The Video ICE Wishes Was Never Made Public (tags)
It looks like a scene out of a movie — men toting shotguns and wearing tactical gear marked "POLICE" suddenly storm into an auto repair shop in South Los Angeles - but they weren't police.
The UAW Takes One Step Forward, and One Backward (tags)
Trying to rebound off the ropes, where it has been pummeled for the past several decades, The United Auto Workers (UAW) has launched an aggressive organizing campaign in the South, in line with an AFL-CIO resolution emphasizing organizing there, where unionization rates are weak across the board.
Wage Slavery in the American Auto Industry: Obama’s Shame (tags)
The American auto industry is back in business in a big way. The carmakers are making enormous profits, direct from the blood, sweat and tears of autoworkers.
October Surprise! Romney benefits $15 million from Obama auto bailout (tags)
We Americans have come to expect extraordinary events to occur before an important election day. When a National election is in play, however, the attempts to sway voter opinions assume more demonstrative proportions, whether from without or within, becoming what has euphemistically been called an “October Surprise."
Renewable Energy is a Reality and not a Vision (tags)
Germany gains more energy from solar technology than Japan gains from all its nuclear reactions. Development in this area occurred much faster in the last years than many expected. Ten years ago no one would have believed we would gain 17% of our supply from renewables.
GM's LBO, government-style (tags)
Lost Opportunities - Part One in a Series
UAW: Reform or rebellion? (tags)
"History shows that every gain won by American workers was the result of militant struggles in opposition to the corporate establishment and both big business parties. The very right to have a union, as well as the eight-hour day, child labor laws, overtime pay, health benefits, etc. was won in often bloody struggles against the violent resistance of the employers and the government. Whenever the Democrats, under the threat of revolution, conceded concessions to workers’ demands, they did so to smother the social movement so they could claw back the workers’ gains at a later point."
Google/Paypal Owners Building "Green" Electric Car On Downey Toxic Dump Site?1/9 (tags)
Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin and former Paypal owner Elon Musk who is now CEO of Telsa Motors Inc. are planning to possibly build a "green" electric car on the highly toxic dump site in Downey owned by toxic site developer Stuart Licther. Lichter recently lost a SLAPP suit when he tried to shut up injured workers and worker advocates.
The "green" electric car auto company Tesla is planning to build a non-union auto plant at the Downey Toxic dump site with $465 million of US Department of energy funds. The California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day is demanding that no US government funds go to a non-union auto maker to build a "green plant" at the site owned by crooked toxic Downey developer Stuart Lichter. Lichter recently lost a SLAPP suit against injured workers and injured worker advocates who had gone public about the injuries of workers at the site.
Alexander: Electric Vehicles Could Save Jobs for Auto Workers (tags)
Stewart Alexander is now a Candidate for California Governor with Peace and Freedom Party and he wants to transform the Fremont, California NUMMI auto plant into the largest electric vehicle production facility in the United States. Alexander is hoping to repeat what is currently underway in Riverside County where CT&T United, a Korean-based company, will begin manufacturing electric cars in the City of Moreno Valley in early 2010.
Are Mexican Workers ‘stealing our jobs’? (tags)
The Crisis in the Mexican Auto Sector
Making Sense of a U.S. Owned General Motors (tags)
Now that the United States owns General Motors, many are asking, “What’s in it for taxpayers?” This is an extremely good question, considering that taxpayers may spend up to $100 billion [!] towards a company that’s currently worth around $450 million. (Wall Street Journal, 6/02/09) This large discrepancy in numbers means, obviously, that taxpayers could lose tremendous amounts of “investment” money if Obama’s “profit first” plan is put into effect. What is this plan? Strip the company to a fraction of its former self, using far fewer workers and making far less money in the hopes that GM will then out-compete the foreign competition on the world market.
GM's Turn on Obama's Chopping Block (tags)
The alarm bells should be ringing day and night about what’s being prepared at General Motors — the ripple effects could produce tidal waves. The Obama administration has made no secret about its plans for GM: the Chrysler bankruptcy was the “test case,” and now Obama’s Wall Street buddies inside the Auto Task Force plan to replicate it. The vast implications of the Chrysler bankruptcy went unnoticed by the mainstream media, concerned as it was with the convenient hype provided by Swine Flu.
WSWS: Obama Declares War on Working Class (tags)
President Barack Obama's speech on the auto industry Monday was nothing less than a declaration of war against the working class.
CHRY$LER: symbol of what is wrong in American business (tags)
Enough is enough! Chrysler is the epitome of greed prevalent in the corporate sector and it should be recognized as the symbol for much our economic woes.
The crisis hits the auto industry (tags)
A didactic drama about jobs
Good Paragaph from Socialists re Auto Crisis (tags)
The socialists had one of the most incisive single paragraphs I have read about the auto crisis.
A Critique of the Fourth International (tags)
Correcting our political perspective
Union Stages MGM Casino Protest at Foxwoods (tags)
The United Auto Workers gathered near the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Ledyard on Saturday to kick off the first of two days of protests against what the union calls an unfair tipping policy and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe's refusal to bargain.
profits from China; hightech, travel, outsourcing, auto, retail, politics, jobs, strategy (tags)
How do over a half million international companies make profits in China? How do Airbus, Dell, Wal-Mart, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, Cisco, GM, Unilever perform there? What is really inside Chinese society, banking, management, outsourcing, education, politics, individual life? How to do investing, travel, trade inside China? Get on-ground investigations from provocative journalist George Zhibin Gu.
Plug In America Wants You! (tags)
Help us show strength in numbers at the LA Auto Show on Nov. 15. Bring your signs. If you can't make the 15th at high noon, we'll rally on the 14th in front of the Convention Center.
Rumblings in the depths of the UAW (tags)
They still prevail but the contract rejections at Chrysler shook the UAW bureaucracy and the employers and are a glimpse of what is to come. And many of the new hires will likely be in the forefront of it.
Building Bridges Radio: The UAW-GM Contract with Jerry Tucker (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 27 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
Chrysler, Globalization, and Labor's response (tags)
The UAW will confront Detroit auto makers at the bargaining table in July for a new national contract. In what will prove to be one of the UAW’s biggest challenges since the union’s birth, this contract will bear the imprint of the wholesale restructuring of the American auto industry. When Cerberus Capital Management paid $7.4 billion to take control of Chrysler on May 13, 2007, the challenge to the Union was official: “Are you ready to negotiate with a private equity firm which specializes in gutting troubled companies?” The UAW’s position on Chrysler will undoubtedly influence negotiations with General Motors and Ford. Cerberus wants to cut costs to make money off its investment. Contract talks open up a golden opportunity for the bosses to cut costs at the expense of the workers on the assembly lines. Cutting benefits which previous generations sacrificed, fought for and in some instances, died for, is what is at risk for auto workers in 2007.
The US war and occupation of Iraq--the murder of a society (tags)
The US war and occupation of Iraq--the murder of a society
Activists Call Out Auto Industry’s Empty Promises at LA Auto Show (tags)
*Watch this video of RAN and Global Exchange activists asking GM CEO Rick Wagoner to sign a pledge to make his company the most fuel efficient by 2010.
GM CEO Gets Pissy at Protestors at LA Auto Show (tags)
Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange recently challenged Detroit's automakers to stop talking "green" by committing to real environmental standards. Video is 44 seconds...
A symbol of American manufacturing’s decline: Ford to slash 44,000 jobs (tags)
Ford Motor Company on Friday announced a plan to drastically downsize its North American operations, cutting about a third of its salaried employees and offering buyouts to all of its hourly workers in the United States. The move—an acceleration and intensification of the company’s “Way Forward” plan announced in January—is aimed at cutting annual operating costs by $5 billion.
Can They Take My Home Away Too? (tags)
Auto plant vs. neighborhood: The Poletown battle
The “Free Market”: The Greatest Terror Of All (tags)
The economic system of production we live in is called capitalism or the free market. We are supposed to be fortunate because we are free to starve to death amidst abundance. This form of social organiztion has not existed for all time and need not exist in the future. The first step in eliminating it is accepting this simple idea.
Instead of overcapacities and selling houses to each other, America is called to radical economic change and sustainability. The economy should servie humanity. Progress and work should be redefined for the post-fossil age.
China's global reach: book excerpt (tags)
Huge development in China.
China's global reach (book excerpts) (tags)
China's fast growth vs international multinationals
The Employers Can Be Stopped Starting With Delphi (tags)
The capitalist's offensive against Delphi workers can be thrown back but not without returning to the methods of the thirties
Potemkin Village Chief dines in luxury in New Orleans (tags)
While large portions of New Orleans remain unlivable, the clueless Coward from Crawford 'got a taste of one of New Orleans' finest restaurant last night in the French Quarter & stayed in the luxury hotel Windsor Court.' Marie Antoinette would have died in envy of such imperial decadence.
4-Oil & Gasoline Co. "Gougers": Class Action Lawsuits by SUV Owners & Victims! (tags)
4-Oil & Gasoline Co. "Gougers": Class Action Lawsuits by SUV Owners & Victims!
Even U.S. Corporations Like Canada's National Health Plan (tags)
Even as they lobby in Washington against any move towards socializing the health care system, U.S. companies are shifting production to Canada where they don’t have the cost of paying for employee health care, and once there, they are joining Canadian firms in calling for better funding for health care and more extensive services. What’s going on here?
LA Auto Show Protest sponsored by LA Bus Riders and Code Pink.
“LA Auto Show” REALITY CHECK (tags)
Global Exchange, Bus Riders Union and Code Pink provide “LA Auto Show” REALITY CHECK Bilingual Audio from the Convention Center– Medea Benjamin, Anti-Corporate Chants and Bus Rider Union spokesperson
Auto show protest photos (tags)
A coalition of activist groups staged a protest at the LA auto show this Saturday to call attention to the link between the Iraq war and the US addiction to oil. Speakers called for new policies to encourage more fuel efficient cars and for the construction of mass transit and better bus service for LA county.
CodePink at the LA Auto Show (tags)
Images of CodePink Women for Peace at the LA Auto Show sponsored by Global Exchange and the Bus Riders' Union. The CodePink Women went inside of the Auto Show and took over the Hummer exhibit. Soldiers in Iraq are dying... Hummers aren't worth buying.
Ford: Holding America Hostage to Oil (tags)
Environmental and Human Rights Activists Scale Downtown Skyscraper and Release Giant Banner to Protest US Oil Addiction
Our over reliance on cars endangers us all. Pollution from our primitive, gas-guzzling vehicles poisons our air and damages our health. The economy shudders with every increase in fuel costs.
Bike the AAC Discovery Tour 11-23 (tags)
Support a good cause while promoting bike transportation.
Why aren't buses free? They benefit auto drivers most, they should pay for them.
Fire, Vandalism Hit W. Covina Car Dealership (tags)
Several SUVs are destroyed, and the letters "ELF" are scrawled on at least one vehicle in a possible reference to the group Earth Liberation Front.
Harvey Rosenfeld v. Gov Davis on Davis' Anti-Consumer Law (tags)
Harvey Rosenfeld, the author of the pro-consumer Prop 103 re auto insurance, may run for governor on the Recall Gray Davis ballot, because Davis just signed a pro-insurance auto bill that effectively violates Prop. 103.
BTL:Bush Administration, Working with Auto Industry... (tags)
...Attacks California's Clean Air Standards.Interview with Daniel Becker, of the Sierra Club conducted by Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus.
California’s Global Warming Law Will Only Bring State Motorists What They Already Ha (tags)
Despite auto industry denouncements, California's new global warming law will usher in a new age of environmentally-sensitive cars that auto companies already are making or preparing to build.
International Struggle Against Corporate Bosses/NOT (tags)
If only..
The Indy Business Report (tags)
The recent ramping up of American flag sales has had a stimulating effect in the antenna sector