Speaker 1: Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here
Speaker 1: and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of
Speaker 1: ways we can up our game for this critical election.
Speaker 2: We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade
Speaker 2: the studio ad staff give you, guys, the best independent coverage.
Speaker 3: That is possible.
Speaker 2: If you like what we're all about, it just means
Speaker 2: the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that,
Speaker 2: let's get to the show. As promised, I'm going to
Speaker 2: do a live breakdown of the NASA UFO report. A
Speaker 2: top line just got to admit, there's nothing particularly revelatory,
Speaker 2: but there were some words from the NASA Administrator Bill
Speaker 2: Nelson about what the report found.
Speaker 4: Let's take a listen, and the.
Speaker 5: Top takeaway from the study is that there is a
Speaker 5: lot more to learn. The NASA independent study team did
Speaker 5: not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin,
Speaker 5: but we don't know what these UAP are.
Speaker 2: Okay, so no evidence as usual of the line, no
Speaker 2: evidence of X terrestrials, but we also don't really know
Speaker 2: what UAP otherwise known as UFO are. Let's go ahead
Speaker 2: and put the report up there on the screen, and
Speaker 2: let's give a very short breakdown for everybody that has it. Effectively,
Speaker 2: what you can see in front of you is that
Speaker 2: the NASA report is not really finding of anything. It's
Speaker 2: just an independent steam report to study team report about
Speaker 2: how to further gather more data. So the report is
Speaker 2: about forty pages long. We've gone through the entire thing here.
Speaker 2: It effectively has multiple different recommendations about how to use
Speaker 2: the Space program and the satellites and other things that
Speaker 2: are available to NASA in order to gather as much
Speaker 2: data as possible about potential UAPs. They talk about the
Speaker 2: use of artificial intelligence and machine learning as it applies
Speaker 2: to the vast amount of data that NASA hall, and
Speaker 2: some of the bigger things that came out of the
Speaker 2: press conference from Bill Nelson as well was that they
Speaker 2: were having a dedicated administer to a dedicated administrator for
Speaker 2: the UAP phenomenon in house. So overall, no finding, it's
Speaker 2: more of an intention to study UAP, and the actual
Speaker 2: report is about setting up the procedures and the ways
Speaker 2: that we would go about collecting said data about it.
Speaker 2: They did mention a couple of the infamous like UAP sightings.
Speaker 2: They talk about the go fast video, where they imply
Speaker 2: at the bottom actually of the report that they claim
Speaker 2: that the object may not be moving as fast as
Speaker 2: it appears, according to some analysis that's far too complicated
Speaker 2: for me to get into. You can go and read
Speaker 2: it yourself. They talk also about the mosel Orb about
Speaker 2: how it does remain unidentified, and then a previous object
Speaker 2: that had been spotted, which they say that they believe
Speaker 2: was a commercial airliner. So look, overall, I guess this progress.
Speaker 2: You know, we've got reports we've been coming out. We're
Speaker 2: going to gather more data and we'll see what we find.
Speaker 2: But that's basically all we've got. I'll see you guys later.
Speaker 6: Turning to the economy, the Federal Reserve today raise its
Speaker 6: key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point,
Speaker 6: the eleventh such increase since March of last year. Brings
Speaker 6: rates to a range between five point two five and
Speaker 6: five point five percent, the highest it's been in twenty
Speaker 6: two years.
Speaker 1: Interest rates are the highest they've been in twenty two years,
Speaker 1: and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has signaled that additional rate
Speaker 1: hikes are possible before the end of the year.
Speaker 7: Although inflation has moved down from its peak a welcome development,
Speaker 7: it remains too high. We are prepared to raise rates
Speaker 7: further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a
Speaker 7: restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving
Speaker 7: sustainably down toward our objective.
Speaker 1: They say that rate hikes are necessary to tamp down
Speaker 1: inflation and restore price stability. But could there be something
Speaker 1: more sinister at play? Let's find out. The Federal Reserve,
Speaker 1: established in nineteen thirteen, stands as one of the most
Speaker 1: influential financial institutions in the United States, if not the
Speaker 1: entire world. The Fed's primary mission is twofold. First to
Speaker 1: maximize employment, meaning to ensure as many Americans as possible
Speaker 1: have jobs, and second to maintain price stability, meaning ensuring
Speaker 1: the money you have today holds its value tomorrow. To
Speaker 1: achieve these goals, the Fed can wield several tools, but
Speaker 1: perhaps none is as powerful or as often discussed as
Speaker 1: the interest rate, which we can simply define as the
Speaker 1: cost of borrowing money or the return earned from lending it.
Speaker 1: By adjusting these rates, the Federal Reserve can influence the
Speaker 1: pace of the nation's economic activity. Lower interest rates encourage
Speaker 1: more borrowing and spending, which stimulates economic activity, and higher
Speaker 1: interest rates disincentivize spend by making barring more expensive, which
Speaker 1: in turn slows down economic activity. At a recent FED
Speaker 1: retreat in Jackson, Hollwayoming, FED Chair Jerome Powell called inflation
Speaker 1: still too high and warned to further rate increases in
Speaker 1: the coming months. A byproduct of sustained interest rate hikes is,
Speaker 1: of course, a recession, which would put millions of Americans
Speaker 1: out of work and cause serious financial distress for many
Speaker 1: working class Americans. So it's natural that the Fed's decision
Speaker 1: to hike interest rates has ignited a firestorm of online conspiracies,
Speaker 1: with theories ranging from the Fed intentionally inducing a recession
Speaker 1: to favor the wealthy, to the government altering the very
Speaker 1: definition of a recession, or even the Bureau of Labor
Speaker 1: Statistics manipulating metrics like the consumer price index and unemployment figures,
Speaker 1: all seemingly pointing to the end goal of bolstering monetary
Speaker 1: policies that might predominantly serve Wall Street's interests.
Speaker 3: I have to say, is it possible for a government
Speaker 3: to light to with one thousand percent? Of course, it's possible.
Speaker 1: This is Christopher Clark, an economics professor at Washington State University. Recently,
Speaker 1: I spoke with him to explore whether or not there
Speaker 1: is any credence to the idea that the FED could
Speaker 1: be acting in a various ways, meaning that instead of
Speaker 1: setting monetary policy aimed at achieving their dual mandate, the
Speaker 1: raising or sometimes lowering of interest rates could actually be
Speaker 1: serving an entirely different purpose.
Speaker 3: Workers saying I don't want to drive into the city
Speaker 3: an hour and a half and drive home an hour
Speaker 3: and a half every day. But I also think a
Speaker 3: nice little recession will clear this a nice.
Speaker 1: Little recession to get the workers back into line. And
Speaker 1: he's not the only billionaire CEO saying something to that effect.
Speaker 8: Well, it's clear that we have an inability to get
Speaker 8: the unemployment rate as high as the FED would like.
Speaker 8: The unemployment rate is three point five percent. I think
Speaker 8: the FED would like it to be higher. They won't
Speaker 8: publicly say they want it to be five or six percent,
Speaker 8: but there's a tight labor market, and because the market
Speaker 8: is so tight, they can't get the unemployment rate as
Speaker 8: high as they would like. And that's a big problem
Speaker 8: for them.
Speaker 1: They can't get the unemployment rate as high as they'd like,
Speaker 1: and it's a big problem for them, says the billionaire CEO,
Speaker 1: who would be happy if you lost your job, and
Speaker 1: who also just happens to be Jerome Powell's old boss
Speaker 1: at the Carlisle Group, one of Wall Street's largest and
Speaker 1: most influential private equity firms. Oh and guess who is
Speaker 1: sitting across from the A nice little recession to get
Speaker 1: the workers back in the line, billionaire CEO. Yes, the
Speaker 1: same guy, CEO and co founder of the Carlisle Group,
Speaker 1: David Rubinstein. You literally can't make this stuff up, So
Speaker 1: I don't think we can fault people for connecting these dots,
Speaker 1: pointing to the notion that the FED seems to be
Speaker 1: setting monetary policy not on behalf of the economy as
Speaker 1: a whole, but rather on behalf of their friends on
Speaker 1: Wall Street.
Speaker 3: There's certainly something to be said about a good old
Speaker 3: boys club. And you know the billionaire CEO who claimed
Speaker 3: that recessions are a good thing for getting workers back
Speaker 3: in line, or it's a good thing for the macro
Speaker 3: economy because it would need workers would be less lazy,
Speaker 3: we'd get better productivity. That is is a tiny minority
Speaker 3: position among among economists.
Speaker 1: While that it might be true. Rubinstein has been on
Speaker 1: record outlining the potential advantages of elevated interest rates. Quote,
Speaker 1: the greatest fortunes are made by professional investors when things
Speaker 1: are troublesome, he said, Right now, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of complications.
Speaker 6: In the market.
Speaker 1: He points to one specific sector, real estate. You're going
Speaker 1: to see some real estate debt is going to be
Speaker 1: for sale at discounts to what it is today. He suggested.
Speaker 1: That's probably going to be the biggest opportunity over the
Speaker 1: next two or three years is discounted real estate debt
Speaker 1: in large commercial office buildings in big cities.
Speaker 3: So let's just be.
Speaker 1: Clear, while the US economy is staring down a real
Speaker 1: estate doom loop, so to speak, a story Crystal and
Speaker 1: Sager have been following here very closely on breaking points.
Speaker 1: Our guy Barry Sternlight who suggests that a recession could
Speaker 1: be good in terms of getting the workers back in
Speaker 1: the line. He happens to be the CEO of Starwood Capital,
Speaker 1: a private investment firm with a primary focus on global
Speaker 1: real estate. He is, I'm pretty sure, chomping at the bits.
Speaker 1: So sure seems to me like the system is in
Speaker 1: fact rigged in favor of the capital owners and against
Speaker 1: workers and labors. Not only that, it seems like corporations
Speaker 1: as a whole have used inflationary conditions as an excuse
Speaker 1: to raise prices in excess of inflation. According to data
Speaker 1: from the Economic Policy Institute, between two thousand and seven
Speaker 1: and twenty nineteen, corporate profits contributed to about thirteen percent
Speaker 1: to prices. Since the second quarter of twenty twenty, they
Speaker 1: have instead contributed to more than a third of price growth,
Speaker 1: while labor costs have been cut in half, meaning a
Speaker 1: direct one to one transfer of wealth from labors to shareholders.
Speaker 1: So it's clear the richest and most powerful have benefited
Speaker 1: immensely compared to regular Americans over the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: The question is the fed in on it.
Speaker 3: You know, people have a sense of fairness. We want
Speaker 3: to think that there's a sense of fairness out there
Speaker 3: and that the system is for all of its problems
Speaker 3: at least everyone's got an equal chance at some level,
Speaker 3: so that didn't happen. Now, I would say specifically on
Speaker 3: Jerome Powell. You know, he's not an academic. We actually
Speaker 3: had some worry when j Powell was nominated. Now, he
Speaker 3: had extensive experience at the FED, So we knew that,
Speaker 3: but we were a little worried, like this is the
Speaker 3: first time we were having someone not from our world right.
Speaker 3: But I would say the reputation, at least by his actions,
Speaker 3: by his rhetoric, I don't see any evidence of the
Speaker 3: FED doing favors for the capitalist class in terms of
Speaker 3: setting rates.
Speaker 1: Professor Clark says that a common misconception is that the
Speaker 1: FED is just one central bank, but in actuality, the
Speaker 1: FED comprises of twelve regional reserve banks spread across major
Speaker 1: cities in the US, each serving its specific district. These
Speaker 1: regional banks operate somewhat autonomously, reflecting the economic conditions and
Speaker 1: priorities of their respective areas. Together with the Board of
Speaker 1: Governors in Washington, d C. This structure ensures both centralized
Speaker 1: coordination and regional representation, striving for a more holistic and
Speaker 1: responsive approach to the nation's monetary policy.
Speaker 3: I don't think monetary policies a tool that the billionaires
Speaker 3: have enriched themselves, don't. I don't think that that's it.
Speaker 3: I don't think there are macroeconomic powers that be.
Speaker 1: So if there is no conspiracy, what is actually going on?
Speaker 1: Why does it feel like the decision to raise. Maybe
Speaker 1: sometimes lower interest rates are not made for the collective good,
Speaker 1: but for a select few.
Speaker 3: Who benefits from low rates, who benefits from high rates. Honestly,
Speaker 3: this is this is not I don't think this is
Speaker 3: very settled the income distribution question. To pick on Robert
Speaker 3: Reik a little bit. When rates were low, he would say, oh,
Speaker 3: we need to raise them because.
Speaker 9: It benefitting rich.
Speaker 3: And then when the FED was raising rates, Robert Reich
Speaker 3: went out and said, ah, they keep raising rates.
Speaker 9: It's harming the working class, you know.
Speaker 3: So he just he kind of he had a consistent,
Speaker 3: a consistent person he was caring about, but he kept
Speaker 3: telling the FED to do the opposite depending on the
Speaker 3: current situation.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 1: And this is the revealing point in that the underlying
Speaker 1: motivations of institutions like the FED almost doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1: The truth or falsity of a conspiracy becomes somewhat irrelevant
Speaker 1: when the reality is that the outcomes are always bifurcated
Speaker 1: regardless of which monetary policy is being pursued. The result
Speaker 1: is that more and more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck,
Speaker 1: wages are stagnant, credit card debt is at an all
Speaker 1: time high Buying a house is out of reach for most,
Speaker 1: and renting is increasingly becoming more unaffordable. While at the
Speaker 1: same time, these capital owners, with their vast resources and influence,
Speaker 1: always managed to exploit and benefit from the current system.
Speaker 1: So how do we put an end to this.
Speaker 9: That's the role of Congress.
Speaker 3: This is Congress's job. I mean, politically, we can look
Speaker 3: back to the progressive era with Teddy Roosevelt and that
Speaker 3: whole movement to reign and monopoly power to increase the
Speaker 3: safety standards for food. I mean, the FDA was created
Speaker 3: during that time. That's the kind of political project you
Speaker 3: have to have to fight inequality. Something from the Progressive era,
Speaker 3: an FDR new deal kind.
Speaker 9: Of the thing. And the power that does that is
Speaker 9: Congress is going to do that.
Speaker 3: That's the institution that has to do it.
Speaker 1: That's right. In the landscape of American politics, few decisions
Speaker 1: have reshaped the power dynamics as drastically as the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court's twenty ten ruling on Citizens United versus the FEC.
Speaker 1: This ruling opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in politics,
Speaker 1: enabling billionaires and large corporations to exert unparalleled influence over
Speaker 1: our democratic processes by allowing so called super packs to
Speaker 1: raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. The voice of
Speaker 1: the average American is increasingly drowned out by a cacophony
Speaker 1: of corporate interests and the interests of the ultra wealthy.
Speaker 1: At this juncture, we absolutely need congressional legislation or a
Speaker 1: constitutional amendment to end such corrosive practices. But if you
Speaker 1: pay close attention in the run up to twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: you'll hear almost zero mention of this topic in mainstream media,
Speaker 1: and that is by design. Billionaires and big businesses are
Speaker 1: among the top contributors to political campaigns and often do
Speaker 1: dictate the public conscience, influencing not just consumer choice but
Speaker 1: also public opinion. So in the end, even if the
Speaker 1: conspiracy is wrong and the FED isn't intentionally shaping monetary
Speaker 1: policy to benefit the wealthy, the real danger, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: to America isn't the conspiracy theories themselves. It's the growing
Speaker 1: perception that our institutions are biased towards the richest and
Speaker 1: most powerful. And how much longer these institutions can endure
Speaker 1: under such skepticism before they inevitably collapse inward. That has
Speaker 1: offered me this time. What are your thoughts about the
Speaker 1: FED inflation interest rates? Sound off in the common section below.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy these beyond the headline segments, I would
Speaker 1: encourage you to check out and subscribe to my YouTube
Speaker 1: channel fifty one to forty nine with James Lee. The
Speaker 1: link will be in the description below. I'd really appreciate that,
Speaker 1: and as always, keep on tuning into Breaking Points and
Speaker 1: thank you for your time today.
Speaker 10: All right, I'm Maximilian Alvarez. I'm the editor, you're in
Speaker 10: chief of the Real News Network and host of the
Speaker 10: podcast Working People, and this is the Art of Class
Speaker 10: War on Breaking Points. In our last Art of Class
Speaker 10: War segment, which we published at the end of August,
Speaker 10: I spoke with Nick Leivick, a General Motors autoworker and
Speaker 10: a rank and file member of UAW Local thirty one
Speaker 10: in Kansas City about the high stakes, intensifying contract fight
Speaker 10: between the United Auto Workers Union and the Big Three
Speaker 10: automakers Ford, General Motors and Stilantis formerly Chrysler. The uaw's
Speaker 10: current contracts with the Big Three covers around one hundred
Speaker 10: and fifty thousand auto workers and those contracts are set
Speaker 10: to expire just before midnight on Thursday, September fourteenth. Now
Speaker 10: we are recording this interview from the Real News Network
Speaker 10: studio here in Baltimore on Tuesday, September twelfth. As you
Speaker 10: guys know, Breaking Points' partner segments publish on the weekends,
Speaker 10: so by the time you are watching this, it is
Speaker 10: very likely that workers at one or more of the
Speaker 10: Big Three will be on strike. As Jeff Shirky reports
Speaker 10: at in These Times magazine. Quote, the Big Three have
Speaker 10: made a combined nearly quarter trillion dollars in profits in
Speaker 10: North America over the past decade, including twenty one billion
Speaker 10: dollars in the first six months of twenty twenty three alone.
Speaker 10: The company's shareholders and executives have been richly rewarded through
Speaker 10: stock buybacks and exorbitant salaries. Meanwhile, the workers who actually
Speaker 10: make the cars have seen their real wages plummet by
Speaker 10: thirty percent over the past twenty years. In what was
Speaker 10: once a middle class career, Some auto workers now make
Speaker 10: as little as fifteen dollars and seventy eight cents per hour,
Speaker 10: often working overtime to earn enough to support their families.
Speaker 9: End quote. Now.
Speaker 10: As we have covered here on Breaking Points and at
Speaker 10: the Real News Network, the UAW is not messing around
Speaker 10: at the bargaining table right now. Among other things, the
Speaker 10: union is demanding forty six percent raises in general pay
Speaker 10: over the next four years, a shorter work week without
Speaker 10: reduction in pay, ending the tiered wage system for factory
Speaker 10: jobs that allows the company to pay workers radically different
Speaker 10: amounts for doing the same jobs. The union is also
Speaker 10: fighting for the restoration of cost of living pay raises
Speaker 10: and define benefit pensions for new hires, things that the
Speaker 10: UAW and its members gave up to help save the
Speaker 10: auto industry from collapsing fifteen years ago during the Great Recession.
Speaker 10: If auto workers walk off the job later this week,
Speaker 10: what will that look like, What will it take for
Speaker 10: workers to win this fight and secure the contract that
Speaker 10: they deserve, and what role do we all have to
Speaker 10: play in that fight. To talk about all of this
Speaker 10: and more, I'm honored to be joined today by Chris Falzoni,
Speaker 10: a rank and file UAW member who works at the
Speaker 10: Stalantis Assembly complex in Toledo, Ohio, after recently transferring from
Speaker 10: the shuttered Belvedere plant in Illinois. Chris, thank you so
Speaker 10: much for joining me today on breaking points. Man, I
Speaker 10: really appreciate it.
Speaker 9: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 10: Now, we are going to be releasing this over the weekend.
Speaker 10: As I said, you know, it's very possible that you
Speaker 10: and your coworkers will be on the picket line by
Speaker 10: that point. So I want to just really hit the
Speaker 10: ground running here and ask, as we are approaching this
Speaker 10: contract deadline just before midnight on Thursday, how are you
Speaker 10: and your coworkers feeling right now about a potential strike?
Speaker 10: Like what's the vibe in your local and across the union?
Speaker 10: What are you hearing from folks?
Speaker 9: So the vibe is very positive.
Speaker 4: We've been seeing a sea of red shirts every day
Speaker 4: we go into work.
Speaker 9: People are just excited. So we used to get offered over.
Speaker 4: Time to work through our lunches and breaks, and people
Speaker 4: aren't taking it anymore. We're not working through lunches and breaks,
Speaker 4: we're not going above and beyond for the company since
Speaker 4: they won't go above and beyond for us, They won't
Speaker 4: even do the bare minimum for our attempts who are
Speaker 4: only making fifteen bucks an hour, and they're being forced
Speaker 4: to work seven days a week on call, which is
Speaker 4: completely unfair.
Speaker 9: The people on the floor. We're ready, We're excited.
Speaker 10: For this, And I mean you talk about going above
Speaker 10: and beyond. I've been interviewing more of your union siblings
Speaker 10: for my podcast, Working People, and what I've been hearing
Speaker 10: from folks is just like the incredible amount of work
Speaker 10: that y'all have been doing even through the pandemic, Like
Speaker 10: the speed ups, the reduction in allotted time to complete
Speaker 10: your tasks, Like it just feels like y'all are just
Speaker 10: constantly going, you know, one hundred percent or one hundred
Speaker 10: and ten percent with forced overtime. I mean, I've been
Speaker 10: hearing about folks working like seven days a week, twelve
Speaker 10: hours a day for like three months without a break.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we have sees right now that are some of
Speaker 4: them are forced to work up to almost a month straight.
Speaker 4: If they're a low s se they'll have to they'll
Speaker 4: have to just go and work, and they have no
Speaker 4: ability to call off. They can't say, hey, I want
Speaker 4: to spend Tuesday with my family. No, there's no way
Speaker 4: for them to get any time off of work. And
Speaker 4: when you're talking about the speed ups right now, Chrysler
Speaker 4: has been cutting jobs just viciously.
Speaker 9: They've cut about.
Speaker 4: Half of our quality jobs, and then they want to
Speaker 4: come to us and be like, why is quality worse?
Speaker 9: We can't.
Speaker 4: We can't control quality when you cut our jobs and
Speaker 4: then you push out bad product, and then you spin
Speaker 4: it in the media narrative these people are overpaid. No,
Speaker 4: when you're doubling jobs up and people are struggling, they
Speaker 4: can't get a sip of water when it's hot out,
Speaker 4: that's not fair.
Speaker 9: Well, let's talk about that.
Speaker 10: You know, because of course, like they did ahead of
Speaker 10: a potential railroad strike last year, and like they did
Speaker 10: ahead of a potential ups strike this summer, the corporate
Speaker 10: media is crapping its collective pants right now over the
Speaker 10: quote unquote economic impact that an auto strike would cause.
Speaker 10: And you know, folks like Jim Kramer are out here
Speaker 10: trying to paint the UAW President Sean Fain like he's
Speaker 10: che Gwavar or something. So I want to focus on
Speaker 10: that for a second. And I want to ask, if
Speaker 10: you could talk directly to folks out there who are
Speaker 10: being bombarded every by all of this corporate serving propaganda,
Speaker 10: what would you want them to know about this struggle
Speaker 10: and what this strike is really about.
Speaker 4: So I want people to Think about being on an
Speaker 4: assembly line for twelve hours. You're breaking your back, You're
Speaker 4: moving heavy hoists, picking up heavy parts, bending into the
Speaker 4: engine compartment. Think about doing that work for twelve hours
Speaker 4: for fifteen dollars an hour. Try to think about what
Speaker 4: it would be like when you're not getting to spend
Speaker 4: time with your family. You're being forced to be in
Speaker 4: there five six, seven days a week for fifteen dollars
Speaker 4: an hour.
Speaker 9: That's poverty wages.
Speaker 4: I make thirty one seventy seven, which sounds like an
Speaker 4: amazing wage, but when I started, the top out pay
Speaker 4: was twenty eight dollars an hour. We've only gotten three
Speaker 4: and a half dollars in fifteen years.
Speaker 9: And that's not fair to us either.
Speaker 4: When I started, a car cost about twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Now it costs fifty thousand. But my wages haven't doubled.
Speaker 4: We've only gotten three dollars an hour. We're not greedy
Speaker 4: auto workers. We just want our fair share of the profits.
Speaker 10: Hell yeah, and you know, let's let's not forget as
Speaker 10: as we discussed in the last Art of Class War
Speaker 10: segment with Nick Leivick, you know we're talking about an
Speaker 10: auto industry that looks very different from what we saw
Speaker 10: in two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine. Right,
Speaker 10: we all know, we were all there in the Great Recession.
Speaker 10: It sucked, right, I mean, my family lost everything, like
Speaker 10: so many millions of other families. I know that your
Speaker 10: union siblings, you know, gave up a lot of concessions
Speaker 10: to help keep this industry afloat and the taxpayers, fellow
Speaker 10: working people, we bailed out, you know, two of the
Speaker 10: big three automakers to the tune of eighty billion dollars,
Speaker 10: and y'all were promised at that time that the concessions
Speaker 10: you were giving up would be given back when you know,
Speaker 10: the auto industry turned things around when these companies were
Speaker 10: back in the black, and over the course of the
Speaker 10: past decade, what we have seen instead of that is
Speaker 10: the same companies not only turn massive record profits, which
Speaker 10: y'all are making for them, to the tune of billions
Speaker 10: and billions of dollars. They got massive windfall profits from
Speaker 10: giant tax cuts a couple years ago, and they have
Speaker 10: responded with more layoffs, more plant closures, which you yourself
Speaker 10: have experienced, and they've been jacking up their own executive
Speaker 10: pay and shareholder dividends. Like, am I wrong? Am I
Speaker 10: going crazy here? Because it feels like like if they
Speaker 10: wanted to get the public on their side, maybe stop
Speaker 10: being so openly greedy and screwing over your workers.
Speaker 9: Yeah, we are bearing the brunt of their greed. The
Speaker 9: jobs have been doubled up.
Speaker 6: The the.
Speaker 4: Thing is when they when they'll talk about our profit sharing,
Speaker 4: they'll say things like, we spent six hundred million dollars
Speaker 4: on profit sharing, that's how much my company spent. But
Speaker 4: they gave six billion dollars in stock buybacks.
Speaker 10: Well, and let let's talk about where we're headed, right, because,
Speaker 10: like I said, as we speak right now on Tuesday,
Speaker 10: we are at the precipice of a potential strike. And
Speaker 10: as we know, this is not you know, your daddy's
Speaker 10: uaw right, this is a new day for the union
Speaker 10: that you know, the leadership was was voted in after
Speaker 10: you and your fellow union members fought for a one member,
Speaker 10: one vote system that allowed you to more democratically and
Speaker 10: more directly elect your union leadership, which y'all did, electing
Speaker 10: Sean Fame, backed by the Reform Caucus Unite All Workers
Speaker 10: for Democracy, And now we've got you know, like a
Speaker 10: much different tone at the bargaining table, uh and amongst
Speaker 10: the membership. I think so I wanted to ask, like,
Speaker 10: with all of this going on, what would a strike
Speaker 10: look like if it if indeed one happens at one
Speaker 10: or more of the big three auto makers this week?
Speaker 10: What can folks out there do if there is a
Speaker 10: strike to stand in solidarity with y'all? And when it
Speaker 10: comes to approving a final contract, what will a victory
Speaker 10: for workers look like?
Speaker 9: Here?
Speaker 4: What people can do to help us is when we're
Speaker 4: out there picketing, if you drive by us, if you wave,
Speaker 4: if you honk, that's amazing. Just show your support. If
Speaker 4: you want to come to the picket line. Anyone who's
Speaker 4: an adult can be on the picket line. If you
Speaker 4: want to show our show your solidarity by coming and standing.
Speaker 9: With us, we would appreciate it.
Speaker 4: We understand that the public's on our side and that
Speaker 4: we're going to win this fight. We have the moral
Speaker 4: backing of the American people. Eighty percent of people back us,
Speaker 4: and it's because people are tired of being beaten down
Speaker 4: by our bosses, by them making record profits but not
Speaker 4: giving us any wage. Increases a victory for us in
Speaker 4: the UAW means that we don't have tears anymore. We
Speaker 4: don't have second class citizens working right next to us
Speaker 4: making half our wage, second class citizens who don't have
Speaker 4: the same healthcare as us, and I technically am a
Speaker 4: second class citizen compared to the other workers. I don't
Speaker 4: have a pension, I don't have medical benefits for what
Speaker 4: I retire. If I do thirty years, when I retire,
Speaker 4: I'm quitting. It's not that I'm leaving, you know, on
Speaker 4: good terms with the company and retiring with a pension.
Speaker 9: I'm quitting my company.
Speaker 4: After thirty years of service, and that's not fair to us,
Speaker 4: the workers. So we're trying to give ourselves justice, justice
Speaker 4: for the hard work and the profits that.
Speaker 9: We've made for these companies.
Speaker 10: So that is Chris Falzoni, a rank and file UAW
Speaker 10: member who works at the Stalantis Assembly Complex in Toledo, Ohio,
Speaker 10: after recently transferring from the shuttered Belvedere plant in Illinois. Chris,
Speaker 10: thank you so much for joining us today on breaking points, ma'am,
Speaker 10: and solidarity to you and your union siblings. Whatever happens
Speaker 10: this week.
Speaker 9: Thank you. You have a good day now.
Speaker 10: Thank you for watching this segment. With breaking points, and
Speaker 10: be sure to subscribe to my news outlet, the Real
Speaker 10: News Network, with links in the description to this video.
Speaker 10: See you soon for the next edition of the Art
Speaker 10: of Class War. Take care of yourselves, take care of
Speaker 10: each other. Solidarity FOREVERM.