UAW Director Brandon Mancilla Discusses NY Mayor Race

0:00Ben Meiselas:What if you can see what's happening inside your body? PreNuvo's whole body scan screens for hundreds of conditions, including many solid tumors, as early as stage 1, all in under an hour. And now, you can go beyond imaging with 80-plus blood biomarkers that help complete the picture. This Labor Day, save$300 off your scan when you book at PreNuvo.com. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com. Save$300 now through September 8th at PreNuvo.com. Terms and conditions apply. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back.

0:38Ben Meiselas:So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. C-terms. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling, and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need.

1:14Ben Meiselas:There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. They're shocked. They're shocked. I tell you, it seems that every time a new poll comes out showing that Democrats that fight for the people are not just leading amongst Democrats, but are leading Republicans. It's always framed as what shocking poll data. I don't know. Maybe we're seeing a trend here. This just came from Fox where they go. A shocking poll shows the Texas Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett leading the MAGA Republican Senator John Cornyn in a head-to-head race.

1:59Ben Meiselas:She's also leading in the Democratic primary, but here's what it says if she enters, that is. Here, play this clip. A shocking poll shows Texas Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is leading in the race for incumbent Republican John Cornyn's Senate seat. Even bigger news, though, the massive backlash over her making the Texas flood disaster all about her. Well, it's not news because she does that with everything. Even talking about her hairstyle. That's an odd mix of topics. Plus. No, it's odd that you don't want to talk about how the Trump regime has gutted the National Weather Service, how they've gutted NOAA, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, how they want to eliminate FEMA, why FEMA didn't send the appropriate response within 72 hours.

2:49Ben Meiselas:And now you've had the Department of Homeland Security and Kristi Noem like attacking the Midas Touch social media platform and saying that we're spreading lies for just reporting on what numerous sources and CNN has previously said. But just look how Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett addresses the issue. She just talks about it is what it is. You know, for example, you know, yesterday when Donald Trump or two days ago, when Donald Trump hosted five African leaders at the White House. And Donald Trump said to the head of Liberia, wow, what great, such a great English that you speak. How did you know to speak English like that?

3:25Ben Meiselas:It's like, well, English is the main language in Liberia, idiot. This is what Congressman Crockett says. Trump never misses an opportunity to be racist and wrong. And every day he finds a new way to be embarrassing. Asking the president of Liberia where he learned English, when it's literally the official language is peak ignorance. Just to remind you, here's what was said. Let's just show you. We want to work with the United States in peace and security within the region because we are committed to that. And we just want to thank you so much for this opportunity. Well, thank you. It's such good English.

3:59Ben Meiselas:Such beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Were you educated where? Yes, sir. In Liberia? Yes, sir. That's very interesting. It's beautiful language. I have people at this table can't speak nearly as well. What is wrong? And we all watch that and we're like, he never misses an opportunity to embarrass us. So just say what it is. Speaking of people saying what it is, you go to New York City and the mayoral race there with Zoran Mamdani. Right. His campaign was built on affordability and fighting for the people. I know everyone wants to try to distract and turn it into every other thing.

4:39Ben Meiselas:You see how scared they are. But it was affordability, affordability, affordability over and over again. And this was the cover of the New York Post, New York City SOS, who will save the city, who will save the city, that the city is in crisis because people can't afford to live there. And that's the state of our country. And people want fighters. People saw back on March 12th, 2025, when Mom Donnie confronted the border czar Tom Homan for disappearing human beings. That's what we're looking for. Fighters. Here, play this clip. How many more New Yorkers will you get saved? How many more New Yorkers will you get saved?

5:17How many more New Yorkers will you get saved? Do you believe in the First Amendment? Do you believe in the First Amendment, Tom Homan?

5:22Ben Meiselas:When we asked Tom Homan, all he had to answer for that cruelty was a smirk. Because there is no answer for taking a man from his pregnant wife who is due to deliver their newborn child in a month from their Columbia University apartment. A day after that same man, Mahmoud Khalil, wrote to Columbia University and said he feared for his life. The cowardice that is on display across our city and our state is unacceptable. Let's bring in Brandon Mancia, UAW Region 9A Director. director and you were the first union leader, one of the first leaders in general out there to say Zoran Mamdani is our guy.

6:08Ben Meiselas:He's fighting for us. You put your neck out there when not a lot of people and frankly, no one was doing it. You saw that he was a fighter. We know your background has always fight. And I've seen the clips of you over the years on the front lines when even when there's no cameras around, you're out there every day just putting in the work. That's why I love to highlight here. What made Zoran Mamdani, why was that obvious to you, even if it was shocking to others at the time? Well, first of all, thanks for having me on. But yeah, we were the first union, UAW members in Region 9A and New York City specifically.

6:42We wanted a different direction for New York City, a different kind of politics built on fighting for the issues that matter to our members and working class people. So in December, we were the first union to officially endorse and rank Zoran Mamdani. And then subsequently, we became the largest union to rank him number one. A lot of labor unions came on board after we endorsed, especially DC 37, which is the largest municipal workers union in New York City. They ranked them second. But no one else really stepped up in the in the largest kind of establishment labor unions in the city. And now we're seeing finally after after his electoral win in the primary, more unions.

7:25The teachers just came out a couple days ago or yesterday. 32BJSCIU, the Hotel Trades Council Union, and so many other unions. And now the CLC, which is the AFL body in New York City, has now endorsed. And for us, it was simple. We knew that we couldn't have Eric Adams in office any longer. And we did not want the return of Andrew Cuomo since we had a relationship with, you know, we saw what that happened, you know, when he was governor for over a decade in New York State. And so we didn't want a politics of the present, which was corruption and selling off the city to the Trump administration.

7:59And we didn't want a return of a disgraced governor in offices now as mayor. So that was pretty clear for us. But it wasn't just about, you know, who did we prefer to be the mayor? It was about what our issues were. And that's cost of living. That's child care. That's transportation. That's the cost of housing and all of that. And Zora Mandani from the very beginning was the candidate speaking out on those issues.

8:20Ben Meiselas:You know, every I've been covering this now for the past six months with these special elections, and I'm talking about areas like Omaha, Nebraska or a ruby red area in Pennsylvania that's never voted Democrat since like the eighteen hundreds. I'm talking about areas in New York where Trump won by like 80 points in special Senate seats in all these elections. And every time it's like, whoa, this was a shocker and this was a shocker. Or you watch the fight the oligarchy tour with Bernie and AOC that are drawn 30 ,000, 40 ,000, you know, people crowds. And they're speaking very similar to Momdani, the way Bernie endorsed Momdani early as well.

9:03Ben Meiselas:And so it just seems to be the people are saying what the issues are, that the people don't want to be talking about culture war issues and and fighting over all of these things and whether Superman is woke or not. Well, they want to talk about health care. They want to live in homes. They want to be able to afford their rent or to be able to have the American dream. for what reasons that aren't clear to me, Brandon, they believe that Donald Trump, when he lied to them, a lot of them thought that he was going to do these things. It was shocking, but they know that's not true right now. So they're like, someone do it, huh?

9:42That's right. I mean, as a union, we're on the front lines every single day, negotiating, organizing, trying to win contracts that win economic justice for our members. And we do a great job. But at the same time, you know, you can win a contract and that doesn't actually change the fact that inflation is out of control, that landlords can eat up that raise you just got in your union contract, that you can't afford childcare and you can't start a family and settle down in the city. And that's what our members face every single day, week in, week out. And they want the leadership to spoke to that.

10:16You know, right now, you know, partisan politics is at an all time low, you know, the popularity of partisan politics. No one really cares, whether you have an R or D next to your name, because at the end of the day, both parties have stopped talking about the economic issues facing working class people. And that's true in New York City. That's true in Nebraska. That's true in California. That's true in Texas. It's true in every single place, every single city, every single part of our country. And we need political leadership that understand that. So it's not about just having a partisan position and changing the direction of a party.

10:48Our elections now are about who is going to actually speak to the issues and actually, you know, create a new kind of politics. To me, it's not, you know, it's also not about, you know, we've made a lot about Zoran's campaigns, you know, their social media strategy and how awesome they were on video and energizing folks, which is awesome. It was definitely a key part of the campaign. He has a great comm scene behind him. But what really won the primary for the campaign was the fact that they energized, you know, 50 ,000 volunteers to go talk to their neighbors, talk to strangers, knock on doors, get on the phones, and talk to New Yorkers about their issues.

11:25That made the difference. And if that's, to me, a reawakening of mass politics in this country. And as a union that's organizing every single week, we know that better than anyone.

11:35Ben Meiselas:You know, is labor getting it right now what's happened. I think, I mean, look, the United Auto Workers was kind of on the front lines of the right side of history and was calling it out. And I'm not trying to pit labor unions against labor unions, but there were other groups that would not make firm endorsements of people. There were other groups, no names at all, people, leaders hanging out with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and kind of going and doing that. And so, and they would say, look, the reason we're doing this also is that we represent members who are Trump supporters and Kamala supporters. So we have to do that.

12:16Ben Meiselas:And my response to that is always, but you're a leader and you can't lead your crew into disaster. And you should see that that's where this is heading. And you should tell the Trump supporters, hey, you may be, you may like, I don't know, whatever it is that they're posting on social media, whatever, but you're going to hurt your family. Like when you see Lori Chavez de Reamer, the labor secretary who pretended when she was a congresswoman to care about labor. And then she says, I'm no longer in favor of the PRO Act. And then all of a sudden, the National Labor Relations Board is gutted. They can't even have a quorum right now.

12:51Ben Meiselas:It's pretty obvious what's going on. Or do you see people still being distracted in labor by the culture wars and whatever Fox is talking about? Superman is too woke or the transgender gender athletes and the volleyball player? Like, where are we at right now? What's the state of, I know it's a broad question, but what's the state of labor you think right now? Well, yeah, right now, I think 2024 in labor and outside of labor forced a big question, which is, you know, which politicians are actually going to stand up for not just for labor, but for working people, union or non-union alike, period.

13:28And that means standing up for our issues, You know, whether it's, you know, actually building jobs in this country, whether it's building housing and having more affordable housing, tackling the cost of living, child care. You can go on and on all the issues that are affecting health care, right, that are affecting working people. When it came to this race specifically in New York, the issue was the Cuomo factor, which is that Cuomo is an incredibly vindictive, vengeful, you know, arm twisting person. That's how he leads. That's how he governs. That's how he was as governor. That's how he would have governed as mayor in the city.

14:03And paired with that, there was a lack of belief in the fact that Zoran could actually pose a challenge to Cuomo and win. And so I think the combination of those two things, you know, people were looking for a reason not to endorse Adams. Adams had quite a bit of labor support in 2021, made folks line up behind Cuomo, I believe. And I think we were one of the few unions alongside DC37, which is a large union, that said, no, we can't justify getting behind Cuomo. And we need to actually chart a different kind of politics and invest our energy, our resources behind that. Now, what was crucial for that was the fact that our membership wanted to endorse Zoran Mamdani.

14:46That's how we did things within the UAW. We had town halls with many candidates back in November. We screened the candidates. We were very clear about our strategy, the fact that we did not want Eric Adams or Andrew Cuomo as the next mayor of New York City. And that led us to basically have, you know, intensive talks with folks like not just Zoran, but Brad Lander about what it would take to have a strategy to ensure that Cuomo wasn't in office. And so I think, you know, when the unions actually engage with their members and understand what their issues are and what they want to see in terms of politics, you get different kinds of answers.

15:21You get different kinds of answers than what mainstream Democrats want, which is just, you know, an endorsement from labor with no strings attached, with no expectations, with no sense that, you know, labor should actually get something from this endorsement. And I think that's the kind of politics that we're done with. We're done with just putting our, you know, our logo behind someone's campaign flyer and just saying, well, good job. Let's see if you can win the seat and, you know, get back to us when you have a rally. That's not the kind of relationship we want to have with elected officials.

15:49We have demands that we need met and we're going to hold folks accountable to that. And at the same time, when we know that we've had, you know, a really, you know, horrible relationship with someone like Governor Cuomo when he was governor of the state, we don't want to, you know, you know, just whitewash that away and just get behind him. So that's that's how we approach the election. And I think if you take that and look at, you know, congressional races, you know, state races, wherever you are in the country, I think that's that's a much better way for labor to go about, you know, endorsing and engaging with politics.

16:19Ben Meiselas:Well, there's a clear template there. Brandon Mancia, UAW Region 9A Director, the first union to endorse Zoran Mandami. Fearless doing the right thing, though, and representing your members. We appreciate you for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store.midastouch.com. All 100 % USA union made.

16:56Ben Meiselas:What if you can see what's happening inside your body? PreNuvo's whole body scan screens for hundreds of conditions, including many solid tumors as early as stage one, all in under an hour. And now you can go beyond imaging with 80 plus blood biomarkers that help complete the picture. This Labor Day, save$300 off your scan when you book at prenuvo.com. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com. Save$300 now through September 8th at PreNuvo.com. Terms and conditions apply. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back.

17:35Ben Meiselas:So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task. Unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling, and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need.

18:11Ben Meiselas:There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer.