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Labor Secretary Marty Walsh On The State of the Workplace - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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the labor market is real interesting of
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late the unemployment numbers are at the
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lowest level since 1968
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but the job market is contending with a
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severe worker shortage workers wages are
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increasing but
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many aren't settling for business as
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usual by forming unions and even in that
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arena the victories are tempered one
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week after amazon employees in new york
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city voted to form a union the company
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is trying to get the votes thrown out
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arguing the union victory was the result
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of coercion
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this week i sat down with labor
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secretary marty walsh to talk about the
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current state of the workforce
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secretary walsh thank you for coming to
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the sunday show thanks for having me
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today so
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wages are up unemployment is down
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job creation is way way up
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but there aren't enough workers for the
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jobs that are out there why well i think
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this is a problem that that happened
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long before today uh certainly before
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the pandemic as well i think that the
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pandemic could have had us look at
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what's happening in the economy in a
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different way uh when millions of
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americans lost their job because the
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beginning days of the pandemic
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and people shut businesses down i think
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that this problem hasn't been talked
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about pre-pandemic and i think that it
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just put a big spotlight on it and we
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have work to do we still have americans
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that are out there that can take some of
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these jobs but overall the long-term of
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the country long-term of our economy
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long-term of the job market we need to
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find more workers quite honestly and a
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lot of that it will have to be you know
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whether it's getting kids that are
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coming out of high school going to
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college not going to college get them
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into pathways good careers but also
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immigration
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you know um one of the the catchphrases
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in the pandemic era in terms of people
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leaving their jobs as the quote unquote
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great recession
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you don't like that phrase no because
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it's not a recession it's not a
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resignation it's it's you know when you
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think about is people looking to see
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where they are in their career a lot of
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people over the last couple years have
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had a lot of time to think about their
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life and where they are and working
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three and four and five jobs not having
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flexibility in their schedule all of
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these different things that people
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people have the ability now to look for
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better jobs and i think that that's our
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responsibility here at the department of
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labor uh
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from per the president to make sure that
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we have good workforce development
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programs and training programs that
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people who want to access better jobs
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that are open today that we have them
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prepared for those jobs you know i think
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i've just said great recession and
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you're right to correct me great
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resignation but you you call the great
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reassessment why do you think people
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decided
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that in the middle of a pandemic that
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that was the time
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to
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take a step back and say you know what
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i'm out of here i'm done with it yes i'm
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not going to give you a really fancy
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answer
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a lot of it is and i was taking my own
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personal journey through the pandemic as
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as the mayor of boston we had a lot of
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time to think you know our life slowed
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down we were home at night at dinner
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having dinner with our families a lot of
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people were we weren't going out we
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weren't going to restaurants we weren't
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going to bars we weren't going to movie
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theaters we weren't going to sporting
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events and i think a lot of people were
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assessing where their life is where are
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they happy with their work-life balance
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you know how they have i've talked to
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lots of companies and lots of people and
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lots of businesses all across america
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and people are saying wait a second you
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know i have an opportunity to to be
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better and to improve my my my place if
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you will my work work opportunity so i
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think that that had a lot to do with it
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and i think the company's also realizing
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now they're paying people more they've
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raised their base wage to bring more
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people in we saw some of the largest
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gains of of of salary in the restaurant
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industry it's gone up between 11 and 13
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percent uh paying people more that's a
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good thing
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you know that that's a good thing but i
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bet there are folks who are listening to
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you right now and saying yeah wages are
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up but so is inflation
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inflation's eating their wages president
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laid out a plan last year to to deal
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with the prices at the kitchen table and
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bring the cost down obviously we also
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have a war in ukraine happening now we
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have putin's putin's gas price hikes
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that's going on
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certainly with what we have to we're
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dealing with in supply chain issues we
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had supply chain issues pre
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before the war in ukraine it's a global
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a global inflation issue that we're
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dealing with so you know we are though
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as an administration we're all we're
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doing our part to to bring those costs
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down and bring inflation down we haven't
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seen inflation like this in in a long
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long time in our country certainly and
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i'd love to say to you you know by by
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the next six months it's going to come
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down but unfortunately it's not going to
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come down we're seeing gas prices come
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down a bit
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but we have work to do there on long
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term you are a card-carrying union
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member i would love to get your reaction
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to what
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appears to be
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not a top-down effort but a grassroots
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up effort at unionizing msnbc employees
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formed a union amazon workers in staten
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island formed a union starbucks
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employees in buffalo started a union
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your view of the union movement well i
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think the labor movement has a real
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unique big opportunity right now to
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continue the the momentum of organizing
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all across america president biden's
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been very clear that he supports
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people's right to collectively bargain
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supports people's rights to freely join
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the union i think you're seeing that but
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you're also seeing individually around
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the country you know the last couple
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after last year individual we talked
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about this the great resignation people
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leaving their job people looking for
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better better opportunities people
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demanding higher wages we're seeing it
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individually around the united states
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and different companies around america
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and that's exactly what the union labor
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movement does it takes the power of
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individuals to put them collectively
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together to push for collective growth
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in in different industries and that's
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what we're seeing with the late moment
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uh in this country uh we're seeing the
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opportunity right now for people saying
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wait a second we want to be able to work
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on a job have one job have health care
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have a pension benefit have good wages
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have worker protections
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have have you know influx schedules and
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things like that that even unions are
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going to have to think about that as
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well how do you work with companies
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where you have that that the kind of
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innovation in the company the the
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flexibility and the you know all the
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things that employees are looking for
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today and i think unions are looking at
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that as well as far as when they think
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about collective bargaining you know and
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one of the things you
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said in your initial answer in this
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interview uh you ended on saying
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immigration and i'm not going to i'm not
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going to let that slide the role of it
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was intentional
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well then talk about immigration and the
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role it plays or isn't playing in in the
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labor shortage that the country well
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i'll be honest you know i go around the
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country and i talk to business leaders
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all the time and i ask them the question
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about immigration and every single
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person
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says to me we need immigration reform in
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this country and when you think about
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where we are we have 13 million people
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in this country right now that are
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undocumented we need to create a pathway
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to citizenship number one number two we
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have college universities all across
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america that educate people from other
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countries and when they get their degree
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they either go up to canada and work in
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canada or they go go back home we're
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losing that that knowledge that that
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that brain power in the united states
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you know our country has always had
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strong immigration in our country and
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that's what kept us ticking all these
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years along with americans working
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collectively together and i think that
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this is the time we have an opportunity
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the president filed a bill on
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immigration reform if we want to take
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our work seriously if we want to take
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the workplace seriously and we want to
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help businesses whether you're a
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democrat or republican or wherever you
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stand we we need to have a comprehensive
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immigration reform bill here in the
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united states is congress does congress
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have the political will to do that i
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don't know if they do enough but that's
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why you know i talk to businesses talk
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to you talk to your businesses in in
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your communities and ask them if they
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need workers the president
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announced this week uh yet another
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moratorium on student loan repayments
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can you talk about the impact that has
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on
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on workers
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well certainly has a big impact i mean i
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think especially now as you think about
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moving forward
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allows workers to have a little more
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money in their pocket as we move forward
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here i think there's some good things
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come out of pandemic number one it's
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made us here at the department of labor
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look at the way we do grants and making
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sure pre-apprentice programs and
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creating better pathways for people
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looking for better jobs it allows us the
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opportunity to look at the workplace a
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little differently and how do we move
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our workplace how do we move our
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workplaces forward we're looking at the
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future of work here at the department of
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labor and when i say the future work i'm
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not talking about technology i'm talking
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about tomorrow you asked me about the
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work i showed it it was here the day
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before the pandemic we just didn't talk
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about it i mean there was a worker
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shortage day before the pandemic so we
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just have because unemployment was low
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and now we're 3.6 percent nearly as low
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as the beginning of the pandemic and we
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have a worker shortage today we had a
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worker shortage then too but we didn't
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talk about it
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marty walsh the 29th secretary of labor
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thank you for coming to the sunday show
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also it's april 10th
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yes happy birthday thank you very much
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thank you very much i appreciate that
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one more day closer to retirement
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thanks for being here thank you
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[Music]
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you
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