Mike Dolan, legislative representative for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spoke with America’s Work Force on Sept. 25 about the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA)
Dolan talked about the differences between the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. He stated that although there still needs to be work done to it, he likes the USMCA more than he likes NAFTA. According to Dolan, one of the bigger failures of NAFTA was opening up the southern border for long hauls for trucks because they did not end up meeting safety or wage regulations for their truckers. He said that in the USMCA, lawmakers focused more on trade sanctions and began to improve labor rights. Dolan stated that although it is a good first step in improving labor rights, there is still work that needs to be done with worker protections.
Burt Neuborne, author of “When at Times the Mob is Swayed” spoke with AWF on Sept. 25 about his book and saving democracy. Having sued every president of the United States since Lyndon B. Johnson, Neuborne proclaims himself as a person who stands up for the safety of our democracy, no matter what political party he is in favor of. He also discussed changing voting policies, such as when election day is held, mandatory voting like Australia has and opt-out voting. Finally, Neuborne explains why he believes big money should be taken out of politics and we should have publicly funded elections.
AWF host Ed “Flash” Ferenc spoke about Nancy Pelosi submitting a formal impeachment inquiry for President Trump to be impeached.
Sifry spoke about the late Ross Perot, who passed away on July 9, 2019. He talked about how Perot showed, long before Donald Trump, that a billionaire tycoon could run for president. Perot, who made his fortune as a software tycoon, ran as an independent presidential candidate against the then President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Sifry mentioned how Perot had been leading the polls against the two parties front runner candidates. Lastly, Sifry spoke about why Perot was so successful, and also what his downfall was in the election.
Naymik discussed the Amazon deal that almost came to fruition in Cleveland. While Amazon was searching for a location for their headquarters HQ2, Cleveland offered the company $800 million and 50 percent income wage credit on their payroll while also having a prime location downtown. In return, Cleveland would have gained 40,000 jobs. He also discussed the ongoing Ken Johnson scandal and how he continues to request his max monthly reimbursement of $1,200 without properly stating exactly why he needs reimbursement. Naymik said Johnson needs to be audited so that the city can see that Johnson is lying about needing reimbursement and how he is abusing the system.
Ken Hall, secretary treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and president of Teamsters Local 175 in West Virginia spoke with America’s Work Force about So-Called “Right to Work.” Recently, West Virginia defeated So-Called “Right to Work and Hall talked about what a major victory it was for working people. Hall said that even when So-Called “Right to Work” was allowed in West Virginia, companies still didn’t bring business there. He said, if anything, only more union jobs were created during the time. Lastly, he talked about how So-Called “Right to Work” does nothing to promote jobs and how it really is “Right to Work” for less.
Dr. Freed talked about the healthcare plan that President Richard Nixon proposed in the 1970’s and spoke about how there are some aspects to it that were the same as ObamaCare. Part of Obamacare said that employers with at least 50 employees are required to provide healthcare for them, but in Nixon’s plan, it required the employers to provide the healthcare to the employees even if there were less than 50 employees. He made other comparisons to President Nixon’s healthcare plan with ObamaCare, but the biggest difference in the political parties that proposed these plans are simple; Nixon’s was Republican and Obama’s was Democratic. Finally, Dr. Freed discussed single payer healthcare and the problems that he sees with it, but also a scenario where he sees it working out.
John Murphy from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spoke about the Butch-Lewis Act, which involves protecting pensions for workers and retirees. He also discussed why Republicans attack pensions. One of the reasons behind this is they believe that keeping pensions in place saves unions, and Republicans, generally speaking, do not stand for unions.
