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Labor Sec. Marty Walsh Says He and The President Are "Committed To Raising The Minimum Wage.鈥潀 MSNBC - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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in spite of the pandemic the american
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economy keeps gets
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getting stronger month after month the
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u.s exceeded expectations
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adding 916 000 jobs in march
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the unemployment rate also improved it's
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now at six percent dropping two tenths
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of a percent
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from february the positive news is
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likely attributed to the easing of
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coronavirus restrictions in states and
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counties across the country
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but it could be a double-edged sword as
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covid cases are on the rise in many
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places
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11 states have case increases of at
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least 10 percent in the last two weeks
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16 states have upticks of at least 25
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percent
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i spoke earlier with u.s labor secretary
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and former boston mayor marty walsh
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and i asked him how he thinks we're
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doing as a nation at this moment
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certainly the numbers today were
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encouraging uh six percent unemployment
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rate
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916 000 new jobs in america
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but you're absolutely right what we have
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to be careful of is the pandemic and
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president biden spoke earlier today at a
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press conference and he talked about the
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need for
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continuing to wear masks social physical
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distance
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washing your hands and and the really
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important thing about getting a vaccine
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if you're eligible for a vaccine
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you should get a vaccine we had the the
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president laid out a real good strong
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competent plan
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uh he had a goal of 100 million vaccines
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by the first hundred days
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he's doubled that now hopefully to get
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200 million by the first 100 days
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that's a lot of americans that will have
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vaccines in their arms
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and that's really how we're going to
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continue to move forward here so it's a
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little bit of both the virus as you know
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for the last year has been very
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unpredictable um we've had
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moments where the numbers of virus cases
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have been really low and then
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after during the holidays thanksgiving
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and christmas we saw these these numbers
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increase in big ways
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and we're starting to see them fluctuate
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around the country so uh people need to
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take care of themselves
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[Music]
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you as a as a former mayor understand
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very well that while
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you're making advances in vaccine
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procurement and vaccine
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distribution at the federal level there
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are localities and states
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that are opening up perhaps faster than
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the science dictates that they
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should obviously there are a lot of
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mayors who want to get their cities back
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online there are a lot of governors who
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want to get their states back online
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and people working and and generating
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tax income how do you square this
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because
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as an executive you only have so much
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authority over these these uh states and
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cities
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yeah it's a balance obviously uh you
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know we we've seen now in the last week
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or so
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where some of these states have have
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seen that their numbers i wouldn't call
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it a spike but have increased
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uh but but really you know we can't
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mandate to people to open not to open
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all we can do is suggest that people you
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know take care of themselves with the
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masks
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it is so important to get our economy
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moving again uh you know i got a lot of
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questions today about
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i'm hoping you know what's next month
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going to look like do i think it'll be
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better or worse
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it's really going to depend upon all of
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us and what we do as far as our behavior
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as well as meaning taking care of
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ourselves but i do want to encourage
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people to get vaccinated many people
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i think most of the country by the mid
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mid april will be eligible for vaccines
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and i would suggest as many people as
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possible get vaccinated because
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it is so important we still have 8.4
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million people out of work right now in
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our country and we have another
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probably million million and a half
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people that are out of the workforce so
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we need to see these people get back in
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to generate revenue to generate our
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economy to be able to
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to get us moving back building back
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better as president biden talks about
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i want to talk to you about wages uh 15
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minimum wage didn't make it through that
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last plan
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in in massachusetts where you're from uh
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there's a 13.50
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uh an hour minimum wage with the target
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of getting to 15
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by 2023 it apparently didn't wreck
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massachusetts's
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economy uh to have a higher minimum wage
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uh
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how how do you get there how do you get
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to a point where you can get buy-in
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on a higher minimum wage passed by by
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congress
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again i think that's conversations that
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we're going to have to have with
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business leaders across this country
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uh with with the members of congress
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across this country and really talk
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about the importance of
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raising the minimum wage when you think
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about raising minimum wage it's really
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about raising the opportunity for
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families to earn a living
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uh you know most families can't live on
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seven dollars an hour no family can live
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on seven dollars an hour
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it's pretty hard to live on fifteen
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dollars not fifteen dollars an hour
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but but it's an opportunity for us to
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really think about it the president's
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committed
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to raising the minimum wage i'm
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committed to raise the minimum wage
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there are members of congress committed
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to raise the minimum wage and we just
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have to we have to do some some more
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conversations some more work about it
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work with it to to to try and get the
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bill passed
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we don't have the results yet from the
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amazon vote in bessemer
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uh alabama but it's something that your
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administration has become involved in
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which is not typical the idea that the
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administration the president
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uh backing the possible unionization of
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this plant this amazon plant which would
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be the first time in america
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that that has happened what's your take
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on on the state of unionization and
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and what we need to be doing about it
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well you know i think that you know the
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president believes in quite the
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bargaining i believe in collective
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bargaining the president believes in
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people having a right to join a union i
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have i believe in the same thing
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i i think that you know when you look at
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the labor movement in this country over
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the last 50 years the decline in numbers
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and you look at the decline in the
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middle class there's there's some
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correlation there
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so i think people have the should have
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the right to be able to join the union
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if they want to and there's a vote
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process and that's what's happening in
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amazon right now
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uh people took the took the vote and
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we're waiting to see what the result is
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and if people voted to unionize then we
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should unionize if people voted not to
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unionize
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then that's what that's what the will of
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the worker was there
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uh secretary good to see you thanks for
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taking time to join us today secretary
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marty walsh the united states secretary
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of labor
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thank you for having me hey thanks for
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watching our youtube channel
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you should know that you can follow
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today's top stories and breaking news
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