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- This news channel got it slightly wrong. They said UAW workers on strike get $250 a day. We actually get no pay the first week. Every day after week 1, we get $50 a day. Public outrage generates clicks n views, which sells ad space. Some news is fake. #UAWStrike #gmstrike
GM paid zero federal income taxes on $11b in profit in 2018.
Their CEO raked in $22m in compensation last year.
They can afford to pay their workers a fair wage with excellent benefits.
Incredibly inspired by GM’s almost 50,000 workers for having the courage to strike for the dignified work they deserve.
In a time of record profits, workers should prosper, not suffer.
That’s why unions play a key role in an economy that works for everyone.
Solidarity w/@UAW
- At midnight GM workers in Romulus & across #13thDistrictStrong will begin a strike for a better quality of life. Our district will be ready to wrap our arms around them and their families through this important step in a fight for human dignity. 1/2 https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/09/15/uaw-strike-gm-autoworker-contract-talks/2333883001/ …
Tom Hall (WSWS) reports:
Social media posts by autoworkers throughout the day have exposed that General Motors is hiring scab labor to operate its key assembly plants in Arlington, Texas and Wentzville, Missouri.
A flyer distributed by temp agency Stride Staffing advertised a job fair held in a Dallas suburb late Tuesday morning for “temp to hire” assembly technicians on three shifts. Any strikebreakers who are hired will earn the poverty wage of $12 to $12.35 per hour, less than some fast food workers in the Dallas area. The UAW local president at Arlington Assembly reportedly confirmed that the company was hiring scabs in an emergency meeting held this morning.
A WSWS Autoworker Newsletter reader in Missouri also reported that the UAW local president at Wentzville Assembly has informed striking GM workers that the company is hiring strikebreakers at their plant as well.
GM met with UAW negotiators for the second day in a row Tuesday in order to hash out a way to shut down the strike on the company’s terms. The UAW side is being advised by none other than Region 5 Director Vance Pearson, who was arrested last week for embezzling union funds, according to press reports Monday.
Politico also reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration is also involved, as yet behind the scenes, to end the strike. Trump has threatened to bring in a federal mediator and to broker a deal to re-open the shuttered Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant in exchange for what would be huge concessions handed over by the UAW.
However, the hiring of scabs suggests that GM is not assuming that either the UAW or the Trump administration will be able to shut down the strike and push through such a deal any time soon. It is a sign that the giant company and the Wall Street investors that stand behind it are digging in for a drawn-out fight with autoworkers.
And this is from the UAW website:
AUTO WORKERS GO ON STRIKE AFTER YEARS OF TIRELESSLY HELPING GENERAL MOTORS REACH RECORD-LEVEL PROFITS
UAW SAYS GM REFUSES TO GIVE EVEN AN INCH TO HELP HARD-WORKING MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES
AMONG GM FAILURES, AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE FOR THOUSANDS REMAINS UNSETTLED FOR NO GOOD REASON
UAW TO GM: WE STOOD UP FOR YOU, NOW WE STAND UP FOR US
Local Union leaders from across the nation met Sunday morning after the 2015 General Motors collective bargaining agreement expired Saturday night and opted to strike at midnight on Sunday.
The autoworkers are calling on the Big 3 automaker to recognize the contributions and sacrifices that the company’s UAW members have made to create a healthy, profitable, industry.
“We stood up for General Motors when they needed us most. Now we are standing together in unity and solidarity for our Members, their families and the communities where we work and live,” said UAW Vice President Terry Dittes.
Following a formal meeting of the GM Council consisting of local union leaders, the UAW announced he membership is going on strike at midnight Sunday to secure:
- Fair Wages
- Affordable Healthcare
- Our Share of Profits
- Job Security
- A Defined Path to Permanent Seniority for Temps
The decision to strike comes a day after UAW Vice President Terry Dittes notified General Motors leadership that the Union would not agree to extend the Collective Bargaining Agreements.
“We told UAW GM members that we would stand up for them and their future,” said Gary Jones, President of the UAW.
National Bargaining Committee Chair Ted Krumm of UAW Local 652 said “We have been clear at the table about what GM members have indicated we will accept. We are standing up for what is right. We as local unions will sacrifice to stand up for what we deserve.”
“Our members have spoken; we have taken action; and this is a decision we did not make lightly. We are committed to a strong contract at GM that recognizes our UAW members, who make some of the greatest products in the world and make GM so profitable.”
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:
Tuesday, September 17, 2019.
War? The US government can't get enough of it these days. You might argue they are addicted to it which is why no war appears to end anymore. In the thirst for more killing, the US government is currently angling for war with Iran. Bill Van Auken (WSWS) observes:
Casting itself once again as the world’s judge, jury and executioner, US imperialism is recklessly hurtling toward yet another war in the Middle East, with catastrophic implications. This time, Washington has seized upon Saturday’s attacks on Saudi installations as its pretext for war against Iran.
The reaction of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to these attacks, which have cut the kingdom’s oil production by almost half and slashed global daily output by 6 percent, was as noteworthy for its haste as for its peculiar wording.
“Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo tweeted late Saturday, adding, “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
The indictment of Iran for attacks that set off a series of fires which devastated two oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia came without a shred of supporting evidence, outside of the bald assertion that there was “no evidence” that they were launched from Yemen.
Yemen had to be discounted, according to the secretary of state’s predatory logic, because the Houthi rebels, who control most of the country, had claimed responsibility for the attacks and had a clear motive—given the kingdom’s near-genocidal war against Yemen’s civilian population—for carrying them out. The US mass media has by and large echoed Pompeo’s allegations as absolute truth. On Monday night, television news broadcasts quoted unnamed intelligence sources, citing unspecified evidence, claiming Iranian responsibility for the attacks. No doubt this “evidence” will prove just as compelling as that of the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam and “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. These same media outlets have made virtually no mention of Saudi crimes in Yemen.
Our wonderful corporate media wouldn't do that, would they? They wouldn't again be infested with anonymice. Surely, they've learned their lessons, right? Wrong.
War? The US government can't get enough of it these days. You might argue they are addicted to it which is why no war appears to end anymore. In the thirst for more killing, the US government is currently angling for war with Iran. Bill Van Auken (WSWS) observes:
Casting itself once again as the world’s judge, jury and executioner, US imperialism is recklessly hurtling toward yet another war in the Middle East, with catastrophic implications. This time, Washington has seized upon Saturday’s attacks on Saudi installations as its pretext for war against Iran.
The reaction of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to these attacks, which have cut the kingdom’s oil production by almost half and slashed global daily output by 6 percent, was as noteworthy for its haste as for its peculiar wording.
“Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo tweeted late Saturday, adding, “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
The indictment of Iran for attacks that set off a series of fires which devastated two oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia came without a shred of supporting evidence, outside of the bald assertion that there was “no evidence” that they were launched from Yemen.
Yemen had to be discounted, according to the secretary of state’s predatory logic, because the Houthi rebels, who control most of the country, had claimed responsibility for the attacks and had a clear motive—given the kingdom’s near-genocidal war against Yemen’s civilian population—for carrying them out. The US mass media has by and large echoed Pompeo’s allegations as absolute truth. On Monday night, television news broadcasts quoted unnamed intelligence sources, citing unspecified evidence, claiming Iranian responsibility for the attacks. No doubt this “evidence” will prove just as compelling as that of the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam and “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. These same media outlets have made virtually no mention of Saudi crimes in Yemen.
Our wonderful corporate media wouldn't do that, would they? They wouldn't again be infested with anonymice. Surely, they've learned their lessons, right? Wrong.
New: US and Saudi Arabia believe “very high probability” this weekend’s attack on Saudi oil facilities were low altitude cruise missiles -- assisted by drones -- launched from an Iranian base near the border with Iraq - @NicRobertsonCNN reporting
Nic Robertson is not reporting, Jim, he's echoing. As are you. For all your pious posturing and pretense, Jim, you will always be nothing more than a hack. Don't think anyone's going to remember you when Donald Trump leaves the Oval Office. Only the most deranged cheer you on now.
The government can't sell war without their hate merchants in the media, never forget that. Never forget that the entire media landscaped lied the country into war with Iraq but only Judith Miller was held accountable. Those who lied were not punished, they did not lose jobs. In fact, THE ATLANTIC, MOTHER JONES and many others went out of their way to hire the liars.
The wars never end. Which is how the Pentagon's DIVIDS notes Sgt Maynor Reyes is back in Iraq, 15 years after he first left. He's now stationed at the "Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq in support of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve." Kyle Rempfer (ARMY TIMES) reports, "Fort Bragg’s XVIII Airborne Corps handed off the reigns of the counter-Islamic State mission to III Armored Corps out of Fort Hood at a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday."
When does the US hand off that mission to Iraq and bring all the US troops home?
It's a real shame that, after all these years, that question still can't be asked by our 'brave' press in a White House or State Dept press briefing. Let alone in a 60 MINUTES interview with a sitting president.
President? In the United States, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. War Hawk Joe Biden desperately wants that nomination. Norman Solomon (COMMON DREAMS) notes:
Joe Biden’s recent efforts to deny his record of support for invading Iraq are marvels of evasion, with falsehoods that have been refuted by one well-documented appraisal after another after another. This month, Biden claimed that his vote for war on the Senate floor was somehow not a vote for war. Ironically, while he was spinning anew to deny the undeniable, theaters nationwide began screening a movie that exposes the deceptive approach to the Iraq war that Biden exemplifies.
Historically factual, “Official Secrets” is concerned with truth—and the human consequences of evading or telling it. Katharine Gun, portrayed by actress Keira Knightley, was a worker at the British intelligence agency GCHQ. Risking years in prison, she did everything she could to prevent the Iraq war, and took responsibility for doing so.
Biden did everything he could to enable the Iraq war, and—still—takes no responsibility for doing so.
More than 16 years ago, Biden and Gun were at cross purposes as the Iraq invasion neared. Subterfuge vs. candor. Misinformation vs. information. War vs. peace. Today, their public voices contrast just as sharply.
Gun recalls that both President George W. Bush and especially British Prime Minister Tony Blair were “desperate to get U.N. cover” for the impending invasion of Iraq in early 2003. On the last day of January of that year, Gun saw a memo from the U.S. National Security Agency that showed the two governments were working together to wiretap and otherwise surveil diplomats from countries on the U.N. Security Council—for purposes such as blackmail—to win a vote to authorize an invasion.
Gun became a whistleblower by providing the memo to the Observer newspaper in London. As she said in a recent interview with Salon, “My intention was to prevent the war. . . . I felt there was this information that was absolutely crucial, it had the potential to derail the rush to war, and I felt people had the right to know.”
Biden—who played a pivotal role in the rush to war as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—proceeded as though people had no right to know. He excluded critical voices and key information from the committee’s high-profile hearings in mid-summer 2002, deceptively serving as the most important lawmaker ushering the war resolution to the Senate floor, where he voted for it in mid-October. The war began five months later. It has never ended.
And Joe Biden has never taken accountability for his actions. Chief among them? The decision to overturn the 2010 vote of the Iraqi people and give thug Nouri a second term. The people spoke. They showed up to vote despite threats, despite violence, despite roads being closed. They showed up and they went with Iraqiya. When Nouri lost and refused to step down -- just as US Gen Ray Odierno had predicted months before -- the US could have sided with democracy. Instead, they created a work around, The Erbil Agreement, a legal contract that overturned the vote and gave Nouri a second term and Joe showed up in Baghdad to sell it and lecture Iraqi leaders about . . . Ireland. No one knew what crazy Joe was saying. No one cared. Democracy was struck down by the US government and Joe Biden needs to be asked why. That second term resulted in the rise of ISIS in Iraq. Overturning an election is not a minor thing.
Albert Burneko (DEADSPIN) offers:
Or more to the point: Do you want a president who has the full command of their cognitive faculties? One who knows what the f**k is going on during a debate, or a complex legislative effort, or a tricky foreign-policy negotiation? One who can think a coherent thing, and then express that coherent thought in a coherent fashion, without digressing into gibberish about the relative merits of the victrola and the cinematograph? Of course you do. That might even be the very most obvious and reasonable baseline elimination criteria for a president: That this person’s brain works. It’s the smallest thing for a sane voter of conscience to make an absolute requirement for the gig, particularly when there’s still a double-fistful of candidates and as many as nine—but not 10!—of them clear that bar easily.
In this context, “What I demand in a president is whoever happens to be leading in early, elderly-skewing Democratic primary polling, no matter what” is absurd. You are the will those polls are attempting to capture, you and you and you and me, and your meek, passive adoption of their results is the saddest of self-fulfilling prophecies. Up to a point it may make some sense to examine one’s own feces, but one mustn’t also devour it.
Do a majority of left-of-center Americans affirmatively want to vote for Joe Biden and what he is selling—for an out-of-touch 76-year-old centrist with a failing brain, whose public proclamations and debate answers only make sense if you rearrange their letters into generous anagrams, and whose only compelling campaign pitch so far is the cynical idea that nothing on earth can rouse one’s fellow voters to a more ambitious choice? Of course not. Nobody would call that candidate out of the ether if he did not already exist. That is not anyone’s ideal choice.
So, during the primaries at least, the job is to demand a better option. Even if you like Biden; especially if you like Biden. Demand a dynamic candidate, a nimble debater and public speaker, a compelling advocate of ambitious and unlikely and transformative ideas. See if Biden, or your favorite, can prove an ability to be that. And if that candidate can’t, f**king pick somebody else!
The press is excited this news cycle because Ken Salazar has endorsed Joe Biden and not Julian Castro. I'm sure Julian will get over it. Ken's last prominent endorsement was Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General.
At USA TODAY, Ruben Navarrette Jr. has an excellent column. Here's an excerpt:
A lot of people of color are fed up with the old school white liberalism that Biden represents. It’s not just his past opposition to forced busing in the 1970s because, as he said then, he didn’t feel “responsible for the sins” of past generations. It’s also recent gaffes. During last week's debate, Biden answered a question about atoning for slavery with a condescending stemwinder about “problems that come from home” and social workers showing parents how to parent by having “the record player on at night” so kids pick up vocabulary.
Harris and Booker got a pass for going after Biden, yet Castro is being walloped. White pundits know better than to scold African Americans about race, but they’re not afraid of Latinos, whom they often treat like their gardeners.
While discussing competing health care plans, the
former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development mischievously poked at
Biden by asking — repeatedly — whether the 76-year-old was forgetting what he said two minutes earlier.
Critics — including the news media and Biden supporters — are calling it “ageism” and a “cheap shot” by Castro. They say the 45-year-old should have shown more “respect” to his elder.
That’s a thing in politics? Since when?
It's an important column. Meanwhile, shouldn't this be a story the media pursues?
Just a video of Joe Biden in more coherent times explaining the process of how to buy politicians like him...
"If you go out and bundle $250K for me and then you call me after I’m elected ... I’m gonna say come on in."
0:15
Joe being Joe. And that's the problem, isn't it?
The following sites updated:
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Stop coasting and start standing10 hours ago
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Shut up, Black people!10 hours ago
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Racist Joe has got to go10 hours ago
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Joe owes us all an apology10 hours ago
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Biden needs to just enjoy his golden years11 hours ago
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Weekend Box Office11 hours ago
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The strike has begun11 hours ago
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Monday Reads14 hours ago
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