Detroit News. August 19, 2023.
Editorial: UAW wants it all
Not since the settlement of the sit-down strike at General Motors in 1937 has a United Auto Workers president been more ambitious in his contract demands than is Shawn Fain in this year’s negotiations.
Walter Reuther won that earlier fight and launched the rise of the middle class. Fain, if he prevails, will return UAW members to their preeminent status among industrial workers, and bring a European-style view of labor to the United States, one that emphasizes quality of life over quality of work.
Fain, in his rookie season as head of the union representing 150,000 autoworkers, is swinging for the fences and beyond. He is seeking a pact the Detroit Three automakers say will cost them between $80 billion and $100 billion.
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Here’s what Fain, eyeing the enormous profits posted by the Detroit Three, has put on the table:
— A 46% wage increase over the life of the five-year contract, pushing the current $65 an hour all-in cost of labor at domestic companies to more than $100 an hour. That compares to $55 an hour for their foreign competitors operating in the United States, and $45 an hour for Tesla’s U.S. workers.
— A 32-hour work week for 40-hour pay.
— Pensions for all workers, including new hires.
— The revival of fully-paid health care for retirees.
Fain has said he wants UAW members to work to live, not live to work, meaning they should have enough money to enjoy life, and the time off the job to do so.
But achieving that depends first on protecting jobs. Should Fain prevail in his demands, jobs will disappear.
General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis (previously Chrysler) have all faced existential financial threats in the past. Their survival can be attributed in part to the concessions they were granted by the UAW.
Fain is right to seek to recover some of those give-backs now that the companies are healthy and making money. Detroit automakers reported $250 billion in profits over the past 10 years.
But as we’ve learned in watching this industry over the decades, rich times are often short-lived. The government’s determination to force automakers to convert rapidly to an all-electric fleet comes with uncertainty about the technological ability to do so and the market’s willingness to accept EVs.
To that point, Fain is serving his members well by emphasizing equal treatment for autoworkers in battery plants. Pay for workers in those facilities hover around $16 an hour. As work shifts from engine plants to battery plants, the average pay of autoworkers will plummet if that disparity is not addressed.
Obviously, the final settlement will not include anywhere near a 46% pay hike, or a 20% shorter workweek. It’s customary for initial demands to be considerably inflated from what the union will actually accept.
This time, however, Fain has raised the expectations of his membership to extreme heights. It will be difficult for him to come down off that mountaintop without appearing to sell out the workers.
That makes a strike more likely when the contract expires on Sept. 14. The UAW has an $825 million strike fund, and Fain will be tempted to use it to demonstrate he fought as hard as he could to get what he demanded.
A report last week from Lansing economist Patrick Anderson estimates a 10-day national strike could cost $5.6 billion in GDP. That’s very bad news for an economy that still hasn’t decided whether it’s going to soar or plunge.
Iron Mountain Daily News. August 18, 2023.
Editorial: Michigan parents urged to ‘catch up’ children on vaccines
Michigan public health leaders are urging parents to get their children caught up on vaccinations before returning to classes this fall, to prevent outbreaks of serious communicable diseases such as measles, mumps, pertussis, chickenpox and more.
Vaccination rates for Michigan children ages 19 to 36 months have fallen below 70% in more than half of the state — 52 of 83 counties, according to June 2023 data from the Michigan Care Improvement Registry.
“Parents should know that this year is different. We’re seeing some of the lowest vaccination rates in more than a decade, which puts our schools and communities at risk,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. “We also know that families are traveling more, both out-of-state and internationally. All it takes is one case to spark an outbreak that could affect an entire community.”
One case of a vaccine-preventable disease can spark an outbreak. Last fall, a measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 children. None of the children died, but 36 were hospitalized. Ninety-four percent of them had not received the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. In 2019, the U.S. was hit with the largest measles outbreak in 25 years, with more than 1,200 confirmed cases in 31 states, including 46 cases in Michigan, according to a news release from the MDHHS.
Vaccination rates of younger children dropped during the pandemic. The most recent data from MDHHS shows only 66.5% of children ages 19 to 36 months have completed their recommended doses in the primary childhood vaccine series — some of the lowest rates Michigan has seen since 2011. For required vaccines, Michigan’s 2010 rate was 60%, then 68% in 2011 and now 66.1% in 2023.
The 10 areas of the state with the lowest vaccination rates for children ages 19 to 36 months are: Oscoda County (36.5%), Keweenaw County (50.0%), the City of Detroit (51.2%), Clare County (52.9%), Houghton County (53.9%), Lake County (55.1%), Gladwin County (56.7%), St. Joseph County (58.9%), Sanilac County (59.9%), and Lapeer County (60.5%). The City of Detroit has its own health department within Wayne County.
When less than 90% of children are vaccinated in a particular community, pockets of low vaccination create an environment where diseases can take hold and spread. Public health officials are most concerned when children who have not yet received all school-required vaccines are clustered together in the same school building. Kindergartners attending school in a building with vaccination coverage less than 90% more than doubled between 2015 (16,408 students) and 2022 (37,368 students). Similarly, the number of schools with kindergarten coverage rates less than 90% nearly doubled between 2015 (466 schools) and 2022 (808 schools). Parents can know their child’s risk by downloading their school’s vaccination data at https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/adult-child-serv/childrenfamilies/immunization/localhealthdepartment/school-immunization-data.
“This means that kids attending school this year are more susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases,” Bagdasarian said.
“We can send our kids to school safely this year by getting them caught up on the CDC-recommended vaccination schedule before the first day, so we can minimize the spread of preventable diseases,” said Veronica McNally, president of the Franny Strong Foundation and founder of the I Vaccinate campaign.
The CDC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends the COVID-19 vaccine and an annual flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older as part of the recommended vaccination childhood and adolescent schedules.
Parents with vaccination questions can find answers based entirely on medical science at IVaccinate.org. Parents can download the CDC-recommended vaccination schedule for children and adolescents for reference ahead of doctor’s office visits.
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