[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> the ford plant in michigan avenue in wayne, where we find a where's waldo west hornblower out on strike for.

>> we've got to we've got to do it, rather be working.

but, you know, we've got to we've got to be a good one.

you've seen a strike before.

>> no, not not through fort.

i i've never been involved in it.

i started in nineteen ninety-nine.

>> got off work when straight here about a forty-five minute drive.

they do all well.

and they think the the bottom feeders we're talking car that weakening for.

i have a hard time going to the grocery store.

i struggle every that.

>> then a week the united auto workers won a big pay raise.

what they gave up when two of the big three went bankrupt during the recession and then into the two tier wage scale.

well, actually, i was on a tear for three years when i first tired.

and but, >> you know, but with the promise of making your way to act, it's eight years before you get too far.

and that's on real estate.

how can a young person, a young family and also by eighteen dollars an hour.

just not happening, too.

>> that is why we're launching a new kind of strike against ford and gm and stellantis.

we're calling it the stand up straight.

>> and innovation in striking hit all three carmakers at once.

one plant each.

if the talks greg on strike more plants as we get is a.

>> and change in kenner, which i think is more fitting with the times.

>> professor merrick masters, wayne state school of business specializing in labor issues.

lot of people call what's going on right now.

>> his store, where does this stand in terms of disputes in laborer history?

>> well, it is reminiscent of the sit-down strikes of the nineteen.

thirty-six, nineteen thirty-seven error.

it started up in flint, not standing up.

>> sitting down inside.

they slipped over counting the days until general motors gave in the u a w suddenly libor powerhouse.

other workers sat down to like these women at a woolworth department store americans.

middle class was bored.

>> these were strikes that were aimed at having a particularly crippling effect on businesses and also protecting the workers so they can ensure that the companies were unable to continue operations and thereby suburb.

>> purpose of the strike, more strikes that are contracts laborer flexed its muscles for decades.

then the decline in imports thrashing market share.

factories closed.

the latest strike, gm in twenty nineteen for six weeks now.

the big three are back to profitability in the big way.

workers demanding their fair share again.

>> seems almost like it's kind of a reset if we're looking back to the original strikes of old.

>> i think this is a reset for society.

we've gotten used to being rather complacent about asking for more for workers.

>> it seems like a lot of the population is sympathetic to the strike right now.

>> and certainly does based on the polls that have been done, a large number of people in the general public are sympathetic to the strikers and also, i think to waver in general it without the >> big raises in general.

what do you think we'll see here.

>> with this new i think that the u a w i would be surprised if they get to settle for anything really less than thirty percent.

>> but what is the general future of organized labor is a growing, is it?

>> staying level?

it's in a continual decline.

i don't see that reversing.

i'm not withstanding the rise in the activism.

>> well, some might say that.

what happens now if there's more success now with the u a w getting more of what they demand that might bring more unions to bear.

>> that has to be uppermost on the u a w nine.

it's got to be able to organize the foreign transplants.

it's got to be able to organize.

the test was the ons.

if it's not, then it's going to continue.

we see its position and all that we can.

>> meanwhile, another pay issue.

the salaries of top execs earning many, many millions.

the years ceo pay has skyrocketed by forty percent.

>> very on there its side.

what do they do to american much money?

i really would like to know.

>> so far, union president shawn fain, not happy how negotiations are goes, everything they're looking for its document.

>> it's about concessions.

so i'll tell you what i want to do with with their proposal of fila its proper place, because that's where it belongs the trash, because that's what it is.

>> well, sean thing might be seen is somewhat combative, confrontational or what's your take on that?

i think he's a.

>> in the finest tradition of laborer being a strong advocate unions and working people and realizing that that we have.

>> stand up and wage a fight when you think it's the appropriate moment for a cause that you believe that.

>> in their economy, one of our workers would have to work for a hundred years.

>> to make want to see makes in one year.

i wouldn't characterize him as a radical a revolutionary or anything by that stretch of the imagination of.

so listen.

>> i've heard the nonsense from some big three executives and some of their friends in the media about my foul mouth or theatrics or this or that i want you want to know something.

i don't do these updates because i just want to blow off some steam about insulting proposals.

i do these updates because our strength as a union is that our membership.

>> it feels like the eu is trying to take the power back on.

had used to beat everything is going on.

it kind of reminds me of the days of walter reuther, the fourth president.

a lot of companies today that are even union wouldn't even have the benefits that they have today if it wasn't for wall to fall for it.

>> it's also really part of the american labor culture bringing us the great middle class.

>> yes, that's absolutely true.

i mean, you don't get things without pain and suffering that see important part of human life.

>> it's also important to remember, i would add this.

the workers today are much better off than they were in the nineteen thirties.

they have decent pay and they have >> benefits, even though you may not like the way all their benefits are structured.

they've got good health care and they have defined contribution pension plans.

>> i would term so.

i mean, this is a much different.

>> i have been clear with the big three, every step of the way.

and i'm going to be crystal clear again right now.

if we don't make serious progress by noon on friday, september twenty-second more locals will be called on to stand up and join the strike.

>> but do we have that great disparity of income from the top to the bottom like we did back then?

>> or yes, packed.

we have a concentration of wealth, which is very reminiscent of that.

so the same old issues that i've always haunted person kind are still with us.

>> let's turn now to a new poll commissioned by the detroit