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Pete Buttigieg on Jobs
Democratic Presidential Challenger; IN Mayor
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Lots of job opportunity in green economy; not all high tech
Q: What would you do to ensure a just transition for displaced workers in the new renewable energy economy?BUTTIGIEG: A lot of the jobs that are being created in the green economy are also good paying union jobs. A lot of them are good old-fashioned
building trades jobs to do the retrofits to get the energy efficiency that we need. We can create tremendous economic opportunity but let's be honest about the fact that this also means transition for a lot of people. My climate plan inclu
will support everything from retirement to healthcare to transition assistance.
Q.: How would you use the Green New Deal to bring Americans together and address racial, gender, and socioeconomic disparities?
BUTTIGIEG: This is not only a question
of generational justice. It is a question of social, racial, and gender justice. I'm proposing that we fund communities, developing community solutions including issues that are exacerbated or caused by environmental problems.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary)
, Sep 4, 2019
Let gig workers unionize
Q: What is your plan for retraining workers whose jobs are at risk?Buttigieg: Of course we need to do retraining. But this is so much bigger than a trade fight. This is about a moment when the economy is changing before our eyes.
There are people in the gig economy who go through more jobs in a week than my parents went through in their lifetime. It's why I've proposed that we allow gig workers to unionize, because a gig is a job and a worker is a worker.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
, Jul 30, 2019
Raise minimum wage, like Scripture tells us
In addition to confronting tech, in addition to supporting workers by double unionization, as I propose to do, some of this is low-tech, too, like the minimum wage is just too low. And so-called conservative
Christian senators right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage, when scripture says that whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
, Jul 30, 2019
Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour
Peter Buttigieg on Minimum Wage: Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour.19 CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Joseph Biden, Jr.; Cory Booker; Steve Bullock; Julian Castro; Bill de Blasio; John Delaney; Tulsi Gabbard;
Kirsten Gillibrand; Kamala Harris; John Hickenlooper; Jay Inslee; Amy Klobuchar; Seth Moulton; Beto O`Rourke; Tim Ryan; Bernard Sanders; Eric Swalwell; Elizabeth Warren; Marianne Williamson.
There's broad support among Democratic presidential candidates for doubling the hourly minimum from $7.25 to $15, and then allowing it to rise automatically with inflation, as proposed by House Democrats in the Raise the Wage Act. Even centrists like
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Vice President Joe Biden favor this. In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton favored going only to $12 (though she expressed strong support for states that raised it to $15).
Source: Politico "2020Dems on the Issues"
, Jul 17, 2019
Government must be pro-active with changing economy
We've been restoring manufacturing jobs, but we're realistic about the fact that with automation it's not going to look like the old economy. The economy is changing. The pace of change is accelerating. We've got to master those changes in order to
make them work for us. Everything from making sure everybody has health care, to increasing the minimum wage, to delivering portable benefits so that when you get disrupted from your job, it's not such a disruption in the rest of your life.
Source: Fox News Sunday 2019 interviews for 2020 Democratic primary
, Mar 19, 2019
Consider guaranteed income, perhaps redefine work
There's an experiment in Stockton where they're distributing payments to people to make sure that that income floor is lifted. There are too many Americans who couldn't find even $400 in an emergency to get them through that. I'm not yet sure
that that's the right way to go, but it's the sort of bold policy we should contemplate, especially if it's connected to work. Maybe we ought to broaden our definition of work. If you are taking care of a parent or raising a child, isn't that work?
Source: CNN Town Hall: back-to-back 2020 presidential hopefuls
, Mar 10, 2019
Unions good for US workers, but not NAFTA
The Democrat thinks˙NAFTA caused irreplaceable job losses across the industrial Midwest.
He is a strong supporter of˙labor and union groups, and says Democrats must work harder to advocate for working people and help them achieve economic stability.
Source: PBS Newshour on 2020 Democratic primary
, Feb 15, 2019
2009 auto bailout was worthwhile; it saved jobs and pensions
[Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock argued before the Supreme Court to stop the Chrysler bailout, but lost, in June 2009]. In his own mind, Mourdock had stood on principle by defying Washington and the auto workers who had pushed so hard to save their
jobs. But I wonder, sometimes, whether Mourdock talked to any of the families whose livelihoods could have been wrecked by his legal adventure. Did he think about the stakes for them, or was it just numbers on a page to him?
To Mourdock, it seems, the most important issue at stake in the auto rescue was that investors on the bond market would have to take a haircut. To the rest of us, the most important issue was that families lives could be ruined by the same kind
of economic disaster that had nearly killed my hometown half a century earlier.
To me, the whole episode was about what happens when a public official becomes obsessed with ideology.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 87-8
, Feb 12, 2019
Page last updated: Sep 01, 2021