down and put pen to paper to put those words together.
1:54
[SPEAKER_06]: None of that were his ideas.
1:59
[SPEAKER_06]: There is a movement in this country.
2:02
[SPEAKER_06]: that wants the subvert democracy, that wants to destroy our ability to rule and govern ourselves in what we saw on Thursday night was a declaration of the 250 years of democracy that we had, them's done.
2:18
[SPEAKER_06]: That idea that you're going to be able to go to the ballot box and cast your ballot, them's done unless you're approved.
2:29
[SPEAKER_06]: I couldn't help but think of Joseph McCarthy.
2:31
[SPEAKER_06]: I couldn't help but think of the Rosenbergs.
2:38
[SPEAKER_06]: I couldn't help but think that are we going to see public executions as Donald Trump and his go through our government and accuse people of, well, whatever they fancy is this
2:58
[SPEAKER_06]: the right has believed the victimization of the right and what they believe has happened to them is this their opportunity to go and wreak havoc across our country and the answer is yes, what he did and it's amazing to me, he's sitting holding power, Republicans control the house, control the Senate, control the majority of governorships in this country.
3:24
[SPEAKER_06]: control the majority of legislatures.
3:26
[SPEAKER_06]: And yet somehow the deep state and the Chinese have rigged the elections and stolen from Donald Trump.
3:35
[SPEAKER_06]: And it's quite remarkable to me.
3:39
[SPEAKER_06]: But here we are in this moment where our liar and chief, and look, I may not be here tomorrow because
3:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Let that sink in.
3:58
[SPEAKER_05]: This is serious.
4:02
[SPEAKER_06]: This is going to be a coordinated attack on descent, a coordinated attack on anyone who has the the audacity, the unmitigated goal to speak up and speak out.
4:16
[SPEAKER_06]: This is this is going to be a moment that is remembered.
4:21
[SPEAKER_06]: if he's allowed to do what they want, which is steal the midterm elections, grab power from the hands of we the people.
4:32
[SPEAKER_06]: And while on the way, crash the global economy and start World War 3.
4:39
[SPEAKER_06]: As I said, yesterday on the program, in my neck of the woods, they had a defense summit, talking about how we can make faster bombs, how we can build faster so we can ramp up
4:53
[SPEAKER_06]: All of these, all of these things are them telling the truth, telling us who they are and what they want.
5:01
[SPEAKER_06]: And the question is, in the moment while we still have the ability to govern ourselves, this is a moment to get active, to get involved, this is not a moment to bury our heads in the sand.
5:14
[SPEAKER_06]: This is a call to action.
5:17
[SPEAKER_06]: I wanna hear your thoughts.
5:18
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you think of this speech?
5:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Email me ricketerricksmithshow.com, right back.
5:29
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
5:32
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1934.
5:36
[SPEAKER_06]: The Teamster members of Local 574 in Minneapolis were back out on strike.
5:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Their strike had begun two months prior on May 16th.
5:46
[SPEAKER_06]: The striking Teamsters had effectively shut down much of the commercial transportation in the city.
5:52
[SPEAKER_06]: One exception was made for some farmers.
5:55
[SPEAKER_06]: who are allowed to bring their produce to market.
5:58
[SPEAKER_06]: The powerful citizens' alliance created to oppose and destroy unions tried to defeat the strike.
6:04
[SPEAKER_06]: The police clashed violently with the strikers who tried to keep scab drivers from breaking through their picket lines.
6:11
[SPEAKER_06]: As the strike entered its second week, other unions began to strike in support of the teamsters, clashes between the police and workers intensified.
6:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Minneapolis labor leaders sat down with the police and proposed a truce.
6:25
[SPEAKER_06]: The governor of Minnesota Floyd Olson helped to arbitrate an agreement.
6:29
[SPEAKER_06]: The teamsters won Union Recognition and the right for all strikers to return to work.
6:35
[SPEAKER_06]: as well as a system of recognizing senior ed on May 25th they called off the strike and went back to work.
6:42
[SPEAKER_06]: But soon the employers began to backpattle on the agreement.
6:46
[SPEAKER_06]: They claimed that the negotiations did not include the workers inside warehouses.
6:52
[SPEAKER_06]: and only covered those who drove and unloaded vehicles.
6:56
[SPEAKER_06]: Anger, the teamsters went back out on strike, soon violent clashes between the picketers and police broke out again.
7:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Two workers were shot in the back and kill.
7:07
[SPEAKER_06]: The governor declared martial law and sent in the national guard to restore order.
7:11
[SPEAKER_06]: A federal mediator procured another settlement, meeting the major demands of the union.
7:17
[SPEAKER_06]: It was a major victory for the teamsters and a major victory for the workers of Minneapolis and beyond.
7:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Like what you hear, check out more at LaborHistoryInto.com.
7:47
[SPEAKER_06]: I just finally did just generally a word salad of distraction and stupidity.
7:53
[SPEAKER_06]: This speech, this speech that Trump gave on Thursday.
7:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, this is this is bad.
8:01
[SPEAKER_06]: This is bad.
8:01
[SPEAKER_06]: And what's interesting is, uh, using, you know, pointing the finger at the deep state while using deep state documents.
8:08
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, by to blame China for him being a moron is is really, I, I, I don't know where to go with this.
8:16
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's why I've asked my good friend, Alex Losson to come share some thoughts.
8:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Alex, um, I'm sure you saw the speech on Thursday.
8:23
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, gut reaction.
8:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's bad.
8:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It's bad, Rick.
8:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is Rubicon crossing territory, I think, you know?
8:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been looking at Rick Pearlstein noted historian and his take is that this is worse than anything we've seen in history worse than McCarthy in West Virginia in 1950 that this is just a declaration of war against United States.
8:57
[SPEAKER_01]: democracy against the democracy that our country is based on and it's brazen and it's open and it should terrify people.
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I also though didn't see this as coming from a place of strength, you know, this is
9:16
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't mean it's not dangerous.
9:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen time and time again in history, you know, a cornered rat, is most dangerous when they're in the corner.
9:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a desperate man who happens to be the most powerful person in the world.
9:33
[SPEAKER_01]: laying out a fictitious, a completely fictitious reality called to arms for his core supporters who have a sort of mezionic fervor about them.
9:47
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that he's deeply unpopular with the American people, you know, no one's lives are getting better.
9:53
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads off the speech with just a...
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: a binder full of lies, just one.
10:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm making everything so much better drug prices are the lowest in the world.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: What now?
10:05
[SPEAKER_01]: We have the highest drug prices in the world still.
10:07
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing that's pushing drug prices down is Medicare negotiation that Joe Biden passed.
10:12
[SPEAKER_01]: But that doesn't matter to what he's doing because it's myth making.
10:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is right out of the authoritarian playbook.
10:21
[SPEAKER_06]: So you said, you know, he's declared war on our system.
10:25
[SPEAKER_06]: I also got to tell you by pointing the finger directly at China.
10:29
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm basically creating what, you know, what he believed was a hoax with Russia, but now creating his own version with China.
10:38
[SPEAKER_06]: I got to wonder how they're going to react, because this is the weird part, this is where I'm struggling.
10:43
[SPEAKER_06]: I think every thinking logical person in this country should be thinking, if the elections were rigged, why is he in the White House?
10:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Why do the Republicans control the Senate?
10:53
[SPEAKER_06]: Why do they control the House?
10:55
[SPEAKER_06]: Why do they control the governorships?
10:57
[SPEAKER_06]: Many governors are, why are they in power?
11:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's the question, but again, you're asking the question to people who are thinking, right?
11:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And what people should understand is that when you're whipping up a frenzy amongst a cult-like following, reality doesn't matter, just the words of dear leader.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, like,
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look and Google the history of Stalin and Kim Jong-il, you know, the old guy, one of the things that you find and it's been studied in totalitarianism is the boldness of the lie is the point, right?
11:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So Stalin and Kim Jong-il both said that the first time they play golf,
11:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely not true, but that's the point.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has to accept that or they're going to get a bullet in the back of the head, and that's the point.
12:00
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't about convincing people of truth.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: This is about demonstrating.
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: the power to lie, and that's what it was.
12:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a speech saying, I can lie with impunity, and I'm going to wield the apparatus of state against people who I consider enemies who he lists, right?
12:22
[SPEAKER_01]: The media institutions that protect democracy, organizations that help people register to vote and make their voices heard.
12:32
[SPEAKER_01]: He lists his enemies, and all of those enemies
12:37
[SPEAKER_01]: are pieces of a free society, because that's what this is an attack on.
12:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I think your question of how China reacts to this is incredibly important, especially since, you know, the big
12:53
[SPEAKER_01]: fails to mention, he starts this unwinnable war against Iran that has only led to Iran demonstrating that the United States of America with all of its military might cannot keep the straits of war moves open, and we're stuck in an escalation trap there, and it's just going to get worse and worse and worse.
13:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You bring in China, and then you have to wonder,
13:19
[SPEAKER_01]: is he just trying to bring the whole house of cards down, causing a full-scale economic collapse, so that he can seize more power in the midst of an emergency.
13:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely reject people who are like, oh, come on, no, what we've seen so far.
13:40
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we should base things on.
13:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Pete Hegseff and Donald Trump called all of the military brass to a meeting and said that they should practice on American cities.
13:50
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a masked papers, please police force murdering people one after another in cold blood.
13:59
[SPEAKER_01]: torturing people in detention centers.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Purposefully, I believe, arresting the wrong people or murdering the wrong people to send the message that nobody is safe from the state violence.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is part of it.
14:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And the next part is whipping the mob violence into a frenzy.
14:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, what I'm, because I had texted you during the speech and I said, you know, this is this is going to turn into conservatives.
14:30
[SPEAKER_06]: There, basically, they're wet dream of, they're going to Trump is going to do everything that they believe Obama did to that.
14:37
[SPEAKER_06]: And, and you know, I have a lot of friends who, you know, they're their first reaction to this is most certainly it's now time to get revenge.
14:46
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's how I saw this speech.
14:47
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's why I'll be honest, I went into it thinking, oh, he's just going to be on a bunch of grievance.
14:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Just going to be about, you know, sour grapes, about him losing in 2020, in about losing a number of elections.
14:58
[SPEAKER_06]: No, no, this is much worse than sour grapes.
15:01
[SPEAKER_06]: This is McCarthyism, this is loyalty.
15:04
[SPEAKER_06]: So this is, we're going into prosecuting people and potentially death penalty stuff.
15:11
[SPEAKER_06]: I just, I see this going in a really horrible, horrible way.
15:16
[SPEAKER_06]: and I see his base being all behind it.
15:21
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going in a horrible way, Rick.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, it's, we're in a horrible way, right?
15:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, put this against Marco Rubio saying, you know what we should do right now, dismantle the international criminal court, the court that was set up to prosecute perpetrators of genocide and war crimes and crimes against humanity.
15:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's something that you do when your,
15:47
[SPEAKER_01]: thinking that that's what you're going to do you're going to do though.
15:50
[SPEAKER_06]: So let me stop here that I mean Trump did say now too long ago we're going to wipe out 90 million people we're going to wipe out a civilization is that what we're talking about.
16:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he said just recently that the next week is going to be attacking civilian infrastructure in Iran and decimating civilian infrastructure.
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think the escalation is clear.
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the path that they're going down is likewise clear.
16:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I have long said on this program, we're in the middle of a coup.
16:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a slow moving, but not that slow, coup.
16:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you read history, just like the broad strokes of history, everything looks like it happened here, and then it happened here, and then it happened here.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how history works.
16:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys, if you then look into the here, you see, no, it actually has this,
16:55
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where we are.
16:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So the only question is sort of what kind of inflection point are we going to hit and what is the reaction of the American people going to be?
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will say that's where I still find hope because the American people, this is an enormous country, enormous.
17:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have
17:15
[SPEAKER_01]: hundreds of millions of people.
17:17
[SPEAKER_01]: We have 50 states.
17:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We have governors.
17:20
[SPEAKER_01]: We have all sorts of attorneys general.
17:24
[SPEAKER_01]: We actually have a lot of pieces.
17:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like a... For now.
17:32
[SPEAKER_01]: For now, and absolutely, they're trying to crush it all under a federal control, but it's not there yet, right?
17:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that what we will see is the American people being like, no.
17:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And in point of fact, even in the face of tremendous violence, it is still
17:50
[SPEAKER_01]: every day people saying no, that stops authoritarianism, so are we in a country with a president who is trying to destroy democracy so that he can remain in power and his billionaire buddies can remain in power his billionaire buddies who openly
18:10
[SPEAKER_01]: openly talk about replacing democracy with a corporate structure where they can do whatever they want, and everyone else can die or fight over the scraps that fall off their table.
18:23
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where we are.
18:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that many people understand that, but more people will
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: and we've seen it before, we've seen that these attempts to stop people from voting actually bring out more people to vote, but we also need to understand that the ultimate check-on power is the people.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't wait for the Congress, you can't wait for
19:03
[SPEAKER_01]: spreading across this country and deal with it with clear eyes, not fear, but bravery.
19:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that this country is up to the task.
19:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that Americans are by and large, decent, hardworking, believe in freedom, believe in democracy, hold those ideals to be true.
19:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a student of the New Deal, uh, always.
19:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It was that you had father, Kauffland, the biggest media celebrity in the history of the country, possibly the world, nobody has that amount of audience.
19:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And that man was openly pushing for a coup against the against democracy.
19:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You had Nazis in America working to overthrow the government.
19:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We were on a knife's edge at that moment.
20:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And the American people did not cover, the American people stood up, and they fought back.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I will also say, from the depths of the Great Depression, though, right?
20:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So the inflection point was a giant economic collapse.
20:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is what I think
20:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm most worried about is that this administration is now fermenting a economic collapse so that they can seize emergency power and put elections on hold to maintain their power because they know they're going to lose if they hold free and fair elections.
20:40
[SPEAKER_06]: So I've been saying for a very long time that the right spends billions of dollars paying really smart people to dream up really bad ideas so that when the next collapse when the next Pearl Harbor when the next horrible thing happens they are ready to take full advantage and institute their version of of a utopia.
20:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, am I off base because I fear that when the next thing happens and it looks like they're pushing us towards world war three, they're pushing us towards as you've said, an economic collapse.
21:11
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, I think they're ready with the next round of this is what this is their new deal moment and their opportunity to remake this country and in their world view.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, that scares me.
21:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It should scare you.
21:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It scares me.
21:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they got to tension centers set up all around the country, torture centers, right?
21:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And they built an apparatus.
21:31
[SPEAKER_01]: They as authoritarians always do, they started with the least powerful in society, right?
21:37
[SPEAKER_01]: They were like, oh, yeah, we're targeting the the only the criminals they they weren't.
21:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But they were targeting people who don't have power.
21:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And then that expands out until you're the target.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Until I'm the target, until everybody who disagrees with this administration can be put on a list and either accidentally shot by the Gestapo papers, please police force, or thrown into a goolog and forgotten.
22:05
[SPEAKER_06]: That's the game for, you know, first they came for, fill in the blank.
22:09
[SPEAKER_06]: And then eventually they're going to come for you and me, we've seen this playbook before.
22:14
[SPEAKER_06]: So then you know, look, you know, you're an organizing guy, you know, what do people do?
22:18
[SPEAKER_06]: Does this, do you think this speech wakes folks up?
22:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Do you think this is a shake-a-wake moment?
22:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Or do you think nobody really paid attention to it?
22:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Because some places didn't air it.
22:29
[SPEAKER_06]: How do you think this lands?
22:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It's difficult to say, but I think that the, I think it's going to scare Republicans to, I think they're going to be like, oh man, I don't know about my future in this system.
22:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know if you're going to get full-throated support from institutional Republicans and that goes down to the states as well.
22:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But I also, you know, it's a bit of a mystery.
23:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that Donald Trump is incredibly unpopular.
23:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that, you know, the fact that we're sitting under this enormous heat dome, you can taste the air outside.
23:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you eat a salad, you're spending weeks in the bathroom.
23:17
[SPEAKER_01]: The Mahav Blast, as they're calling it on the internet,
23:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
23:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like people's lives are not in a great place and that's been getting worse.
23:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think that this is going to be again, it's not like this happened.
23:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes that is.
23:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes there is, you know, a moment.
23:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think that this is just going to be more evidence for people that this is an anti-democratic regime.
23:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know what that looks like.
23:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So my family is from Brazil.
23:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just, I've never had that it can't happen here.
23:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Thing, I've never thought that America is somehow immune to the civilization long.
24:03
[SPEAKER_01]: threat of autocracy.
24:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Democracy is the rare one, right?
24:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So obvious that you have to care for it or it will be destroyed.
24:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And so hopefully people's eyes open up more from the naked threats that he made and people realize that, you know, oh, the
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: the people who were saying it's it's on American to have the military come in and for the president to say you know target American cities as practice they weren't off base they weren't you know it's not overreaction this is where we are we're in the midst of an attempted coup it's a little bit slow moving but not that slow look at how much of society they've already transformed
24:55
[SPEAKER_01]: get to watch the destruction of social security every day, right?
25:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And this thing that I thought was protected that it was, you know, a concrete pill box that we built all these protections around and they took a chain saw and they cut through the protections.
25:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is just one.
25:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
25:17
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing that I have to count on is the American people.
25:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will count on the American people.
25:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't predict the future.
25:27
[SPEAKER_01]: But I am looking around.
25:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I've traveled all over this country and what I found is that people are pissed.
25:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't put Trump in office to overthrow democracy.
25:38
[SPEAKER_01]: People put Trump in office because they wanted a better life and the billionaires are making everyone's lives worse.
25:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're seeing that the scales continue to fall from people's eyes, that it's not the immigrants.
25:51
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the billionaires.
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not some other person.
25:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the billionaires.
25:55
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not whatever Donald Trump's scare tactic is.
25:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the billionaires over and over and over again.
26:03
[SPEAKER_01]: The American people will stand up, will get organized, and will fight back.
26:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I've seen so far.
26:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think the people that I've been organizing with are going to take a knee now.
26:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that they're going to actually understand that the time has been called.
26:23
[SPEAKER_01]: The question has been called.
26:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And now the question is,
26:27
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you up for?
26:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What can you do to fight against the destruction of our country, of our ideals?
26:34
[SPEAKER_06]: No, which side are you going to be on in this?
26:36
[SPEAKER_06]: Last, last bit, real quick, one action we should be doing.
26:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Give me one, because I hope people are looking for something to do, give me one action.
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: The SAVE act in the Congress needs to be defeated in a really loud way.
26:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is not like a super difficult task.
26:57
[SPEAKER_01]: The House is completely chaotic.
26:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike Johnson does not have control over it.
27:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You have Republicans already saying they're not going to vote for it.
27:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Tillis Senator Tillis.
27:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So we need everyone to call their elected representatives and say the say-back is a attack on American democracy.
27:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I just listened to Donald Trump say that.
27:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you vote for it, I will know that you are an enemy of American democracy.
27:24
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't vote for the say-back.
27:26
[SPEAKER_01]: That's one specific thing happening right now that people can take action on.
27:33
[SPEAKER_06]: No, no, no, they should write that down verbatim and use that as the script because that's perfect.
27:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Alex, as always, I appreciate the time you're insight in your expertise.
27:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks so much.
27:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Ray.
27:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Want to hear your thoughts?
27:45
[SPEAKER_06]: Did you watch the speech?
27:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Concerned, scared, worried?
27:51
[SPEAKER_06]: You should be.
27:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Want to hear your thoughts?
27:53
[SPEAKER_06]: Rick at therixmithshow.com, right back.
28:00
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
28:03
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1917.
28:07
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the day 50,000 lumber workers across the Pacific Northwest, participated in an industry-wide strike called by the industrial workers of the world.
28:16
[SPEAKER_06]: The IWW had been organizing loggers for years around wages, hours, working conditions, and camp sanitation.
28:24
[SPEAKER_06]: The IWW began building for the strike in the aftermath of the Everett Massacre of the previous fall.
28:30
[SPEAKER_06]: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn started touring camps in Idaho.
28:33
[SPEAKER_06]: By March, the wobbleies established local 500 of the lumber workers' industrial union in Spokane to organize across the region.
28:42
[SPEAKER_06]: In his book, Emperor of Timber, historian Eric Luma's details the chronology of events that led to the momentous walkout.
28:50
[SPEAKER_06]: In Idaho, Loggers began walking off the job in April when demands for improved bunkhouses and food, higher wages and the eight-hour day were refused.
28:59
[SPEAKER_06]: The strike spread to Washington State, the rest of Idaho and into Montana and Oregon.
29:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Luma's notes that by August, they made employers feel their wrath.
29:10
[SPEAKER_06]: The strike cut production by over 80% and threatened war material.
29:14
[SPEAKER_06]: Infuriated timber bosses demanded federal troops be sent in to crush the strike and IWW leaders be prosecuted for treason and sabotage.
29:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Rates and arrests were orchestrated throughout the Pacific Northwest and the strike began to stall.
29:30
[SPEAKER_06]: After ten weeks, the IWW called off the strike, but instructed workers to quit work after eight hours.
29:37
[SPEAKER_06]: They continued to lead sanitation-related job actions that would substantially change conditions for the better.
29:46
[SPEAKER_04]: 50,000 dirty roads of blankets on their backs.
29:51
[SPEAKER_04]: 50,000 mines made up to strike and strike like men.
29:55
[SPEAKER_06]: Labor History and Tube brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: What a show, huh?
30:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Big name corporations when all I have this July 4th with a patriotic ad blitz, professing their devotion to America's democracy.
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But it amounted to a firecracker of hypocrisy.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: For many of these showboat patriots have been back room funders of Trump regimes repression of our people's democratic rights.
30:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, there's an internal level of cynical dishonesty in their flashy show of support for egalitarian values.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: In the past few years, a clique of the Silicon Valley and Wall Street Giants had been monkey wrenching the rules of their own corporate governance to crush the very ideal of shareholder democracy.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, such a concept has existed, at least in theory.
30:46
[SPEAKER_00]: For decades, big business profiteers have been given special privileges.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Over the rest of us, claiming to be Democratic enterprises governed by masses of common shareholders who get one vote for each share of stock they own.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, that makes a corporation more of a plutocracy since the more stock you own the more votes you get.
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Today though, even plutocracy is too democratic for monarchy of billionaire bosses like Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX.
31:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So they've invented a superclass of shareholders, mostly themselves and their cronies.
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: These elite owners get domineering voting power, exceeding all other investors combined.
31:28
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, Musk owns about 40% of the stock in SpaceX, but his self-created system gives him more than 80% of shareholder votes.
31:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Among other advantages, this skewed voting power makes most, quote, unfirable, unless he votes to fire himself.
31:46
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hi-To-R saying, but where a billionaire's professing any allegiance to America's Democratic values, in fact, just be where a billionaire's period.
32:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:10
[SPEAKER_06]: I've been saying for years, about 21 of them now.
32:14
[SPEAKER_06]: that if we want to rebuild the most prosperous working class in the history of humanity kind of like our grandparents built, the way we do that, the vehicle that we use to get there are stronger unions, higher union density, more people in collective bargaining agreements, better wages, hours, conditions, all of that stuff and beyond beyond just the wages, hours, conditions empowered citizens.
32:34
[SPEAKER_06]: If you're empowered in the workplace, chances are, you're going to kind of take that feeling into the public square and demand better
32:44
[SPEAKER_06]: You think?
32:45
[SPEAKER_06]: And I've been saying this, and people are like, oh, you're crazy.
32:47
[SPEAKER_06]: It's like a, now the folks over at the Economic Policy Institute, they've actually put it down on paper, exactly what I've been saying all these years, and here to share some thoughts on what their findings are, I've asked Margaret Poedak to come share some thoughts.
33:00
[SPEAKER_06]: She's a senior policy analyst there at the Economic Policy Institute.
33:04
[SPEAKER_06]: She's going to be the bring the facts, the receipts, all the stuff that I've been saying, Margaret, thanks for taking time for us.
33:11
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm sure you've seen the reports as I've been talking about for the last week, the Fed has come out and said that right now the working class is getting the smallest portion of the economic pie that they've been getting since the 40s since they began taking this stuff.
33:25
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't think we needed the Fed to tell us that people go into the grocery store trying to put
33:30
[SPEAKER_06]: food on the table and gas in their tanks have realized the wallet isn't as fast as it used to be and I argue that has everything to do with the fact that union density now in the private sector is down to 6%.
33:41
[SPEAKER_06]: You guys have written the report.
33:43
[SPEAKER_06]: What you find.
33:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so our report talks about what is a world like if we were to triple union density from today's rate.
33:53
[SPEAKER_03]: So today, union membership is about 10%.
33:57
[SPEAKER_03]: So if we were to triple that, that would bring it back to the 30% we saw in.
34:02
[SPEAKER_03]: the 1950s and 60s where you membership was really high.
34:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And so our report really looks at how expanding or tripling you membership would boost wages for workers.
34:14
[SPEAKER_03]: It would help reduce that income inequality that you've mentioned and it would benefit the communities and our democracy at large as well.
34:22
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, again, I've been saying that, you know, a power in the workplace translates the power in the public square.
34:29
[SPEAKER_06]: If you've got money in your pocket, you can take a day off, maybe you can go to a protest or rally, maybe you can take a day off to go vote, or maybe you can work your way into doing that.
34:37
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems to me that that kind of empowerment is something that we've lost over the last several decades, especially as density has dropped, and precipitously the last several years.
34:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, walk me through some of what your findings in your report in this reporter sent.
34:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I get if we were to triple union density as it was when our grandparents, my grandparents generation ruled the roost, uh, yeah, one income could support a family, one income, put food on the table, a roof over the head, cars in the driveway, vacations, college funds, all of that, um, things I think we could be looking towards, help me through some of this.
35:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so our report finds that tripling in a density would deliver a roughly 15% raised for the median worker.
35:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And that translates to about $7,000 annually, or nearly $270,000, $250,000 over a 35-year career.
35:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And that really does add up.
35:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's a life-changing amount as well that I think you mentioned putting people into college like that is enough to cover the cost of college for two children for four-year public universities so like really life-changing amounts of money.
35:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Trippling the agency would also shift 1.2 trillion to workers annually and I think in a report we say that that's enough to reverse about a third of the income inequality that we have seen since 1979.
36:02
[SPEAKER_03]: So those are some monetary impacts that we have seen in our report, where we are forecasting in our report.
36:08
[SPEAKER_06]: The other day I was talking about infographic I saw and it said that the average wealth in the country, average, was almost $700,000.
36:18
[SPEAKER_06]: But when you broke down with the median wealth was, it was like $70,000.
36:24
[SPEAKER_06]: uh you know so we got a lot of really really really rich people bringing up that average whereas the median number is well what most of us are are have and are struggling with is this a way that you redistribute some of that wealth because i know we're not allowed to say that
36:41
[SPEAKER_06]: but ultimately having stronger union densities going to mean redistributed a little wealth that our labor creates from shareholders in the wealth class back down to the people who actually showed up did the work and our you know got the broken bodies and and and backs back eggs to get that is that that vehicle then.
37:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I do think unions and the act of collective bargaining is like one of the most important tools to ensure that workers are able to capture the wealth that they have helped produce at their works in the economy.
37:12
[SPEAKER_06]: because you know this is one of those things that I keep talking about.
37:15
[SPEAKER_06]: We're not a poor country.
37:17
[SPEAKER_06]: There is no reason that if you go to the punch of clock, that if you're doing what we were asked to do, show up to 40 hours of labor, there's no reason that we cannot survive in this country and not just survive, but actually thrive.
37:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I'm old enough to remember, and I know I'm getting a little bit older, but my grandparents, my grandfather, one income,
37:39
[SPEAKER_06]: when my mother and her brother and sister were old enough.
37:42
[SPEAKER_06]: My grandmother went back into the workforce for a little pin money.
37:46
[SPEAKER_06]: It wasn't something that was a mandate.
37:48
[SPEAKER_06]: We are now living in a time Margaret.
37:50
[SPEAKER_06]: We're not just two incomes are needed for a family, but sometimes three or four with a gig on the side.
37:55
[SPEAKER_06]: I think there's something broken in how we're compensating work.
38:02
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm sure that this is part of that.
38:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, 100% that is part of it and I do want to address to that it's an addition to helping workers, unions helping workers gain better pay and better benefits.
38:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Our report also talks about how unions are just a
38:23
[SPEAKER_03]: a great vehicle or a tool to help ensure that not just individual homes, but also communities thrive.
38:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And so in our report we do highlight that if we were to triple union density, our uninsurance rate would fall about 25 percent.
38:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So more people have health care, which obviously is great.
38:43
[SPEAKER_03]: We also talk about how
38:46
[SPEAKER_03]: states with higher union density when we increase union density, they spend more on public education.
38:52
[SPEAKER_03]: They have higher unemployment insurance, reciproancy rates.
38:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So folks do lose their job.
38:57
[SPEAKER_03]: They're most like more likely to have some sort of safety nets to help them manage while they find a new job.
39:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And then also, they also show in our report that union-high union density states are also
39:17
[SPEAKER_03]: society as well.
39:18
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, no.
39:18
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, it all makes common sense that if you have some economic power, you're going to have some political power, it makes perfect sense to me.
39:26
[SPEAKER_06]: But I look at the right, which keeps telling me that those right-to-work states are thriving, because they're growing.
39:32
[SPEAKER_06]: The populations are growing, because people are running away from those forced union states.
39:37
[SPEAKER_06]: and I know that I guarantee there's someone out there thinking of how to use your report to say, look, you know those New York and California are struggling and yet New York and California is economies are doing pretty well in my view.
39:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, I will say in our report we look at what happens when we triple union density for every state, but we also look at if we were pulling some policy level levers to see like, okay, if we were to remove right to work,
40:04
[SPEAKER_03]: from right to work states or as well as really ensuring that public sector workers have the right to join unions in collectively bargain.
40:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And when we pull those policy levers, we find that union density does really rise from the 10% we see now to about 15% as well.
40:22
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just saying
40:25
[SPEAKER_03]: That really illustrates that there are barriers in these right-to-work states and how it interacts with your new membership as well.
40:32
[SPEAKER_06]: So how do we get here?
40:33
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, look, I've been saying for a long time that we've needed major comprehensive labor law reform.
40:39
[SPEAKER_06]: I argue we should go back to the original intent of the NLRA.
40:43
[SPEAKER_06]: to where, you know, we don't need secret elections, we don't need time periods for the boss to go beat, not bond people, because the boss had plenty of time from the day they hired you until the moment you decided that you've had enough, they could've, they could've done the right thing all along.
40:58
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems to me that going back and using the tools of my grandparents' generation to build what was incredible prosperity for people who drive trucks and work in factories and work in mills and all those other working class jobs.
41:12
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems like that's the way to go.
41:14
[SPEAKER_06]: how in this day and age do we get there given the fact that you've got this administration that has been so hostile to federal employees and and that is trickling down into every other workplace I believe across the country how do we get to this place and what's the hope for this report
41:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's a great question.
41:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So we mentioned that in order to get to 30%, we do need comprehensive labor law reform.
41:39
[SPEAKER_03]: And that does include passing the Protecting DelOright to Organize Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.
41:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Those are things that have to be passed in order to reach these goals.
41:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We also mentioned two new kind of policy levers.
41:54
[SPEAKER_03]: One is that a guaranteed annual raise for new for first contract arbitration.
42:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So in the event that a contract ends up or first contract ends up in arbitration, they are entitled to a cost of laying adjustments.
42:09
[SPEAKER_03]: So when they, if they have to go to arbitration, they are guaranteed a raise in that.
42:12
[SPEAKER_03]: case.
42:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's one policy lever that we are promoting in the report.
42:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And the other one is default collective bargaining, one COP, CO to worker pay ratios, exceed 100 to 1.
42:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And our kind of rationale for that is that if inequality inside a company reaches those extremes, then workers should automatically have the opportunity to collectively bargain and ensure that they have the right, have the ability to get the share of wealth that they have helped produce.
42:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And we tried to have an optimistic take here.
42:46
[SPEAKER_03]: We tried to bring some background information to show that the last two labor law bills that have been passed within the past year have been passed by bipartisan support.
42:57
[SPEAKER_03]: So we have the faster labor contracts act, which passed last month with a
43:01
[SPEAKER_03]: all Democrats and 20 Republicans.
43:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And so there's like real momentum in the house at least to pass these bills.
43:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Another factoid you want to bring up here to really build a momentum is that union support or support for unions from the general public is at a whole time high.
43:17
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually 20 points higher than the last time labor law was considered back in the mid 2000s under the Employee Free Chowes Act.
43:26
[SPEAKER_03]: that you popularity for you just as that all time low then and we were very close to passing the employee for choice act so.
43:33
[SPEAKER_03]: We're in a different time where we have support from workers, the public, and really interest to pass labor law.
43:39
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really, at this point, pressuring politicians to pass these things.
43:45
[SPEAKER_06]: What a different world we were in when we were, what, our inspector away from putting it on Bush's desk and Bush would have signed it as I'm told.
43:54
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm told he would have signed it.
43:55
[SPEAKER_06]: And what a different world we were in then.
43:58
[SPEAKER_06]: And look, what you brought up the faster labor contract act, which I'm not opposed to, is only a third of what the employee free choice act was.
44:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Because if you remember, there was more to that.
44:08
[SPEAKER_06]: So it seems to me that it might be helpful, but you got to get to the election first.
44:13
[SPEAKER_06]: And what we're watching this administration do to the NLRB, I will see.
44:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Again, given the realities of the world we're in, I love the fact that there's momentum being done to push these things.
44:26
[SPEAKER_06]: But I have very little hope that this administration is ever going to sign that or the Republicans.
44:32
[SPEAKER_06]: I know we love to talk about bipartisanship, but I doubt they let this happen.
44:37
[SPEAKER_06]: So in that event, I guess what's the alternative?
44:40
[SPEAKER_06]: What's the marching order then with my reality kind of thrown in there?
44:46
[SPEAKER_06]: Or do you think I'm wrong?
44:48
[SPEAKER_03]: No, it's something to consider.
44:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, we'll see what happens in these midterms when it comes to the makeup of the house and the Senate.
44:55
[SPEAKER_03]: But we do emphasize that states are also places where we can help foster the ability for folks to join unions and collectively bargain.
45:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So we mentioned that states can put efforts to repeal the right to work laws.
45:10
[SPEAKER_03]: They can expand collective bargaining for public sector workers where that's not happening.
45:17
[SPEAKER_03]: You can expand collective bargaining rights to individuals that have been excluded on federal law.
45:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So that includes domestic workers, agricultural workers, independent contractors.
45:28
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a lot that can be done in the states and folks, probably your listeners are probably familiar that Michigan is a great example of a state that had passed right to work and has recently
45:42
[SPEAKER_03]: repealed it.
45:43
[SPEAKER_03]: So like there is possibility in those in the state level definitely.
45:46
[SPEAKER_06]: No, it looks something we absolutely need to do, but everyone you talk to realizes the economy seems rigged.
45:52
[SPEAKER_06]: They all say the same thing.
45:53
[SPEAKER_06]: They're working harder and harder for less and less.
45:56
[SPEAKER_06]: It seems now would be the right time for an explosion of union membership, of density to rise.
46:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Why aren't we seeing that?
46:05
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, I keep saying this is where I'm a little more jaded than most.
46:10
[SPEAKER_06]: We got the great expansion of the labor movement after the great depression.
46:14
[SPEAKER_06]: So it's my view that things only get better after they've gotten enormously worse.
46:20
[SPEAKER_06]: And I don't think we're there yet.
46:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Do you share my pessimism or do you have optimism that you think this is going to this is going to move in a direction where hey, you know, people want it, they might figure out how to get it.
46:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, it's undeniable that there are barriers for workers to organize and reach first contracts or just continuing with contracts, but I will say this past year 2025 really kind of gave me optimism we did see.
46:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Union density, Union membership, those represent by unions.
46:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We saw them take up words, like, this is, so that is something that we're going to, we are going to monitor ourselves at API.
46:58
[SPEAKER_03]: But I also want to recognize that we are, we have seen a lot of momentum with Starwalk with REI a bunch of big.
47:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Amazon bunch of big name organizations.
47:07
[SPEAKER_03]: I just want to recenter that organizing does take time and I mean I think we are just seeing now like the the fruits of the organizing that these workers have taken on past several years in the 2025 numbers.
47:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I'm looking forward to seeing the 26 numbers to see if we see more momentum going forward.
47:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, to that point, and why I think getting to 30% union density and seeing a growing more robust, more militant labor movement is so important is I just had a conversation with a woman who works at Starbucks.
47:39
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, her store is not a part of any organizing campaign.
47:43
[SPEAKER_06]: There's nothing going out at her store, but there has been a reverberation effect.
47:48
[SPEAKER_06]: two her store where her health insurance got so much better her wages went up her conditions got better she's like hey things this is the greatest place in the world the work is the best job I've had and and without understanding that it was really that push of all those stores across the country that are trying to get that union contract
48:06
[SPEAKER_06]: that have made that job a much better job.
48:09
[SPEAKER_06]: So there is that kind of pulling along, because if we did get the 30%, that means 70% of workers still aren't in unions.
48:17
[SPEAKER_06]: But, you know, you can look back to the past, you know, we had, we had parity for the most part in union and non-union spots didn't we?
48:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, and I will say even in the world where we have only 30% people of dining members, like you said, 70% or not.
48:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And non-union workers would still see those higher wages.
48:37
[SPEAKER_03]: They would see those better working conditions.
48:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And see really feel those impacts, the hiring densities states have because, well, in the case, like you said, the Starbucks worker is that the employer has having to raise these conditions in order
48:53
[SPEAKER_03]: They're getting pressure from the Union, but also to ensure that they can maintain.
48:59
[SPEAKER_03]: the person to be employed.
49:00
[SPEAKER_03]: So like, yeah, there's just, there's, there's spillover effects with unions as well.
49:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
49:05
[SPEAKER_06]: No, it's, so what, what's the, the marching order here?
49:07
[SPEAKER_06]: What are, what are, what are you hoping comes out of this?
49:09
[SPEAKER_06]: And I hope folks will go to EPI.org and check out the piece.
49:12
[SPEAKER_06]: The case for trip early and union membership will get links out on social media, but Margaret, you know, what's, what's, what's the, is there an act here?
49:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Is there, is there, is this a policy piece for, for lawmakers?
49:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Is this information piece for voters to maybe be thinking about how they, they, they talked to their potential elected officials,
49:30
[SPEAKER_06]: what are you hoping for this?
49:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's a great question.
49:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I would say all the above.
49:34
[SPEAKER_03]: It is to educate union members of what unions do.
49:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Can do for them.
49:38
[SPEAKER_03]: It's educate non union or union curious worker.
49:44
[SPEAKER_03]: and it's also to educate policymakers of what they can do to help ensure that workers are being paid fairly and reducing the income inequality that we are experiencing today.
49:53
[SPEAKER_06]: There you go, Margaret.
49:54
[SPEAKER_06]: I appreciate the time.
49:55
[SPEAKER_06]: Great stuff.
49:56
[SPEAKER_06]: I hope folks will check out the report.
49:57
[SPEAKER_06]: The case for tripling union membership, EPI.org.
50:01
[SPEAKER_06]: Margaret Poedak.
50:01
[SPEAKER_06]: I appreciate the time.
50:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks so much.
50:03
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks for having me Rick.
50:04
[SPEAKER_06]: I want to hear your thoughts email me Rick at therixmithshow.com.
50:07
[SPEAKER_06]: I've been saying this stuff for years, but tell me if this is, and now I've got a document next time someone says, well, I'll go there it is, right there in writing, and you can see it over at EPI.org.
50:18
[SPEAKER_06]: I want to hear your thoughts, Rick at Therixmithshow.com, right back.
50:29
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1944.
50:33
[SPEAKER_06]: A crew of mostly black soldiers were loading munitions onto ships at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, northeast of Oakland.
50:42
[SPEAKER_06]: 320 soldiers were killed by a munitions explosion that wounded another 390 people.
50:48
[SPEAKER_06]: The troops were segregated, black and listed men were often given the worst, and most dangerous non-combat jobs.
50:54
[SPEAKER_06]: All of the munition loaders at Port Chicago were African-American.
50:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Every officer was white.
51:00
[SPEAKER_06]: The sailors were not given proper training in the loading of ammunition.
51:03
[SPEAKER_06]: The idea of loading munitions scared the soldiers.
51:06
[SPEAKER_06]: The officers lied and said the job was safe, and that the weapons could not explode.
51:11
[SPEAKER_06]: They were wrong.
51:12
[SPEAKER_06]: The explosion caused a giant fireball that killed everyone on the ship and on the pier.
51:18
[SPEAKER_06]: The explosion could be heard 200 miles away.
51:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Of the 320 people killed, 202 were black.
51:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Only 51 bodies could be identified.
51:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Or narrowly, soldiers traumatized by the death of fellow soldiers were given 30 days lead.
51:34
[SPEAKER_06]: None of the black soldiers.
51:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Not even those who were hospitalized got lead.
51:38
[SPEAKER_06]: All of the white officers did.
51:40
[SPEAKER_06]: Surviving soldiers refused to load munitions.
51:43
[SPEAKER_06]: For that, they were arrested.
51:45
[SPEAKER_06]: Forty were charged with mutinate.
51:47
[SPEAKER_06]: The rest of the soldiers were also punched.
51:49
[SPEAKER_06]: They were sent to the Pacific Theater, forced to do menial duty.
51:53
[SPEAKER_06]: Many received bad conductage charges at the end of the war, making them an eligible for military benefits.
51:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Those charged with mutiny were sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
52:03
[SPEAKER_06]: When World War II ended, the imprisoned soldier's sentences were reduced to two years.
52:08
[SPEAKER_06]: And in 1999, President Bill Clinton pardoned one of the survivors 79-year-old Freddie Makes.
52:15
[SPEAKER_06]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
52:20
[SPEAKER_06]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintube.com.
52:28
[SPEAKER_02]: We were listening to the Rick Smith show.
52:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We're working people, come to talk.
52:40
[SPEAKER_06]: What a great place it would be if we did triple the union density of the country.
52:43
[SPEAKER_06]: And look, I know.
52:44
[SPEAKER_06]: I know by right wing for no, no, we can't, but no!
52:47
[SPEAKER_06]: Because CEO class, the billionaire class would be unhappy.
52:52
[SPEAKER_06]: because costs would go up, and look, they've trained us as working people to think about, well, if someone gets a raise, that means it's gonna affect me.
53:02
[SPEAKER_06]: I literally had someone tell me, you know that the ghost station they're paying people $18 an hour.
53:07
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm going, yeah, that's because they can't get people to work though.
53:10
[SPEAKER_06]: The minimum wage is 715 in this state 725 federally, they could pay lower, but they can't find anyone.
53:18
[SPEAKER_06]: And I found it interesting that I go, well, you do this kind of job that's worth $32 an hour.
53:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Why are you worth more than they are when you skill levels, about the same?
53:30
[SPEAKER_06]: and what they do and masterfully, what they do is they pit working people against each other to go, wow, your work isn't as important as my work, your time isn't as valuable as my time.
53:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Without looking at the reality that both companies are rake it in profits, the investor class is doing really well because they've trained us to all believe that we're investors.
53:54
[SPEAKER_06]: that we've all got 401k's and we've all got IRA's and we've all got, you know, built Roth's and we've got all of these things that don't have a whole lot of money in them and as I brought up with Margaret, the reality is is in this country,
54:10
[SPEAKER_06]: average, average wealth.
54:12
[SPEAKER_06]: That means take all the wealth of the country and you divide it by the number of people and you come up with the average, average wealth every person in the country about $700,000.
54:23
[SPEAKER_06]: That means there's enough wealth in this country for every single person to have $700,000 worth of wealth.
54:31
[SPEAKER_06]: Do we, no, most people don't have anywhere close to that.
54:40
[SPEAKER_06]: We have a handful of really, really big winners, and then the rest of us, the rest of us were just struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over our kids head, maybe do some nice things, you know, the old argument of bread and roses, bread yes, but roses too, bare minimum existence, but hey, some nice stuff on top of it, maybe we get to take the kids to a ball game every once in a while, maybe we take a vacation.
55:09
[SPEAKER_06]: The concept of living simply to work is something that my grandparents' generation pushed back against.
55:17
[SPEAKER_06]: that maybe your work should make your life better, instead of just existing.
55:21
[SPEAKER_06]: And for me, tripling union density would be a good start.
55:24
[SPEAKER_06]: A step in the right direction, we would increase wages as the report points out, almost 15%, a $7,700 a year increase in the average working families paycheck, to pay rent, to pay groceries, and this is money that's already there.
55:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Again, you're gonna put a little raise prices,
55:46
[SPEAKER_06]: But as I've said before, I'm out against inflation as long as wages keep up above it.
55:51
[SPEAKER_06]: You go back to the 70s.
55:52
[SPEAKER_06]: My grandparents generation, you know, when they took out a mortgage in the 60s by the end of the 70s, their mortgage was a days pay because inflation had got up, but their pay checks went up.
56:06
[SPEAKER_06]: They had cost the living adjustments in all of their union contracts.
56:10
[SPEAKER_06]: And even in the workers who weren't in unions, there was a spillover effect.
56:15
[SPEAKER_06]: And we could talk about all of this stuff all day long.
56:19
[SPEAKER_06]: The reality is that at the time when we had good to high union density, we had middle class opportunities.
56:25
[SPEAKER_06]: And the anger that we're seeing every day, the people that are screaming the loudest of the people who, wow, they believed their lives were gonna be better.
56:33
[SPEAKER_06]: They were told that they worked hard and played by the rules, they were gonna get ahead.
56:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows.
56:40
[SPEAKER_06]: It hasn't been what they expected and what they believed their life was going to be.
56:45
[SPEAKER_06]: So they're angry about it.
56:48
[SPEAKER_06]: They're angry that wages haven't kept up and Trump was the natural manifestation of that anger.
56:56
[SPEAKER_06]: I talk about my family all the time.
56:57
[SPEAKER_06]: They had good union jobs and they lived through the end of those union jobs.
57:04
[SPEAKER_06]: They live through what was a single income existence to now needing two or three and life being a lot harder.
57:15
[SPEAKER_06]: And yeah, racism, homophobia, misogyny, all that was part of their equation always.
57:22
[SPEAKER_06]: But it was the hope, the possibility of bringing back that opportunity.
57:30
[SPEAKER_06]: And I know, I'm going to get a lot of pushback.
57:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, you know, with white grievances, you know, it's it's racial.
57:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Some of it's sure.
57:37
[SPEAKER_06]: But it's economic too.
57:39
[SPEAKER_06]: And as I've said, they're still holding on.
57:41
[SPEAKER_06]: They're still getting by.
57:43
[SPEAKER_06]: They're still holding on to the dream that things are going to get better.
57:47
[SPEAKER_06]: That someone like Trump is going to come along and and make you topial.
57:51
[SPEAKER_06]: He's not as much as I want to believe that there's a potential opportunity for Republicans to come along and 20 of them signed on to the Faster Labor Contracts Act and do you know why they did?
58:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Because they're in districts that Union density is still pretty high and they got a lot of Republican union voters that they had at least go, hey, we're going to come along.
58:21
[SPEAKER_06]: because you got the backstop, a Trump.
58:22
[SPEAKER_06]: He's going to actually veto anything.
58:24
[SPEAKER_06]: And the Senate, they're not going to break the filibuster for that.
58:30
[SPEAKER_06]: This only happens.
58:33
[SPEAKER_06]: We're only going to get major labor law reform when the demand is so, so high.
58:40
[SPEAKER_06]: It looks.
58:41
[SPEAKER_06]: More people want unions than ever before, and that's great.
58:43
[SPEAKER_06]: I love the idea.
58:47
[SPEAKER_06]: But the economy hasn't created yet.
58:49
[SPEAKER_06]: I sadly believe that's the only way that happens.
58:54
[SPEAKER_06]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
58:56
[SPEAKER_06]: Email me, Rick at theworksmithshow.com.
58:58
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, would stronger union density equate to better wages, hours, conditions for everyone.
59:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Better investments in schools and local, local parks and infrastructure.
59:11
[SPEAKER_06]: What did it, what did it quite to that?
59:12
[SPEAKER_06]: This report, and I hope folks will go over to EPI.org and take a look at it.
59:16
[SPEAKER_06]: The case for tripling union membership, because I think all of the good stuff that we could have, we don't because we don't have that kind of union power anymore.
59:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Because remember, unions are the ones who are pushing for the eight hour day, the weekend, all those things we now take for granted.
59:34
[SPEAKER_06]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
59:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Rick at TheRicksmithsio.com.
59:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks so much for being here.
59:39
[SPEAKER_06]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:42
[SPEAKER_02]: You've been listening to the Rick Smith show.
59:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Email Rick at Rick at RickSmithshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Until next time, this is Ben the Rick Smith Show, where working people come to talk.