Airing on February 1, the AFL-CIO’s President, Richard Trumka appeared on C-Span and discussed raising the minimum wage and other issues–including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now being negotiated.
“Trumka lamented that the argument labor is now engaged in with the administration over TPA is like fight between spouses that he hopes they will be able to work out,” reports MoneyNews.com.
Watch Trumka’s time on C-Span below:
“[A]ll of this discussion and argument reflects the global nature of markets as a result of advances in technology and communications,” MoneyNews.com writer, Robert Feinberg, concludes, “and the gold-plated benefits unions obtained for workers in the steel and auto industries created incentives for employers to replace the workers with machines and robots. At the big picture level, the decline in oil prices gives the U.S. an advantage and buys time to make needed adjustments, but the political environment stands as an impediment to structural change.”
