DemocracyNow! reported on 16 September in its Top U.S. & World Headlines segment that “Nearly 50,000 members of the United Auto Workers have launched a strike walking out of over 50 General Motors facilities at 11:59 last night. Workers say GM continues to deny employees’ demands for fair conditions and compensation despite leading the company to record profits following bankruptcy and a federal bailout.”
Ted Krumm, head of the UAW’s bargaining committee states: “This strike is about us … standing up for fair wages, for affordable quality healthcare, for our share of profits, and for our job security.” Apparently, the autoworker union does not believe that GM is adequately sharing with workers the more than $8 billion in profits the company made in 2018.
CleanTechnica covered this strike yesterday, but I’ll tag on some notes about two other environmental stories that Democracy Now! news segment covered as well as a story from The Real News Network.
In the above video, host Amy Goodman covers two environmental stories. First, at 10:30 in the video, she shows 26 Greenpeace activists hanging off a Houston bridge. Ms. Goodman reports: “The action brought shipping traffic to a halt for the largest oil export channel in the United States” to call attention to The Green New Deal, and for a “transition away from fossil fuels.”
Then, at 11:03 in the video, there is a Greta Thunberg segment about her strike with other students in front of the White House last Friday.
Some UAW Workers Want To Make EVs
In TheRealNews.com video entitled “Auto Workers Strike for Power and to Protect Workers,” Marc Steiner interviews retired UAW Leader Frank Hammer. Mr. Hammer is also a “co-founder of Autoworker Caravan, a network of progressive activists from the union and retired auto workers.”
Frank Hammer explained that, while GM is making billions of dollars in profits, and CEO Mary Barra is earning $22 million per year plus stock options, the workers are striking to stop the closing of plants, to oppose the hiring of “permanent temporary” [oxymoron] workers, and to promote better compensation and benefits.
Frank Hammer then states (at 8:13): “One of the central demands is we want a new product, and some of us in the UAW are saying that the new product ought to be electric vehicles, and other products that could be harnessed to address climate change. That’s only a fraction of us, but I think that demand is going to grow.”
It appears that the dots are being connected between the climate crisis and fossil fuels in new and stronger ways than previously. These concepts are presented regularly on alt news sites. However, the milk toast mainstream media sites are still quite corporate oriented.
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