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The Rick Smith Show 10-8-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_06]: It's time for the Rick Smith show!
0:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:12
[SPEAKER_07]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:16
[SPEAKER_07]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:18
[SPEAKER_07]: That's so much for being here.
0:20
[SPEAKER_07]: Today, I have a big program.
0:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Lots to get to, lots to talk about.
0:22
[SPEAKER_07]: Wanna start off with this clip that was sent to me from a guy named Aaron Weth.
0:29
[SPEAKER_07]: He's the CEO of the euphemistically named Freedom Foundation.
0:36
[SPEAKER_07]: Aaron goes on this rant about Hobb, you know, we don't need unions anymore.
0:40
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe they were good in the past.
0:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Here he is.
0:43
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, it's my belief that unions in America were founded with noble intent.
0:48
[SPEAKER_06]: In the late 1800s, at a time where there was child labor, people dying in coal mines and steel mills for a dollar a day, the workers banded together with noble intent, together to bargain against employers that were taking advantage of them.
1:05
[SPEAKER_06]: The unions themselves want this professional class of union bosses.
1:09
[SPEAKER_06]: They were the one because themselves.
1:11
[SPEAKER_06]: And I've got to stop him here.
1:13
[SPEAKER_07]: They're still the workers themselves.
1:15
[SPEAKER_07]: Because back then, still had leaders.
1:18
[SPEAKER_07]: They elected leaders.
1:20
[SPEAKER_07]: and look I love guys like this who it is there they're they're they're gold to destroy units understand uh... with is an immigrant turn citizen according to his website uh... guy who uh... recognizes america is the freest most prosperous country in the world but also recognizes that the number one threat to the american dream
1:42
[SPEAKER_07]: is not employers cheating workers out of wages is not employers moving jobs overseas.
1:46
[SPEAKER_07]: No, it's it's it's government unions.
1:50
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah, they're going to shake the foundation of the the national the national soul.
1:57
[SPEAKER_07]: and look I look at guys like this and you're gonna see a guy like this and a nice suit tell working people that unions were a good good back in the day but where we're more advanced now we're better than that unions are a relic of the past you know like the rotary phone or the a track and i got to tell you i know i look at the guy who selling this and then i look at what he's getting paid to sell it and i got to tell you
2:26
[SPEAKER_07]: uh... he runs the this euphemistically named group the freedom foundation uh... which calls itself a battle tank against unions and says uh... they only want to plunder their paychecks uh... look a strong charge from a guy whose whose own paycheck is a public record because back in twenty twenty with uh... made a hundred ninety two thousand dollars by twenty twenty four he was up to
2:55
[SPEAKER_07]: 667,409 bucks more than triple in four years.
3:01
[SPEAKER_07]: And why, well, you know, his, his think tanks doing really well.
3:06
[SPEAKER_07]: Understand, they're part of the state policy network, a web of 167 far right quote unquote, non-profit organizations funded by billionaires, like the Koch family, the scapes, the divorces, the Bradley's, you know, the billionaire class.
3:24
[SPEAKER_07]: So, a guy funded by some of the richest people in this country telling me that a home health aid, having a union and having her union dues taken his akin to robbery, I got a, wow, I think I've seen better cons than a truck stop, three-card money table.
3:44
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, let's talk about the argument for a minute on his terms, we don't need unions anymore,
3:51
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, reality is typical non-unworker today makes about 1174 bucks a week.
3:55
[SPEAKER_07]: Typical union worker makes over 1,400.
3:58
[SPEAKER_07]: That's close to 12 grand a year before you count, a higher percentage of health care, higher percentage of pension rates.
4:06
[SPEAKER_07]: Sorry, not a relic.
4:07
[SPEAKER_07]: Kind of a car payment, a mortgage payment.
4:10
[SPEAKER_07]: And since 1979, worker productivity is gone up 93.7% and yet the paycheck, not even a third of that.
4:21
[SPEAKER_07]: The rest didn't evaporate, it went up the ladder to the kind of people who write checks to the euphemistically named Freedom Foundation.
4:29
[SPEAKER_07]: We've gotten very advanced, but the advancement is moving money from the people who work for a living to allow the people who own it.
4:38
[SPEAKER_07]: uh... the people who move money from one pocket to the other and look we still have uh... in twenty twenty four over five thousand five hundred seventy five hundred i mean five thousand seventy workers in this country were killed on the job that's one every one hundred and four minutes sorry i'm not buying the advanced
4:56
[SPEAKER_07]: And here's what these guys never bothered the mention.
4:59
[SPEAKER_07]: Think about the weekend, think about the eight hour day, think about over time, think about minimum wage loss, think about all of this stuff, workplace safety that we kind of take for granted.
5:09
[SPEAKER_07]: It was workers in their unions that fought blood and died for those, not something benevolent billionaire who bestowed it on us because all you deserved it.
5:20
[SPEAKER_07]: And the crowd saying that, you know, the laws that are passed, you know, for child labor laws and minimum wage, well it's, this is why we don't need unions anymore.
5:28
[SPEAKER_07]: We've got, we've got all these laws.
5:30
[SPEAKER_07]: They're the same people trying to deregulate those laws.
5:35
[SPEAKER_07]: So when Trump tried to move to collective bargaining for federal workers with told Congress that they should go even further and ban it outright.
5:44
[SPEAKER_07]: So basically pull up the ladder and then tell everyone, you know, there was never a ladder here.
5:51
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, look, I believe in Liberty like anyone.
5:54
[SPEAKER_07]: You're right to swing your fist and, though, at the tip of my nose.
5:58
[SPEAKER_07]: So a boss who steals your overtime cuts corners on your safety, cheats you out of wages, misclassifies you, sorry.
6:06
[SPEAKER_07]: They've swung past your nose, and they knocked out your teeth.
6:10
[SPEAKER_07]: Because understand, the union isn't a relic.
6:12
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a self-defense mechanism.
6:14
[SPEAKER_07]: It's how we built the most prosperous working class in the history of humanity.
6:19
[SPEAKER_07]: And you've always had well-suited, well-paid, well-educated folks who want to say, well, you know, we're so much better now.
6:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Now look, I've carried a union card since 89.
6:35
[SPEAKER_07]: My health insurance fund is why my family didn't go broke when my wife nearly died.
6:41
[SPEAKER_07]: So when a guy who's paid almost 700,000 a year tells me I don't need my union or we don't need a union I kind of got who's interest he's protected I know who's interest I want to protect for me it's always more union every worker should be in a union period
7:02
[SPEAKER_07]: And if you get one of their crummy freedom foundation opt-out maillers, I want to know it.
7:07
[SPEAKER_07]: Send it to me, rickethorexmithshow.com and all by the way, if you're not in a union now, you should probably talk to your co-workers about doing it because guys like this, they're coming and they're well paid.
7:20
[SPEAKER_07]: They get up every day to dream up ways to take your rights away.
7:26
[SPEAKER_07]: It's time to stand up, fight back, and, well, push, push guys like this where they belong, out of our minds.
7:32
[SPEAKER_07]: Want to hear your thoughts?
7:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Rick at therixmithshow.com right back.
7:39
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
7:43
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1989.
7:47
[SPEAKER_07]: That was the day that thousands of people marched on Washington DC to protest against homelessness.
7:53
[SPEAKER_07]: They gathered to protest against massive cuts in federal housing funding.
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[SPEAKER_07]: President Reagan had cut the budget of the department of housing and urban development in half.
8:03
[SPEAKER_07]: The protesters hoped President George H. W. Bush would change this course.
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[SPEAKER_07]: They called their protest housing now.
8:11
[SPEAKER_07]: Estimates of the crowd ranged from 40,000 to more than 200,000.
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[SPEAKER_07]: The New York Times described those who participated writing, quote, they came from as far away as Miami and Beverly Hills, Memphis and Portland, Oregon.
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[SPEAKER_07]: Some had walked from New York City.
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[SPEAKER_07]: They included
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[SPEAKER_07]: state and local officials and prominent figures.
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[SPEAKER_07]: A delegation of 500 homeless people and allies came on buses from Chicago.
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[SPEAKER_07]: They were joined by famous participants that included Coretta Scott King, Susan Sarandon, and a performance by Stevie Wonder.
8:49
[SPEAKER_07]: Union members also joined the protest.
8:51
[SPEAKER_07]: One of the participants interviewed by the New York Times was a 24-year-old apprentice with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
8:58
[SPEAKER_07]: Cassandra Benton told the paper, quote, hopefully now they will see everyone as united.
9:04
[SPEAKER_07]: They'll stop spending so much on weapons and other countries.
9:08
[SPEAKER_07]: During the protest,
9:09
[SPEAKER_07]: Musician Tracy Chapman played her revolution song, a fitting song for the event, according to the National Alliance to Anne Homelessness in January 2015, more than half a million people were homeless in the United States.
9:28
[SPEAKER_03]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com.
9:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
9:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
9:49
[SPEAKER_07]: So you made a number yesterday we were talking with Jimmy Williams Jr. General President of the Painter's Union about the big concert over the weekend, the power to the people festival that happened, and really the call for what's next, the kind of organizing that needs to be done all across this country to build worker power.
10:08
[SPEAKER_07]: And I say, look, the platform that the Democrats don't seem to have, the platform, the Republicans, most certainly do not have.
10:17
[SPEAKER_07]: is something that we need.
10:18
[SPEAKER_07]: What's a working class agenda?
10:20
[SPEAKER_07]: What's going to make work in this country pay?
10:22
[SPEAKER_07]: What's going to build working class solidarity and prosperity again?
10:27
[SPEAKER_07]: And you know, kind of like something that Republicans did, you know, back in the 90s with their contract on America?
10:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, this should be a contract.
10:35
[SPEAKER_07]: for American working people, and here to share some thoughts on just that topic.
10:40
[SPEAKER_07]: I've asked Leonard and you already come share some thoughts with us.
10:42
[SPEAKER_07]: He's the president of the Texas AFFLCIO.
10:45
[SPEAKER_07]: You can check out their website, TexasAAvelCIO.com.
10:49
[SPEAKER_07]: He's here to push the idea of a contract with America's working people Leonard.
10:54
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks for taking time for us.
10:56
[SPEAKER_08]: No, appreciate it.
10:57
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you for the opportunity.
10:58
[SPEAKER_08]: Thanks for having me.
10:59
[SPEAKER_07]: So look, there's a moment right now.
11:00
[SPEAKER_07]: Labor is at the high at the high end of a lot of approval ratings, 71% of people want to join most most people.
11:07
[SPEAKER_07]: Trust Labor unions more than either political party seems like an awesome opportunity for you guys to get out there and say, hey, we should be fighting for those better wages, hours, conditions.
11:17
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, a government that may work for we the people.
11:20
[SPEAKER_07]: What are you guys doing?
11:22
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, no, I appreciate it.
11:24
[SPEAKER_08]: We are
11:25
[SPEAKER_08]: We're out there.
11:26
[SPEAKER_08]: We're getting on the road and we're talking to our two our members talking to our community.
11:30
[SPEAKER_08]: One of the biggest things was doing our listening tour.
11:32
[SPEAKER_08]: We've done over the past year where we travel to the state of Texas, 11 different councils, I believe it was just shy of 5,000 miles over 600 members that we talked to all the way from one end of the state from Beaumont, Texas all the way to to El Paso, Texas and again from the border down in Brownsville up to Amarillo.
11:52
[SPEAKER_08]: And the thing that we were able to do was talk to rank and file members and find out what the issues were.
11:58
[SPEAKER_08]: A lot of times we get in the silo, we get in the offices like here in Austin, Texas, across street from the Capitol on the governor's mansion and we we sometimes we lose touch and so we got back to basics and we got back to talking to members and figuring out what the issues were and the thing that was amazing after taking that trip, you know, that took us over a year was finding out the issues in far east Texas were the same issues that were
12:24
[SPEAKER_08]: And things that were happening down in the border in the RGB, the same things that are happening in the Panhandle.
12:30
[SPEAKER_08]: People retired, people are upset, people are figuring out how they're going to make it to that next paycheck.
12:36
[SPEAKER_08]: People are trying to figure out how they're going to be paying for groceries.
12:39
[SPEAKER_08]: Now, they're figuring out how they're going to be filling up their trucks and getting fuel.
12:44
[SPEAKER_08]: The issue of affordability, the issue of education, public education, getting cut here in Texas, year after year after year,
12:54
[SPEAKER_08]: And, you know, the other issues that are there across the board again, that was the biggest thing that we saw, that common thread that the people, the people, the members, the community clubs had in common across the state, it didn't matter where it was across the state of Texas.
13:08
[SPEAKER_08]: It was the same for issues and that was a direction that we decided to go.
13:12
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, look, I think, I think universally the working class is overworked, underpaid, tired, and broke, and fed up, and there's an opportunity here, and what the right has done masterfully, and what the wealth class has done masterfully, is force feed us the outrage candy that divides us.
13:32
[SPEAKER_07]: What I think we need to do is figure out how we come back to the middle of a road together.
13:35
[SPEAKER_07]: Instead, we stand on the sidewalk, throw in things at each other.
13:38
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe we should be marching in the same direction.
13:41
[SPEAKER_07]: And I don't know, maybe to Elon's house, maybe to our wealth class, and say, hey, look, it's time, maybe to share a little bit.
13:49
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I mean, I think you're right on track there, and that's the thing that we were trying to get across to people.
13:56
[SPEAKER_08]: It's not an R versus D, it's not the political party's angle.
13:59
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, we're trying to get it across as understanding that we're trying to get trying to make it where everybody understands that this is a working class issue.
14:05
[SPEAKER_08]: This is workers.
14:06
[SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely right.
14:07
[SPEAKER_08]: This is about workers 100% is us versus them.
14:11
[SPEAKER_08]: It's a billionaires and the corporations that are trying to push us down and keep us down with that that well separation, right?
14:19
[SPEAKER_08]: And that we're not going to have it anymore.
14:20
[SPEAKER_08]: And that's something again that we have
14:23
[SPEAKER_08]: We've come to find out and surprisingly, with everybody thinking the same thing and trying to figure out how to go about it, that's one of the things that has brought us to this point of having to contract and getting people to kind of gather on this and move forward in that same direction.
14:37
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, like I cited Newt Gingrich and the Republicans contract on America back from the 90s.
14:44
[SPEAKER_07]: They wrote it down.
14:45
[SPEAKER_07]: They had 10 principles or 10 horrible things they wanted to do.
14:48
[SPEAKER_07]: And to their credit, they did a lot of it.
14:50
[SPEAKER_07]: a lot of it was pointed at harming working people, especially the working poor, walk me through what what this contract for America's working class, what's this going to look like, what are your top priorities?
15:03
[SPEAKER_07]: I know you had the listening tour and we've got a lot but it comes down to brass tax, you know, how do we what do we push in for and how do we get there?
15:13
[SPEAKER_08]: And basically what we're looking for is just those elected officials that are going to be taking care of the working people that the constituents of the district doesn't matter if it's a senate district doesn't matter a U.S. congressional seat doesn't matter if it's a state how see we need those elected that are going to represent us in those halls and that's something that that is has brought us brought us to this point again where we are talking about the issues issues that we
15:38
[SPEAKER_08]: need assistance.
15:39
[SPEAKER_08]: We need to make sure things report, we need selected, they're going to be working to make things affordable.
15:45
[SPEAKER_08]: It's not a difficult thing, it's not okay science, it's something that we need to make sure we're focusing on the report issues that are going to take care of the working people of Texas, the working people of this country, and that's what we're putting into this piece is to make it.
16:05
[SPEAKER_07]: When I look at this, you know, Leonard, the reality is it comes down to an absolute agenda.
16:13
[SPEAKER_07]: We want to fight for health care.
16:14
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm a Medicare for all guys, something that I think we should be pursuing.
16:18
[SPEAKER_07]: I think we should be fighting to overturn the pro act, to pass the pro act overturning to half-heartedly.
16:24
[SPEAKER_07]: There are so many things policy-wise.
16:26
[SPEAKER_07]: that I think we have to be doing, and that there's got to be some kind of numeration where people are going, this is what we're putting in the face of our elected leaders, this is what we're putting to candidates, this is what we want you to do, this is, these are our demands, if you will, and and it may stick holding them to that, and also running more labor-friendly candidates, which we are doing, which we're seeing across the country.
16:55
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, no, without a doubt the labor for any candidate piece, that's something that we have been working on here at the Texas AFL CL and something that we're trying to make sure for the for the first time ever we are going to have here.
17:05
[SPEAKER_08]: I believe it's 16 of our member the count.
17:07
[SPEAKER_08]: 16 part carrying rank and volume your members at a run for office.
17:12
[SPEAKER_08]: And that's something, it is, it is just something that's amazing that we've been able to do.
17:17
[SPEAKER_08]: And that's what the education and the training that we've done here at the Texas, they have felt, again, working with our affiliates.
17:22
[SPEAKER_08]: But getting those union members, and back to your point, getting those union members to run for office and win these elections.
17:28
[SPEAKER_08]: So then when we are going to lobby and going to try to work on these issues, we're not, we're going to somebody that already has been there.
17:35
[SPEAKER_08]: One of us, somebody who's had to wake up.
17:38
[SPEAKER_08]: and go punch a time clock and had to check in on the job site had to get the job done.
17:43
[SPEAKER_08]: That's what we're working on is a big piece of that again is making sure that we have those individuals union members, rank and file running for office and we are so excited to have 16 on the ballot coming up here in a couple of weeks and we're feeling pretty good about the opportunities that are there for those union members that are running for office.
18:02
[SPEAKER_08]: And one of the big pieces that we were able to do in the proofs are already in the
18:07
[SPEAKER_08]: We've been able to do it last year in a special election and special election in Terran County, Fort Worth, Texas.
18:14
[SPEAKER_08]: We were able to take a machine.
18:15
[SPEAKER_08]: It's taken a remin, who was able to take a Trump plus 16 or 17 and get a 31 point flip.
18:22
[SPEAKER_08]: It was a Trump plus fifth or 16 or 17 and then he wound up one in by 16 or 17.
18:28
[SPEAKER_08]: I can't remember the exact numbers.
18:30
[SPEAKER_08]: But we got a rank and file you remember somebody that we took from the shop floor to the Senate floor and that was done last year and we're going to continue that work and we're going to get more union members elected here in the state of Texas.
18:40
[SPEAKER_07]: No, look at the reality is Texas is one of those states that is a major economic driver and if the engine is being driven into the ground.
18:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Because you guys got some pretty bad policies coming out of there.
18:52
[SPEAKER_07]: That can find its way across the country.
18:55
[SPEAKER_07]: And I look, no, Vembers really important.
18:57
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, getting out of vote is extremely important.
18:59
[SPEAKER_07]: How do you mobilize?
19:00
[SPEAKER_07]: How do you get people excited in this moment?
19:03
[SPEAKER_07]: The vote when the sad reality is more people don't bother to vote, then seem to do.
19:09
[SPEAKER_07]: How do we energize and engage in this moment of frustration and anger?
19:14
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean we started that work already again when we are getting out there to talk to our members to engage with them and hear what's bothering them and that's part of the stuff that part of the work that we are doing and it's also where we are working with our our affiliates across the way and as we're going through this process it's a matter of just education.
19:35
[SPEAKER_08]: We need to educate internally, we need to educate externally and we need to continue to move
19:42
[SPEAKER_08]: Again, people are tired, like we said at the beginning, and when we first got on the call, people are tired, people are upset, people trust their unions, union members, trust their unions, they trust their business manager, they trust their president.
19:55
[SPEAKER_08]: So having those leaders be that messenger of the political space that we are in is helping us get that message across and helping us get to those
20:06
[SPEAKER_08]: Union members it typically wouldn't be involved so having those those letters come from the local union itself having those phone calls those texts having those local leaders Talk to their members and educate their members and us working together.
20:19
[SPEAKER_08]: That's how we're starting to shift the shift the conversation conversation and change the conversation
20:23
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, no, earlier I talked about a guy who's they had a the Freedom Foundation.
20:28
[SPEAKER_07]: I love these euphemistically crot-named groups.
20:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Anything but freedom coming out of there.
20:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe the freedom to be poor.
20:35
[SPEAKER_07]: I guess that's what they pushed for.
20:36
[SPEAKER_07]: But his argument was, we don't need unions today.
20:39
[SPEAKER_07]: Units are something, you know, back, you know, when we had coal mines and steel mills, and you know, people working for a dollar a day, something we needed back then, you know, not, not, not, not, we're better than that now.
20:49
[SPEAKER_07]: And I'm sure you've heard this a thousand times.
20:53
[SPEAKER_07]: Are we are we that much better off than we were sure people are dying in the mills and minds at the numbers that we used to but inequality's almost is great If not greater than it was during the gilded age People are still struggling to put food on the table.
21:07
[SPEAKER_07]: We're still insecure in our health in our retirement and our job security It seems like now more than ever we should be fighting and demanding more unionization
21:18
[SPEAKER_07]: instead of the message that the wealth class keeps shoving down our throats of, well, you know, that union stuff.
21:24
[SPEAKER_07]: That was something that, you know, may have been noble in the old days, but we're better than that Leonard.
21:30
[SPEAKER_08]: Now we definitely are and that's what the unions do.
21:32
[SPEAKER_08]: The union for me and just an example from my party gives me a sense of security.
21:36
[SPEAKER_08]: The union for everybody is different and the reasons for everybody, they have their own their own reasons why, but for me it's that sense of security.
21:44
[SPEAKER_08]: And the sense of security of making sure I have that paycheck, making sure I have those benefits that health insurance and that retirement when I get out when I get to that point of retirement making sure I have that safe working job that safe job to go to where I can go to work at and the most importantly is go home at the end of the day and those are the basic things we're not asking for a lot what we what we're looking for is just what we what we are working for.
22:09
[SPEAKER_08]: We're not asking to be given anything.
22:11
[SPEAKER_08]: We work for everything that we do.
22:13
[SPEAKER_08]: And it's unfortunate that we have those individuals that are out there.
22:16
[SPEAKER_08]: And like he would said, what they are doing to take away from us, right?
22:20
[SPEAKER_08]: And Texas is still the deadliest state in the country, I believe.
22:25
[SPEAKER_08]: I think there's one worker that dies every three days in the state of Texas in the construction industry.
22:31
[SPEAKER_08]: How is that possible in today's age?
22:33
[SPEAKER_08]: How does that, how do we let that happen?
22:35
[SPEAKER_08]: It shouldn't happen, but yet we're letting workers we're doing this on the back of workers.
22:40
[SPEAKER_08]: We are weird.
22:41
[SPEAKER_08]: we are great, and we are essential when we are needed, but then we're forgotten after we don't need them anymore.
22:47
[SPEAKER_08]: After they say that we don't need them.
22:49
[SPEAKER_07]: So they're trying to get rid of us.
22:52
[SPEAKER_07]: All this talk of AI and the post-human world that's coming.
22:56
[SPEAKER_07]: They're trying.
22:57
[SPEAKER_07]: And I know I hear all the time, and I'll walk me through this a little bit, because AI has got to be part of your contract and how we deal with AI and maybe holding that somewhat accountable.
23:08
[SPEAKER_07]: If the goal is, hey, we're going to replace all of you, and maybe don't ask for too much because they may replace you sooner.
23:14
[SPEAKER_07]: How do you deal with that conversation?
23:16
[SPEAKER_07]: Because I get it a lot.
23:18
[SPEAKER_08]: That's a great question.
23:19
[SPEAKER_08]: And that's one we're definitely going to where we're starting to figure out and start and are getting ready for here on our legislative session that starts up in January of next year.
23:29
[SPEAKER_08]: But trying to take those examples that are there, that the National AFL is done a really good job of putting information together and tech institute, the AI tech institute.
23:39
[SPEAKER_08]: Other state federations are doing a great job.
23:41
[SPEAKER_08]: California is done an amazing job here recently with the legislation that they've been able to do.
23:47
[SPEAKER_08]: Other states are doing great work as well, but we are just going to put ourselves in a situation where again, we're going to go back, we're going to make sure we educate ourselves, educate our members, educate the ones, those affiliates where this space is going to be impacted first and try to get try to be ready for what's coming.
24:03
[SPEAKER_08]: It is something that we are, we are definitely, definitely worried about, but it's something that we do feel that we can be in a position, especially with the wins that we are going to have on the election on November 3rd.
24:16
[SPEAKER_08]: That's going to change the narrative here at the St. House because there are going to be a lot of working people, those union members like I talked about are going to win those races and there's going to be a shift in the number of.
24:26
[SPEAKER_08]: of worker friendly electives that are in the in the state house.
24:31
[SPEAKER_07]: That is the hope because we need more people who know what it's like to have a paycheck that doesn't make it to the end of the week and maybe go to those cupboards at the end of the month and they're not being a food to put on the table.
24:43
[SPEAKER_07]: We need more people in those halls to understand what that's like.
24:47
[SPEAKER_07]: Lastly, I only get your thoughts because there's a big conference coming to your neck of the woods this weekend.
24:52
[SPEAKER_07]: The treat trades women build nation's conference.
24:56
[SPEAKER_07]: schedule.
24:56
[SPEAKER_07]: I guess Houston, the ninth through the 11th of October, a gathering of the the largest gathering of unionized trade women on the planet, some 6,000 women going to be showing up in Houston.
25:08
[SPEAKER_07]: There are any thoughts?
25:10
[SPEAKER_08]: It is a great conference.
25:12
[SPEAKER_08]: And I was fortunate enough to attend the one in Seattle a few years ago.
25:17
[SPEAKER_08]: And I tell you what, it was, it was life change.
25:19
[SPEAKER_08]: When
25:21
[SPEAKER_08]: When I was working for the state building trades here as the executive director here in Texas, I had the opportunity to go to that and came back with so much information and and so much just want to lean to do so many things to try to to work and that's basically making sure that we're better position to support our our sisters in the late movement in building phase and ensure we're there it's a constant looking forward to it going to be that this year.
25:48
[SPEAKER_08]: on my set, but in our sector, I just ran my order or making the trip to Houston and going to be there this weekend without a doubt.
25:55
[SPEAKER_07]: There you go.
25:56
[SPEAKER_07]: So, Rosie Riveter taking a, Rosie, the Riveter getting an upgraded, maybe this time we're going to, we're going to keep her around to help build this country and move forward because that's a major organizing opportunity going forward.
26:10
[SPEAKER_07]: We need a lot of people to rebuild this country that rebuild our roads, our bridges, the future infrastructure.
26:16
[SPEAKER_07]: And great opportunities and I know the building trades have incredible apprenticeship programs So that people can get the education that they need at no cost in fact get to earn while you learn instead of taking on a lifetime A debt sounds like an incredible pathway from from from for men women.
26:31
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, everyone No, it definitely is It is something that we need to we need to expand those apprenticeships and the and the building trades unions are doing a great job now
26:43
[SPEAKER_08]: and they need to continue to evolve and get better in that space with President of Garvey and the leadership there at Nav2 in the way that everybody else throughout the trades.
26:53
[SPEAKER_08]: And then our state building trades here in Texas, it is great to see that folks are changing the way that they think, we need to bring in more people, we need to open up the doors, we need to have more veterans, we need to have more women, we need to have more folks from those communities that we typically don't talk to.
27:10
[SPEAKER_08]: the best kept secret and we need to stop being a secret.
27:12
[SPEAKER_08]: We need to let people know all the good work that we did.
27:14
[SPEAKER_07]: There you go.
27:15
[SPEAKER_07]: Leonard Agley, I appreciate you taking time for us.
27:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Great stuff.
27:19
[SPEAKER_07]: As you roll out more of this contract with America's working people, hope you'll come back and share more of it and as we have victories down the road, hope you'll come back and keep us informed.
27:29
[SPEAKER_08]: No, we definitely do that and appreciate the opportunity.
27:32
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks so much, Leonard.
27:33
[SPEAKER_07]: One of your thoughts, uh,
27:36
[SPEAKER_07]: You ready for the contract with America's working people?
27:39
[SPEAKER_07]: And what would you put in it?
27:41
[SPEAKER_07]: What do you think is important?
27:42
[SPEAKER_07]: Want to hear it, Rick at therixmithshow.com.
27:45
[SPEAKER_07]: Quick break, right back, it's the crown.
28:00
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History In Two.
28:03
[SPEAKER_07]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1933.
28:06
[SPEAKER_07]: That was the day Detroit anarchist Labor leader Joseph LeBody died.
28:12
[SPEAKER_07]: Born in Poppa in 1850, Joe was born to descendants of French immigrants and grew up among native Potawatami peoples in southwest Michigan.
28:21
[SPEAKER_07]: He became a printer, joining the local typographical union number 18 and worked for the Detroit Post-Entribune.
28:28
[SPEAKER_07]: He was an early leader of the Socialist Labor Party.
28:31
[SPEAKER_07]: By 1878, Joe organized the first Knights of Labor Assembly in Detroit.
28:36
[SPEAKER_07]: He served as the first president of the Detroit Trade Council and founded the Michigan Federation of Labor.
28:42
[SPEAKER_07]: He wrote tirelessly for a number of labor and socialist newspapers across the country.
28:48
[SPEAKER_07]: He embraced anarchism and soon produced a popular column titled Cranky Nochins.
28:53
[SPEAKER_07]: Labadi enjoyed the company and correspondence of radical labor leaders like Emma Goldman, Albert and Lucy Parsons, Eugene V. Debs, Benjamin Tucker, Terence Powderley, and others of the Progressive Era.
29:05
[SPEAKER_07]: He was often referred to as the gentle anarchist for his insistence on non-violence and distancing from those anarchists who advocated the use of violence as an acceptable tactic.
29:17
[SPEAKER_07]: LeBody was also known to never throw out any printed material relevant to labor or radical causes.
29:24
[SPEAKER_07]: His biographer
29:25
[SPEAKER_07]: Carletta Anderson notes that, the story of his life, deeds and thoughts is abundantly revealed through the treasure trove of letters, periodicals, clippings, manuscripts, booklets, photos, and circulars once stored in his attic, and now housed in the LeBody Collection of the University of Michigan.
29:43
[SPEAKER_07]: His stockpile of documents of social protest has proven a boon discolors enabling them to study the early labor movement in detail.
29:52
[SPEAKER_07]: When he died at the age of 83, he considered this to be his legacy.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to hand it to Washington's Republican policy makers.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: They've come up with a truly remarkable way that they promise will vastly expand the number of small businesses in America.
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Great!
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: This is personal for me, for I grew up in a family that had a main street business in small town, Texas.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know how hard it is for little guys to battle the raw monopoly power of corporate chains.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Thus, I cheered the GOP.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Until I learned that their small business proposal is just another big business scam.
30:35
[SPEAKER_00]: far from actually increasing the number of small enterprises, Trump bureaucrats are merely redefining small to include big.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, the small business administration has loaned categorized to business as small if it had less than $25 million in yearly sales.
30:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But they've now jacked that definition up by 1,000%.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed.
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: This is much worse than a statistical ruse for it means that very large outfits with Wall Street backing, Washington lobbyists and slick corporate lawyers was suddenly take the grants, contracts, and other government benefits intended to advance genuine Main Street innovators and competitors.
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: In short, the GOP's cynical scheme is using the small business label to overpower those very enterprises.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a deliberate rigging of the rules but today's right-wing government officials to help big business grab public money, increasing the power of corporate elites to eliminate competitors and further monopolize our economy.
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hi-Tower saying, remember this deceit when Republican Congress critters run corporate-financed election ads this fall, claiming to love small business.
31:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, love it to death.
32:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:10
[SPEAKER_07]: Show the Supreme Court, I'm not going to say they decided something on behalf of workers.
32:18
[SPEAKER_07]: They declined to get involved.
32:20
[SPEAKER_07]: Let's go with that.
32:21
[SPEAKER_07]: They decided not to hear an appeal from the owners of the Pittsburgh Post, because you may remember, and we've been talking about this for a while, that the owners of the Pittsburgh Post, on 240 year old newspaper wanted to go to war with their workers.
32:39
[SPEAKER_07]: I thought that they could just, you know, whatever they want that they could do in the workers one on strike.
32:44
[SPEAKER_07]: It was like three years and a last November, the NLRB ruled that, you know, block communications, the people who own the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, you know, screwed up and they've got to pay, they've got to pay the workers back then.
33:00
[SPEAKER_07]: They've got to pay them for the cuts to their pay and the changes to their working conditions.
33:05
[SPEAKER_07]: and the Supreme Court goes yeah we don't want to get involved.
33:07
[SPEAKER_07]: So I got to wonder what this is going to mean and that's why I've asked John Shloys to come share some thoughts with us.
33:13
[SPEAKER_07]: John is the president of the news guild CWA you can check out their website newsgill.org.
33:19
[SPEAKER_07]: John looks really good time for us.
33:22
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh my god it's uh it's good to be here when the Supreme Court doesn't do something.
33:27
[SPEAKER_07]: right, and look something finally, and I know it's occasionally that workers get to win, but celebrate a win, man.
33:35
[SPEAKER_07]: This is a big thing, isn't it?
33:38
[SPEAKER_09]: It's huge.
33:39
[SPEAKER_09]: It's absolutely massive.
33:40
[SPEAKER_09]: You know, when this strike started back in October of 22,
33:47
[SPEAKER_09]: I was under the impression in my naivete as being a young worker and young, young, union leader that labor law was broken.
33:57
[SPEAKER_09]: After seeing how long it takes to go through
34:02
[SPEAKER_09]: an NLRB charge to a complaint to administrative law judge to the full board ruling to the circuit court of appeals ruling up to the Supreme Court refusing to overturn the third circuits enforcement of an order.
34:15
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, we're talking an unfair labor practice charge was filed back in July of 2020, so it's more than six and a half years to go through all the steps.
34:25
[SPEAKER_09]: I used to think that labor law was broken.
34:27
[SPEAKER_09]: Now, I realized labor law was designed this way, but
34:31
[SPEAKER_09]: You know, you got to be like a pesky pesky pesky person and you just have to have the patience and the fortitude and, you know, we had these strikers out for more than three years.
34:40
[SPEAKER_09]: And, um, yeah, but it was to that because it's just one.
34:44
[SPEAKER_07]: John, it should not be this difficult.
34:47
[SPEAKER_07]: it should not be six years to get some some some resolve.
34:51
[SPEAKER_07]: It should not be three years on strike to hold a company that clearly was trying to, you know, I remember the last the one time we had you on to come talk about this and I had a thing that are along the car and that said, you know, billionaire blows fortune to deny workers' rights, destroys a 240-year-old company.
35:11
[SPEAKER_07]: And yeah, congratulations.
35:13
[SPEAKER_07]: They did that and I guess it's their right to do
35:16
[SPEAKER_07]: But it shouldn't take this long to get to a point to go hey, you did you really screwed this up
35:24
[SPEAKER_09]: It shouldn't.
35:25
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, this was a, this was a family that there, you know, the, there's two twin brothers who really run block communications incorporated.
35:33
[SPEAKER_09]: Now, but their, their dad was like relatively decent, like he was like actually someone that had a lot of respect, but then when they took over, they just really started down a path that began even longer than six years ago, it began like nine or 10 years ago.
35:48
[SPEAKER_09]: when they just refused any contract, any change in the contract besides what they specifically wanted, they refused our workers.
35:57
[SPEAKER_09]: And so this like started this process.
35:59
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, their goal, as you said at the top of the show, was that they are going to, they were going to try and destroy the union.
36:06
[SPEAKER_09]: And we, we're not going to let that happen, so, so, you know, we stuck around, but, you know, when we got the, you know, we, the middle of this case, this is a wild thing, folks might know that there are these different injunctions that the National Labor Relations Board can get, typically maybe someone's heard of a tin-jane junction, well actually in this case, we won what's called a tin-e injunction, even labor lawyers who are listening to your show.
36:31
[SPEAKER_09]: probably are like tin-y, that doesn't exist, go look at the statute, it does.
36:35
[SPEAKER_09]: And how many times in the history of the National Labor Relations Act since 1935 has a tin-y in junction actually been adopted and given out by circuit court of appeals?
36:45
[SPEAKER_09]: The answer is zero until this case.
36:47
[SPEAKER_09]: So we actually want an in junction that's never been one before in the history of the National Labor Relations Act.
36:51
[SPEAKER_09]: And on that day,
36:53
[SPEAKER_09]: these owners, the block family said, we're shutting the newspaper down.
36:57
[SPEAKER_09]: Like that's who they decided that they were.
36:59
[SPEAKER_09]: This was a case, this was a situation, a difference of health care costs.
37:03
[SPEAKER_09]: That at the beginning was tens of thousands of dollars, maybe, in differences.
37:09
[SPEAKER_09]: And they decided instead, you know what?
37:11
[SPEAKER_09]: We're going to force the workers into a plan that we decide.
37:14
[SPEAKER_09]: We're going to refuse to bargain in good faith.
37:15
[SPEAKER_09]: We're going to impose conditions.
37:18
[SPEAKER_09]: And we're just going to be set in our ways.
37:21
[SPEAKER_09]: And so because of that, now we're looking at financial penalties of millions of dollars.
37:27
[SPEAKER_09]: Like, I don't know how stupid you have to be, but rich people seem to be pretty stupid.
37:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, if we're told they're the smart ones and yet they do dumb things and but here's the weird part of it they do dumb things I'm not looking a lot of strikes that happen especially with with nurses and hospitals where they spend You know tens of millions of dollars to bring in scabs and they just they just they just poor money into breaking the union where they would have said they would have saved you know 80% of what they blew I'll just go and yeah we're going to be decent we're going to give you reasonable health care we're going to give you a decent wage we're going to make conditions a little more tolerable
38:01
[SPEAKER_07]: Instead, it really is just about power and control.
38:04
[SPEAKER_07]: It's not even about the money, it's really about the power and control.
38:07
[SPEAKER_07]: And this tip from to me from the very beginning was not about dollars and cents.
38:13
[SPEAKER_07]: It was about power and control.
38:16
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, you're absolutely right.
38:17
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, John R. Block, who was the publisher of the Pittsburgh Post because that before they sold it off, you know, lived in like the nicest neighborhood in Pittsburgh and we had many pigets out at his house.
38:30
[SPEAKER_09]: And it was all about control.
38:32
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, he was just desperate to try and create a publication that bent to his will.
38:39
[SPEAKER_09]: And you know, it was really nice that we stood up and said, we're not gonna lie to you.
38:42
[SPEAKER_09]: And we're actually our butt from our strike publication.
38:46
[SPEAKER_09]: It's a puppy dog, the pup, which was the Pittsburgh Union Progress that was our strike publishing publication that we published for three years on strike to all of the contents still available.
38:55
[SPEAKER_09]: In this whole drama, and towards the end, when the Pittsburgh Post Gazette was sold to a different buyer,
39:01
[SPEAKER_09]: A lot of our members lost their jobs.
39:04
[SPEAKER_09]: The new owner did not hire a lot of the strikers.
39:07
[SPEAKER_09]: And so our strikers actually set up a new publication of worker-owned cooperative called the Pittsburgh Progress.
39:14
[SPEAKER_09]: And folks confided at Pittsburgh Progress.com.
39:16
[SPEAKER_09]: So it's a new tip to be like a worker-owned cooperative to be like, you know what, these billionaires and billionaires, let's not let them be the boss.
39:22
[SPEAKER_09]: Let's have the workers be the boss.
39:24
[SPEAKER_09]: And that's what they're trying to do in Pittsburgh.
39:25
[SPEAKER_07]: So with the Pittsburgh Post because that now still operational, I understand just on a more narrow distribution, right, are you representing the members there or have they broke in the union?
39:39
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, we're still representing the members there.
39:41
[SPEAKER_09]: We're still fighting for a first contract.
39:43
[SPEAKER_09]: You know, the fact is that everyone's going to benefit from the fight of the strikers, you know, and really bad brutal long-term strikes.
39:51
[SPEAKER_09]: There's a lot of people who like cross a picket line, right?
39:53
[SPEAKER_09]: We call them scabs.
39:55
[SPEAKER_09]: It's a pretty dishonorable thing to do.
39:57
[SPEAKER_09]: But regardless, what's going to happen is that because of this ruling,
40:01
[SPEAKER_09]: Even the strike breakers are going to be the ones who are going to see a lot of money come their way because the company at the end of the day was the one who broke the law and us as the union and the strikers We held them to a count, but yeah, the the goal is to try to get a new contract with the new owners You know because of the way that the sale was structured.
40:20
[SPEAKER_09]: They blew apart the contract And so terms and conditions kind of start from zero So it's like kind of like a brand new organizing campaign.
40:27
[SPEAKER_09]: So we're we're really hopeful, you know at the end of the day
40:31
[SPEAKER_07]: uh... journalism that's good is typically journalism that is uh... protected in a union so i want to talk about the uh... the uh... the the the penalty uh... because you know a couple of millions of dollars you know i think i thought i saw report five million i've seen seven million i i'm sure they're going to calculate all that but even still to to a family that's worth a billion we'll say five million dollars seven million dollars that's
40:54
[SPEAKER_07]: you know, that's play money really in their world.
40:57
[SPEAKER_07]: There are no real penalties in my view in this and this is why I think we do need comprehensive labor all the reform.
41:04
[SPEAKER_07]: We do need to have real teeth in our law and the fact of the matter is those millions of dollars are just what people lost as I understand.
41:12
[SPEAKER_07]: There's no real penalty is there?
41:15
[SPEAKER_09]: No, I mean, it's millions of dollars that they're going to have to put, they've already put like a big chunk of it in an escrow account because then all our bees ordered them to do that.
41:23
[SPEAKER_09]: So we're going to see the money and we're going to see it soon.
41:27
[SPEAKER_09]: But yeah, I mean, when you for folks who have been on strike and they've had to be on a pickup line in the middle of the night and they've had
41:35
[SPEAKER_09]: They had to face police officers who are there working for a company that is actively violating federal law because that's what's happened here and the Supreme Court agreed with us by refusing to hear their appeal.
41:51
[SPEAKER_09]: When you have cops lined up in front of a business and there's supporting and protecting a group that is violating federal law, you realize that labor law currently in the United States America is working for the billionaire in the oligarch class and not for regular workers.
42:06
[SPEAKER_09]: And so I really, you know, I was on pick up lines when it was with our strikers when it was single digits.
42:12
[SPEAKER_09]: I was wearing my teamster-made bomber jacket, which helps keep you warm when it's single-degree Tim Southside.
42:21
[SPEAKER_09]: And I was telling the cops, like, what are you doing out here?
42:25
[SPEAKER_09]: Like, go arrest the boss, the boss, the what it broke the law.
42:28
[SPEAKER_09]: And still, we actually see a moment when we can throw CEO's executives publishers in jail for violating the law.
42:37
[SPEAKER_09]: That's the only time that we're going to see it,
42:43
[SPEAKER_09]: After we heard about the victory, and he said, you know, it's bitter sweet because he truly now understands his words where he understands now the meaning of justice to lay justice to nine.
42:56
[SPEAKER_09]: So it's taken six long years since the filing of that unfair labor practice charge they're going to get millions of dollars, but it shouldn't be that way.
43:04
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
43:04
[SPEAKER_07]: Here's the other part of it.
43:06
[SPEAKER_07]: You're just making the folks hold and you're not making their lives better.
43:10
[SPEAKER_07]: And that's, to me, that's the, that's the, the sin in this and, and look, we have a system where the boss, the owner, the wealthy, the, our billionaire class can do whatever they want and their lives don't change.
43:24
[SPEAKER_07]: And they can impose their will on everyone else, and this is where this is where the frustration of this moment, and this is a which side are you on moment?
43:32
[SPEAKER_07]: The police, the strike breakers, all of those folks, you know, you got to make a choice.
43:36
[SPEAKER_07]: You got on the side of the bosses area on the side of all the rest of us, and sadly too many go in the other direction.
43:43
[SPEAKER_07]: Which is why I'm a firm believer, and you go back to what my grandparents generation fought and believed in.
43:50
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, when I moved in with my grandparents, he said, you go across the street and you play with that.
43:53
[SPEAKER_07]: That guy's grandkids, I'll whip your behind.
43:56
[SPEAKER_07]: And he was years later, I'm like, what was that about?
43:58
[SPEAKER_07]: Turns out the guy had, like, 50 years earlier across a railroad picket line.
44:04
[SPEAKER_07]: And nobody talked to him, he's completely ostracized.
44:07
[SPEAKER_07]: And I thought, wow, that was kind of extreme.
44:10
[SPEAKER_07]: I now get it.
44:11
[SPEAKER_07]: I now understand why you have to treat people that way.
44:15
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, our strikers, when you're on strike for three years, like we had strikers who's, you know, heaning went out in their houses.
44:23
[SPEAKER_09]: We had strikers who, you know, struggled to pay for cat food for their cats.
44:28
[SPEAKER_09]: We had strikers who's literal, like cars were falling apart, like their wheels were falling off of their cars.
44:35
[SPEAKER_09]: It is rough when you're on strike, you know, you get strike pay, you know, the communications workers of America, our parent union has a strike fund that's really big, but like you know, you get about $500 a week and it doesn't, it's not enough, especially now when the cost of living is so high.
44:50
[SPEAKER_09]: So, I was, I was really grateful because during our, our three or strike, we raised more than a million dollars from so many compassionate folks and including a hell of a lot of people listen to Rick Smith show.
45:02
[SPEAKER_07]: not good on everyone who donated.
45:04
[SPEAKER_07]: So, you know, you said something that caught my attention and it's starting to throw in the bosses in jail.
45:10
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been saying that for a very long time.
45:12
[SPEAKER_07]: You look at wage theft is one of the biggest crimes in this country.
45:17
[SPEAKER_07]: You take all the robberies, all the stick ups, all the bank jobs, all of that, all of that, all of that crime.
45:23
[SPEAKER_07]: It's like a tenth of what wage theft is.
45:26
[SPEAKER_07]: And yet, we don't lock those folks up.
45:29
[SPEAKER_07]: We just make them posted notice they won't do it again until next time.
45:32
[SPEAKER_07]: And then when they do it again next time, say, please don't do it again.
45:36
[SPEAKER_07]: When do we start demanding some folks in the corner office, some folks in the cease-to-week suites, when do we start blocking those people up?
45:44
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, yesterday would be the answer for me.
45:47
[SPEAKER_09]: During our pick-up line, we were not afraid of putting the bosses face on a wanted poster at I mean, we pretty much do that every strike now, which bosses really hate, you know, whether they're in Pittsburgh or we've done it in New York City where we had a strike
46:04
[SPEAKER_09]: our members printed out the boss's face, put it out a water poster, started stapling it up in Brooklyn, New York, and that boss was on a city bike, you know, biking around town, pulling them off of off of uh, I'm surprised you wasn't taking pictures of yourself being proud.
46:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Look, look what I got them to do because it seems like it seems like that's what a lot of a lot of these folks
46:27
[SPEAKER_07]: It's almost a badge of honor to be horrible in this day at age.
46:30
[SPEAKER_07]: Instead of just being decent, I get to go, I look to some of these strikes that cost the companies and ultimately, we, the consumers and taxpayers, millions and millions of dollars more than just giving a decent contract.
46:43
[SPEAKER_07]: And this is where I think having sane, rational labor law would save everybody the hassle.
46:49
[SPEAKER_07]: So out of all this, and kind of the last, the last thought here.
46:54
[SPEAKER_07]: What's the lesson here?
46:55
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, what should we take from this?
46:58
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, I think we'll have a few lessons that we could take from it.
47:02
[SPEAKER_09]: If you hold firm, whether you're a union, questioning workers that are going on a strike, but if you as the union hold firm, if you as workers hold firm, I mean, one of the other things that Andrew Goldstein said to me yesterday was,
47:14
[SPEAKER_09]: You know, this is a testament.
47:15
[SPEAKER_09]: You know, we were a relatively small strike, right?
47:17
[SPEAKER_09]: It was dozens of strikeers at the small little newspaper gold or Pittsburgh, but if the blocks, the owners are able to just bulldoze them there, then what does that say to every single other worker across the world?
47:30
[SPEAKER_09]: So, you know, stand true, stand firm.
47:33
[SPEAKER_09]: And then, yeah, we have to, we have to reform labor law because, you know,
47:37
[SPEAKER_09]: Glad the Wagner Act passed, you know, in 1935, but we need to reform it like yesterday and hopefully we could do that the coming years, but it's going to it's only going to happen if we all stand up together, we all fight together and we demand change that's the only way it's going to happen we got an election coming up.
47:56
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, I mean, you can vote, but I also think you need to go out in the street, right?
48:00
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, like, I think like we're gonna have to like escalate so aggressively, you know, we need to see things like a general strike, whether it happens in a city or a major metropolitan area, or something that happens nationwide.
48:10
[SPEAKER_09]: Like that's the only thing that we're going to see change in this world is when government and people empower, feel the power that the people have.
48:17
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, that's it.
48:18
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm looking for more than, more than elections.
48:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Once the pitch forks gets sharp and maybe that's when things will change.
48:24
[SPEAKER_07]: Is that where I'm here?
48:25
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, because I look, I listen to stories of my grandfather told me when I was younger.
48:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Labor law was not something that was given by net benevolent employers.
48:33
[SPEAKER_07]: It was a peace treaty to stop us for stop working people from literally tearing this country apart brick by brick.
48:39
[SPEAKER_07]: That's what it was and it wasn't it wasn't given willy nilly.
48:42
[SPEAKER_07]: It was it was something that was we could take this to stop and yeah, and it was a compromise.
48:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe we need to go back.
48:50
[SPEAKER_07]: But congratulations to those strikers, congratulations to the folks who won day longer, one day stronger, good on them, and good on you guys for the work that you do.
48:59
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, it's a joy to be able to like, you know, support other people.
49:03
[SPEAKER_09]: Like, that's the best thing that any of us can do is just support another coworker.
49:06
[SPEAKER_07]: I think our John Shloops, I appreciate the time president of the news, guilt and CWA.
49:11
[SPEAKER_07]: Newsgilled.org, the website.
49:13
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks so much, brother.
49:14
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you.
49:15
[SPEAKER_07]: want to hear your thoughts, should it take this long?
49:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Should it, does it sound kind or ridiculous?
49:21
[SPEAKER_07]: And then the fact of the matter is that the fines aren't, I mean, if, if you're for the death penalty, shouldn't there be a corporate death penalty for this kind of egregious violations?
49:32
[SPEAKER_07]: I want to hear your thoughts.
49:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Rick at therixmithshow.com right back.
49:40
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
49:44
[SPEAKER_07]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1879.
49:49
[SPEAKER_07]: The man who came to be known as Joe Hill was born Joel Emmanuel Haglund in Gavl, Switzerland.
49:57
[SPEAKER_07]: Hill traveled the United States organizing for the grassroots labor organization, the industrial workers of the world.
50:04
[SPEAKER_07]: He is most remembered for the songs he wrote about working people he met in his travels.
50:10
[SPEAKER_07]: Many of the songs were set to the music of popular hymns and tunes of the day.
50:15
[SPEAKER_07]: Hill was executed by firing squad in Utah in 1950 for what many believed were trumped up charges.
50:23
[SPEAKER_07]: He was accused of murder and convicted despite a lack of evidence.
50:27
[SPEAKER_07]: His real crime was labor-organizing.
50:30
[SPEAKER_07]: His trial became a national story.
50:33
[SPEAKER_07]: On Hills' birthday, let us take a moment to remember some of the lyrics of two of his most famous songs.
50:39
[SPEAKER_07]: The first was Rebel Girl, which he wrote for fellow wobbly-organizer, oh, as a bit girl, he flanned.
50:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Over hands may be hardened from labor.
50:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And her dress may not be very fine.
50:53
[SPEAKER_02]: What a hard-earned love's a miss-beating.
50:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That is true to hurt my center-can.
51:02
[SPEAKER_07]: Another famous song was the iconic There Is Power in a Union.
51:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Where he writes, Oh, if you like sludders, defeat in your head, I don't organize all union-definals.
51:15
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want nothing before you are dead, shake hands with your off and look wise.
51:22
[SPEAKER_07]: After his execution, Joe Hill's ashes were sent to every state across the country, every state except you talk.
51:30
[SPEAKER_07]: And so, today, we wish you a happy birthday, Joe Hill, wherever you are.
51:35
[SPEAKER_07]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
51:54
[SPEAKER_07]: What a huge win.
51:55
[SPEAKER_07]: I got to tell you.
51:56
[SPEAKER_07]: What a big win for the Pittsburgh Post case at workers.
52:00
[SPEAKER_07]: It really is.
52:01
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, I got to tell you.
52:03
[SPEAKER_07]: I really thought the Supreme Court was going to jump in the middle of it because they jump in the middle of everything else.
52:09
[SPEAKER_07]: That affects workers and and sides with the billionaire class.
52:14
[SPEAKER_07]: But it's interesting that the John brought up the fact that the the original owner was not a bad guy.
52:21
[SPEAKER_07]: And I find that to be the reality.
52:24
[SPEAKER_07]: And when I was doing some organizing work, I got into a lot of that.
52:28
[SPEAKER_07]: Where the guy who started the business back in the 50s and 60s, was a decent guy who came to your family's functions, knew your kids' names.
52:38
[SPEAKER_07]: I was part of it was someone that you trusted, someone that you did care about.
52:44
[SPEAKER_07]: And at the beginning, I talked about this idea that everyone needs a union.
52:49
[SPEAKER_07]: And I firmly believe that.
52:51
[SPEAKER_07]: And I think about my uncle.
52:53
[SPEAKER_07]: My uncle started a business back in the 60s and and you know built it from a little small one-person Shop in two a multi-million dollar business and you know good on him guy worked to work his tail off But with somebody who's employees had nothing but good things to say about him Because he did work with their union in fact he went and said look organized my guys
53:17
[SPEAKER_07]: Make sure that they get good wages.
53:19
[SPEAKER_07]: Good benefits.
53:20
[SPEAKER_07]: I want them taken care of.
53:22
[SPEAKER_07]: I want what the union has to offer.
53:24
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, did the be able to get health care on a reasonable right to be able to have a pension fund set up to be part of of something bigger.
53:33
[SPEAKER_07]: To get trained workers skilled workers to come into my business and over the years and I watched this for for a number of years.
53:47
[SPEAKER_07]: the kids came around and things just kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse.
53:54
[SPEAKER_07]: Because it was no longer about running the business.
53:56
[SPEAKER_07]: It was no longer about building.
53:58
[SPEAKER_07]: It was no longer about the product.
54:01
[SPEAKER_07]: It was no longer about the customer that you had personal relationships with.
54:04
[SPEAKER_07]: It was no longer about that stuff.
54:06
[SPEAKER_07]: It was about how much can we suck out of this.
54:09
[SPEAKER_07]: How much can we put in our pockets?
54:10
[SPEAKER_07]: How much control and power?
54:12
[SPEAKER_07]: How big can we feel?
54:15
[SPEAKER_07]: And this was a small, this was a smaller scale.
54:19
[SPEAKER_07]: I look at this, this Pittsburgh post, because that, and man, you know this is what happened.
54:25
[SPEAKER_07]: And I remember doing organizing works and you know, look, the boss right now, probably not, might not be bad, might actually be a decent guy.
54:35
[SPEAKER_07]: But,
54:36
[SPEAKER_07]: If he is a decent guy, he's probably going to want you to do well.
54:38
[SPEAKER_07]: He's going to want you to have the security of knowing that, hey, you're going to get healthcare.
54:43
[SPEAKER_07]: You're going to get some retirement security at the end of spending a lifetime building his fortune and building his business that you're going to be okay too.
54:51
[SPEAKER_07]: That thinking is gone.
54:53
[SPEAKER_07]: We are in the brave new world of hooray for me.
54:55
[SPEAKER_07]: This is Reaganomics.
54:57
[SPEAKER_07]: This is what the Reagan era brought us.
55:01
[SPEAKER_07]: the Reagan era brought us on news government as a bludgeon instead of as a mechanism to do the things that we need.
55:10
[SPEAKER_07]: And then of course to attack attack.
55:12
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, government's not the solution.
55:13
[SPEAKER_07]: It's the problem.
55:15
[SPEAKER_07]: Nothing lives longer than a government program.
55:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, you've heard all of the Reaganisms.
55:20
[SPEAKER_07]: And now we've gone to the next step, which is even the stuff that Reagan would have agreed with it.
55:26
[SPEAKER_07]: When there's a lot that Reagan would have agreed with today that Trump is going after.
55:32
[SPEAKER_07]: So even the party of Reagan is unrecognizable in the Republican party right now.
55:37
[SPEAKER_07]: This is the billionaire party.
55:39
[SPEAKER_07]: This is the oligarch party.
55:41
[SPEAKER_07]: This is the dictator party.
55:42
[SPEAKER_07]: This is the hooray for me.
55:43
[SPEAKER_07]: I got mine and the heck with all of you.
55:49
[SPEAKER_07]: And I think it's going to take.
55:51
[SPEAKER_07]: And I love the fact that John was saying, look, you know, yeah.
55:55
[SPEAKER_07]: Don't vote.
55:55
[SPEAKER_07]: Get out in the streets and let's start doing.
55:57
[SPEAKER_07]: Let's start organizing.
55:58
[SPEAKER_07]: Let's start doing some stuff now.
56:00
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm not going to go that far.
56:01
[SPEAKER_07]: I say we still have the ability to vote while they still allow us to go out and cast our votes.
56:06
[SPEAKER_07]: We should be doing it in mass.
56:11
[SPEAKER_07]: every person should vote like the other two things that I've taught my kids are a couple of things but in the workplace and in in society in social life one never cross a pick at line and two never miss election day never and yet we've got we've got trumpism now this
56:40
[SPEAKER_07]: a huge win.
56:42
[SPEAKER_07]: The block, the block communication groups going to pay several million dollars.
56:46
[SPEAKER_07]: And understand, this isn't, this isn't a penalty.
56:51
[SPEAKER_07]: This is what they would have paid had they just been responsible.
56:55
[SPEAKER_07]: I keep coming back to the reality that we need to update our labor laws.
57:00
[SPEAKER_07]: Because there used to be, I don't know, during my grandparents era, there
57:09
[SPEAKER_07]: Extraordinary wealth.
57:10
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, that's coming out of World War II.
57:12
[SPEAKER_07]: That's coming out of the Depression.
57:13
[SPEAKER_07]: That's coming out of that era.
57:16
[SPEAKER_07]: Now it seems that we've again, we've got a gilded age of of Robert Barron's and now we're we're so I guess celebrating the fact that there's a guy who's got a trillion almost a trillion dollars worth of wealth.
57:28
[SPEAKER_07]: While workers don't get health care.
57:31
[SPEAKER_07]: While people don't get pensions.
57:35
[SPEAKER_07]: While we're about to gut 23% of people's social security, explain to me the rational thought that goes in this and look and it's working people who are pitting themselves against each other.
57:50
[SPEAKER_07]: The idea that these big billionaires spend so much money on think tanks and on these euphemistically named groups, you know, Americans for puppies who love apple pie and mom, who push the most violent right wing anti-worker garbage, but they still love pizza.
58:14
[SPEAKER_07]: It's amazing to me, and it's amazing that we buy it.
58:17
[SPEAKER_07]: My mindset is at some point we've got to come to the reality that they don't care about us.
58:23
[SPEAKER_07]: We're a means to their end and as soon as they no longer need us, that's our end.
58:30
[SPEAKER_07]: Now understand, they keep talking about AI going to be the future and we're going to have Elon Musk says the future is abundance and no one's going to get, you're going to, you might
58:47
[SPEAKER_07]: If all of that's possible, and if there's universal income coming down the road, I gotta tell you, I'm not warm and fuzzy.
58:54
[SPEAKER_07]: I'll think it about that, that you guys are gonna do it, because we can't get basic stuff.
58:59
[SPEAKER_07]: We can't get the simple stuff now.
59:03
[SPEAKER_07]: I gotta wait to you have it all to hope something trickles down.
59:10
[SPEAKER_07]: If I've learned anything the last 40, 50 years, it's that it doesn't trickle down.
59:16
[SPEAKER_07]: It doesn't get down to at least down to where I'm at.
59:19
[SPEAKER_07]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
59:22
[SPEAKER_07]: Email me, Rick, at therixmithshow.com.
59:24
[SPEAKER_07]: Miss any portion of the program, make sure you grab the podcast and as always.
59:28
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks so much for being here.
59:30
[SPEAKER_07]: We'll see you back in next time.
59:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Email REC at REC at TheRixSmithShow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Until next time, this is Ben TheRixSmithShow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_04]: We're working people, come to talk.