Hank Johnson: “And so we spent $700 billion. And it was the United Auto Workers union that sat down at the negotiating table with Big…”

“And so we spent $700 billion. And it was the United Auto Workers union that sat down at the negotiating table with Big Business, worked out what some may call give-backs. It actually gave up some of the benefits that it had signed contracts for with the employer. These are things that actually created the middle class, things like working days, working hours, wages, benefits, retirement, those kinds of things that people would not have had unless they had been represented by a union and we had strong unions. So those things workers gave back in part to make sure that the corporations could maintain or regain stability. And so now, just a short, 3, 4, 5 years later, GM is back to being the number one car maker in the world.”