Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta say something about Donald Trump's trials
Speaker 1: that are happening right now, which is that currently you
Speaker 1: have Republicans whose names you know, some of them you know,
Speaker 1: some of them you do not know, that are showing
Speaker 1: up at Donald Trump's trials. And right before I came
Speaker 1: on to record today's episode, CNN was doing an interview
Speaker 1: with Elis Stefanik, who you know is just a heinous,
Speaker 1: fucking individual. She's a liar, she's reprehensible. She gave you know,
Speaker 1: herself a Maga makeover and just has anointed herself as
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's mouthpiece, and you know is doing so because
Speaker 1: they're all vying to be vice president or to be
Speaker 1: considered vice president and to be a part of the
Speaker 1: you know, audition to be Donald Trump's number two. And
Speaker 1: Elie stefanic is in front of the courthouse as Stormy
Speaker 1: Daniels and others. I think right now, Michael Cohen is
Speaker 1: on the stand. We know that last week Stormy Daniels
Speaker 1: gave graphic detail about sleeping with Donald Trump, and you know,
Speaker 1: Michael Cohen is now testifying to the larger cover up.
Speaker 1: And you hear Donald Trump on audio talking about how
Speaker 1: this is very, very bad for the election. Not his marriage, right,
Speaker 1: not in terms of business accounting, as his sons and
Speaker 1: other people have said, like, oh, this is just a
Speaker 1: ma this was a clerical error. It was an error
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. But at least Stephonik found
Speaker 1: herself talking about the fact that this is all politically motivated.
Speaker 1: It's a political witch hunt, you know. Side Vance refused
Speaker 1: to prosecute this case, the Department of Justice refused to
Speaker 1: prosecute this case, and it's all a sham and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. And the reality is, folks, is that it's
Speaker 1: not a sham. Is it salacious? Yes? Is it you know,
Speaker 1: reprehensible that a man that has been you know, nominated
Speaker 1: as a Republican candidate for president is involved in such
Speaker 1: a salacious, you know, scandal that involves bribery, hush money,
Speaker 1: election interference. You know, because honestly, if this was just
Speaker 1: about a blowjob, as it was with you know, Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton in the nineties, if this was just about an affair,
Speaker 1: I really wouldn't give a fuck. Donald Trump is a misogynist,
Speaker 1: He is an alleged sexual assaulter. He is a whole
Speaker 1: lot of things. Right. We know, oh what Donald Trump
Speaker 1: thinks about women. He told us what he thinks about women. Right,
Speaker 1: you can grab him by the pussy, you can do
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you want. So if it was
Speaker 1: just that he fucked a porn star, I honestly wouldn't care,
Speaker 1: right like, because look at him. Clearly the man has
Speaker 1: to pay, right Like, Ain't nobody want to do that
Speaker 1: for free? Right? Mulania is getting something out of the
Speaker 1: deal because she gets the Trump last name. She solidified
Speaker 1: the deal with a kid, and you know she's written
Speaker 1: into the will and has you know, an allowance and
Speaker 1: money and all of the things, right that come along
Speaker 1: with Donald Trump. But we know that when we zoom in,
Speaker 1: she don't even want to hold his fucking hand, right,
Speaker 1: And you haven't seen her shown up in court right
Speaker 1: to stand by her man. So if it were just sex,
Speaker 1: this would be a non issue. But the fact is
Speaker 1: that this case isn't about Donald Trump sleeping with a
Speaker 1: porn star. It is about Donald Trump using the National
Speaker 1: Enquirer and his relationship there. One to sabotage his political opponents.
Speaker 1: That's not what's on trial, because we know what journalism,
Speaker 1: or lack thereof does in this country politically, the fucking
Speaker 1: National Inquirer. We don't think you know that a outlet
Speaker 1: that goes on the search for illegitimate children, you know,
Speaker 1: made by Bigfoot, you know that happened on in UFO,
Speaker 1: is you know, groundbreaking journalistic reporting. But the fact is
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump had his lawyer pay off a porn
Speaker 1: star in a series of checks that he signed while
Speaker 1: he was President of the United States that Michael Cohen
Speaker 1: himself went to jail for to cover for Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: So if Michael Cohen can go to jail right for
Speaker 1: his part in this cover up, tell me why the
Speaker 1: man that told him to cover things up isn't responsible
Speaker 1: for the crime that was committed. And so when you
Speaker 1: have a leased Stephonic and now you have apparently Tim
Speaker 1: Scott's going to roll up to the courthouse in jd
Speaker 1: vance and folks are saying, oh, is this actually how
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is deciding who's going to be the next VP.
Speaker 1: I've reported on this before, where people that are being
Speaker 1: interviewed as part of Project twenty twenty five to go
Speaker 1: into their right wing swamp of a LinkedIn to be
Speaker 1: a part of this fascist takeover of America. That one
Speaker 1: of the questions that are asked is do you believe
Speaker 1: that the election in twenty twenty was stolen? Who? Or
Speaker 1: the question better yet is probably phrased of who won
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty election? And if you don't say Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: guess what, you're not up in the mix. You are
Speaker 1: out passed. So you either have to feign ignorance, write
Speaker 1: and lie really well, or you just have to be
Speaker 1: a part of a cult and actually believe it down
Speaker 1: to your core. I'm not quite sure which is worse.
Speaker 1: But the fact is that we are watching what we
Speaker 1: thought was just, you know, a tumor named Trump that
Speaker 1: could be removed from our body politic metastasize and spread
Speaker 1: in a way where we are watching current senators base
Speaker 1: themselves in order to align with Donald Trump's power. This
Speaker 1: corrosion will not end until we, the people make it end.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is going to continue, his power is going
Speaker 1: to continue to grow. They're going to continue to be
Speaker 1: these copycats and these wannabes until this man is put
Speaker 1: out of his electoral misery, meaning that we unanimously vote
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four to fucking rid ourselves of Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: That's the only way, folks, because otherwise we are in
Speaker 1: for it. And what we joke about as folks on
Speaker 1: Earth two will become our reality because they will make
Speaker 1: it such. And that, to me is what is even
Speaker 1: more terrifying. Now. I know, I have conversations on this
Speaker 1: show every day where I'm saying that swallowing the pill
Speaker 1: of Joe Biden is like drinking bleach and you know,
Speaker 1: and washing it down with knives, given what this man
Speaker 1: is doing in Gaza and Israel. But the fact is
Speaker 1: that just when you think that things can't get worse,
Speaker 1: I promise you, I promise you, they fucking will. And
Speaker 1: so you know, as we make this March less than
Speaker 1: two hundred days away, we know that Judge Alien Cannon
Speaker 1: has completely torpedoed the Document's case so that'll never get heard.
Speaker 1: We know that the Supreme Court is in the midst
Speaker 1: of anointing presidents a king with their decision with the
Speaker 1: immunity case, and the fact that they are even having
Speaker 1: and hearing arguments about presidential immunity is insane. So we
Speaker 1: already know the corrosion, so that case is not going
Speaker 1: to be heard anytime before the election. The hush money case,
Speaker 1: as the DA's trying to tell us, the electoral interference case,
Speaker 1: that's what we got. And finally the Georgia case, also
Speaker 1: given what happened with Fannie Willis, will not be heard
Speaker 1: before November twenty twenty four. So this is all we got.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how it will turn out. I
Speaker 1: don't know what a jury in New York will do.
Speaker 1: We know that Donald Trump, even if he's convicted, he
Speaker 1: it's not like we're going to see him in an
Speaker 1: orange jumpsuit. They will appeal, appeal, appeal, appeal because they
Speaker 1: have the money to do so. A hung jury in
Speaker 1: this case will bode well for him. He'll be able
Speaker 1: to fundraise around it. Look, it was a witch hunt
Speaker 1: because even the people of the Liberal Sewer New York
Speaker 1: didn't convict me. We are in a precarious place, friends,
Speaker 1: and so what it comes down to is that the
Speaker 1: only people that are going to be able to save
Speaker 1: us are us. So we have to think really hard
Speaker 1: about where we want to be come November twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: and the decisions that are going to come out of
Speaker 1: this election that are not just going to be about
Speaker 1: our lives, but about everyone who we love now and
Speaker 1: generations to come. Coming up next, dear friends, I'm continuing
Speaker 1: my conversation with auto workers on their fight to unionize,
Speaker 1: and now we are moving to another facility. We spoke
Speaker 1: with folks that we're working at a Volkswagen facility, and
Speaker 1: now we are moving to another auto workers facility because
Speaker 1: what we are seeing is that the desire to unionize
Speaker 1: is growing in this country and the conversation and the
Speaker 1: narrative around unions are changing for the better. And so
Speaker 1: coming up next we will have a conversation with another
Speaker 1: auto worker about their current fight to unionize. Folks. I
Speaker 1: am very happy to welcome to Woke f Daily K Finkley,
Speaker 1: who has been a worker at the Mercedes benz Us
Speaker 1: International plant near Vance, Alabama for twenty three years and
Speaker 1: has been working as a volunteer to help organize the
Speaker 1: plant and unionize the plant. Okay, tell us about your
Speaker 1: work over the last twenty three years and this push
Speaker 1: to organize and unionize your plant.
Speaker 2: Okay. When I first started, the job was great, a
Speaker 2: career job, and everything was well. People work together, the
Speaker 2: atmosphere was great and your pay was good at the time.
Speaker 2: At the year's progress, your pay didn't move but stayed
Speaker 2: the same. So it became an issue. And the atmosphere changed,
Speaker 2: the work environment became different, management was different, and so
Speaker 2: things just went downhill, and we're to the point where
Speaker 2: we need a change, we need something better, and we
Speaker 2: need to make a difference.
Speaker 1: What are some of the difficulties that you have faced
Speaker 1: over the last twenty three years, Like when you say
Speaker 1: that things have changed and management has changed, and like
Speaker 1: the environment has changed. What are some of the things
Speaker 1: that you are organizing around for your plant?
Speaker 2: The favoritism, the treatment as far as promotions, just our
Speaker 2: pay in general, the fact that it's not moving, it's
Speaker 2: just staying the same, whereas everything around us is going up.
Speaker 2: So that's one of the major issues. But just the
Speaker 2: treatment as far as management and how they treat us,
Speaker 2: it's almost like we're not important, like we're invisible.
Speaker 1: Has there been any pushback from the Mercedes Benz plant
Speaker 1: for your trying to unionize. We spoke to folks at
Speaker 1: Volkswagen in Tennessee, and you know, they weren't allowed to
Speaker 1: talk about unionizing. They could only they weren't allowed to
Speaker 1: do it on the line. They could only do it
Speaker 1: during their breaks. People were intimidated or threatened. So what
Speaker 1: has the experience been like for you all?
Speaker 2: Pretty much the thing not being allowed to talk about it.
Speaker 2: Videos telling you why the union is so bad for
Speaker 2: us basically, you know, threatening around about way, not directly,
Speaker 2: but kind of thing. If you get a union, then
Speaker 2: you won't baby use the restroom. If you get a union,
Speaker 2: you won't be able to talk to your supervisors. You
Speaker 2: have to go between the union rep and your supervisor.
Speaker 2: That kind of thing. Just trying to place fear in
Speaker 2: people to make them think that basically they wouldn't be
Speaker 2: able to communicate or have restroom breaks, certain things like that,
Speaker 2: which is.
Speaker 1: Crazy because that, I mean, the unions do the exact opposite,
Speaker 1: at least that's my understanding, which is to make sure
Speaker 1: that you workers are protected. Is that not right?
Speaker 2: Correct? Exactly? And then if you have to go to
Speaker 2: the restroom, it's against the law to refuse someone to
Speaker 2: take a restroom break. But those are the things that
Speaker 2: they're killing people because you have newer people and they're fared,
Speaker 2: So those are the things that they feel that they
Speaker 2: can put in their mindset to keep them from voting.
Speaker 1: Yet, So, how are you able to spread the message
Speaker 1: of the importance of the unions? What the United Auto Workers,
Speaker 1: because that's what I'm assuming the union that you are
Speaker 1: trying to create. How do you talk to people and
Speaker 1: where do you talk to them if it's not allowed,
Speaker 1: you know, on the line.
Speaker 2: We try to have meetings and get people to come
Speaker 2: out to the meetings or out in the parking lot,
Speaker 2: different things like that over the phone, try to do
Speaker 2: on your break so that if not doing work hours
Speaker 2: and we try to explain to them that we need
Speaker 2: a voice. We need to be able to have a
Speaker 2: feat at the table to bargain so that we're treated
Speaker 2: fairly and some of the stuff that we're getting as
Speaker 2: or it's the unfair pay, the benefits, not having profit sharing,
Speaker 2: different things like that, we'll be able to actually bargain
Speaker 2: for those items.
Speaker 1: What are some of the things that you all are
Speaker 1: asking for, Like what is on your list of I
Speaker 1: would say demands or requests.
Speaker 2: Better pay, better benefits, better retirement, profit sharing, better work hours,
Speaker 2: fair treatment across the board for everyone just to be
Speaker 2: treated fairly so everyone's receiving the site treatment.
Speaker 1: And what is the response been from Mercedes?
Speaker 2: Like I said, they're showing negative videos just about every
Speaker 2: week now. They're sending messages to our phones. We have
Speaker 2: something called the MBUSI Insider app where they're supposed to
Speaker 2: post information daily. They're flooding us with it, all kinds
Speaker 2: of negative stuff about if we get a union, we
Speaker 2: won't be a family anymore. If we bring in a union,
Speaker 2: it's gonna change everything, the rules will be different. Just
Speaker 2: the negativity. Everything that they say is negative towards the union,
Speaker 2: and they're actually supposed to be neutral, but it's.
Speaker 1: Far from that. How many people are in your plant?
Speaker 1: What's the size of your plant?
Speaker 2: Well, they're saying that we have five thousand eligible people
Speaker 2: that's able to vote for the union against or four
Speaker 2: five thousand okay, five thousand okay, man, how many volunteers
Speaker 2: like yourself are there? And like, what is what does
Speaker 2: your efforts look like so that you can reach all
Speaker 2: of those people? Because you can't I'm assuming you don't
Speaker 2: have an app, right, so you can't do what the
Speaker 2: company is doing to just reach people via text on
Speaker 2: their phone. So how do you reach that many people?
Speaker 2: In the beginning, we just went from phone to phone,
Speaker 2: just calling people, talking to people, communicating. But we've gotten
Speaker 2: some help from the UAW and so now we do
Speaker 2: have apps that we're able to do maths connections with.
Speaker 2: So that's helping out tremendously.
Speaker 1: And what are some of the fears that when you
Speaker 1: get on the phone with your fellow employees. What are
Speaker 1: some of the things that they say to you about
Speaker 1: what they've heard or the reason why they could be
Speaker 1: thinking about voting against unionizing. They're afraid that they're gonna
Speaker 1: shut the plant down and move to a different play
Speaker 1: because that's what's being said that if we unionize, they're
Speaker 1: going to shut it down and move. They say stuff like,
Speaker 1: you know, we can't afford to go on a strike,
Speaker 1: So what are we going to do to prevent that,
Speaker 1: or what can we do to prevent that? They're worried
Speaker 1: about things like that. Are there other plans with Mercedes
Speaker 1: that are unionized or would this be one of the
Speaker 1: first ones in the US.
Speaker 2: The Germany plant is unionized and then Diaimler trucks just
Speaker 2: became unionized. But we'll be the first here.
Speaker 1: You'll be the first here. So they're not this is
Speaker 1: not new to them right like they so they have unions.
Speaker 1: They're just trying to hold out because you all are
Speaker 1: one of the last.
Speaker 2: Well, we give them what it's called the Alabama discount,
Speaker 2: where they get the labor for free pretty much or
Speaker 2: basically almost free anyway, because they're not paying us what
Speaker 2: we deserve to be paid.
Speaker 1: Do you know what the comparison is between the plants
Speaker 1: like the one in Germany? I know it's different because
Speaker 1: we have dollars, but are their plants like Do you
Speaker 1: understand how different or better they are operating?
Speaker 2: From my understanding, their work hours are totally different. We
Speaker 2: work twelve hours a day. They work eight hours a day.
Speaker 2: We work weekends and saturdays for straight pay. They don't
Speaker 2: work in any weekend. They have time with their families,
Speaker 2: and we struggle with that because our hours are so long.
Speaker 2: And so the difference is the hours and their wages
Speaker 2: they make. As far as I know, no one has
Speaker 2: actually given me an actual amount, but I'm being told
Speaker 2: that they make more than we do on work less hours.
Speaker 1: So they have weekends off, yes, ma'am, they work less hours,
Speaker 1: yes ma'am, and they get paid more, yes, ma'am. That
Speaker 1: is incredible. So let me ask you this. When you
Speaker 1: work a twelve hour shift, which is half a day,
Speaker 1: how many breaks do you get?
Speaker 2: We get a two ten minute breaks, and then we
Speaker 2: get a thirty five minute lunch break, and at the
Speaker 2: end of the day you get I think it's like
Speaker 2: a five minute break that you get right before time
Speaker 2: to go home. If I'm not mistaken. I don't hardly
Speaker 2: ever get to take them in my department because I'm
Speaker 2: always doing something during that time. But I think it's
Speaker 2: too ten minute breaks. No, let me kind say it's
Speaker 2: a ten minute break in the morning because they just
Speaker 2: changed the schedule. Actually ten minute break in the morning,
Speaker 2: a thirty five minute lunch break, and then you get
Speaker 2: two fifteen minute breaks at the latter part.
Speaker 1: Of the day during twelve whole hours. Yes, ma'am, that's
Speaker 1: not a lot of time.
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not so really. It really just I'm like, in
Speaker 1: my head, I'm trying to do the math, and I'm
Speaker 1: saying I would assume too, that a majority of your
Speaker 1: job is on your feet, right like that you're standing
Speaker 1: up during that time, yes, ma'am, on a line, My goodness.
Speaker 1: So if this vote happens and between May thirteenth and
Speaker 1: May seventeenth, how quickly would things change if it is
Speaker 1: a yes vote for a union.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that it will change immediately. I'm hoping Mercedes
Speaker 2: won't drag anything out that once we start to bargain
Speaker 2: and come up with the contract, hopefully we can go
Speaker 2: ahead and come to an agreement and get everything settled
Speaker 2: so it won't be, you know, a long drug drug
Speaker 2: out process.
Speaker 1: And if it fails, okay, what does that mean.
Speaker 2: If not gonna fail, we're gonna win. There's no room
Speaker 2: for fail. And we've worked too hard for this, put
Speaker 2: in too much time, too much effort. We're gonna win.
Speaker 1: How long have you all been organizing for You've been
Speaker 1: at this plant for twenty three years. How long has
Speaker 1: this organizing process been in the works for.
Speaker 2: This particular time. We started back in November, but we've
Speaker 2: tried different times before and it just never got off.
Speaker 2: We couldn't get enough people. It just never made it
Speaker 2: this far. And this particular campaign, people are just tired.
Speaker 2: They're tired of the hours, they're tired of the treatment.
Speaker 2: So it was easy as far as actually getting once
Speaker 2: we talk to people, it was easy getting them to,
Speaker 2: you know, say yes they were willing to vote or
Speaker 2: help or just whatever we.
Speaker 1: Needed, because I would say right that the worst that
Speaker 1: could happen is that nothing changes, meaning that you're still
Speaker 1: working long hours, still working weekends, and still have the
Speaker 1: same pay. So if you're talking to people joining a union,
Speaker 1: you're saying things could only go up from here, They
Speaker 1: can only get better.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: My last question for u K is you know, what
Speaker 1: do you want people to understand about your type of
Speaker 1: work that may not be in you know, may not
Speaker 1: understand when when they see, oh, this company is trying
Speaker 1: to unionize, or this company is trying to unionize in
Speaker 1: a headline, but they don't really understand what that means.
Speaker 1: What do you want people to understand and know about
Speaker 1: unions and their importance, particularly in the type of work
Speaker 1: that you do.
Speaker 2: So, as the auto auto maker or a worker, we
Speaker 2: work hard and the days are long. We take pride
Speaker 2: in what we do, so we feel like we should
Speaker 2: be compensated for those things. And with the union, you
Speaker 2: can receive the treatment that you're supposed to receive. You
Speaker 2: have the voice, the apps for things, whereas right now
Speaker 2: we have something called open door policy, but it's no
Speaker 2: such thing, because you can't go and talk to the
Speaker 2: president or talk to the vice president if you need something.
Speaker 2: That's not how it works. It's said that's how it works,
Speaker 2: but it's not. With the union, it can happen because
Speaker 2: we can have a feat at the table to ask
Speaker 2: for certain things and to bargain for certain things. So
Speaker 2: the union would help transform the situation that we're in
Speaker 2: right now to just make it better. I don't think it. Well,
Speaker 2: it can get worse because Mercedes good. Yeah, it could
Speaker 2: get worse, But with the union, I just think it's
Speaker 2: just gonna be better for us all around, and not
Speaker 2: just for one individual. It will be better for all
Speaker 2: of us as a whole.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, I wish you luck. I hope that everything
Speaker 1: goes the way that you will want it to. That
Speaker 1: people have recognized the unions are important and they are helpful,
Speaker 1: and they are necessary in order to protect workers like
Speaker 1: you from being exploited from major companies. So thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time to speak with me
Speaker 1: today on wok F. Really appreciate you and wish you love.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. You have a great day.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today, Dear friends on wok
Speaker 1: f as always power to the people and to all
Speaker 1: the people. Power. Get woke and stay woke as fuck.