A Raise for Auto Workers May Imperil Biden’s Electric Vehicle Ambitions

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1 year ago

October 4, 2023

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On September 25, Joe Biden made history as the first sitting president to walk a picket line when he joined striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Van Buren Township, Michigan.

Standing with UAW President Shawn Fain, Biden told the strikers through a bullhorn, “You deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits.” But a big raise for the UAW could very well come at the expense of one of Biden’s core campaign promises.

The strike began on September 15 when talks broke down between the UAW and the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis). Among its demands, the union wants a 36-percent raise over four years, a 32-hour work week, and the reinstatement of pension and cost-of-living benefits that it gave up during the 2008 recession.

It also seeks protections as the industry transitions to a greater focus on electric vehicles (E.V.s), a central priority of Biden’s presidency. This year the Environmental Protection Administration adopted rules that would require 67 percent of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be electric. “The UAW supports and is ready for the transition to a clean auto industry,” Fain noted in August. “But the EV transition must be a just transition that ensures auto workers have a place in the new economy.” Tied to that transition, the UAW’s demands include the right to strike over plant closures and additional job protections in the event that plants shut down.

Autoworkers are right to be worried: According to a 2019 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), traditional vehicles “have as many as 2,000 components in their powertrains,” and “of the nearly 590,000 U.S. employees engaged in motor vehicle parts manufacturing, about one-quarternearly 150,000make components for internal combustion powertrains.”

On the other hand, “an electric vehicle powertrain has only a few” components. “For example, Tesla has said its drivetrain has 17 moving parts, including two in the motor.” As a result, E.V.s require significantly fewer parts and therefore fewer man-hours to build: “Electric vehicle powertrains, if built domestically and not imported, would generate production employment,” the report noted, “but fewer employees may be needed than at present because vehicle battery packs have relatively few components and are less complicated to assemble than internal combustion engine powertrains.”

A July 2023 report from the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded by former members of Donald Trump’s presidential administration, estimated that the Biden administration’s E.V. mandate would cost 117,000 auto industry jobs, nearly half of them from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.

But the union’s demands may not be feasible at the industry’s current trajectory. The union is asking for more money and fewer hours as the industry transitions to E.V.s, but established companies are hemorrhaging money on the transition. After previously predicting that it may lose $3 billion this year on its E.V. division, Ford now anticipates a loss of as much as $4.5 billion. Last year, General Motors CEO Mary Barra told investors that the company didn’t expect to make a profit on E.V.s until 2025.

Notably, the companies are struggling even after receiving billions of dollars in government subsidies. Most recently, at the end of August, the Biden administration authorized an additional $12 billion in grants and loans for companies to upgrade and retrofit their facilities.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said the UAW’s proposals could send the automaker into bankruptcy, while Barra said they were not “realistic.” Dan Ives, research analyst for Wedbush Securities, said in a note to investors that the UAW’s demands, if fully accepted, could cause automakers “to pass these costs onto the consumer” by increasing E.V. prices by as much as $5,000 each.

By visiting an active picket line, Biden made his preference clear in the fight between unions and management. But depending on how the negotiations go, he may not be able to have it both ways: Either UAW members can get a big raise, or automakers can push forward in the transition to electric vehicles.

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Not afraid to write to Putin, grieving mother demands explanation after teenage conscript killed

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30 mins ago

February 24, 2025

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Not afraid to write to Putin, grieving mother demands explanation after teenage conscript killed

In her desperate search for answers over her son Valentin’s death, Elena even turned to Vladimir Putin.

She wrote to the Russian president demanding an explanation as to why an 18-year-old conscript was involved in combat.

Throughout the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin promised that conscripts wouldn’t be sent to war. But in Valentin’s case, the war came to him.

He had been deployed to the Kursk region as part of his military service and stationed on the border.

But it was there that Ukrainian forces launched their cross-border incursion in August and one month after it began, Valentin was killed after receiving a shrapnel wound to the head.

“It should be specially trained people there, not children,” Elena says.

“They were taken from home, from a mother’s nest, and brought to some unknown place, where there is shooting.

“What kind of warrior is he? He’s not a warrior.”

Like other fallen soldiers, Russia views Valentin as a hero, but that’s no comfort to Elena. All she has are questions, which she wasn’t afraid to put to Mr Putin directly.

“The most important question was: ‘What were our children doing there?’ But I didn’t get any response,” she says.

“At that moment I just wanted to take the whole world and turn it upside down.

“Whoever says they are obligated for military service, what do they owe? What did my son take from the Motherland to pay a debt with his life?”

Valentin was a few weeks short of his 19th birthday when he died, and nearly a year into his military service. Elena didn’t want him to sign on so soon – head boy at school, he could have deferred conscription until after further study – but she says he was excited to serve and insisted.

Pictures of him in his parade uniform are everywhere in her apartment in Rybinsk, a town 160 miles northeast of Moscow. His blue beret is perched on a shelf. And Elena still hopes that one day he’ll walk through the door.

“I still wait for him to come back home, even though I saw his body. I still can’t believe it,” she says, tears running down her face.

“Sometimes I sit and think who my grandchildren could have been. It’s impossible to live like this. It’s not life.”

Russia doesn’t publish its casualty figures but the UK estimates that more than 750,000 Russian troops have either been killed or wounded in the three years since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began.

Valentin is buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Rybinsk – a 20-minute bus ride for Elena. There are dozens and dozens of military graves there, each one marked with flags. The grave next to Valentin is for a serviceman killed on the same day as him.

It’s rare for anyone to speak openly in Russia about the war because criticising it can land you in prison. But Elena is determined to prevent other mothers from suffering the same experience.

“I want only one thing – for all children to come home,” she said.

“I want them to hear us and give us back our children in the same state we gave them, not cold.”

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Pope Francis ‘resting’ in hospital and night ‘went well’, says The Vatican

Published

30 mins ago

February 24, 2025

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Pope Francis 'resting' in hospital and night 'went well', says The Vatican

Pope Francis is in good spirits, eating normally and continuing to receive treatment, Vatican sources have said.

Earlier on Monday morning, the Vatican issued a short statement saying the pontiff was “resting” in hospital and the night “went well”.

The updates on his health follow a statement on Sunday in which the Vatican said Francis was in a critical condition and was showing an “initial, mild” kidney problem.

It said he was “vigilant and well-oriented”, and took part in mass in hospital with those caring for him, but due to the complexity of his case the prognosis was “reserved”.

The Pope, 88, has been at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since 14 February and is being treated for double pneumonia and chronic bronchitis.

He has a history of respiratory illness, having lost part of one of his lungs to pleurisy as a young man. He also had an acute case of pneumonia in 2023.

Today marks Francis’s 11th day at Gemelli – the longest hospital stay of his papacy. He spent 10 days there in 2021 after he had 33cm (13ins) of his colon removed.

Father Nunzio Corrao, the chaplain at the hospital, said the time had come “to hope against hope” for the Pope, according to Italian media reports.

The Vatican said its secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, will lead a mass in St Peter’s Square this evening at 9pm local time (8pm UK time) to pray for him – and others in hospital.

It comes after the Vatican released a message from the Pope on Sunday – his first from his hospital bed – in which he asked people to pray for him.

His message said: “I am confidently continuing my hospitalisation at the Gemelli Hospital, carrying on with the necessary treatment; and rest is also part of the therapy!”

He added: “In recent days I have received many messages of affection, and I have been particularly struck by the letters and drawings from children.

“Thank you for this closeness, and for the prayers of comfort I have received from all over the world! I entrust you all to the intercession of Mary, and I ask you to pray for me.”

The message is understood to have been written in the last few days.

On Saturday, the Vatican said the pontiff was in a critical condition after a “prolonged respiratory crisis” that required a high flow of oxygen.

It said he had blood transfusions after tests revealed thrombocytopenia, which is associated with anaemia.

Doctors said on Friday he was “not out of danger” and was expected to remain in hospital for at least another week.

They warned the main threat he faced was sepsis, that can occur as a complication of pneumonia, and lead to organ failure and death.

Millions around the world have been concerned about Francis’s increasingly frail health.

His condition has given rise to speculation over a possible resignation – which the Vatican has not commented on.

In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said the Catholic faithful were united “at the bedside of a dying father”.

“As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death,” he said in his homily from the pulpit of St Patrick’s Cathedral.

He later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would “bounce back”.

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Diverted American Airlines flight escorted by Italian fighter jets after ‘bomb threat’

Published

30 mins ago

February 24, 2025

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Diverted American Airlines flight escorted by Italian fighter jets after 'bomb threat'

An American Airlines flight travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted midair due to a “bomb threat”.

Flight 292 landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to a possible security issue,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday, adding later the threat “was determined to be non-credible”.

The airline did not clarify what the security issue was, but a source familiar with the situation told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News it was a bomb threat sent via email.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported the security issue.

“Safety and security are our top priorities, and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.

The flight requested a diversion to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport at around 2pm local time, Roberto Rao, a spokesperson for the airport.

“We immediately agreed and organised a safe landing,” Mr Rao told NBC News.

“We don’t know what the security concern was, but my opinion is that it was serious enough to divert the plane, but not urgent, because we received the alert when the plane was over the Caspian Sea, a three hours’ flight from Rome.”

Once in Italian airspace, the plane was escorted by two Italian air force fighter jets and landed in Rome at around 5.30pm local time.

‘What’s going on here?’

Neeraj Chopra, one of the 199 passengers on board, said the captain announced the plane had to turn around about three hours before it was supposed to land in New Delhi because of a change in “security status”.

Mr Chopra, who was traveling to India to visit family, described the mood on board as calm until the captain later announced that fighter jets would be escorting their plane to Rome.

“I felt a little panic of, okay, what’s going on here?” Mr Chopra told the Associated Press. “There’s got to be like something bigger going on here.”

Jonathan Bacon, 22, added that once on the ground, all passengers were loaded on to buses and taken to the terminal, where each passenger and their personal items underwent additional security screenings that were time-consuming and felt “slightly heightened”.

More than two hours after landing, Mr Bacon and his friend said they were still waiting for their checked baggage. “It was definitely the longest flight to Europe I’ve ever taken,” he said.

American Airlines said the plane was inspected and cleared to depart again for New Delhi “as soon as possible” on Monday, after the crew gets some rest.