“One of the industries most at risk from a changing economy is the auto industry. General Motors used to be the largest employer in Ohio. Now it’s 72nd. Today thousands of G.M. workers here in Ohio and across the country are on strike. All of you on the stage have voiced support for these workers. Senator Booker, one of the latest impasses in negotiations involves bringing jobs back from Mexico. As president, how would you convince G.M. to return production to the United States?” “Well, first of all, the one point I wanted to make about the U.B.I. conversation, and I hope that my friend Andrew Yang will come out for this, doing more for workers than U.B.I. would actually be just raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. It would put more money in people’s pockets than giving them $1,000 a month. We have to start putting the dignity back in work. And number one, you start having trade deals — not like this thing that the president’s trying to push through Congress right now that gives pharmaceutical companies and other corporations benefits and doesn’t put workers at the center of every trade deal. We must make sure we are not giving corporate tax incentives for people to move jobs out of our country, but start to put the worker at the center of that and make sure that they have the resources to succeed. But it’s more than that. I stood with these workers because we’re seeing this trend all over our country. I stood with unions because right now unions in America are under attack. As union membership has gone down, we have seen a stratification of wealth and income in this country. So the other thing that I’ll do as president of the United States is begin to fight again to see union strength in this country spread, to make sure we have sectoral bargaining so that unions from the auto workers all the way to fast food workers can ensure that we improve workers’ conditions and make sure that every American has a living wage in this country.” ”Thank you, Senator. Congressman O’Rourke. Same question for you. How would you convince G.M. to bring production back to the United States from Mexico?” ”I’ve met with these members of the U.A.W. who are striking outside of facilities in Cincinnati, in Lordstown, Ohio, which has just been devastated, decimated by G.M. and their malfeasance, paying effectively zero in taxes last year. The people of Ohio investing tens of millions of dollars in the infrastructure around there. What they want is a shot. And they want fairness in how we treat workers in this country, which they are not receiving today. Part of the way to do that is through our trade deals: Making sure that if we trade with Mexico, Mexican workers are allowed to join unions, which they are effectively unable to do today. Not only is that bad for the Mexican worker; it puts the American worker at a competitive disadvantage. If we complement that with investment in world-class pre-K through 12 public education, get behind our world-class public school educators, if we make sure that cost is not an object to be able to attend college, and if we elevate the role of unions in this country and create more than 5 million apprenticeships over the next eight years, we will make sure that every single American has a shot. They don’t want a handout. They don’t want a job guarantee. They just want a shot. And as president I will give them that shot.” ”Thank you, congressman.”