Speaker 1: Under Savernas. This morning, a trade crisis averts it. US
Speaker 1: DOC worker is ending a three day strike the temporarily
Speaker 1: halted East Coast trade. The union extending its contract through
Speaker 1: January fifteenth, allowing more time for negotiations and avoiding a
Speaker 1: contentious labor and economic battle just ahead of the election.
Speaker 1: Joining US now and pleased to say the National Economic
Speaker 1: Council Director Leo Brainer, Director Brainer, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for giving your time to Bloomberg TV this morning. The
Speaker 1: first question we all have is how much progress have
Speaker 1: we actually made ahead of January fifteenth. You've been a
Speaker 1: big part of the conversation. Could you share some of
Speaker 1: that information with us.
Speaker 2: There's tremendous progress. The most important thing, our ports are
Speaker 2: back open, our dock workers are back at work. American
Speaker 2: consumers really won't see any effect of this at all.
Speaker 2: And again we see that the collective bargaining really works
Speaker 2: when you support it and give it a chance, which
Speaker 2: is what the Vice President of the President have always
Speaker 2: done in terms of the progress at the bargaining table.
Speaker 2: For many months, the two parties hadn't been working together.
Speaker 2: Now they have extended the contract in order to really
Speaker 2: roll up their sleeves and address the remaining issues on
Speaker 2: the table. Having now solved the wage piece of this,
Speaker 2: so good news for everyone.
Speaker 1: I think some people would argue the remaining issue is
Speaker 1: the hardest issue. It's automation, and they're trying to work
Speaker 1: out whether this punt, if we can call it, that
Speaker 1: was about the election just to push this out to
Speaker 1: January fifteenth, or whether it's about doing the patriotic thing
Speaker 1: and making sure that we could get the things we
Speaker 1: needed to get to the disaster designs across the country
Speaker 1: following the hurricane from the ports and through this country
Speaker 1: efficiently and effectively. Can you share with this Director branded
Speaker 1: what this was really all about.
Speaker 2: Absolutely so. On the part of the carriers, the port operators,
Speaker 2: and the dock workers, they all wanted to get back
Speaker 2: to work. I think it was a patriotic effort. We
Speaker 2: wanted to make sure that the hurricane supplies are moving,
Speaker 2: that consumers don't see any effects, as well as American
Speaker 2: farmers and exporters. So I think on all sides, there
Speaker 2: was a real desire to get to a solution that
Speaker 2: could carry them forward, get back to the negotiating table,
Speaker 2: get those ports open, get back to work. Director brainer, what.
Speaker 3: Is the White House deem acceptable when it comes to
Speaker 3: the language on automation.
Speaker 2: So we really don't take a position on how the
Speaker 2: collective bargaining process resolves. What we do care about is
Speaker 2: making sure that we support the collective bargaining process and
Speaker 2: allow the parties to come to conclusion that works for
Speaker 2: both sides. And that's the role we really played here
Speaker 2: was bringing the two sides together, encouraging them to find
Speaker 2: something that they could agree on. And they did find
Speaker 2: agreement on wages and agreement on extent unding the contract
Speaker 2: to January fifteenth. So I think what we did was
Speaker 2: support the collective organing process, support the parties getting back
Speaker 2: to the table. The rest is really up to them.
Speaker 3: You've done a lot of work, though, Director Bran And
Speaker 3: when you came into the West Wing on supply chain
Speaker 3: and supply chain resiliency. How does the White House way
Speaker 3: given all your work, the fact that we could have
Speaker 3: more efficient ports, is that more important competing with China?
Speaker 3: These efficient ports or union jobs?
Speaker 2: So of course what is very important is to make
Speaker 2: sure that we are making all the improvements that we
Speaker 2: can to our supply chains. And as you know, we
Speaker 2: have massive investments now through the bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In
Speaker 2: our ports, we also have a Supply Chain Council at
Speaker 2: the Cabinet level that I run on behalf of the President,
Speaker 2: so we have much more data across the supply chain.
Speaker 2: There is a flow office now at the Department of
Speaker 2: Transportation that helps all the participants, the carriers, the operators,
Speaker 2: the retailers, the farmers have the data they need to
Speaker 2: plan ahead and to mitigate. And that process was on
Speaker 2: display in the wake of the Baltimore Bridge collapse, and
Speaker 2: it was on display in the week's leading up to
Speaker 2: this successful extension of the contract and resolution of the
Speaker 2: wage issues.
Speaker 3: Do you think there's a chance that we can get
Speaker 3: to the automative language of this before January fifteenth?
Speaker 2: I think that the carriers, the operators, and the dock
Speaker 2: workers know they have work to do to find an
Speaker 2: acceptable outcome on that and many other issues. But I
Speaker 2: have a lot of optimism now that they're talking to
Speaker 2: each other, that they really made a good faith effort
Speaker 2: on the wage piece and that moved these negotiations forward again.
Speaker 2: They had not been speaking to each other for months,
Speaker 2: and our interest was really getting the two parties back
Speaker 2: to the bar table on the basis of a fair wage.
Speaker 2: Don't forget these dock workers in the previous six year contracts.
Speaker 2: Some years they got no wage increases at all. Other
Speaker 2: years they got one dollar. Meanwhile, we had COVID, we
Speaker 2: had dock workers really risking their lives to keep goods
Speaker 2: moving on. Behalf of American consumers and businesses, and the
Speaker 2: port and carriers really during this last few years had
Speaker 2: record profits. And this is a deal that could give
Speaker 2: workers their fair share after a period of having a
Speaker 2: very little wage gain.
Speaker 1: So it's a.
Speaker 2: Nice important step forward. Of course, they have more work.
Speaker 4: To do, Director brainer And I can say I'm really
Speaker 4: impressed in your ability to focus with them mowing the
Speaker 4: lawn and yelling behind you, because honestly, it's always sort
Speaker 4: of unfathoma flow. They're always mowing the lawn there, So
Speaker 4: thank you for that. I am wondering, though, Director of BRAINERD,
Speaker 4: how much.
Speaker 5: You see sort of necessity for workers to have to
Speaker 5: be kind of flexible at a time of great change,
Speaker 5: and that there are some technological changes that are more
Speaker 5: easily implemented if companies have the ability to figure it
Speaker 5: out as they go along to not necessarily be beholden
Speaker 5: to contracts that are written in a different time. How
Speaker 5: do you argue that labor negotiations should continue with organized
Speaker 5: labor if companies need to have that suppleness at a
Speaker 5: time of great change.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, what I would say is when you look
Speaker 2: at the contract that you saw on the West Coast Ports,
Speaker 2: for instance, which was a very successful contract for workers
Speaker 2: for all of the employers, it is a contract that
Speaker 2: resolves those issues and moves forward. And I expect the
Speaker 2: same is possible in the context of the collective bargaining
Speaker 2: prices that now has been extended into next year on
Speaker 2: the basis of a really strong wage offer. You know,
Speaker 2: unions are more popular than they have been in decades,
Speaker 2: and I think the President the Vice President are demonstrating
Speaker 2: by their actions this is how we enable the collective
Speaker 2: bargaining process to work. And the collective bargaining process does
Speaker 2: reach fair wages for workers and also a set of
Speaker 2: other really important agreements about how workers should have voice
Speaker 2: in the way the business is organized. All of those
Speaker 2: things are on the table, and we believe that we
Speaker 2: have just enabled that collective bargaining process to continue in
Speaker 2: a very productive way that's good for everyone. Most importantly
Speaker 2: getting the ports back open so we can get those
Speaker 2: supplies to areas affected by Hurricane Helene.
Speaker 1: At Leasta is getting to a much broader philosophical point,
Speaker 1: though direct to Brandon, that perhaps we can finish on
Speaker 1: we are all vulnerable to automation. It is somewhat easier
Speaker 1: to be so pro union when union membership is so low.
Speaker 1: If it was a whole lot higher, would be far
Speaker 1: more disruptive. We'd all be complaining about being vulnerable to automation.
Speaker 1: How do you suggest that the American public should deal
Speaker 1: with the increase of use in AI and automation over
Speaker 1: the next several years. Should we all just go on strike?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So, what's very interesting there is unions have actually worked
Speaker 2: with the organizations representing employers on AI provisions. One of
Speaker 2: the first contracts to directly address artificial intelligence was, of course,
Speaker 2: the Writer's Contract, a really great contract which had language
Speaker 2: that used AI as an enabler to enable writers to
Speaker 2: actually be productive, but the creative direction in the hands
Speaker 2: of humans. And of course I think those are the
Speaker 2: kinds of principles that we have supported here at the
Speaker 2: White House. You know, we've released principles. It's just important
Speaker 2: for workers to be enabled, not displaced. It's important for
Speaker 2: workers to be sitting alongside businesses in making sure they
Speaker 2: work together on where AI should be used.
Speaker 1: Much longer conversation for another time. We appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: I know you can't talk about the payrolls report. It's
Speaker 1: still to come. Director Brandon, thank you for your time.