Conversation 111-001

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Hello, how are you?

Good to see you.

How are you?

Good to see you.

I wanted to tell all of you that I'm very grateful for the time and the entertainment to be able to serve on the COVID-19 Commission.

I know when the Commission was first set up, there was some doubts expressed in the committee.

Everybody's productivity is a great idea, but it doesn't want to bother the police.

We do just continue to grow in this country, so we must be doing something right.

But it's been my conviction, one that's shared, I know, by the men in the troops, and certainly shared by all the people in the administration, that when you talk about productivity, you can't talk about it simply in terms of management.

Except we can't talk about it in terms of stockholders.

We can't talk about it in terms of decisions that are made by government.

But it has to be always cast in terms of cooperation between labor and management and government.

We've got to all work together.

We've had some times when we've

But there will be, I'm sorry, differences of opinion, actually, between labor and management on the one side, management and government, labor, government, so on and so on.

But we all know, too, and I've heard many of the women in the Trump stage, whenever productivity goes up, everybody gets a little bit of it.

And it was good for all of us.

What particularly pleases me is that the real power of American labor is in this room.

I mean, it really is here.

And I also want you to know that we're not heading here for the purpose of simply hearing the cosmetics that are involved and like that.

We want your views.

We want your advice.

just as we want the views of management people and others in our government experience.

And out of that, we look to make decisions that will, in the long run, be best for the whole country, but particularly for all people who work for a living in this country, as well as those who invest in the rest.

and there will be a few more levels of changes in Canada.

I'm glad to welcome Pete Brannan, who is one of your colleagues as our Secretary of Labor.

I want all of you to know that his door will be open just as it was the case of George Shultz, the Secretary of Labor.

and going back to the Eisenhower administration when Jim Hitchell was there, and Jim Hodgson as well, for those matters that had to do with the Labor Department.

But I also want to emphasize to all of you, as I emphasized to me when we had our talk, and David did, that when matters involve this country, the national policy and so forth, that I think that there has to be also a very direct relationship between the President of the United States and the representatives of the organized government.

The New Orleans White House is open, too.

And it doesn't mean we go around our cabinet officers.

We understand that.

You'll know everything that goes on.

But it does mean that at times you have things you want to discuss, why you come and discuss them with us or with other cabinet officers and the rest.

And Pete, as a team player, will be working with, of course, George Holtz, who has a special responsibility as director of the organization.

I say it's easy to work with, but don't let that strong voice fool you.

At least I hope it is.

We can always get a pushover for these fellas.

We particularly...

Let me get the inclusion poll.

And Pete, I've talked to you about this.

We want recommendations.

All of you who are personnel in the government, we've been going over foreign services and finances the rest of the time.

That's where I believe we're interested in recommendations.

And not just in the labor climate, but in other departments of government.

We'd like to see

I think this is something that we've missed.

This is true of all administrations.

This administration, we want to try all kinds of things.

We want to see representatives of labor in other places.

That's a labor spot.

It's like saying,

They had a position.

When we came in four years ago, everybody told us that HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that's a black spot.

Well, that's the housing department.

It's on a black spot, or a white spot, or a desolate kind of spot.

It's one that involves the problems of housing and urban development.

And we're going to put people in.

They will represent all segments of society.

And so it is, as far as what is being here, we feel that the voice of labor, organized labor, and you are organized labor, should be heard, and ought to be heard, and ought to be considered, not simply in the very special matters that involve labor, but in the broad context

I guess to conclude by saying that we particularly appreciate it in this office.

I know the fact that the voice of organized labor is always very strong, whether it's national events, national security, or the tough policies we're concerned about.

But we've had to make tough decisions.

You've been there, and I'm very grateful for that.

I hope we don't give you too many more tough ones.

I hope we can look to a period to complete the present war, and go on to other things.

But in fact, we organize labor time and time again.

has, with very few exceptions, stood up and spoken up without even being asked for the country first before a party, before any other instance, has meant very, very few to me.

In fact, without your help, we couldn't have made some of the tough decisions.

They wouldn't have stuck.

Congress wouldn't have stuck with us.

We would be able to make them.

And we'll just try to do the best we can.

As a matter of fact, I was reminded before coming in today of all of you were serving without pay.

Is that right, sir?

Yes, sir.

That's right.

And that's true of the business group yesterday.

I didn't see that, but I've had a reception for a certain one hour.

Did they have you pay them that?

Most of them get paid adequately.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I tried it, you know, to get each of you to come in very cool.

Now, at least one of you has already got an off-ball, so I don't know what it's all been around here, so I'm not going to test you.

But I don't know if you have this or not.

This is old.

It's a rather nice little memento.

It's a presidential magistrate with a seal and signature.

So we'll...

to get those up and you can take them home and give them to your wives.

You know, I've often found that it's much better to be good with a person's wife when you're not staying up and understanding stuff your wife's trying to do than with a man himself.

So, you know, you can just say, Mrs. Nixon, I want you to have a little meadow.

Although it looks very expensive, you don't have to report it for that much.

For those who serve without a pay, you'll at least get an entry.

Thanks very much.

Remember, if you have something to talk to me about, just let us know and we'll enjoy seeing you.

Thank you.

Very good.

The point is a lot.

You know what I thought, Mr. Secretary?

So I was going to sum up a little bit, and then I was going to put some propositions to you, and then we'll get to it.

But thank you very much.

And just some good, great comments to gentlemen.

First of all, thank you for being here.

I'm just going to drop off your reference.

I'm going to talk about the railroad building.

I'm going to talk about the back end of the bridge.

There's no way they're following the truth.

It's just on the budget now.

I would ask that you take a good look at it.

The person who asked for it is, for some part, responsible.

I have very good sense about your Dutch and Spanish programs.

I might say, that's the only program that's called a donation program.

That's American.

But here, that's part of the look at the good, and that's what the economy is.

It's really the economics, I'd say.

They didn't know what's up and coming over.

I'd like to see it, because it doesn't fit.

I'm afraid it will always take some work to see it fit.

You know, I work with buildings, so, you know, you can play this across the board.

An example now, for example, we have a few more American ships.

and move on to the rest of the grain situation.

But in the rest of the grain situation, the tanker market is going to be flushed.

Supply and demand is the bottom.

We could do a hell of a lot better as to the earnings capacity, and build up a little plus balance of payments.

So when you get around to that, Mr. Secretary, live hard and remember that we now have a program, thanks to this administration, I've made that very clear, every place I've been, public and private and otherwise, where the requirements, this is for a short period, but then within it are the incentives that evolve.

It's a lot of how it's attractive, considerable, endless, and legal.

It's an actual world outside of America.

It's the first time I've been interested in talking about it and moving in to Mexico.

And any fresh, direct or indirect, political administration, which isn't in keeping with what the nation of America and the world has called for, will to some degree affect that confidence.

So I would just make that one point.

Thank you.

There are quite a few people taking a hard look.

And I've told you, take a little softer look or I'll get you.

And it is very tough.

a bunch of gear to try to keep things under control, but at the same time, the maritime efforts have been very much in front of people's minds, and I'm sure there will be any basic things that can be done about it, but there may be some things that we'll have to do, but a lot of mental thrust will be made today.

But as an individual, it was probably representing people less affected by all these situations.

We're just very, very friendly around the world.

We don't have the same kind of situation.

We have some of the problems, but the testing is the main.

And listen to this discussion.

Knowing something, in fact, and how it got down hard, as you said, in 2015, when Canada started to shake up on the west side, I mean, in real life.

Now it's cooled down to a degree, and I think that the position is very many can view this.

But my point of view is that it's an animal.

It indicates where it has been from the labor movement.

It also sets forth where, and from what point of later, it happens.

But there are other areas that I think should be given immediate attention, hearing Pat Grayhouse reach out to them.

It's true that it must be in some way, and it's all mechanical, it must be very personal, to pass the guide.

The clearing, the switchback, it puts a great focus on the local business agent,

It hacked the situation up.

And in many cases, I don't know what president, there's no real issue in the system at all.

So this is purely an undercounty problem.

That was a complicated one.

And of course, I think that's the point that wraps the local unions topic more than anything else.

But one of the great factors.

And the other one is the one that we talked about here and we talked about publicly and everything.

That's the question we put in there.

That's where the real point of contact is with the White House.