UAW's Shawn Fain at 32-hour workweek hearing: It's true people "don’t want to work," it's the "Wall Street freeloaders."

United Auto Workers Union President Shawn Fain spoke at a Senate hearing on a bill proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to establish a 32-hour workweek, rejecting the argument that workers seeking less strenuous hours simply “don’t want to work.”

“I know what people and many in this room will say. They’ll say, ‘people just don’t want to work,’ or ‘working-class people are lazy.’ But the truth is, working-class people aren’t lazy; they’re fed up,” the UAW leader told the HELP subcommittee Thursday. “They’re fed up with being left behind and stripped of dignity as wealth inequality in this nation, this world, spirals out of control.”

“They’re fed up that in America, in America, three families have as much wealth as the bottom 50% of citizens in this nation. That is criminal. America is better than this,” the union head said.

“I agree there is an epidemic in this country of people who don’t want to work, people who can’t be bothered to get up every day and contribute to our society but instead want to freeload off the labor of others,” Fain continued. “But those aren’t blue-collar people. Those aren’t working-class people. It’s a group of people who are never talked about for how little they actually work and produce and how little they contribute to humanity. The people I’m talking about are the Wall Street freeloaders, the masters of passive income.”

“Those who profit off the labor of others have all the time in the world,” he added. “While those who make this country run — the people who build the products and contribute to labor — have less and less time for themselves, for their families, and for their lives.”