PBS Newshour 3/3/2011
Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.
Excerpt from transcript
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): So far, the most contentious fights have been between labor unions, who tend to back Democrats, and Republican governors and legislators.
But many more states are asking public sector workers to pay more toward their health benefits and pensions, including some led by Democratic governors.
One late-breaking development in Wisconsin: Gov. Walker announced this afternoon that he plans to start laying off state employees tomorrow unless there's an agreement.
Well, we talk about some pivotal questions facing labor now with its most prominent leader. He is Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, a voluntary federation of 57 national and international labor unions, many of them subject to the changes outlined in our tape piece.
We invited governors from half-a-dozen states, including Wisconsin and Ohio, to participate in tonight's discussion. All declined our invitation for now.
So, Rich Trumka, thank you very much for being with us.
RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO: Judy, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But let's start with this announcement today from Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin that he's ready to send out those layoff notices unless there's some kind of an agreement. Is that a price worth paying? I mean, he was suggesting there that unions would rather see people laid off than make small concessions.
RICHARD TRUMKA: Well, first of all, it's the most outrageous thing that he's done.
You heard him say that laying off was something we shouldn't do in today's economy, and yet, he's putting this choice to those workers in Wisconsin: Either give up your rights, or get laid off. Give up your job.
Now, no American should be put in that position. This isn't about the economics, Judy. They've already agreed -- the unions have already agree to the exact concessions that he's asked for. This is about him trying to take away the rights of workers to come together to bargain for a middle-class life.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But Gov. Walker's argument -- and I know you have heard him make it -- is that, with collective bargaining, he says unions have been able to, in effect, bleed the state of money that it doesn't have, that it's happened over years and years. Previous governors haven't done anything about it, and he said it has got to stop.
RICHARD TRUMKA: Well, quite frankly, I have listened to him several times, and I never heard him explain why he wants to do away with the workers' rights to come together to bargain for a middle-class life.
But let me give you these facts. The five states in the United States that prohibit collective bargaining by public employees, they have a cumulative debt of $222 billion. Collective bargaining didn't cause that.
Look, this isn't about public employees. This was caused by the crisis and the recession that we have. We have 15 million people out of work. Put them back to work, they pay taxes, the economy starts to hum, and all of us start to do that, live better.
And this governor, instead of creating the jobs that he was elected to do, is now trying to destroy more middle-class jobs that will hurt the Wisconsin economy even more.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You know, Rich Trumka, the way he and other governors frame this, though, is they're saying, this is an argument between all of the citizens of the state, in this case Wisconsin, versus the public workers. And he said, when it comes down to that balance, public workers should be willing to give some.
RICHARD TRUMKA: Well, you know, they have been.
He asked for cuts, and they agreed to all the cuts that he asked for. Remember this. Those public employees are citizens as well. This is a concerted campaign by a number of Republican governors to vilify public employees.
Typical Republicanism. Duck and run. Labor unions and collective bargaining are NOT the prime cause of state debts. It's Republican's not wanting to faithfully bargain.
No comments:
Post a Comment