IP Brian Bryant: Hello, this is International President Brian Bryant here for another episode of Shift Change, the IAM's official podcast. I'm joining you from the beautiful state of Maine, my home state. Came back here for this Labor Day weekend to come back and visit with our members from their big victory at Bath Ironworks and local S6 and the tremendous contract I just brought home to their members. But also had the opportunity to join President Liz Shuler in Bangor and Brewer, Maine. To come up and talk with union members in this region about the upcoming elections and the importance of not only turning out to vote, but educating and making sure workers turn out for this election. Cause this election is gonna be absolutely critical to working people, not only here in the state of Maine, but all around the country. And I'm glad to have Liz Shuler join me for a short segment on our podcast. To talk about only what's happening in here in the state of Maine, but what's happening on a national level. Liz has been very busy traveling the country, hitting the airwaves, both TV, radio, other podcasts, spreading the message for the labor movement. it's truly an honor for me to have Liz here because I get to work with Liz very closely with the AFL CIO and she truly is the voice and the leader of the American labor movement. And I could not think of a better person. To be leading the labor movement at this point, other than Liz Shuler. She's doing a tremendous job bringing all of our unions together, keeping the focus on the things that are important for working people, whether it's AI, whether it's health insurance, pensions, and such. And she's doing a tremendous job of coordinating all of that with all of the different affiliates of the AFL CIO. And my hat always goes off to Liz because that is a difficult job when you're dealing with all the affiliates of the AFL-CIO, because we don't have all have the same agenda. And that's the that's what makes the American labor movement great. We're representing so many different agendas because they're all important to our members. And the IAM, you know, some of the things that are most important to our members are are defense. And but we're not so naive to not know that that's not the top priority for other affiliates of the AFL CIO. They may be state employees, they may be municipal employees, and those issues may not be critical to them. And it's Liz who has to play the part and she does a very good job of bringing everybody together so that we're all fighting for all the issues for all working people. So Liz, it's absolutely great to have you join me on this podcast. Appreciate you. Welcome to the beautiful state of Maine. You've picked a great weekend to be here. But let's start off. What have you been doing lately?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Wow. And thank you for that, Brian, because I need to hang out with you more often. All of that, we'll get what is it, five dollars, we'll get you a cup of coffee. but I am absolutely overjoyed to join you on this podcast and to also observe your leadership because being in Maine, everybody knows who Brian Bryan is and the machinists reigns supreme up in this state. So it's an honor. And, you know, we are right at the center of the political fights with the Senate race up here and the governor's race and Congress all the way down through the ballot. And I think having national officers here during this moment of races being so closely watched here sends a very strong signal. So thank you for being here and for what you and your members bring to the movement. And I have been traveling a lot all across the country hearing from workers and you mentioned, you know, the issues that are important to IAM, but They do sound very similar often to me that workers are still struggling with their pay, you know, keeping up with inflation. They're worried about their benefits. And as you know, when we sit at the negotiating table, those costs for healthcare are going up and it makes it more difficult to bargain those increases. the issues of technology and artificial intelligence and how that's gonna affect people's jobs and just a voice. Being able to organize a union and not get fired or harassed or intimidated and the labor law reform that we need in this country. And so that's what this election is gonna be all about is getting the people into office like Troy Jackson, who's a member of the Machinists, who can bring that voice to Washington and make sure that our perspectives are in the room.
IP Brian Bryant: Absolutely. You know, one of the things and we could t we'll talk about hopefully a a lot of topics here, but AI is absolutely critical. It's critical to our members in our union. We're a union that's not against AI, if it's implemented correctly. You know, it can make unsafe jobs safer, it can make hard jobs easier. But I think it's important. I think, you know, one of the things I've heard you stress is the workers have to be involved. And the only way workers are involved is when when they have a union. and I I've heard you talk about that. Just, you know, from the IAM, we're very concerned about it. Are you hearing the same things from other unions?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: No question about it. And I'm glad to hear you say we're not anti-technology because yes, technology can make our jobs safer, can make the work less burdensome, you know, especially if we're working physically and it can improve safety and our ability to plan and train and all of that. But what we are is anti-greed because the companies are using this technology more to actually reduce jobs, to dehumanize us, to dumb down our jobs so that we're kind of plug and play and have AI take over as much as possible. Well, we're saying no, as a labor movement, there should be guardrails. There should be protections against these big tech companies just using unproven and unregulated AI any way they want. Yeah. And what what force in America is there that's gonna push back? It's the union movement.
IP Brian Bryant: Absolutely. I don't know if you feel the same. I l I look at the the age of of artificial intelligence. I really see that as a potential for labor unions to I mean, we're we're at all time high favorability with workers, but I just see it as the opportunity. I I would be absolutely terrified if I was a non union worker. The ability that a that a employer has Just to come and make wholesale changes and implement artificial intelligence that'll just wipe out jobs. I just see this as a massive opportunity for organizing workers into the union. I don't know what we're
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: And for the labor movement to be the place workers go for information, for pathways to that next job opportunity, for the training that they might need to get there. And to see us as, you know, probably the only trusted source they can rely on. Yeah. Because now, you know, they can't trust the companies. They can't even trust politicians for the most part. Our government is behind the curve, but the union movement really is there to help protect people and and figure this out. I am concerned about, you know, the fact that every job now is a technology job. So there is no job that's immune from the effects of AI. And you think about what trade had, the impacts of globalization had on manufacturing and you know, kind of the deindustrialization of our country decades ago. This is gonna be that next moment of I call it sort of NAFTA two point because It's going to be a massive transition where workers will be left behind if we don't make different choices. And we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Workers suffered. Your union suffered. And yeah. And so it's up to us to, you know, get the people in office that will make those decisions alongside unions and put workers at the front. It's up to us to negotiate into our contracts, protective language, you know, to get workers. upstream in the process so that you're not just, you know, technology is not just landing in your workplace without any kind of notice or to talk through the implications and how we can work together with the technology. So I think the role that unions will play will be central. And you're absolutely right. It's an organizing opportunity, I think, for people to see unions in a different way. Yeah. And especially, you know, white collar workers, Never used to see unions as for them. Yeah. And some of those white collar jobs will be, you know, the back office jobs, the admin jobs, payroll, accounting, call centers, those will be the jobs that will be the first to be impacted and probably at risk. Yeah. and where were they during the deindustrialization days, right? They they didn't see the solidarity. No.
IP Brian Bryant: I always thought it's fun you bring that up. I always I always talk about when we when we meet with our counterparts from over in Europe and from such, you know, they have a lot of white collar workers that are organized. You don't see that in the I mean you see a little bit in the United States, but they have it recognized the value. You know, w we took the opportunity, the IAM, we went to the tech summit out in Las Vegas. You actually encouraged all the unions to attend that. And one of the things Yeah. What what really blew in my mind and I I just bring this up 'cause I'd I'd seen if I I would think you would agree, but you know, there's gonna be those that say that, we're just ringing a false alarm here, you know, we're we're trying to scare people. What I found it very enlightening was the whole pitch almost of every single company that's selling whatever technology from robots to automation to the whatever, their whole pitch to everybody there, not knowing that we were from unions, was This is this will do away with you for having to have workers. You can eliminate workers. You can eliminate. So, you know, other companies, I always say to myself, yeah, the companies are gonna say, no, we don't want to eliminate jobs. Well, I know who you're hearing it from. You're hearing it from you can have less and less workers. So there's gonna be those that are gonna say, the labor unions are just trying to scare you. You know, they wanna keep us back into the the dark ages. Well, that's not the case. there's a serious concern that we have to wake up in this country and and it's gotta start. I believe, with who's in Congress. If we don't get the right people elected, you know there's gonna be consequences to that. Do companies get free reign of being able to implement AI, or do they have regulations where they have to they have to work with their their unions that they have before they implement it? Or are there regulations on, okay, what what type of work are we gonna just totally eliminate so that it's no longer there for, you know, for mankind to have a job so that they can survive, feed their family and such? so one of things we're doing this weekend here is we're canvassing for candidates, for the Senate and the the House and the governorship here in Maine. I know you play an a important role going all around the country talking to our members about why we need to be involved in politics. You hear it, I hear it all the time. We hear it when we're canvassing. We shouldn't be involved in politics. Well, if there's never been a r better reason why we need to be in politics, it's the situation that we're in right now. Would you I think you would agree with that, wouldn't you?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Politics is already making decisions about us, around us. whether we can organize freely, you know, whether we can have a tax policy that's benefiting workers or billionaires, you know, our safety and health regulations. So it's already making decisions about us. If we're on the sidelines, it just gives more runway to the the big businesses and CEOs who wanna control our lives. So I do hear that a lot. And I think about, you know, how polarized it's become in our country that people now are boiling this down to, you know, what team are you playing on, you know, and and there's no nuance. But I think the labor movement can cut through that noise, unlike any other organization. And so I think that's why it's so important for us and our members to be the ones talking to our neighbors, to talking to our friends and families, because we care about the issues. We just care about who's going to support us. Yeah. It's not about the party as much as it's about You know, who's gonna stand up and fight for us?
IP Brian Bryant: gonna stand up and fight for working people. That's right. Exactly. I mean, there's a I think we have an excellent chance to, you know, speaking just for for Congress, the House and Senate. We have a opportunity to elect some f folks here that are absolutely pro-worker and pro labor into office and and one of them is Troy Jackson. And I know you know Troy well. he's a true voice for working people. He has lived it. He's been a worker his entire life. I always say, you know, we don't need to elect millionaires or billionaires we need to elect people that are like us. Mm-hmm. And we gotta stop being sidetracked by those folks that think it's a dirty word or dirty situation for a worker to be in Congress. I don't know. What are your feelings on that?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: In power don't want us to have access to the halls of power. And I couldn't agree more with you because they want to keep us divided and isolated and make us think that we don't deserve to be in those rooms. And that's what's been so fun about watching Troy Jackson since I've been here too, is how people respond to him because he is one of us. Yes. And He's put his boots on in the morning and, you know, showed up to the job site and was worried about his safety on the job and making it home every night. so he has the lived experience, which, you know, there's this all this talk about finding quote authentic candidates and sometimes it's fake authenticity where people wanna go out and, you know, talk about how working class they are. But when I see Troy, I mean he walks the walk. He's not some curated, you know, DC polished. Guy. he's someone who appeals to everyday working people. And we need more of those. And it's really I'm so proud too for him to be a union member because we keep saying union members make the best candidates. They're the ones who actually, you know, can can talk to on the door about what it's like to not be able to afford groceries or deal with high gas prices and rent that's off the charts. Yeah. and those are the issues that most people care about right now and they're gonna make their decisions in the election about. Yeah.
IP Brian Bryant: I mean and and Troy's done it 'cause one and one of the things, and there's many things that he's done in in the in the Senate here in the state of Maine, you know, he's the first he sponsored a bill and it passed for childcare. And that's a huge issue. We need that in the in the Senate in Washington DC. So you get to go out today and do a little canvassing talking to folks. First reaction
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: It's tough because, you know, these days people don't want to open their doors. they've got the ring doorbell cameras and the, you know, as I said, the polarization that's going on. But the minute they opened that door and we were able to talk to them about Troy Jackson and where he comes from and who he is, it really, I think, opened their ears and got a lot of positive response. The other thing that struck me was that he really cuts across party lines because people who generally, you know, don't vote democratic, have certain ideas of what democratic candidates are, and he just defies those stereotypes, which I you know, it's fun to watch people's faces light up when you talk to them. What is your experience?
IP Brian Bryant: Well, no, actually I was gonna bring up we the one we just did with the member. he was a member of the IBW. He you know, he specifically said, Look, I don't consider myself, you know, Democrat, Republican. You know, he was probably considered himself an independent. But he really liked the the message that Troy had and he liked what he had done. So I think Troy will resonate with a lot of people like that. Working people that don't consider themselves right, left. They just consider themselves an independent voter. They're looking for someone to be a champion for their issues and it gotta make them their issues. You know, one thing that Troy is good, why we need Troy, you know, Senator Collins, she cannot escape this. She voted for and supported the big, beautiful bill that came out. And right here in this state of Maine, and the state of Maine's not the only state that is being drastically affected by this. I'm sure you've seen this throughout the country. There's gonna be Many workers across this country in rural areas of the country that are gonna start seeing less and less health care available to them. Let alone they may have insurance. They may be lucky and they have insurance, but they're not gonna have the facilities to go and use that insurance. You know, when before you used to be able to maybe travel only twenty miles to a medical facility. Now you're gonna have to travel a hundred and fifty miles. The consequences is those people aren't gonna go and and get the health care that they need. For themselves. So that people are going to be drastically impacted. And this state alone, they're going to be drastically impacted. That I, you know, and I think it's important. And one of the things I ru we wanted to do this podcast was because door knocking, you find less and less people, two things. One, that they're either home or that they'll answer their door because there's other, you know, they just don't want to be bothered. You know, that's why we wanted to do this podcast so we could talk about these issues. So maybe, hey, if they're not, I mean, they're not going to answer knock on the door, maybe they'll listen to a podcast. And what that's why we wanted to get out and talk. This. Look, Senator Collins here in the state of Maine, she can't escape her voting record. Her voting record has been absolutely dismal for people in the state of Maine, let alone what she did with voting for the big beautiful bill and how that's going to drastically impact healthcare for the citizens of Maine. You know, she runs these commercials on TV right now where she've got an MRI machine placed into a hospital. Well, that's absolutely no good if you don't have the people to operate that piece of it. So Her record can't escape her. And there's important issues that are coming up for working people. That's why it's important for I believe for us to get out and t and talk to as many members as we can to get done more. Because you said it best, you know, we don't go out and tell people, hey, that this is the Democrat and you gotta go vote for No. We go out and talk to about look, these issues are important right now to working people, that there is no jobs here in the state because everybody left because they hadn't were incentivized to go to another state. Troy has got to He's got a plan that he wants to work across the aisle. So people need to hear that and they need to make their decision based on that. Not that Troy, because Troy's a Democrat, because of where he stands on work and people issues. And I think we do that. It's not just here in the state of Maine. That's everywhere is across the country. Just curious, had a chance to what other key states have you had a chance to visit? I was in Iowa just recently. Actually went to the AFL CIO convention there. That's an important state, Iowa, where they've got some. really progressive worker friendly candidates that are running for office there. I don't know if you want any other states that you can think of where we have key races.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Gosh, there are so many. And all of these are going to be coming down to just really razor-thin margins. And so we keep saying that in the 19 states where we're focused, our labor get out the vote program, we call it labor 2026, which you know IAM is a huge part of. and our 65 unions all come together around a solidarity program. And some of those vote margins in the last midterms where you know those those. races came down to I think collectively some of the most targeted races came down to a difference of sixty eight thousand votes. We had more union members who didn't vote in some of those districts. Yeah. And so if we were able to get out every union member we could, we would be the difference maker. And so, but I I couldn't agree more that you know, places like Iowa, places like Ohio where we have a key governor's race and Senate race there. You know, I've been in Nevada and Arizona and here in Maine, obviously. I'll be in Wisconsin next week. And we've got full blown program up and running. Yes, making the calls, yes, knocking on doors, but also visiting in the work site. Cause I think before and after work and in the break rooms, those are also good times to talk to people who may not be tuned in. They Are so busy, they're making a living and trying to provide for their families. They're often not as clued into the news. And you would be surprised what a conversation in the break room can uncover. And so we make sure that we have all of the flyers available, the websites, the QR codes so that people can get more information and also to early vote, because we keep saying we cannot wait until election day. Yes, you you can vote in person on election day. But we want to get people out early so that they can actually get more people out to vote in their community.
IP Brian Bryant: Absolutely. And and pretty much almost every state has early voting. I would strongly encourage any members, if you have it in your state, go out and early vote and make sure your family members early vote. You know, when you when you shared that information with all the affiliates of the difference that union members can make, you know, and as many of our members that think, you know, what what difference do I make by voting? Well, clearly just our members, there's so many races that we could have changed the direction of just if Union members would have turned out. That's a telling story that needs to be told because it shows the importance of why we have to get out and vote and why we're doing this work. That's right. I would love to be spending Labor Day with my family and I'm sure they would love it, but this is important. We need to come out and talk to as many union members as possible. You know, Liz, the you just gave your State of the Union, what do we want to call it?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Address. I don't know.
IP Brian Bryant: Liz, you just gave your state of the state of the union address.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: By the way.
IP Brian Bryant: And it was very good. I would encourage anybody that's listening to this, find it, listen to it, because it's an important message for on the American labor movement. So
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: AFLCIO.org.
IP Brian Bryant: AFLCIO.org. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much today. I really appreciate two things. Appreciate you coming to this state. appreciate everything that you do for the American labor movement. And not only the IAM but all unions. So thank you very much.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Thank you for your leadership and for bringing the voice of I am members to what I call the big table of all of the unions together on the Executive Council and and really for leading the labor movement writ large.
IP Brian Bryant: Yeah. You heard me say it before, we we're team Liz at the IAM so thank you. Again, thank you for tuning in for Shift Change and look forward to future broadcasts of this podcast.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Wow. And thank you for that, Brian, because I need to hang out with you more often. All of that, we'll get what is it, five dollars, we'll get you a cup of coffee. but I am absolutely overjoyed to join you on this podcast and to also observe your leadership because being in Maine, everybody knows who Brian Bryan is and the machinists reigns supreme up in this state. So it's an honor. And, you know, we are right at the center of the political fights with the Senate race up here and the governor's race and Congress all the way down through the ballot. And I think having national officers here during this moment of races being so closely watched here sends a very strong signal. So thank you for being here and for what you and your members bring to the movement. And I have been traveling a lot all across the country hearing from workers and you mentioned, you know, the issues that are important to IAM, but They do sound very similar often to me that workers are still struggling with their pay, you know, keeping up with inflation. They're worried about their benefits. And as you know, when we sit at the negotiating table, those costs for healthcare are going up and it makes it more difficult to bargain those increases. the issues of technology and artificial intelligence and how that's gonna affect people's jobs and just a voice. Being able to organize a union and not get fired or harassed or intimidated and the labor law reform that we need in this country. And so that's what this election is gonna be all about is getting the people into office like Troy Jackson, who's a member of the Machinists, who can bring that voice to Washington and make sure that our perspectives are in the room.
IP Brian Bryant: Absolutely. You know, one of the things and we could t we'll talk about hopefully a a lot of topics here, but AI is absolutely critical. It's critical to our members in our union. We're a union that's not against AI, if it's implemented correctly. You know, it can make unsafe jobs safer, it can make hard jobs easier. But I think it's important. I think, you know, one of the things I've heard you stress is the workers have to be involved. And the only way workers are involved is when when they have a union. and I I've heard you talk about that. Just, you know, from the IAM, we're very concerned about it. Are you hearing the same things from other unions?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: No question about it. And I'm glad to hear you say we're not anti-technology because yes, technology can make our jobs safer, can make the work less burdensome, you know, especially if we're working physically and it can improve safety and our ability to plan and train and all of that. But what we are is anti-greed because the companies are using this technology more to actually reduce jobs, to dehumanize us, to dumb down our jobs so that we're kind of plug and play and have AI take over as much as possible. Well, we're saying no, as a labor movement, there should be guardrails. There should be protections against these big tech companies just using unproven and unregulated AI any way they want. Yeah. And what what force in America is there that's gonna push back? It's the union movement.
IP Brian Bryant: Absolutely. I don't know if you feel the same. I l I look at the the age of of artificial intelligence. I really see that as a potential for labor unions to I mean, we're we're at all time high favorability with workers, but I just see it as the opportunity. I I would be absolutely terrified if I was a non union worker. The ability that a that a employer has Just to come and make wholesale changes and implement artificial intelligence that'll just wipe out jobs. I just see this as a massive opportunity for organizing workers into the union. I don't know what we're
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: And for the labor movement to be the place workers go for information, for pathways to that next job opportunity, for the training that they might need to get there. And to see us as, you know, probably the only trusted source they can rely on. Yeah. Because now, you know, they can't trust the companies. They can't even trust politicians for the most part. Our government is behind the curve, but the union movement really is there to help protect people and and figure this out. I am concerned about, you know, the fact that every job now is a technology job. So there is no job that's immune from the effects of AI. And you think about what trade had, the impacts of globalization had on manufacturing and you know, kind of the deindustrialization of our country decades ago. This is gonna be that next moment of I call it sort of NAFTA two point because It's going to be a massive transition where workers will be left behind if we don't make different choices. And we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Workers suffered. Your union suffered. And yeah. And so it's up to us to, you know, get the people in office that will make those decisions alongside unions and put workers at the front. It's up to us to negotiate into our contracts, protective language, you know, to get workers. upstream in the process so that you're not just, you know, technology is not just landing in your workplace without any kind of notice or to talk through the implications and how we can work together with the technology. So I think the role that unions will play will be central. And you're absolutely right. It's an organizing opportunity, I think, for people to see unions in a different way. Yeah. And especially, you know, white collar workers, Never used to see unions as for them. Yeah. And some of those white collar jobs will be, you know, the back office jobs, the admin jobs, payroll, accounting, call centers, those will be the jobs that will be the first to be impacted and probably at risk. Yeah. and where were they during the deindustrialization days, right? They they didn't see the solidarity. No.
IP Brian Bryant: I always thought it's fun you bring that up. I always I always talk about when we when we meet with our counterparts from over in Europe and from such, you know, they have a lot of white collar workers that are organized. You don't see that in the I mean you see a little bit in the United States, but they have it recognized the value. You know, w we took the opportunity, the IAM, we went to the tech summit out in Las Vegas. You actually encouraged all the unions to attend that. And one of the things Yeah. What what really blew in my mind and I I just bring this up 'cause I'd I'd seen if I I would think you would agree, but you know, there's gonna be those that say that, we're just ringing a false alarm here, you know, we're we're trying to scare people. What I found it very enlightening was the whole pitch almost of every single company that's selling whatever technology from robots to automation to the whatever, their whole pitch to everybody there, not knowing that we were from unions, was This is this will do away with you for having to have workers. You can eliminate workers. You can eliminate. So, you know, other companies, I always say to myself, yeah, the companies are gonna say, no, we don't want to eliminate jobs. Well, I know who you're hearing it from. You're hearing it from you can have less and less workers. So there's gonna be those that are gonna say, the labor unions are just trying to scare you. You know, they wanna keep us back into the the dark ages. Well, that's not the case. there's a serious concern that we have to wake up in this country and and it's gotta start. I believe, with who's in Congress. If we don't get the right people elected, you know there's gonna be consequences to that. Do companies get free reign of being able to implement AI, or do they have regulations where they have to they have to work with their their unions that they have before they implement it? Or are there regulations on, okay, what what type of work are we gonna just totally eliminate so that it's no longer there for, you know, for mankind to have a job so that they can survive, feed their family and such? so one of things we're doing this weekend here is we're canvassing for candidates, for the Senate and the the House and the governorship here in Maine. I know you play an a important role going all around the country talking to our members about why we need to be involved in politics. You hear it, I hear it all the time. We hear it when we're canvassing. We shouldn't be involved in politics. Well, if there's never been a r better reason why we need to be in politics, it's the situation that we're in right now. Would you I think you would agree with that, wouldn't you?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Politics is already making decisions about us, around us. whether we can organize freely, you know, whether we can have a tax policy that's benefiting workers or billionaires, you know, our safety and health regulations. So it's already making decisions about us. If we're on the sidelines, it just gives more runway to the the big businesses and CEOs who wanna control our lives. So I do hear that a lot. And I think about, you know, how polarized it's become in our country that people now are boiling this down to, you know, what team are you playing on, you know, and and there's no nuance. But I think the labor movement can cut through that noise, unlike any other organization. And so I think that's why it's so important for us and our members to be the ones talking to our neighbors, to talking to our friends and families, because we care about the issues. We just care about who's going to support us. Yeah. It's not about the party as much as it's about You know, who's gonna stand up and fight for us?
IP Brian Bryant: gonna stand up and fight for working people. That's right. Exactly. I mean, there's a I think we have an excellent chance to, you know, speaking just for for Congress, the House and Senate. We have a opportunity to elect some f folks here that are absolutely pro-worker and pro labor into office and and one of them is Troy Jackson. And I know you know Troy well. he's a true voice for working people. He has lived it. He's been a worker his entire life. I always say, you know, we don't need to elect millionaires or billionaires we need to elect people that are like us. Mm-hmm. And we gotta stop being sidetracked by those folks that think it's a dirty word or dirty situation for a worker to be in Congress. I don't know. What are your feelings on that?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: In power don't want us to have access to the halls of power. And I couldn't agree more with you because they want to keep us divided and isolated and make us think that we don't deserve to be in those rooms. And that's what's been so fun about watching Troy Jackson since I've been here too, is how people respond to him because he is one of us. Yes. And He's put his boots on in the morning and, you know, showed up to the job site and was worried about his safety on the job and making it home every night. so he has the lived experience, which, you know, there's this all this talk about finding quote authentic candidates and sometimes it's fake authenticity where people wanna go out and, you know, talk about how working class they are. But when I see Troy, I mean he walks the walk. He's not some curated, you know, DC polished. Guy. he's someone who appeals to everyday working people. And we need more of those. And it's really I'm so proud too for him to be a union member because we keep saying union members make the best candidates. They're the ones who actually, you know, can can talk to on the door about what it's like to not be able to afford groceries or deal with high gas prices and rent that's off the charts. Yeah. and those are the issues that most people care about right now and they're gonna make their decisions in the election about. Yeah.
IP Brian Bryant: I mean and and Troy's done it 'cause one and one of the things, and there's many things that he's done in in the in the Senate here in the state of Maine, you know, he's the first he sponsored a bill and it passed for childcare. And that's a huge issue. We need that in the in the Senate in Washington DC. So you get to go out today and do a little canvassing talking to folks. First reaction
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: It's tough because, you know, these days people don't want to open their doors. they've got the ring doorbell cameras and the, you know, as I said, the polarization that's going on. But the minute they opened that door and we were able to talk to them about Troy Jackson and where he comes from and who he is, it really, I think, opened their ears and got a lot of positive response. The other thing that struck me was that he really cuts across party lines because people who generally, you know, don't vote democratic, have certain ideas of what democratic candidates are, and he just defies those stereotypes, which I you know, it's fun to watch people's faces light up when you talk to them. What is your experience?
IP Brian Bryant: Well, no, actually I was gonna bring up we the one we just did with the member. he was a member of the IBW. He you know, he specifically said, Look, I don't consider myself, you know, Democrat, Republican. You know, he was probably considered himself an independent. But he really liked the the message that Troy had and he liked what he had done. So I think Troy will resonate with a lot of people like that. Working people that don't consider themselves right, left. They just consider themselves an independent voter. They're looking for someone to be a champion for their issues and it gotta make them their issues. You know, one thing that Troy is good, why we need Troy, you know, Senator Collins, she cannot escape this. She voted for and supported the big, beautiful bill that came out. And right here in this state of Maine, and the state of Maine's not the only state that is being drastically affected by this. I'm sure you've seen this throughout the country. There's gonna be Many workers across this country in rural areas of the country that are gonna start seeing less and less health care available to them. Let alone they may have insurance. They may be lucky and they have insurance, but they're not gonna have the facilities to go and use that insurance. You know, when before you used to be able to maybe travel only twenty miles to a medical facility. Now you're gonna have to travel a hundred and fifty miles. The consequences is those people aren't gonna go and and get the health care that they need. For themselves. So that people are going to be drastically impacted. And this state alone, they're going to be drastically impacted. That I, you know, and I think it's important. And one of the things I ru we wanted to do this podcast was because door knocking, you find less and less people, two things. One, that they're either home or that they'll answer their door because there's other, you know, they just don't want to be bothered. You know, that's why we wanted to do this podcast so we could talk about these issues. So maybe, hey, if they're not, I mean, they're not going to answer knock on the door, maybe they'll listen to a podcast. And what that's why we wanted to get out and talk. This. Look, Senator Collins here in the state of Maine, she can't escape her voting record. Her voting record has been absolutely dismal for people in the state of Maine, let alone what she did with voting for the big beautiful bill and how that's going to drastically impact healthcare for the citizens of Maine. You know, she runs these commercials on TV right now where she've got an MRI machine placed into a hospital. Well, that's absolutely no good if you don't have the people to operate that piece of it. So Her record can't escape her. And there's important issues that are coming up for working people. That's why it's important for I believe for us to get out and t and talk to as many members as we can to get done more. Because you said it best, you know, we don't go out and tell people, hey, that this is the Democrat and you gotta go vote for No. We go out and talk to about look, these issues are important right now to working people, that there is no jobs here in the state because everybody left because they hadn't were incentivized to go to another state. Troy has got to He's got a plan that he wants to work across the aisle. So people need to hear that and they need to make their decision based on that. Not that Troy, because Troy's a Democrat, because of where he stands on work and people issues. And I think we do that. It's not just here in the state of Maine. That's everywhere is across the country. Just curious, had a chance to what other key states have you had a chance to visit? I was in Iowa just recently. Actually went to the AFL CIO convention there. That's an important state, Iowa, where they've got some. really progressive worker friendly candidates that are running for office there. I don't know if you want any other states that you can think of where we have key races.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Gosh, there are so many. And all of these are going to be coming down to just really razor-thin margins. And so we keep saying that in the 19 states where we're focused, our labor get out the vote program, we call it labor 2026, which you know IAM is a huge part of. and our 65 unions all come together around a solidarity program. And some of those vote margins in the last midterms where you know those those. races came down to I think collectively some of the most targeted races came down to a difference of sixty eight thousand votes. We had more union members who didn't vote in some of those districts. Yeah. And so if we were able to get out every union member we could, we would be the difference maker. And so, but I I couldn't agree more that you know, places like Iowa, places like Ohio where we have a key governor's race and Senate race there. You know, I've been in Nevada and Arizona and here in Maine, obviously. I'll be in Wisconsin next week. And we've got full blown program up and running. Yes, making the calls, yes, knocking on doors, but also visiting in the work site. Cause I think before and after work and in the break rooms, those are also good times to talk to people who may not be tuned in. They Are so busy, they're making a living and trying to provide for their families. They're often not as clued into the news. And you would be surprised what a conversation in the break room can uncover. And so we make sure that we have all of the flyers available, the websites, the QR codes so that people can get more information and also to early vote, because we keep saying we cannot wait until election day. Yes, you you can vote in person on election day. But we want to get people out early so that they can actually get more people out to vote in their community.
IP Brian Bryant: Absolutely. And and pretty much almost every state has early voting. I would strongly encourage any members, if you have it in your state, go out and early vote and make sure your family members early vote. You know, when you when you shared that information with all the affiliates of the difference that union members can make, you know, and as many of our members that think, you know, what what difference do I make by voting? Well, clearly just our members, there's so many races that we could have changed the direction of just if Union members would have turned out. That's a telling story that needs to be told because it shows the importance of why we have to get out and vote and why we're doing this work. That's right. I would love to be spending Labor Day with my family and I'm sure they would love it, but this is important. We need to come out and talk to as many union members as possible. You know, Liz, the you just gave your State of the Union, what do we want to call it?
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Address. I don't know.
IP Brian Bryant: Liz, you just gave your state of the state of the union address.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: By the way.
IP Brian Bryant: And it was very good. I would encourage anybody that's listening to this, find it, listen to it, because it's an important message for on the American labor movement. So
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: AFLCIO.org.
IP Brian Bryant: AFLCIO.org. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much today. I really appreciate two things. Appreciate you coming to this state. appreciate everything that you do for the American labor movement. And not only the IAM but all unions. So thank you very much.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: Thank you for your leadership and for bringing the voice of I am members to what I call the big table of all of the unions together on the Executive Council and and really for leading the labor movement writ large.
IP Brian Bryant: Yeah. You heard me say it before, we we're team Liz at the IAM so thank you. Again, thank you for tuning in for Shift Change and look forward to future broadcasts of this podcast.
