United Auto Workers Demanding 4-Day Workweek and Big Wage Hike

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Extra pay for much less work? The United Auto Employees union, which started placing on Friday, will proceed to make calls for of the massive three home automakers—Basic Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (the mother or father firm of Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram)—asking for a 40 % wage enhance over 4 years, pension plan expansions, and a 32-hour, four-day workweek. 

Corporations have countered by providing 14.5 to twenty % pay will increase over the contract interval in addition to “lump-sum funds to assist offset the results of inflation” and climbing pay for “current hires and short-term staff, who sometimes earn a few third lower than veteran union members,” reviews The New York Occasions. It is a focused strike, which means some autoworkers throughout the nation are persevering with to point out up for work whereas particular person crops in Missouri (for GM), Michigan (Ford), and Ohio (Stellantis) are affected. 

“For the final 40 years, the billionaire class has been taking every thing and leaving all people else to struggle for the scraps,” stated union president Shawn Fain in a speech final week, noting that the Large Three have raked in a quarter-trillion in earnings during the last four-year contract interval. President Joe Biden chimed in, saying that it is time for automakers to share their “report earnings” with staff.

The Large Three “had a mixed market share of above 85% by the Sixties,” writes the American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Perry. By 2018, their market share had fallen to “an all-time low of 44.2%.” In different phrases: Competitors has gotten stiffer over time. Union activists might imagine these grasping firms are simply hoarding earnings, nevertheless it’s extra possible that boards and executives are taking a look at market situations and realizing that dominance isn’t any positive factor and that earnings should be reinvested in new applied sciences lest they fall (additional) behind.

“The businesses say that they’re investing billions in a transition to battery-powered automobiles, which makes it more durable for them to pay considerably greater wages,” says the Occasions. “They are saying they’re at an obstacle in contrast with nonunion automakers like Tesla, which dominates the gross sales of electrical automobiles.”

Professional-choice Trump? “I believe what he did is a horrible factor and a horrible mistake,” stated former President Donald Trump of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban throughout a Sunday morning Meet the Press hit. Trump, evading deeper questions on abortion, claimed he’d dealer a deal to revive “peace on that challenge for the primary time in 52 years,” satisfying everybody. Good luck!

Biden impeachment? Home Republicans are opening an impeachment investigation to discover whether or not President Joe Biden benefited from his son Hunter’s Ukraine enterprise dealings. Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.), in conjunction with Home Oversight Chair James Comer (R–Ky.), Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R–Ohio), and Methods and Means Committee Chair Jason T. Smith (R–Mo.), will lead investigations. 

“No doubt, Hunter Biden’s shady enterprise offers undermined America’s picture and our anti-corruption objectives, and his conduct was completely reprehensible,” writes Rep. Ken Buck (R–Colo.) for The Washington Publish. “What’s lacking, regardless of years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption.” 

Motive‘s J.D. Tuccille affords a totally different take: “A whole lot of the identical retailers saying there’s no proof spend a whole lot of ink disputing the persuasiveness of proof they inform us does not exist.” (Extra on this right here, right here, and right here.)

Scenes from New York: Overfishing, unintended penalties, and the magnificent marine life (whales!) flourishing proper exterior town

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