The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Labor Day

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

United we podcast, divided we beg. Take a day off thanks to unions, and listen to The Daily Show's tribute to labor. Sam Bee meets the French Canadian man that unionized Walmart. Author Philip Dray, visits to talk about labor and his book, "There is Power in a Union." Jon Stewart covers the anti-labor changes in Wisconsin led by governor Scott Walker, then dives into labor disputes at Walmart and the maker of Twinkies. Sam Bee tries to find out if we're all created equal when it comes to the minimum wage. Jordan Klepper gets hit with facts about the exploitation of college athletes. Trevor Noah sits down with Chris Smalls, who brought the first labor union to Amazon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. www.ca.com. Pumpkin is here at Starbucks, and we're making it just the way you like.

Handcrafted with real ingredients like our real pumpkin sauce and rich espresso sprinkled with pumpkin spice. It's full of real flavors you'll keep coming back for. Made just for you at Starbucks. There you are, pushing your newborn baby in a stroller through the park. The first time out of the house in weeks. You have your Starbucks, venty, because, you know, sleep deprivation. You meet your best friend, she asks you how it's going, you immediately begin to laugh,

then cry, then laugh cry, that's totally normal, right? She smiles, you hug, there's no one else you'd rather share this with. You know, three and a half hour's sleep is more than enough. Starbucks, it's never just coffee. You're listening to Comedy Central. While America's largest car maker struggles, America's largest retailer is thriving. Walmart has become a fixture in our country

with its low-low prices and low-lo-employee morale. Now, as Samantha B reports, the company is, however, having a harder time gaining acceptance north of the border. Here I am in Quebec. We've taken the letters off this boarded-up shell of a store that just maybe could have been something. But that dream was mercilessly crushed by this man. Oh, I didn't realize you were here.

Walmart, a plucky retail underdog, tried to realize its dream by opening up this quaint 50,000 square foot shop in Chonquire, Quebec. The store was just getting on its feet when employee, Gaytan Plur, did the unthinkable. started a union. I've participated in the formation of a syndicate. Okay. Say that again, only this time, not in gibberish. I don't know what you said, but continue to talk. I've participated in the formation of a union.

In the way to make Walmart to modify its behavior. In a way to bring Walmart to modify their way of doing things. It's really the grand panic at Walmart. There was a large sense of panic at Walmart store. The company was frightened. For years, Walmart protected its employees from the burden of union dues by keeping unions out of every one of its 5,711 stores.

But Gaytank could care less about maintaining Walmart's rich history. It is easy to be the biggest store when you are exploiting their small workers. Okay, fine, you're the little guy. But what about the biggest guy? You're crushing the dreams of every Walmart shareholder. And I would almost want to give them a part of my bien-a-social. Probably also a little... thinking about sending your...

sending them a little piece of my welfare. So you wanted a livable wage and respect. You wanted a sad act that could be able to live and respect. No, I need you to do the air quotes. So, like that you'd want to have the respect. I need you to do my air quotes. So what you wanted, it's what you wanted, it's a respect and a salary. Okay, those aren't really air quotes.

You've got to get the tone right. You've got to translate. Walmart was on the ropes. The union workers were demanding a raise of $108 per week, which in Canadian money amounts to about a bag of Skittles' each. The 291 billion dollar Walmart corporation had no choice but to close the store. Well, the conclusion is very clear. If you are walking out of Walmart stores, if you want to form a union, well, they're going to close the store. Now that you're out of work and struggling to make ends meet, isn't this the time that you really need Walmart?

denied closing the store because of the union. They said it was for financial reasons. We tried to reach Walmart for comment, but they didn't respond. So we set fire to a bag of dog outside of one of their stores. To protest the closing, Gaitain organized a terrifying 160-person multicolored unhappy face.

Any Walmart executives that may have been flying by in a helicopter would have been plenty P-Oed. It was a clear jab at Walmarti, Walmart's demonic price-slashing Pac-Man. What is Walmart's raison d'être? Did you notice that I incorporated some French phrases into that question? Is it when you got into the question? Did that impress you? Is that you impressioned? Not really.

Not really. What would a world without Walmart be like? Americans would be forced to buy things at rickety mom and pop stores like these. A world where you have to go outdoors and cross streets to run errand. Hi. Hi. I need a 50 pack of Fritos, the DVD of Beaches, and a 12-gauge shotgun. Oh.

To call it inconvenient is an understatement. I need to get some winter radials for my car. Uh, we don't have those here. Oh, fuck off. It's a hell on earth. I need diapers and I need funions. Can you help me? No, I'm sorry.

Fuck damn it. Ultimately, Gay-Ther had his union, but no job. Yet one question remained. Is there a room in any union for two? two men who are so obviously in love. Say it. Say it. Say it.

Is there really a place in the world for two men like me who are so intensely in love? No. No. No. Um. There is Power in a Union, the epic story of labor in America. Please welcome to the program, Philip Drey.

Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. There is power in a union. Have we in this country, do you think, have we forgotten the story of labor in this country? Have we forgotten the struggle that people went through at the turn of the century, last century? I think to a great extent we have, and that was really what prompted me to write the book, because I felt that this movement, which our grandparents and great-grandparents, were so involved in, and that accomplished so much, a lot of the standards of workplace safety

and hours and conditions we take for granted, that story had largely been forgotten. It's a great story of a social movement, and I thought it was worth remembering. It is, you know, the violence that came along with fighting to not have to work in a mine for the hours that they had to or not have to shop at a company's store. How were the workers able to withstand the kinds of assaults that were on them? Well, it was, as you're right, it was very violent, particularly in the 19th century. The workers really had, you know, the government took sort of a hands-off attitude until they started sending in the federal soldiers, and workers were often put down violently.

You know, the armory buildings we see in our big cities today, Most of them were put there, so the troops would be able to gather near places of work. The steel strike in particular, the Pinkerton fellas went in, didn't there are 300 Pinkerton guys? The Homestead strike of 1892, very violent. And of course, what would happen usually is you can imagine the nation would be outraged at the violence, people had been killed, there'd be promises of reform, and that actually did slowly kind of move things forward to the point where we reached in the progressive era, what they called industrial democracy, a feeling among progressives and even government officials,

that there must be a better way to do this. It's hurting productivity and profits. And also it's just we don't want to have this kind of large group of unruly angry people in our nation's cities. Right. And that's gotten us to the point today where the biggest problem in the workplace, obviously, is you're just not supposed to work.

Look at that much porn. You're supposed to have? Have the unions, though, So the journey now, and I imagine there's another movement of foot, but, so these groups that fought so hard to gain the basic respect and rights for the workers, have they themselves now become so entrenched and bloated that they have become the agents of corruption? Well, I think to a certain extent that's been one of the problems for unions over the last half century or so.

The problems have been self-made and that a lot of the big unions began to mimic big business. Of course, they had huge amounts of money on hand. And the leaders tended to be people who had never actually been rank and file themselves, so there was a kind of a distance. And they used the same type of intimidation in some respects. Exactly. And many of the leaders were sort of charismatic figures who couldn't be questioned from below. On the other hand, even though, of course, a lot of these corruption cases are famous,

I think one has to be careful not to taint the entire labor movement with this idea that it's corrupt. I think people hold it to a higher standard because it's sort of a social and economic justice movement. But for every headline about corruption, there's hundreds of legitimate, legally functioning local unions across the country and always have them. Where do you see the vibrancy of the union movement right now? Where do you think the best work is being done and where do you think the most work needs

to be done to reign in their power? Well, a couple of different things. One of course is the last, I think for many years unions were kind of asleep at the wheel. I think they've come alive a little bit in the last generation or so. You see a lot of organizing of people who had never really been organized before, janitors, hospital workers, just a couple weeks ago out in Los Angeles, the car wash, 10,000 car wash workers began to organize. So you see that in America.

You also see kind of an attempt for labor to sort of go global, really. In other words, that's what's happening now with globalization, because jobs have been sent overseas, labor has to find a way to coordinate with workers overseas. And that means a different kind of labor movement, one that involves human rights groups, women's rights groups, environmental groups, anti-sweetshop organizations involving consumers. That's sort of picking up speed. I think we have to wait another 10 or 15 years to see if that'll really evolve. Right.

And in terms of the areas where you think it needs reform, the actual union movement itself needs reform, where do you see that? Well, I think you see that in a lot of unions now that are being asked for accommodations or pushback. In other words, to keep institutions or companies viable... Have the unions been good partners to the businesses where they've been... Have they been good partners to the automotive industry? Have they been good partners in education?

Do you feel like those unions have been good partners? Well, the United Auto Workers, I think about a year or so ago, did give a number of things back in terms of privileges and benefits they had accrued. You know, it's always hard to give up something you fought for and won. You know, this goes back to the 1950s when they decided that they didn't need firemen on locomotives anymore. The firemen didn't, they didn't want to lose their jobs. They were protected by the union.

And there's been variations of that all along. And now you have the teachers' unions as well, trying to work with the new charter schools, trying to find a way to accommodate reform without jeopardizing their own rank and file. You had a great story about you were in the musicians union. Yes. And apparently there was an incident.

Well, this was, yeah, this was my introduction to being a union member. Actually, I was in the Minneapolis Musicians Union many years ago. And one of the first, after having to swear I would never play a melaton, which of course was an instrument that could emulate other instruments and take other people's jobs, they began to call me and say, we have to stop the Harlem Globetrotters. Yes, the Harlem Globetrotters. The man. And the union was upset because the Globetrotters were coming to town, but this year they decided they didn't want to hire an eight-piece orchestra. They wanted to use a tape recording. Of sweet Georgia Brown.

Of Sweet Georgia Brown, their theme song. And so the older members began calling people like me and saying, we need you out on the picket line. And, of course, we were inclined to say, well, of course they want to use a tape recording. That makes perfect sense. So that was kind of an example of a kind of a generational switch, a different way looking at things. I don't believe they ever stopped the Harlem Globet tribes.

Unfortunately, five people died. But it is, you know, it's so important for people to remember, though, where the movement came from and the struggle that it did just to get people the basic human rights that workers should enjoy and it's a really fascinating

and great story so thank you for writing it there is power in a union it's on the bookshelves now Philip Drey oh hi buddy who's the best you are

I wish I could spend all day with you instead uh Dave you're off mute Hey, happens to the best of us. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. We begin in Wisconsin with our continuing coverage of...

Oh, no! The cow! Oh, yes. Poor cow just got milk all over. In few places was the Tea Party's sweep last November more stunning than in Wisconsin where voters tossed out three-term progressive Democrat Russ Feingold from the Senate,

overturned Democratic majorities in the State Assembly and Senate, and for the first time in eight years, elected a Republican governor, Scott Walker. School districts spend millions more of our tax dollars than they need to for employ health care. We can save 68, million dollars per year, just by letting schools get into the state health plan. That relaxed guy on someone else's couch is right.

So you can imagine, Wisconsinites were plenty prepared when their newly elected governor tried to institute his cost-saving plan. And were prepared for the, oh, I see, wait now, what, no, be right back, no, be right back. No, I understand. But he was just, I understand. Guys! He said he was going to revisit the benefit plans of teachers and state workers. What's the problem?

State workers, a lot of them teachers, furious over Governor Scott Walker's plans to cut their benefits and collective bargaining rights. Oh. So he's not only cutting union members' benefits, he also wants them to give up their ability to ever ask for them again. That can't be right. Take away a union's right to collective bargaining. collective bargaining, I believe that makes them just a bunch of people wearing identical t-shirts. I think that's like telling the Green Bay backers they can't play football or telling Craigslist no adult services. It really defeats the purpose. I'm sure that that is not what the pleasant, casually dressed man in the advertisement meant. For us, this is about balancing

the budget. We've got a $3.6 billion budget deficit. We're broke. Just like nearly every other state across the country were broke. He's broke! He's got his walking around money. He's got nothing. And while as of yet, Walker hasn't proposed any other specific cuts to the budget, he's going to do it tomorrow, and has even passed a plan to further reduce tax revenues for the state

through tax breaks. He's not looking to strip the union of its power. He's just looking for savings. The deal would be that the unions agree on the money issues, but they keep their collective bargaining rights. governor are you willing to do that well no so to close your 3.6 billion dollar budget gap the the union must die less of a fiscal sacrifice more of a ritual sacrifice to appease the gods of deficit well i'll tell you what the remaining 14 state senate democrats gonna have

have a field day with this dude. In an effort to postpone the vote, 14 Democratic senators fled the state. You know when they say when the going gets tough, the tough get going? I don't think that's meant to be taken literally. Hey honey, pack your bags. The going's getting tough. And so it fell to the good people of Wisconsin to make their case directly. The elegance of direct democracy in its purest form.

You talk about coming to the table, the governor coming to the table. Do you think it was the right tactic for the Democratic senators? United, we stand. United, we stand. United, we stand. United we stand. United we stand. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm being told that we have a satellite delay to these 60s. I'm sorry. You're just asking you a question. It's a good old chanty on her. All right, a governor elected by the people to cut costs.

First attempt to doing so comes at the expense of those that are in his employ, enraging them. I believe this is a recipe, A, for the worst Christmas party ever. But B, there's something familiar to the dynamics of this political back and forth. Is Madison, Wisconsin, Congressman, the Tunisia of American politics now? There is an unbelievable. parallel the people in the streets of Cairo and the people in Madison, Wisconsin. The thousands of demonstrators are clearly inspired by the pro-democracy protesters in the Middle East.

They're not the same in any way, shape of time. At all. At all. Not at all. It's... This is the same as people in the Middle East overthrowing years of dictatorship? Or is that just the last story you saw in the news? You know, the protests in Wisconsin remind me of the struggles of actor Charlie Sheen, bravely fighting his addiction, which in this analogy makes Governor Walker crack. Wait, no. Look, if I may, there are a few small differences between this in Cairo.

The Egyptian protesters risk being shot. The Wisconsin protesters risk being caught in a drum circle. And as for protesters charge that Walker is a tyrant, I will remind you that that that he was elected with 52% of the vote. Tyrants tend to poll in the high 90s. So, come on, man. This isn't kind of 400 people died in those protests. Reporters were brutally beat.

I'm sure you can come up with a more appropriate comparison. Many other states ultimately might not have the same balance sheet as Wisconsin, but I think ultimately collective bargaining from a federal level, these are big issues. And these costs need to be put under control. If the country is ever attacked like it was in 9-11, We all respond with a sense of urgency. What's going on on balance sheets throughout the country

is the same type of attack. Thank you. Wait. That's insane. Collective bargaining and unions are then Al-Qaeda for balance sheets. What does that make Wall Street? By the way, you work for CNBC, and since your network helped promote that disaster, I guess you're Al Jazeera. Well, the budget crisis, it's not Cairo, it's not ground zero.

What is it? Take a closer look at the vitriol and the violent rhetoric being spewed by these left-wing unions at these rallies. It's about the people looking to create chaos on the backs of the worker. These union thugs who've taken over the capital, they certainly have a lot of hootspah. This is what happens when you disagree with the left-wing in America. First of all, hootspah? That's giving me a lot of seuris. Wait a second, Fox, I thought you guys loved protests

and the Americans that take to the streets. Remember the tea parties? These are ordinary, decent, hardworking Americans. They're singing, God bless America, beyond me. These are just average everyday people. God-fearing freedom-loving patriots. What happened? But if my theories are correct,

If my analogy is to work, then there must be another news network that hates the Tea Party protests but loves the Wisconsin Union protests. Tea Party wackos are dead set on repealing the health care law. These are real American people who want a future and feel like they're being deprived of it. See, they're real people but the other people were wackos. Don't you get what's happening here? The Union-Wisconsin protest is the bizarro tea party. Yes, you've all seen that episode of Superman.

But wait, this is correct. Tea partiers wear tri-corner hats. What would the opposite of that be? All right, that'll do. As you know, if there's one thing all Americans can agree on, We love Black Friday. Whether you're a fan of shopping or trampling. Which is why I was just, I was so upset to see on this holiest of days,

a news story about people protesting in front of their local Walmart. Thousands of Walmart employees are staging walkouts and protests over this holiday weekend. The workers are upset about having to work on Thanksgiving Day, and they're also speaking out for better pay and benefits. What? You bastards, you get to work at Walmart on Thanksgiving Day. A ringside seat to the greatest show on earth. It's a black Friday tradition.

Oh, I'm the f***, girl! Push one of my teeth, I will stab one of you, mother . Do you know how much people pay to go to fights like that? get paid some to see it. Isn't that benefit enough? Truly your vest runneth over. But that's not enough for you. Greedy, hourly, slightly over the federal poverty line employees.

Now you want to unionize. Besides, everyone knows, comparatively speaking, in the Walmart world, you've got it pretty good. Violent protest in Bangladesh this morning after a deadly garment factory fire. Saturday's fire killed at least a hundred and twelve factory workers. The factory is owned by an exporter whose clients include Walmart. See? Wee, wee, we, we.

I work at Walmart in the United States. I can't afford to take my kids to the doctor. Well, at least where you work, there are exits. And the worst part of that, Fire. The worst part of that fire is the devastating impact that it's going to have on Walmart. This is the big giant prize for unions. This is a big giant prize for those who are anti-capitalism.

If it's not this, it will be something else. I think it's a stretch, an amazing stretch, to sort of try to pin this on Walmart. I can't think of a worst target. I actually, I believe that's Walmart's slogan. Think of a worst target. But I'm sorry, you were being... Yeah, that was Joe. Joe came up with that in the meeting, and we're all like,

we're using that. But I'm sorry, you were, I'm sorry, you were being callously dismissive about the working conditions in Bangladesh to score points against American unions. Continue. Don't think that the people in Bangladesh, who perished, didn't want or need those jobs as well. You know, I know we like to victimize everyone in this country,

particularly when it comes to the for-profit motivation, which is being assaulted. Again, it's tragic, and, you know, listen, it's one of these things I don't think something like this will happen again. Okay, that's a relief. So, um, your first argument appears to be, yes, okay, they died in a fire, but they had jobs. You know, I think it's reasonable.

to assume your job won't entail some kind of inferno unless it's mentioned in the ad, which it's, oh, okay, well, that, I didn't realize. Now, your second argument is this. Your second argument appears to be, your second argument is, hey, man, this is just a one-off. Which could be a powerful hypothetical argument that I might buy into if moments earlier, the giant graphic next year had not mentioned the 500 people over the past two decades killed in garment fires. Although perhaps you're just saying

this type of fire won't happen again in this particular now burned down factory to which I would say touche. But I guess the point is unions will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life.

And Walmart is not the only American treasure on their hit list. If you love Twinkies, sorry, Brace yourself for this one. Let me stop you right there. If you love Twinkies, you're probably already used to being told

to brace yourself for bad news. Only usually from a guy who looks like this. But all right, continue. If you love Twinkies, sorry, brace yourself for this one. Time has run out for America's iconic baking company. After 82 years, hostess is shutting down. following a bankruptcy filing. No more Twinkies, no more ho-hoes,

no more snowballs. No more ring-dings, no more ding-dongs, no more dong rings, no... Right? Oh my god, that's not cream. Uh, hostess will... It's jelly. Hostess will be no more.

Oh no! Where will I go now for my stomach aches and self-medication? Where will I get the crap to fill the bottomless pit in me that will never be filled? Boxed wine? Arby's? I'm not going back there! What could have destroyed this beloved American diabetes dispensary? The unions really did it in because they would not have

because they would not allow hostess to operate efficiently. Hostess, which was forced to close its doors due to union demands. They couldn't afford to stay in business during a long worker strike. The union preferred killing the company to accepting what they thought was a bad deal. Unions. You gotta imagine Gingrich is taking this hard. He is, after all, half snowball on his father's side. Just to play devil dog's advocate here, could there be another reason hostess went back?

This company could not run itself efficiently. In the last 10 years, they've had seven CEOs. Oh, uncertainty. I'm told the market abhors it. After the 2004 bankruptcy, the workers took wage and benefit cuts. It wasn't enough. The CEO gave himself a 300% raise. So the unions had already taken a cut in somewhat inverse proportion to the CEO's rising compensation,

which he totally deserved for convincing the union to take that cut. Anything else other than unions that could have sabotaged the company? Sales dropped as moms began swapping out those fat-filled goodies and white bread for healthier lunchbox foods. ...monds. How dare you moms? You know, maybe I just love America this much, but I say let Mars... let Mars have them. So, Mars needs...

I see a lot of children's movies. Because I have children. You know what I also think? And this is just a marketing tip. Let's not forget that the hostess mascot has some kind of high-spirited country western dildo. But as always, the real victims here be the children.

I'm just sad that they're not going to know what Twinkies are. They're going to grow up not knowing what Twinkies are. You know, each generation has its burdens. My kids might never know the pleasure of doing donuts in their high school parking lot in an AMC Gremlin. I grew up not knowing polio. You get off. And if we're really craving a hit at Twink, we can always make our own. There are 37 ingredients in this little cake, many you'd expect.

Some flour, lots of sugar, corn syrup. But how about corn dextrin? That's the sticky glue found on the back of envelopes. And that smooth, creamy center? It's made from cellulose gum. That's used in hair gel, shampoo, even rocket fuel. Rocket fuel! That explains the blue flame that shoots out of my ass whenever I eat a twinkie.

Rectum, we have a problem. You know what, though? When I was making my Twinkies, I forgot the cellulose gum. Oh, I'm an idiot. But you know what? I made myself Twinkie using only 36 ingredients. It probably won't make that big a difference. I'm sure it's going to be about the same, right?

It's going to be a, oh, they're ready. Let's see what we got. Kill me. Please kill me. I'm so sorry. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. Stay three nights this summer at Best Western

and get $50 off a future stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Summer's here and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groom lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan.

delivered. A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan. Sorry. Nope. But a box fan? Happily, yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. There's a philosophical discussion underway in America about the minimum wage. Some people, like financial commentator Peter Schiff, think increasing it could have devastating effects. There's a law in economics, supply and demand.

It's something that you learn in Econ 101. And as you increase the price of something, you decrease the demand. And wages, you know, that's the price of labor. The higher you make the minimum wage, the more jobs are going to be destroyed. I mean, you care about the poor's. Of course I do.

Yeah. I just acknowledge that government programs are trapping them in poverty. Why have one job for $15 an hour when you could have two jobs for $750 an hour? Would you rather do that or pay twice as much for your burger? I do like to taste the tears of poverty

in my milkshakes. I couldn't wait to discuss these economic theories with real-world fast food workers protesting for higher wages. If we raise the minimum wage, eventually the market is going to adjust to that and then everybody is going to lose purchasing power. We cannot survive on the bare minimum. If we could just keep this out of the personal

realm. All these fast food workers looking at things through their personal experience goggles. I found it so hard to explain those kinds of complex economic theories to those desperate people. I mean, do you ever go into McDonald's or Burger King? I mean, I don't really eat there, but they don't seem desperate and hungry to me. They're young kids. They seem to be enjoying themselves mostly. Those irrepressible teens with their teen hijinks. That's right. These protesters are just teens, having a goof. I mean, what are you complaining about? This is fun for you. You're a teenager, just making some funny money to throw around and party with. I actually have five siblings, younger siblings that I have to support.

Ugh, this was getting harder than I thought. Hypothetically, how would you tell a 48-year-old man with a bachelor's degree who works full-time in fast food that he is a is not entitled to a living wage. You're creating a hypothetical situation that's not going to exist. I'm 48 years. You're 48 and you're still in high school? I have a bachelor degree. And I end up working there because I was out of a job

and couldn't find a job at the time due to the economy. Ugh, putting a face to the people on supply and demand graphs is really confusing. Thank goodness the economic theories on how the minimum wage destroys jobs are ironclad. author and equities analyst Barry Rittholtz. There are a number of studies that have come out that show increasing the minimum wage

actually improves the economy. Shut the f*** up. If we raise people up, just $11. So they're at the poverty level, they'll go out and they'll spend that money on food and medicine. Sure, that sounds good, except for one simple thing. People don't go hungry in a capitalist economy.

It's socialism that creates, you know, scarcity that creates famine. In a free market, there's plenty of food for everybody, especially the poor. And the fact that people in our economy aren't hungry is all the proof you need that free market capitalism is the answer. Lots of people working full-time for profitable companies

like Walmart and McDonald's. You need food stamps and welfare because they can't afford to feed their kids. McDonald's and Walmart are the biggest welfare queens out there. What? They're taking advantage of the safety net in order to capture more profits and lower their costs. As it turns out, the fast food industry alone costs taxpayers roughly $7 billion a year in public assistance to their employees. It's practically McDonald's sys.

But for many, when it comes to our economy, it's our country's founding principles that matter. If we eliminate the minimum wage law, then individuals would be free to accept jobs at whatever pay they're able to get. Give me a picture of a person whose work would be worth $2 an hour. You know somebody who might be? Maybe somebody who is, you know, what's the politically correct word, you know, for, you know, mentally retarded. What's the new...

Okay. That's what I believe in the principles that the country was founded on. But... I'm not going to say that we're all created. equal. You're worth what you're worth. You're worth what you're worth. Just like our founding fathers said, you're worth what you're worth, and we're not all created equal. Yesterday, the NCAA settled a lawsuit with former college basketball and football players who were seeking compensation for the millions of dollars of profit the NCAA had made off

their likeness in video games. So now the NCAA advances in the bracket to their next lawsuit. But where will it end? With fairly compensating athletes for the ungodly amounts of money they're bringing to the NCAA? I hope not. This is America. How far? Can it go?

Jordan Klepper has more. College football is the last bastion of sports amateurism, where student athletes play for the love of the... Oh, damn! Did you see that hit? He got crushed! But now, this sport is being ruined by players like Kane Coulter, seen here selfishly writhing on the ground.

who insist they deserve more. You know, right now, not one penny is guaranteed to pay for our medical expenses. You hear all these horror stories about players losing their scholarships after they've been injured. You know, what are these kids gonna do? They should get a second job. We already have a full-time job.

We don't have time to get a second job. Okay, well, then why don't you just sell Kane-Colter jerseys? Make some extra cash. You're not allowed to profit off your likeness. Why don't you just join another league? There's no other league. You got a lot of complaints. Unfortunately, right now, you know,

A lot of those expenses down the road are going to be coming out of our own pocket, even though we suffered the injuries wearing our school's colors. Don't you think when you go in with back pain that that doctor instead of money will accept a nice little anecdote about how fun it was to beat Wisconsin? We didn't beat Wisconsin. Well, that's on you. Whether it's Coulter and other collegiate athletes once again whining that they deserve a cut of NCAA profits or brand new complaints about losing their eligibility because they play

pick up football while serving in the military. It was just an intramural league, you know, to build camaraderie between troops. I didn't figure they would penalize me for that. But then Colter did something truly despicable. Northwestern University's football team is asking to be represented by a labor union. Yes, a union. Colter is actually trying to claim that he's an employee of the university. Clearly, the football players should stick to football.

Fumble! Fumble! You're all right? You're okay? Yeah, we're good. You're not an employee. You're a football player. No, we are employees, just like the NFL players and employees, college football players and employees.

An employee has to sign a contract. College football players sign one year tender agreements for the scholarship. All right, well, employees have to work like 40 hours a week. We spend 50 to 60 hours a week practicing in the off-season. Well, they... Employees get compensated. We're compensated in the form of a scholarship room tuition board. Employees don't live in dorms.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Gotcha! Meanwhile, true college football fans, like Republican strategist D.D.Banky, understand that to offer the players' compensation of any kind would destroy this beloved sport. Bubble! Bubble!

They get free room and board, a free education, and they're playing the game they love. That's not enough. These guys are getting free water on the sidelines. Yeah, exactly. Free Gatorade. Yeah. Free trips on that little cart that takes you to the emergency room. Well, that's up to them.

If they don't want to play football, they can do something else. These football players should be playing for the love of the game. Exactly. Take a lesson from the NCAA and their sponsors who put on their annual bowl game series for the love of the... Wait, who the fuck is Beefo Brady? Okay, maybe the NCAA does make $11 billion a year, but unions are not the answer, says the NCAA. Using a union employee model strikes most people as a grossly inappropriate solution to the problem.

And these players had no idea how inappropriate. What are these football players going to do if they unionize? Do they get a mandatory smoke break every hour? What happens if they strike? Unions are overbearing. They're worthless. They want to control everything. They just try to be money-grabbing losers

and try to take the money out of hard-working American's pockets. Yeah, Dee Dee, the cruise union, so they control the... The players are determined to take this to the courts, forcing critics like Banky to see that, okay, maybe these players should get a small, small, tiny slice of the pie. And CAA, they have a ton of cash. They need to beef up the scholarships.

I agree with that. I think most people do. They need to beef up these scholarships a little bit. They just need some sort of group who could maybe collectively bargain on their behalf. Well, I don't know about that. No. Keep the unions out of it. Keep the unions out of it. Now was the time to show Colter what unionized college football would really look like.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't run all the way. You don't, you are 40 to 30. You hand it off to my man right here. He is 30 to 20. A game that's nothing but half-assed work punctuated by smoke breaks. smoke breaks. Slow down! Slow down!

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My guest tonight is the president of the Amazon Labor Union. He led Amazon workers at a Staten Island warehouse to successfully form the first union in any of the company's U.S. facilities. We went for the juggler, and we went for the top dog because we want every other industry, every other business to know that things are changed. We're going to unionize. We're not going to quit our jobs anymore.

And, you know, this is a prime example of the power that people have when they come together. Let's go. Please welcome, Chris Small. What's going on the boot? Welcome. The man who took on Amazon and won. Chris Smallers, welcome to The Daily Show. Thank you.

What an insane story. Like, I remember when this first started, you know, the pandemic was happening. Amazon was ramping up production. The workers were struggling. People were complaining. And then your story popped up as an idea. And everyone said the same thing. and said, this guy's crazy, this is gonna fail,

you cannot beat Amazon, and you did. Let's start at the beginning. Did you think you stood a chance? I know you did what you did, but did you think you stood a chance. I knew the whole time. You knew you were gonna start. The reason I asked you that is because Amazon,

like people have tried to form unions in some of Amazon's other warehouses. They failed dismally, like Amazon's got a really good marketing program inside. You know what they do as an Amazon worker. Talk me through that process. So you were inside Amazon. You're working, right?

Well, I was fired two years ago after I let a walk out. But I worked for the company for almost five years. I started in 2015 in New Jersey. So I was promoted up to a supervisor level. I was in that position for four years up until my termination. And I definitely learned the end and out of the warehouse and operations. I trained thousands of their employees, hundreds of their management, that are now upper management to this day.

So for me, I'm organizing which is I'm playing for a different team and I'm with the people. I love that. When you thought of organizing, obviously there was a reason. You know, every one of us reads about Amazon from the outside.

We hear these stories. People don't get enough breaks. Some people are peeing in bottles. Some people are, you know, stressed out because they have to meet random quotas that Amazon imposes on them. Just the other day, for instance, I think it was on Easter.

you know, there was a sign up that said, thank you for working on Easter, and if you meet your quotes, are you going to get like a bag of chips or something? It feels dystopian from the outside, but how much of that is actually true? What does it like to work in an Amazon warehouse? It is true.

You know, as the Amazon worker, we're disconnected from outside. You know, we work 10 to 12 hours a day. If you work in New York and you're going to Staten Island, your commute is two and a half hours, three hours, depending on where borough you live in. I live in New Jersey, so my commute is definitely a long commute.

And I used to tell my new hires, if you've got a gym membership, you might want to cancel it. Wow. You know, because you're working 10 to 12 hours. You get a 30-minute lunch. You're doing calisthenics all day. When you're in the warehouse, what is the thing that you're fighting for the most? Because, you know, some people hear the fights against Amazon. They think about wages.

You know, they think about time off. They think about the way people are treated within the warehouse. You know, obviously, everyone wants a better workplace altogether. But when you looked at the hierarchy of needs, What was the top priority and then as you came down that pyramid, what were you looking to get? Well, I noticed that Amazon is ran completely off metrics. You know, there wasn't no human aspect to it. You know, you get fired by email or app, a to Z app.

Wait, are you serious? Yeah. You know, people didn't have an interaction. They didn't know their managers. And there was a system in place to hire and fire. And, you know, it was before COVID when I realized that there's a system that's not only in place to fire people, but it was also discriminatory. You know, I applied to be a manager, a salary manager over 50 times in five years,

and I was only interviewed twice. So it wasn't fair, wasn't consistent with everybody in that work there. And I knew before COVID that something had to be done. And when COVID hit, it was a life of death situation, I decided to take further action. When you look at how to start a union, one of the hardest things is, if I understand, correct me if I'm wrong, is you need 30% of the signatures of the workers to begin the process. One of the hardest reasons you can't do that at Amazon

is because they hire and fire so quickly. So how did you get around that obstacle of getting people on board and then having them be around long enough to be part of the beginnings of a union? Yeah, well, education is key. You know, we had to educate them on what the union provides, educate them on laws that protect them without a union.

So certain protections we do have, that workers don't even know. So we had to make sure that we're educating the workers to get to a point where they start organizing themselves. And once we got to that point, we said, okay, you know, we're not going to go for, there's four facilities over there. We're not going to go for all four. We're going to break it down and go one by one by one. And I think Amazon was caught off guard by that. They thought that we were going to go for all four, which we did try and we had to withdraw. But then we

changed up our strategy and started doing it one by one. We were able to get to our threshold. They came for you as well. You know, I saw one of the emails that circulated from, you know, you never know where it comes from, but inside Amazon, where they came after you, you know, they would disparage you to the other workers. One of the worst things I saw they wrote about you is they said, he's unintelligent, he's

not well-spoken enough to start a union, no one should follow this guy. I mean, basically they were like, he's a rap black man, essentially was what they were saying about you, and so they're telling people, don't trust him, and they were saying, he can't do this. Now, obviously, you proved them wrong. Yeah, well, they said it.

Yeah, they said it about you. And I wondered like, because you were a rapper before you started working, you know, in warehouses. And I wondered, did you, did you take this as a rap before? You're like, oh, okay, we're doing this. Was there a piece of you that was like, all right, Amazon, we're doing this? This track coming. No, you know what? I haven't wrapped in so long.

I haven't wrapped since, you know, my college years. But I guess it just keeps resurfacing, you know, media. they dig into your past. Oh yeah, they do, definitely. So, you know, I haven't wrapped it so long, but, you know, my mom will tell you, you know, my voice is meant for something else. I love that.

This is it. I really love that. So then let's talk about the future. You're in an interesting situation now where, so you are the ALU president, right? You've done something that no one thought was achievable. The vice president, as I understand, still works at Amazon, which was a smart move because you wanted someone on the

inside, what are you looking to do now? Because I know this is not the end. This is the beginning of the story, you know? And when the union was formed, you even, you know, sent a message out to Jeff Bezos. It was like pretty direct where you were going like, this is the beginning. This is only the beginning.

And you thanked him. That was interesting to me. You thanked him for flying in his penis-shaped rocket. No, I'd love to know why you think that was so significant. Why do you think that that actually helped with the union? Well, you know, while he was up there, it was true. You know, we were outside. I was outside, signed him workers up.

So I was just telling the truth, you know, and he needed to know that. You know, he thanked us when he came back, you know, we paid for that trip. So, you know, in this case, we wanted to remind him that you keep going to space, we're going to continue to unionize. I love that. Damn.

What are you trying to be going forward now? So, you know, many people out there, this is something I've really enjoyed about watching how you work. work. You've centered the union around the workers and the workers alone. You know, politicians will always try and make it like the union is theirs. You know, they'll go

like, oh, this is the Democrats, you, this is the Republicans, and you've gone like, no, no, this is the workers' union. You know, because unions help all the workers. It doesn't matter what your political affiliation is you're fighting for the workers. I'd love to know why or how you thought of doing that, where so many would have

aligned themselves with politicians, you've gone, no, I'm choosing not to do that. Yeah. You know, we want to represent all people. You know, your worker, whether you're left, right, up, down, middle, red, yellow, green. We don't care. We want to make sure that it's all inclusive.

And putting workers in the driver's seat, that's the ultimate power. You know, if you start to align with certain groups, then Amazon uses that against you. You know, all right, this union president from this established union salary is half a million dollars. Yes. With me, they can't do that. I'm unemployed. So it's different.

You know, it's different, you know. Having the workers in the driver's seat and having them at the negotiating table putting together a contract that protects them, especially the ones that work for the company and know the ends of the company, that's the best thing ever. And now I want to give the power back to them by this union, and that's exactly what we're trying to do. What do you hope to achieve with the union? So give me some of the things that you know need to change now in an Amazon warehouse that all of us watch. Because everyone, we use Amazon. People love the service, but at the same time, you know, it's conflicting because people go like, wait,

How are they being treated? You know what I mean? It's a weird position for many people to be in. So what would you say to everyone going like, hey, this is what needs to change in Amazon. This is why we're trying to do this. Right. You know, well, customers need to know that just because you hit one click by, it's not magic. You know, these are real people being affected.

You know, we want you to understand in solidarity with these workers. They come from your community. They're your neighbors. And we're customers, too, as workers. And the first thing we're fighting for is job security. Like you mentioned, they hire and fire people all the time. time. You know, there's people that homeless work in there, people in shelters working there that we help. We're fighting for $30 and now with higher wages, better medical leave options,

making everybody a shareholder again, who they stopped in 2018, bringing back the monthly bonuses, Amazon workers know what I'm talking about, VCP, which was for productivity and attendance. We used to get that. They stopped that in 2018 as well. Bring it back hazard pay. They think the pandemic is over. People are still working catching COVID, still being seen. sick. And also, you know, providing a better quality of life, a pension, free college for themselves and their children as well. Everything a union can provide, we want to provide with this union. You're a legend, my dear. Thank you so much for being here. For real. Man, everything you've done. Push them all, everybody. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching

the Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central, on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.