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The Rick Smith Show 10-26-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_04]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:18
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much for being here today on the big program.
0:30
[SPEAKER_02]: that the governor's race.
0:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
0:33
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's a congressional race.
0:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Also in Ohio, Congressman Max Miller, who got famous by saying that folks treat social security as a safety net when it was never meant to be one.
0:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and I got to say, you know, Max read the read the receipt, uh, when FDR signed it in 1935, he said it was a protection against poverty ridden old edge, that to me screams safety net.
1:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of the job description, but I started thinking about it and like, well, fine, we'll play it your way.
1:11
[SPEAKER_02]: because his argument rests on the old three-legged stool argument, and I love that analogy.
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Social security defined benefit pension, and whatever you could squirrel away in your own savings.
1:24
[SPEAKER_02]: But you have to know that that metaphor came from a life insurance actuary who was speaking at a Chamber of Commerce event in Ohio in 1949.
1:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So even Max's talking point is a corporate sales pitch from Ohio and not an original thought.
1:43
[SPEAKER_02]: But here's the problem.
1:45
[SPEAKER_02]: If social security is just one leg, what happened to the other two?
1:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And we know, the pension leg got sought off because you had Republicans and their corporate Democrat buddies who handed us the 401k, which was a tax code footnote.
2:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, that's some, you know, somebody figured out how to use the to sell the working class on uh, you could be a millionaires so they could dump their defined benefit pensions.
2:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And I got to tell you, hell of a sales job, uh, playing to workers aspirational greed, uh, the boss used to carry the risk.
2:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Now you do.
2:23
[SPEAKER_02]: You get a statement, you pray that, you know, it's good going up.
2:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And if the market in one year crashes, that could just eat up your retirement and you don't get
2:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And the savings, like, well, you can say that you can't save what you don't make.
2:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And we know productivity has gone through the roof over the last 40, 50 years.
2:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Paychecks have stagnated and even some cases declined.
2:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Our CEO friends, their pay packages, skyrocket.
2:51
[SPEAKER_02]: But our raises never really materialized or showed up or trickled down.
2:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have Max sitting on a one-legged stool telling us to quit landing on it.
3:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And the other question I guess is, what's he done to fix the other two if that's what he believes in?
3:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Because after all, he sits on the ways and means commit it.
3:13
[SPEAKER_02]: They write social security law.
3:16
[SPEAKER_02]: not to be fair he did back repealing the windfall elimination provision the WEP and the government pension offset the GPO which were you know for government workers and people who who didn't necessarily pay into but paid into his system something that was the right thing to do.
3:34
[SPEAKER_02]: January 5 to 25 Biden signed it in the law signed the Social Security Fairness Act which repealed both of those and and Miller voted for good for him credit as work credit is
3:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But show me the bill that sure sure is up to Social Security Trust Bob.
3:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Show me the bill that brings back pensions.
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: The closest thing that he's got to any of that is easing penalties on scam victims who drain their 401ks.
4:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, that's a bandage on a broken leg.
4:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not an actual cast.
4:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Not going to be all that helpful.
4:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you really believe Social Security was never meant to carry the load, then you old working people, the other two legs, right?
4:15
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... max hasn't built a splinter and look you know we got some vote and coming up there's an opportunity to rebuild the stool or at least sure up social security is his opponent uh... Brian points back point extra and iron worker from ohio wants to scrap the cap and solve the social security shortfall by having billionaires pay the same percentage of their yearly income that you and me and the rest of the working class after
4:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Seems like, seems like something we should consider doing, something max, yeah, something max hasn't signed down to you yet.
4:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Or will, to be honest.
4:54
[SPEAKER_02]: But maybe, hey, maybe he's going to bludgeon us with the other two legs of the school.
4:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Back after this, with Alex Lawson from Social Security Works.
5:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
5:06
[SPEAKER_01]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1995.
5:10
[SPEAKER_02]: That was the day that the AFL CIO convention convened in New York City.
5:16
[SPEAKER_02]: At the convention, John Swinney was elected president of the Federation.
5:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the first contested election for president in AFL CIO history.
5:25
[SPEAKER_02]: He ran with a slate of labor leaders, including Rich Trumpka, who called themselves the new voice slate.
5:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Sweeney was president of the service employee's international union.
5:35
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a New Yorker born in the Bronx.
5:37
[SPEAKER_02]: He started his career in labor, working for the international ladies garment workers union, then moving to SCIU as a union rep.
5:45
[SPEAKER_02]: He represented SEIU local 32B in New York City during two strikes of apartment maintenance workers during the 1970s.
5:54
[SPEAKER_02]: In 1980, he was elected president of the International SEIU.
5:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Opposed, he held for 15 years.
6:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Membership in SEIU nearly doubled from 625,000 to 1.1 million under his leadership.
6:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Sweeney gave a powerful speech for his candidacy at the convention.
6:12
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, quote, workers look at their paychecks, the political system and the public debate and wonder why nobody is speaking for me, then in fear and frustration.
6:22
[SPEAKER_02]: They look for leadership to the Rush Limbaugh's who seek scapegoats rather than solutions for problems of stagnant wages, corporate greed, and a fractured society.
6:32
[SPEAKER_02]: He pledged that under his leadership, the AFL CIO, would move to commit more resources to organizing these workers.
6:39
[SPEAKER_02]: When he won election, Sweeney held good to his campaign promise.
6:43
[SPEAKER_02]: He instituted a new initiative, the Union Summer Program, to involve college students in the labor movement.
6:49
[SPEAKER_02]: He expanded organizing efforts in the South and Southwest.
6:53
[SPEAKER_02]: John Swinney served five terms as president of the AFL CIO.
6:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith show.
7:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
7:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
7:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So the headline read Social Security Administration announces its most comprehensive records clean up ever.
7:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, and look, you know, we've been told, uh, Donald Trump said with their people who are 200 years old, collecting social security, uh, their 150 year olds who are collecting social security, that there's just all these, these really ancient people, hundreds, thousands of 150 year olds collecting social security and they're out there and they're probably and they're voting.
7:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I guess this, maybe this is the cleanup or maybe the cleanup is, well, they're cleaning up on our data on their selling it off to, well, whomever, but here to share some thoughts on what this means, you know, I can sit here and guess all day long, but I'm going to reach out to my expert on this.
8:00
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why I've asked our good friend Alex loss and to come share some thoughts.
8:03
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the executive director over at social security works.
8:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You can check out their website social security works dot org.
8:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Alex, thanks for taking time for us.
8:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Always Rick, and yeah, what's his main security, you know, I think it's important to not sort of overthink it or underthink it.
8:21
[SPEAKER_04]: The administration is trying to steal the election, right?
8:24
[SPEAKER_04]: That's what they're trying to do.
8:26
[SPEAKER_04]: They're trying to do it in whatever way they can come up with sending thugs to polling places.
8:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Seizing ballots, we've already seen that, right?
8:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Restricting mail ballots,
8:40
[SPEAKER_04]: ordering, putting an executive order out ordering the postal service to restrict access to voting.
8:47
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, the courts are slapping it down here and there, but they're throwing everything they can at at the objective of stealing the election.
8:56
[SPEAKER_04]: So what is it?
8:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Records clean up.
9:00
[SPEAKER_04]: That is, you know, tens of millions, something, you know, over 10 million records is what I read in the press.
9:09
[SPEAKER_04]: 11 days before the election.
9:11
[SPEAKER_04]: What are they doing?
9:12
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's the partnership with Department of Homeland Security.
9:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll tell you what they're doing.
9:17
[SPEAKER_04]: The same thing that Doge was doing when they just stole it all and gave it to probably true the vote.
9:26
[SPEAKER_04]: We know they gave it to somebody, but this is all about election denial.
9:29
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just
9:30
[SPEAKER_04]: feeding our data into these databases so that they can target and they're going to say they're going after, you know, criminals or this or that, but they're not.
9:39
[SPEAKER_04]: They're just trying to steal the election and they're using everything in their armament to do so.
9:47
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's why no kings was super adamant that our message was vote early.
9:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Right?
9:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Vote early if you can.
9:55
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the best way to skip the mess that we know they're going to bring to try to steal this election.
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, you know, just yesterday we were talking about the fact that home land security were sending ice agents around the people's houses to check their photo registration.
10:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to make sure that they're citizens and make sure that they're eligible to vote and now my mind is going, what are they going to be knocking on, you're going to have four or five thugs, mask thugs with guns, knocking on the granny's house now to make sure that she's there and she's not 150 years old.
10:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, how far and how bad does this get?
10:29
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
10:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I think the ultimate answer is there is no bottom to evil.
10:35
[SPEAKER_04]: We've seen it time and time again, Rick.
10:37
[SPEAKER_04]: So the only, the, the,
10:42
[SPEAKER_04]: bottom does not come from them from the fascists from the authoritarian's there is no bottom to what they will do.
10:51
[SPEAKER_04]: The people have to stop them from doing it and we've seen that it's possible, you know, you can swap everything that they're trying and then, you know, they'll try to roll tanks in the streets, they'll try to bring violence, probably scattered
11:07
[SPEAKER_04]: There's never a joke, they're never joking about anything, right?
11:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Why were they saying, oh, we're going to live stream in execution?
11:15
[SPEAKER_04]: This is all about fear and control.
11:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Why is he building monuments to himself?
11:20
[SPEAKER_04]: This is all about fear and control.
11:24
[SPEAKER_04]: But the truth is that our unique voting system for all of its problems and there are so many of them.
11:33
[SPEAKER_04]: It is remarkably resilient when the pieces fight back.
11:40
[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, we've seen that too often in Republican states, it's literally been just one Republican who has decided that they were going to take a stand against and like,
11:53
[SPEAKER_04]: That's terrifying that it comes down to the conscience of one person, but that person understands that country and society before Donald Trump's ego.
12:05
[SPEAKER_04]: But because of the federated nature, because elections are handled at the state level, the feds are going to do everything they can, but just the numbers alone of how many
12:23
[SPEAKER_04]: that we have, it's not like you have to reach way back to see what they're doing.
12:29
[SPEAKER_04]: The slave owning class after the Civil War to continue to control through fear where it waged a terroristic campaign with masked thugs and after black Americans had the right to vote, they terrorized black Americans in the South
12:51
[SPEAKER_04]: right there was violence and then the threat of violence.
12:55
[SPEAKER_04]: That's what they're doing with the sending those ice agents because I'm sure they call Fox News to bring along the cameras because what they're trying to do is make people afraid.
13:05
[SPEAKER_04]: And I will say, you know, from no kings again, this is the millions of people.
13:11
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the largest early vote activation in the history of the country and people pivoted.
13:16
[SPEAKER_04]: They were like, wait.
13:17
[SPEAKER_04]: We should early vote because that is a strategy to get around, you know, the voting restrictions.
13:24
[SPEAKER_04]: That's actually like a whole concept that you had to get into people's brains and they did it.
13:30
[SPEAKER_04]: And when they're where there were no kings, activations, early voting numbers shot up, right?
13:36
[SPEAKER_04]: They record numbers.
13:37
[SPEAKER_04]: So we know it works.
13:38
[SPEAKER_04]: We know we just have to keep getting the word out.
13:41
[SPEAKER_04]: And the word is
13:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Get your vote counted before they can close the door on it right before they can some do something terrible or whatever and say oh it's an emergency we're going to close this place or this voting place or that voting place and be ready to fight back and to enforce the will of the people because the vote is how we show the will of the people but.
14:05
[SPEAKER_04]: The power is that the people enforce the will of the people and that is the next fight like I'm not saying I'm not measuring the curtain's ever no matter what we're going to be the fight comes directly after the
14:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I remember when conservatives in this again is when they were actually conservatives or they weren't Trump conservatives or MAGA conservatives or wherever we are today, but conservatives of yesterday year used to say the strength of our election system is the state's handle it and it was so diverse that you couldn't possibly hijack it all and they were dead set against better-alizing it and now the conservative movement is saying, no, no, that's
14:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's federalize it so dear leader can can jack it up.
15:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It just seems like everything they accused Democrats and especially Obama of doing is exactly what they are doing because it seems like this was always their playbook.
15:13
[SPEAKER_02]: They just had to kind of normalize it and get, well, to get people buying that it's happening so that when they get around to doing it, we go, wow, you know, they did it too.
15:23
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's right.
15:24
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it might seem like a stretch.
15:27
[SPEAKER_04]: But to me, it's the same as I welcome the cond, right?
15:31
[SPEAKER_04]: When the scales fall from people's eyes, and they're like, wait a minute, this isn't for me.
15:36
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I'm like, come on over.
15:38
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't care how long you've been on the wrong side.
15:41
[SPEAKER_04]: If you're coming my way now, like, come on over.
15:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, as long as you're gone.
15:45
[SPEAKER_02]: As long as you've left the five alone and you're now moving towards fours and threes, I'm gonna welcome you.
15:52
[SPEAKER_04]: but for the common, I've got no sympathy.
15:56
[SPEAKER_04]: So I got no sympathy for, I'm never gonna rehabilitate a George W. Bush or an H. W. Bush or any of them.
16:05
[SPEAKER_04]: And like, oh, well, they weren't as bad as Trump.
16:09
[SPEAKER_04]: And you're like, they paved the way for Trump that people were like, well, you did it was your fault because you were saying that they were fascists before they were fascists.
16:20
[SPEAKER_04]: I was actually pointing out that what they're building is what we've got today.
16:27
[SPEAKER_04]: I was right, and you were wrong people who said we were overreacting.
16:33
[SPEAKER_04]: And that is what, so where we are now is that there's a lot of people who are unfortunately, I kind of,
16:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I kind of am jealous of them in some way because it means like if you just figured out what was going on like yesterday, imagine how much peace you must have had, Rick, when it was obvious what was going on.
16:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I see this all the time, you know, there are moments where I wish I had blissful ignorance.
17:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I wish I could just be a true believer.
17:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I wish I could buy the T-shirt, wear the hat, drink the kool-aid, wave the flag.
17:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I wish I could do all that stuff and not have all of the questions and all of the ramifications and all the concerns and all the worry about my neighbor, my friends, my family that I'm saddled with daily.
17:24
[SPEAKER_04]: I know, unfortunately, you have empathy and a conscience, you know, I will, and I try.
17:31
[SPEAKER_04]: I've said this before on this show.
17:33
[SPEAKER_04]: I try.
17:36
[SPEAKER_04]: in my own way, like faith drives me and what I do, but I don't actually talk about it that much right, because I try, I just don't.
17:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Because you're not a hypocrite.
17:49
[SPEAKER_04]: But I, you know, right there is the book, right by my bed, and I read it because I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
17:58
[SPEAKER_04]: It really is,
18:00
[SPEAKER_04]: quite simple.
18:01
[SPEAKER_04]: It's quite simple.
18:02
[SPEAKER_04]: The radical thing was that there was the Roman Empire, which was built on greed and power.
18:10
[SPEAKER_04]: And then you had somebody who subverted that by being like, no, the powerful and the rich are the ones who are the worst people.
18:22
[SPEAKER_04]: And actually the poor
18:30
[SPEAKER_04]: The homeless, the hungry.
18:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Those are the people who are the best people.
18:35
[SPEAKER_04]: And when he did that, when he said that, people were like, wait a minute.
18:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, it's obvious to me.
18:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I hate that guy who's taken everything and makes us scramble.
18:49
[SPEAKER_04]: and fight for scraps that fall off of his table.
18:52
[SPEAKER_04]: But I've been afraid of that.
18:54
[SPEAKER_04]: And I've been told that power and money are things that you have to crave and that's your measure of success.
19:03
[SPEAKER_04]: It wouldn't make any sense, Rick.
19:06
[SPEAKER_04]: If what Jesus did was came down to the Roman Empire and said,
19:13
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, power and money, you know, take advantage of those less powerful than you and all the things that you see drive the right wing now who try to hold up their Christianity as like why they're doing it and I
19:29
[SPEAKER_04]: I resist this and you've heard me do it, but I'm like, I don't think you've read the book.
19:35
[SPEAKER_04]: I think you're like that kid in class who did not read the book.
19:40
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's what's going on.
19:42
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope that's what's going on.
19:45
[SPEAKER_02]: you heard someone tell you about the book.
19:47
[SPEAKER_02]: That's about it and you got the wrong interpretation of it but you know the reality is you got Donald Trump right on our own.
19:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you've seen this the rally speeches that he's the most religious ever and the liberal religious people love him that he's the goat.
19:59
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the greatest of all time because you know all the you know he's Donald Trump he's anointed.
20:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, they're using, and this is why I bring it up is because, I mean, it's evangelicals, right?
20:13
[SPEAKER_04]: It's the right wing, evangelical movement, which is a greed-based money extraction system, just like so much else in our society.
20:23
[SPEAKER_04]: But it's using people's faith to push them to not accept reality, right?
20:31
[SPEAKER_04]: We've seen this throughout history.
20:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, but it still hurts not look hurts.
20:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think Jesus would have punched down and this is I talked about this yesterday on the program, the reality is is my conservative friends have mastered the art of punching down.
20:48
[SPEAKER_02]: They never look up, they never, they never punch up.
20:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's always kicking people who are down.
20:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Or at least it appears that way and I'm hoping I'm hoping there's some decent religious people who are going to maybe change that a little bit So let me ask you.
21:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you're doing an awful lot.
21:03
[SPEAKER_02]: We got 11 days till till till November 3rd 11 days till election day I know you're out there.
21:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You're you're holding a venture you're talking to campaigns
21:13
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you seeing?
21:13
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the vibe in this moment?
21:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm hearing anything from Democrats taking the house to a blue tsunami where they take 54 seats in the Senate and the house.
21:25
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think?
21:28
[SPEAKER_04]: The vibes are good out there, Rick, I will take it to a pre-cheap place and I'm not going to give you predictions.
21:37
[SPEAKER_04]: I will say we were closing on 40 events, 40 congressional districts, I'm sorry, 40 events.
21:43
[SPEAKER_04]: 30 something congressional districts and then a bunch of states for the Senate races.
21:49
[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, from every corner, every nook and cranny in this country and every single one of them, it's record people showing up, the enthusiasm amongst people who are voting for Democrats is through the roof.
22:03
[SPEAKER_04]: And what I brought up before is I, what I reject is that they're
22:08
[SPEAKER_04]: that the Republicans are conservative in any way, right, the reactionary now.
22:14
[SPEAKER_04]: And so you're seeing a lot of these independence who do think of themselves as conservative.
22:20
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not never going to build a movement on them.
22:23
[SPEAKER_04]: But that is, you see cradering of enthusiasm around people.
22:29
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're finding people who are inquisitive, right?
22:33
[SPEAKER_04]: They're like showing up to events.
22:35
[SPEAKER_04]: And being like, I just wanted to hear what it was all about.
22:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And that is a huge opportunity, right?
22:41
[SPEAKER_04]: If we approach that with grace, and it's happening everywhere.
22:47
[SPEAKER_04]: So each district in each state is sort of, you know, like it's hard because you come in and like there's all these local fights and data data, but the throughlines are really, really huge.
23:02
[SPEAKER_04]: nobody can afford to live in this country right now and things are getting worse right like those are the throughlines the other ones are billionaires are just grabbing up everything as fast as they can and they've been really linked because they are to the data centers which just have proven beyond
23:27
[SPEAKER_04]: for the billionaires, like, quickly and efficiently when it's to benefit the billionaires, it's just like, bam, and then it's done.
23:35
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's the democracy money can borrow.
23:37
[SPEAKER_04]: You told me it would take like five years to write a study on if we should even think about implementing, right?
23:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Those scales are falling from people's eyes.
23:48
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's, we've talked about it a lot, Rick.
23:51
[SPEAKER_04]: It's unfortunate, but it's from badness, right?
23:54
[SPEAKER_04]: It's coming from bad.
23:56
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not like it's not a hopeful vibe.
23:59
[SPEAKER_04]: I will tell you that.
24:00
[SPEAKER_04]: It is not driven by hope.
24:03
[SPEAKER_04]: I try to put hope in there and people are like, yes,
24:07
[SPEAKER_04]: I can maybe picture the good future where it's for working people.
24:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to believe that, but a lot of the motivation that I'm seeing right now is a fear motivation, a rage motivation, a like, this is broken and these guys are criminals.
24:25
[SPEAKER_04]: No, absolutely just donning on people.
24:27
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and the reality is, over these next 11 days, it's going to get a lot uglier.
24:31
[SPEAKER_02]: The attack ads are going to ramp up because all Republicans have.
24:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And before I let you go, I want you to take off your social security, it works hat for a second.
24:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And look at Ohio.
24:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you saw the ad, that Ramswami ran.
24:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm discreet.
24:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a disgrace that my teamsters union has endorsed Vivek Ramswami for governor in that state.
24:52
[SPEAKER_02]: It's grace.
24:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But I wanted to get your thoughts on it because look, you know, the reality is you have a lot of people I know or like, wow, you know, politics is you will, you know, dirty business, this to me goes well beyond dirty business.
25:05
[SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't.
25:06
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, like, you have to understand that many layers of people signed off on this, right?
25:13
[SPEAKER_04]: There were meetings, creative meetings, right?
25:16
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the creative for the ad by.
25:19
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm sure they had multiple ads and they were like, well, which flavor do we want to close on?
25:26
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's what where we are right now.
25:28
[SPEAKER_04]: It's the closing, right?
25:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Sorry, to be all like,
25:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, but this is it.
25:36
[SPEAKER_04]: And so they chose.
25:37
[SPEAKER_04]: They were like, let's go with the super psychopathic, uh, embrace a, uh, child rapist and you're like, if that's what everyone's saying that that's what you do with the president and Epstein and now you're running the ad of someone who wouldn't leave, uh, who who stayed married to a man, uh, who I, I don't think was convicted because he's
26:01
[SPEAKER_04]: led this state after grand jury indictment for raping the mother's daughter.
26:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and you're you're not the one saying that's the governor of Ohio.
26:12
[SPEAKER_02]: But he exact same thing.
26:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's not just you.
26:15
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a grand jury indicted him and he bailed.
26:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
26:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the mother went with him.
26:22
[SPEAKER_04]: And Vivek decided
26:28
[SPEAKER_04]: He was going to do he was just going to go for it and this is so I don't know if I can get it into words But they are trying to figure out how much cruelty America will allow Right, and that's why they're like, hey, let's do public eight executions.
26:41
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you guys think?
26:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Right, they're like, hey, let's use the worst most disgusting political ad and they're like, ah, what do you guys think?
26:49
[SPEAKER_04]: And there are lines right like that's how you know because it's like
26:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Governor's race in Ohio, they wildly misjudged that and it is going to drag down a lot of the ticket and the Democrats have a great opportunity not just in the governor's race there but Senate and across the house races because all ready Ohio was in play and nobody likes that guy and then he put up his ad and everyone's like we like you less now.
27:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's probably my union.
27:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I endorsed him.
27:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I endorse.
27:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what should happen.
27:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think it's going to happen though, but I think it is what should happen.
27:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Alex, as always, I appreciate the time, keep up the great work and the fight and we'll see you back here next time.
27:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks Ray.
27:32
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
27:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Good friend, Alex Lawson.
27:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you check out the work that they do over at SocialSecurityWorks.org.
27:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to take a quick break right back when you hear your thoughts.
27:40
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think of the ad?
27:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that the depth?
27:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that the bottom, do you think?
27:45
[SPEAKER_02]: My congressman Scott Perry, he's, you know, going after his opponent because she was naked supposedly, maybe naked at one point Back after that's the ground
28:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
28:03
[SPEAKER_02]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1932.
28:07
[SPEAKER_02]: That was the day the state militia was called into Kincaid, Illinois.
28:12
[SPEAKER_02]: 164 high school students had just walked out of the classroom.
28:15
[SPEAKER_02]: declaring themselves on strike.
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: They were protesting the school board's use of coal from the P-Body coal company.
28:23
[SPEAKER_02]: The students walked out in solidarity with their fathers, who were on strike against the P-Body coal mine in nearby Langleyville over-wage concessions.
28:32
[SPEAKER_02]: The father's son, Strike, as it was referred to, was one more in a series of protest actions that came on the heels of the founding of the progressive miners of America a month earlier, thousands of Illinois miners had just voted with their feet to repudiate John L. Lewis's UMWA overwage concession.
28:52
[SPEAKER_02]: After their founding conference, new PMA leaders beat Gantt aggressively organizing non-union minds.
28:58
[SPEAKER_02]: They marched into mining towns and ordered non-union diggers out of the mines.
29:04
[SPEAKER_02]: They also struck UMWA mines, picking against the industry standard of $5 a day that had been set by the latest concessionary contract.
29:13
[SPEAKER_02]: At some mines, the PMA was able to win the old $6.10 cent a day wage.
29:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Throughout the month, the state national guard had been called out to a number of mining towns to quail armed conflicts between PMA and UMWA supporters.
29:29
[SPEAKER_02]: The P-Body coal mine in Langleyville had been shut down for months by ongoing PMA UMWA conflict.
29:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, it had reopened under heavy national guard protection and was the only mine operating in Christian County.
29:43
[SPEAKER_02]: The striking fathers were PMA minors, piciting the continued mine operations under the UMWA Concessionary Contract.
29:51
[SPEAKER_01]: The year's long Illinois Mine Wars had just begun.
29:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You probably won't believe this boys and girls, but there was a time when government regulatory officials believed it was their public duty to get this served the public.
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: How?
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: By enforcing laws intended to protect consumers' workers' environment and other targets of raw corporate greed.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, though, far right plutocrats behind Trump's project 2025 have turned our national protection agencies into private escort services for corporate predators.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Consider them monopolistic airline giants that have made price gouging and passenger abuse their normal business practice.
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The transportation department finally mandated a handful of minimal reforms a few years ago.
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: How minimal?
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Such basic stuff as requiring airlines to tell customers the actual price of their ticket upfront.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: No hidden fees.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And requiring airlines to compensate
30:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, making airlines liable for damages they do to wheelchairs of disabled passengers.
31:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Any honest business would already be doing such things as a matter of personal integrity.
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But Sean Duffy now screeches that corporate integrity is none of the public's business.
31:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is Duffy?
31:18
[SPEAKER_00]: A run of the mill lays a fair extremist former Republican congressman, MTV reality show personality and former Washington lobbyists for a firm representing the big three airlines.
31:31
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hyder saying he's now in Scotland's transportation secretary in Trump's cabinet, where he is pushing a sweeping agenda to repeal consumer protections.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: His agenda reads like a wish list, put forth by the airline executives he wants lobbied for.
31:47
[SPEAKER_00]: If this seems like profiteering corporate elites are making public rules to serve their own selfishness, bingo.
31:54
[SPEAKER_00]: To keep tabs on their corporate theory, go to the revolvingdoorproject.org.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is one of those moments for my union brothers and sisters who are planning to vote in 11 days.
32:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You got 11 days, the election day November 3rd to Tuesday.
32:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure that it's circled on the calendar.
32:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the third.
32:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not in many places.
32:24
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not going to be on the day before.
32:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Certainly not going to be the day after.
32:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd will be the third show up cast your ballot, but from my union brothers and sisters, as we've been talking about over the last several days, the Trump administration went after the workers at the FDA and not just like the normal kind of attacks on federal workers that we've become accustomed to over this tenure, it's now going beyond just what you do at work.
32:50
[SPEAKER_02]: They wanted to go after those employees at home, so if you dare talk about unions, you dare try and organize unions, we will know.
33:00
[SPEAKER_02]: and they're calling the other side communist here to share some thoughts on well what could be described as something of a victory i'm going to go with something of a victory because like shouldn't have to be fighting these these battles in this day and age i've asked for a shop saying be to come share some thoughts with us he's a general counsel over at the american federation of government plays a f g e you check out their website a f g e dot org for shop thanks for the time for us
33:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Rick.
33:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for having me.
33:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So, walk me through this scenario.
33:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I got the letter that you and the treasury folks sent.
33:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, saying, look, this isn't right.
33:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You're gone.
33:37
[SPEAKER_02]: You're gone crazy here.
33:39
[SPEAKER_02]: What was the administration trying to do to the FDA workers?
33:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And how did you guys respond?
33:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Rick.
33:47
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is sort of a pattern of what what and we've seen it at other agencies other than the FDA.
33:52
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, to put some context to it, right, the FDA is one of several agencies that were excluded from the federal service labor movement labor management relations statute.
34:04
[SPEAKER_03]: So essentially Trump issued this executive order that saying, hey, you don't have collective bargaining anymore.
34:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And that applied the several agencies across the, across the country, you know, we're challenging that and to use challenging that, you know, there's, there's a, you know, we believe that that that executive order by President Trump was first amendment retaliation, but what that did was it took away sort of, you know, the, the statutory protections, you know, you're, you're right to a collective bargaining agreement under the statute right, but what we've seen, um,
34:36
[SPEAKER_03]: agencies do is they like sort of go a step further unlawfully in our view and essentially tell their employees there's no union the union doesn't exist but we all know you know that a union doesn't exist just because you have some CBA a union exists because you know people are coming together unions exist.
34:56
[SPEAKER_03]: existed in the federal sector and in the private sector way before there were collective baron agreements before there were any laws protecting unions.
35:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what happened at the FDA and like I said, we've seen it at other agencies too as, you know, the FDA put out this email essentially telling all FDA employees, yeah, you know, there's no more collective bargaining, present trumpets, you disorder, et cetera, et cetera.
35:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And then at the end of the email, it's that you also can't do any labor management stuff on duty or even off duty, you know, on government equipment or on government time, essentially they were treating union activity as distinct from other activities.
35:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So basically, you know, most federal employees, just like most, you know, private sector employees, you know, you're your work eight hours a day, you've got breaks, you've got your lunch break, you know, you take your computer home.
35:48
[SPEAKER_03]: you can send emails to your church, you can send emails to your PTA, you can talk, you know, do all of that stuff on your breaks.
35:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And federal agencies actually have policies including at the FDA that are specific, we say, yeah, if you've got some like private stuff you want to do some personal stuff, you can do that during your breaks on lunch as long as it's not interfering.
36:09
[SPEAKER_03]: What the FDA did was they sent out this letter saying yeah no unions are going to be are different here unions you can't you can't email your union on your lunch break even you can't do that we think that's that's a pretty clear violation of the first amendment.
36:26
[SPEAKER_02]: they can't prevent you from talking to your union on your often on your own on your own time and that's the part but you know and for me why I thought this was important because look they eventually because of you and and you know in the treasury union you guys coming together and putting you know raising up the other proper stink they kind of as I understand they've backed away but for me the bigger message was going to be you know what's corporate America again are here
36:50
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when Reagan fired the Pat co-workers or as I call it, the shot heard across the boardroom, it's open season on workers, look what the government did to their own employees, imagine what we can get away with.
37:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I saw that, that's where my mind went.
37:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly, right?
37:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're setting an example, right?
37:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Because you look at the people who are at OPM, you know, Scott Cooper, right?
37:12
[SPEAKER_03]: He's a big venture capitalist, private sector guy.
37:16
[SPEAKER_03]: What they're trying to do is make put that signal.
37:19
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, companies should control their employees speech.
37:22
[SPEAKER_03]: They should control everything they say so that, you know, they they coat the line, right?
37:26
[SPEAKER_03]: They would they want to, they want us to press speech in in in in furtherance of sort of the, you know,
37:33
[SPEAKER_03]: budding atocracy that that President Trump is trying to to to to develop here and and we did you know we work with into you who represents several FDA employees and we represent some smaller units of FDA employees and we put together this letter to to basically tell.
37:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Tell the FDA what you're doing is a violation of the first amendment and they did, they did retrace, right?
37:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll tell you not to cut you off.
37:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That's pretty shocking considering it's it's always been my view that they're doing this one to scare the you know what out of federal employees because they look people need jobs.
38:08
[SPEAKER_02]: they don't want to go and be harassed and hassled and they don't want to fear losing their job.
38:12
[SPEAKER_02]: But to the other side of it is, they just want the union spinning its wheels blowing its rear through its resources so that it doesn't actually organize or do more of the things that it's supposed to do to represent its members.
38:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just spending all its time and energy, just defending its mere existence.
38:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know, I think, and you know, but the, I'm actually not surprised that they back down a bit here because, you know, it is costly to lose and it, you know, both in, in times of resources and and also in, you know, in terms of like, you know, optics, right, if, when we litigate an FG has actually succeeded in several cases against several, um,
38:55
[SPEAKER_03]: federal agencies, including on this first amendment issue, we kind of handed it to the Department of Education during this shutdown on a first amendment case where that case involved the Department of Education basically sending messages in the name of employees saying that the shutdown was because of the Democrats.
39:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And we sued in district court and judge sort of slap down you know that.
39:23
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it was such a clear victory, such a clear violation of the First Amendment that the government didn't even appeal it because they knew that even even this Supreme Court probably would have agreed with us on that.
39:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but my mind goes for shop is that, you know, the reality is I don't think they really care because it's not their money.
39:40
[SPEAKER_02]: It's our money that there's that they're just blowing through.
39:43
[SPEAKER_02]: and to get their ideological aim and to do what Russell Vaughn over at OPM wants to make your members' lives miserable and terrorized, it just seems to me that this would have just wouldn't one more thing that they would want to do.
40:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And while they did back down in some ways, right, as of the last I checked, right, and it could have changed recently, but I don't think it has.
40:10
[SPEAKER_03]: They haven't actually informed him, you know, what we demanded is not only that they retract what they said and clarify, they didn't actually send out an email saying, hey,
40:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Every FDA employee this this is not the rule anymore.
40:25
[SPEAKER_03]: They just told us that the two lawyers who sent the letter Right, so they actually post the dreaded notice that because the y'all that in the private sector that is That's the big that's the big penalty.
40:35
[SPEAKER_02]: You know When the employer breaks the law on fair labor practices fire someone illegally they all they they get the the really harsh penalty of Posting that that notice saying we promise we won't do it again Until next time
40:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, exactly.
40:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_03]: They have not done that.
40:56
[SPEAKER_03]: They have not taken the steps necessary to really really help help their employees out right to to really correct it.
41:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we're waiting on that still as well.
41:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Because right at what uses it if you don't tell the tell the effective employees that you're not going to enforce something you shouldn't have.
41:15
[SPEAKER_03]: set in the first place.
41:16
[SPEAKER_02]: No, the retractions always on the back pages.
41:20
[SPEAKER_02]: The main headline, the day's news gets the front page, but the retractions in the back.
41:26
[SPEAKER_02]: But look, you guys good on you guys for doing what you do.
41:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, it's another one of these reasons I tell every working person in this country.
41:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to have a union.
41:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to have someone in your corner defending your rights.
41:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And look, this is a victory.
41:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll say that.
41:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I wish you didn't have to frame it this way,
41:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But also you guys have done pretty well in courts.
41:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I look at the Bureau of Prisons decision that just came out.
41:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
41:52
[SPEAKER_03]: So our affiliate, it's Council 33, our affiliate at the Bureau of Prisons, found a lawsuit.
41:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Quite a while ago, challenging the determination of their CBA there.
42:03
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the CBA that covers correctional officers, facilities, you know, all of the, you know, federal prisons across the country.
42:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And we got a pretty good victory from Judge Vernon Oliver and the district connect to get.
42:19
[SPEAKER_03]: He found that the state had rationale for terminating the CBA was arbitrary and capricious and he granted our remedy under the APA saying that they have to re-estate the collective bargaining agreement.
42:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know,
42:37
[SPEAKER_03]: But what did the VOP do just sort of go back to your point there about trying to noodle us and try to just keep spinning our wheels?
42:44
[SPEAKER_03]: We, you know, we won this case in pretty clear decision.
42:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Less than about a week later.
42:50
[SPEAKER_03]: They said, oh yeah, okay, Judge, you said we shouldn't have terminated it back then, but we're going to terminate it again.
42:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And they terminated it again and we had to take them back to court and the judge sort of slapped them down again saying, hey, you can't do that without five permission.
43:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, again, just that whole thing, but the weird part in this, the weird part for me is that they went after the Bureau of Presence.
43:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and luckily Scott Walker back in 2011 in Wisconsin didn't go after the firefighters in the police for a reason because those folks generally vote for for them.
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: The bureau of prisons as I understand it, you know, the members there overwhelmingly support Trump and why you had gone or at least that's been what I've been told.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You can disagree, but it seems it just seems weird that you would go after them.
43:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I can understand all down the food chain.
43:39
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you're talking about the law enforcement, you're talking about the prisons and you're talking about that stuff, it seems curious why they would have picked that fight.
43:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so it relates to, in some ways, back to the executive order, right?
43:52
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's a separate issue in a separate case.
43:54
[SPEAKER_03]: But if the executive order in March of 2025, it said, hey, we're taking away collective bargaining from all of these agencies.
44:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And then it has a provision in there saying,
44:08
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, if there's any law enforcement in these agencies, they get to keep their their their union rights, but then another accept accept the law enforcement at the Bureau of prisons, they don't get to keep their yeah, and I mean, I mean it's in part because you know, who represents the law enforcement of your business, CFGE right and we've been so outspoken against this administration on behalf of federal employees and Americans and so.
44:32
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, they're just trying to, you know, attack us here.
44:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So I know, I know this, you're a lawyer and you've got new all kinds of parameters and stuff you want to stand.
44:41
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's from the, from the this seat, from, from looking from the outside end.
44:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems like that's all this is about is Trump is a little, little, little, little butt sore, little angry, looking for some, looking for retribution.
44:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems like that's all this is because honestly,
44:59
[SPEAKER_02]: you don't get the bargain over wages.
45:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Most of that's set by Congress.
45:04
[SPEAKER_02]: There are a lot of there's civil servants laws, they're in place.
45:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys are just helping facilitate keep people's rights protected for them.
45:14
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not like you can go on strike or do those things.
45:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It just seems like from the outside.
45:20
[SPEAKER_02]: This is really only about payback.
45:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
45:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Just to be clear, we think that
45:29
[SPEAKER_03]: The this administration globally and in the various different agencies have acted on awfully in several different ways, right?
45:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So for instance, you know, in our Bureau of Prisons case are our affiliate there made arguments under the APA and there was unlawful action regarding those CBA terminations that distinct from what the administration is doing as a whole, including in our our big case over the, you know, the, the, or the, the, or the,
45:54
[SPEAKER_03]: the executive order in March last year, which took away collective bargaining.
45:58
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, one of our primary claims is, and it's pretty clear from that case, is yes, this administration is attacking us.
46:03
[SPEAKER_03]: They actually said so, right?
46:05
[SPEAKER_03]: They issued this fact sheet when they put out the exclusion order, and in that fact sheet, they said, hey,
46:12
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, we want to work with unions that work with us and then they highlight an FGE and they highlighted a different union who had filed many grievances saying like, oh, look at them.
46:21
[SPEAKER_03]: They're filing grievances.
46:22
[SPEAKER_03]: So we don't want them to have that right.
46:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
46:25
[SPEAKER_02]: They're doing their job.
46:26
[SPEAKER_02]: They're protecting their members.
46:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
46:27
[SPEAKER_02]: They're protecting the federal workforce and look.
46:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So then, could you argue that, look, they just want, they want their patronage hires, they want their loyalty hires, they want everyone to be at will and at the behest of Trump's whim, would that be safe to say?
46:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, so I think first on the prior issue though, yeah, it's not only that we're fighting for federal workers which we are, we've been outspoken on so many issues from January 20th and Trump saw that and he wants that he wanted to attack us, but on the bigger picture,
46:59
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the collective bargaining stuff, but you look at schedule, you know, after now they call it PC, you look at all of these rule makings, look at all the riffs, you know, most of which we've challenged successfully in some ways or the other it's all about, you know, creating this this sort of patronage system, you know, it's a it they want to dismantle the civil service.
47:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, and they, you know, Trump wants to create, you know, a dictatorship, you know, he wants his people, right?
47:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Look at what he's doing with the elections right now.
47:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So, look, yeah, and I know that this was a thing, and because you guys fought against it, in order to help me hear from, from wrong, but didn't, didn't that one point that you have to have be able to articulate what your favorite Trump executive order was in order to get hired, wasn't that a thing for, or is it still a thing?
47:50
[SPEAKER_03]: So yes, so you have to articulate what your favorite Trump executive order on your job applications.
47:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was an OPM-wide government-wide thing.
48:00
[SPEAKER_03]: We worked with one of our partners who was provided a lot of support to labor movement democracy forward.
48:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and we challenged that.
48:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and we won.
48:10
[SPEAKER_03]: We won.
48:10
[SPEAKER_03]: We got it.
48:11
[SPEAKER_03]: We got a, we got a, we got a portal or saying that they can't ask that question anymore.
48:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and they, they didn't get them.
48:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You're the lawyer here, but did we decide this stuff like 100 years ago?
48:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Didn't yellow dog contracts go away 100 years ago?
48:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Didn't this kind of, uh, this, this kind of oath go away?
48:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Didn't, don't we have anti discrimination laws for a reason?
48:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We thought we did, and well, I mean, they're trying to dismantle those laws too.
48:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah, there is that.
48:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm now, lastly, I gotta get to this because this is one of the most disgraceful things.
48:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, we've sent men and women off into war.
48:46
[SPEAKER_02]: People have come back injured.
48:47
[SPEAKER_02]: People have served our country with distinction and honor.
48:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They expect to be cared for.
48:54
[SPEAKER_02]: We put them up on pedestals, call them heroes.
49:02
[SPEAKER_02]: We're taking their collective bargaining rights over at the VA.
49:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand that as of one of them two weeks ago, they have now again said they're not going to recognize the workers at the VA.
49:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, so there's a long running, are affiliated at the VA, the NVAC.
49:18
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a long running, again, a challenge there to the termination of the CBA that we've been very successful at.
49:24
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, our council there got a, got victories and we got the CBA area of state it.
49:32
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's a complicated legal issues, I won't get into, but the most recent thing that happened is the court enforced, this order say, hey, VA, you've got to keep this in effect for the term of the agreement, the stated term of the agreement, the VA said, oh, we don't think so, the courts that you have to, that they appealed that to the first
49:58
[SPEAKER_03]: granted what's called a stay of the enforcement order they said hey the judge put it in do the second enforcement of of the injunction she put in place because that injunction is on appeal and while an injunction is on appeal uh you know lower court can't can't um modify it essentially is what the court above said right i'm so it was a jurisdictional holding um
50:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're going back to court actually to fix that, to fight that, but yeah, it is disgraceful because not only, you know, does taking away collective bargaining from VA employees affect these services, you know, and and the ability of the VA employees to talk about.
50:36
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, whistle blowing to talk about things.
50:38
[SPEAKER_03]: It also hurts veterans directly because a huge portion of our membership are veterans, right?
50:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, many of the people who work at the VA and all of these different federal agencies are veterans and, you know, this administration doesn't seem to care.
50:51
[SPEAKER_02]: this is how we treat our heroes who's going to be the next generation of heroes to want to step forward and take this kind of abuse their last question I've got this seems like it would cost a lot of money it seems like you know from the from the government side it seems like you know I know we went through that whole doji thing they were they were faniting out
51:10
[SPEAKER_02]: some imaginary waste fraud and abuse.
51:12
[SPEAKER_02]: This looks like real waste fraud and abuse.
51:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And it looks like money that we probably should have spent better on those heroes that did stand up and fight for this country.
51:23
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems like an allocation of resources that maybe we could all agree could be used a little bit better.
51:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Totally agree.
51:30
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think a good example is some of the riffs that we fought at various agencies.
51:38
[SPEAKER_03]: We were successful in getting a lot of them or most of them stop.
51:43
[SPEAKER_03]: But then, some of them went through, but then look what you found out, you find out, hey, they're rehiring these people.
51:48
[SPEAKER_03]: They're rehiring the people they riff, they're rehiring the people that they try to get out through this DRP or the fork in the road.
51:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're just wasting money because they're acting without thinking and they're acting for the wrong reasons.
52:01
[SPEAKER_03]: They're interests are not serving the American people.
52:07
[SPEAKER_03]: prop and up they're they're they're lackeys.
52:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, the bowing to our dear leader, Rashab, I appreciate you taking some time for us.
52:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Keep up the great work.
52:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Keep up the fight and hope you'll come back and share some more victories down the road.
52:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much.
52:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much for shoved.
52:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Sangvie is the general counsel there at the American Federation of Government Employees.
52:29
[SPEAKER_02]: If GE.org, the website, if you want to check out the work they do, want to hear your thoughts.
52:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think we could spend that money a little bit better and maybe this is something in 11 days when you go to cast your ballot.
52:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Me a might want to remember.
52:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to hear your thoughts, Rick and the Rick Smith show.com, right back.
52:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
52:54
[SPEAKER_02]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1989.
52:58
[SPEAKER_02]: At 105 in the afternoon, a massive explosion rocked the town of Pasadena, Texas, near Houston.
53:04
[SPEAKER_02]: The explosion was so large it registered a 3.5 on the Richter scale.
53:09
[SPEAKER_02]: The disaster took place at the Phillips Petroleum companies Houston Chemical Complex.
53:14
[SPEAKER_02]: The Pasadena facility produces plastics.
53:17
[SPEAKER_02]: The fire started when highly flammable gas was released from an improperly conducted valve.
53:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Twenty-three workers were killed, more than 300 more were injured.
53:27
[SPEAKER_02]: The Houston Chronicle described the devastating impact of the explosion, writing, entire buildings vanished as a huge black smoke plume, billowed skyward in an almost apocalyptic vision.
53:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Homes as far as eight miles away were damaged.
53:42
[SPEAKER_02]: After the explosion, the company rebuilt its facilities.
53:45
[SPEAKER_02]: A year after the disaster, Tom Gentry, president of the oil chemical and atomic workers local 4-227, thought the company could do more to improve workplace safety.
53:55
[SPEAKER_02]: He told the Chronicle Reporter, the company still uses outside contractors with less safety training, and workers become tired because of bare-bone staffing.
54:04
[SPEAKER_02]: At the time of the explosion, there were nine hundred and five company workers.
54:08
[SPEAKER_02]: and an additional 600 contracted employees who worked at the facility.
54:12
[SPEAKER_02]: OSHA found multiple safety violations.
54:15
[SPEAKER_02]: The company eventually came to an agreement with OSHA and paid a $4 million fine.
54:21
[SPEAKER_02]: In 1999, another explosion killed two workers at the Pasadena facility.
54:25
[SPEAKER_02]: The next year, yet another explosion killed one worker and injured 71.
54:30
[SPEAKER_02]: The company continued to hire contracted employees.
54:33
[SPEAKER_02]: After the third explosion in 11 years, Joe Campbell, secretary treasurer of the paper, allied industrial chemical and energy workers in her national said, the company continued to hire contractors who have little or no experience working in a volatile work plan.
54:53
[SPEAKER_01]: We're listening to the Rick Smith show.
54:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people, come to talk.
54:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people.
54:55
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people.
54:55
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people.
54:56
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people.
54:56
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people.
54:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people.
54:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We're working people.
54:58
[SPEAKER_00]: We're working people.
54:58
[SPEAKER_00]: We're working people.
54:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We're working people.
54:59
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:00
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:00
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:01
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:01
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:02
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:02
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:03
[UNKNOWN]: We're working people.
55:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We're working people.
55:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We're working people.
55:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We're working people.
55:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We're working people.
55:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And thanks to the FGE general counsel for coming and sharing some thoughts on what they're doing.
55:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And look, that's the reason that you have unions, to stand up to power, to stand up to a boss and look, the federal government's a boss, and it's being run by a really crummy boss.
55:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And what unions do is they out bad bosses.
55:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And we've got one.
55:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Imagine.
55:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And during the break, my mind was spinning into this.
55:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Imagine if if your boss walked into your lunch room right now and said, hey, in order for you to keep your job.
55:45
[SPEAKER_02]: In order for you to keep your job right now.
55:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You're gonna have to write down something nice about me, something nice about my family, how wonderful I am, something I've done that you, that you are just so pleased and happy with.
56:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you don't have anything nice to say about me, there's the door.
56:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That could happen.
56:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Cause look, I've worked for some people I've had no respect for.
56:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I was there to do a job.
56:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And that job was to help support my family.
56:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't necessarily have to like the guy.
56:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I work hard.
56:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll do what I'm supposed to do.
56:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll do what I'm being paid for because I can firmly believe in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.
56:24
[SPEAKER_02]: But imagine if that were the that were the criteria, then you could only get a job if you were well in perfect scent and total belief totally loyal totally loyal
56:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you stop and think about it.
56:45
[SPEAKER_02]: You go, okay, well, let's say you got the job.
56:48
[SPEAKER_02]: What if someone more loyal came along?
56:53
[SPEAKER_02]: What if someone who is, just a little bit more loyal or more willing, you know, to give on some things?
57:02
[SPEAKER_02]: You fill in the blacks.
57:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Where does that leave us?
57:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, through generations, workers of fought, blood and die to get rid of yellow dog contracts, which used to be, my grandfather, he wasn't around when they were there, but he knew old timers who remembered them.
57:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was one of these things where if you wanted a job you had to sign a contract saying I will never associate with fill in the black whatever union whatever whatever guild whatever association whatever whatever whatever lodge whatever whatever whatever the boss didn't want Or you didn't get the job And the Supreme Court did away with that
57:53
[SPEAKER_02]: we've made it illegal to harass people on a whole bunch of different levels.
57:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Because in the old days, male bosses used to take advantage of female workers.
58:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that never happened, Rick.
58:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
58:08
[SPEAKER_02]: There are horror stories in company towns of workers being killed.
58:15
[SPEAKER_02]: and their family finding out that the breadwinner winner was died on the job because the bones of that breadwinner were thrown against the door and landed on the porch.
58:28
[SPEAKER_02]: That was your notification either get out or play ball.
58:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Send the kids into the mine or hey mom, you got work to
58:43
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the world, these people want to take us back to you.
58:45
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the world that they want, that kind of power and control.
58:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not like they would, it's not like they would do it all the time.
58:56
[SPEAKER_02]: But they'd want the ability.
58:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is the scary part of where we're at in this country, because that story of having to come up with your favorite Trump executive order never got the legs that I thought it should have.
59:10
[SPEAKER_02]: That should have outraged every person who collects a paycheck.
59:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And yet some of my red hat friends are like, whoa, you know, we want people who who who loved Donald Trump and loved with the work that they're doing and want to be on the team.
59:23
[SPEAKER_02]: They made every excuse without understanding that eventually you're never loyal enough.
59:30
[SPEAKER_02]: He's gonna throw you under the bus.
59:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Want to hear your thoughts, work at therixmithshow.com, miss any portion of the program, podcast that is always.
59:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for being here.
59:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Email REC at REC at TheRixSmithShow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, this has been TheRixSmithShow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people, come to talk.