REAL CRISIS AT THE BORDER

Migrants are being raped at Mexico border as they await entry to US

Updated Fri, September 29, 2023

By Laura Gottesdiener, Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg and Daina Beth Solomon

REYNOSA, Mexico (Reuters) - When Carolina's captors arrived at dawn to pull her out of the stash house in the Mexican border city of Reynosa in late May, she thought they were going to force her to call her family in Venezuela again to beg them to pay $2,000 ransom.

Instead, one of the men shoved her onto a broken-down bus parked outside and raped her, she told Reuters. "It's the saddest, most horrible thing that can happen to a person," Carolina said.

A migrant advocate who assisted Carolina after the kidnapping, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, confirmed all the details of her account.

The attack came amid an increase in sexual violence against migrants in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, both major transit routes for immigrants seeking to enter the U.S., according to data from the Mexican government and humanitarian groups, as well as interviews with eight sexual assault survivors and more than a dozen local aid workers.

"The inhumane way smugglers abuse, extort, and perpetrate violence against migrants for profit is criminal and morally reprehensible," U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Luis Miranda said in response to questions about the rise in reported rapes.

Criminal investigations into the rape of foreign nationals, excluding Americans, were the highest on record in the two cities this year, according to state data from 2014 to 2023 obtained by Reuters through freedom of information requests.

The U.S. State Department considers Tamaulipas, where the two cities are located, to be the most dangerous state along the U.S.-Mexico border.

'TORTURE PROCESS'

Facing record illegal border crossings, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration in May moved to a new system that required migrants to secure an appointment - via an app known as CBP One - to present themselves at a legal border crossing to enter the United States.

Nine experts, including lawyers, medical professionals, and aid workers, told Reuters the new system has had unintended consequences in the two cities, contributing to a spike in violence.

The high risk of kidnapping and sexual assault in Reynosa and Matamoros is one of the factors pushing migrants to cross illegally, four advocates said. Crossings border-wide surged in September.

Biden officials say the new CBP policy is more humane because it reduces the need for migrants to pay smugglers and criminal groups to ferry them across the border illegally.

The experts said many asylum seekers are no longer paying smugglers to get them across the border - instead traveling towards the frontier on their own, hoping to make an appointment on the app.

But criminal groups are still demanding these migrants pay to enter their territory, the experts said.

"Rape is part of the torture process to get the money," said Bertha Bermúdez Tapia, a sociologist at New Mexico State University researching the impacts of Biden's policy on migrants in Tamaulipas.

The Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel are both active in the region and kidnap migrants for ransom, particularly those who arrive without smugglers' protection, according to security analysts. Reuters was unable to contact the two groups.

Some migrants are also spending more time in the dangerous region, waiting to secure an appointment on the app. Tens of thousands of people a day are competing for 1,450 slots, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

A senior CBP official based in Washington said CBP was troubled by reports of migrants sexually assaulted in the two cities.

"It's absolutely something that we're concerned about," said the official, who requested anonymity as a condition of the interview.

U.S. authorities temporarily suspended CBP One appointments in June in another Tamaulipas border city, Nuevo Laredo, due to "extortion and kidnapping concerns," the official said.

However, Miranda, the DHS spokesperson, said the administration's policies made it unnecessary to wait at the border since migrants could book an appointment from other parts of Central and Northern Mexico.

More than 250,000 migrants have scheduled appointments on the CBP One app, and over 200,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have entered the United States by air under a separate Biden humanitarian program, according to CBP statistics.

'TAKE HER'

Carolina said she arrived in Reynosa the night of May 26 on a commercial bus with her 13-year-old son. Men began trailing them as soon as they arrived at the bus station, she said.

"They said we couldn't be there without their permission," she said, speaking from Chicago.

The U.S. State Department warns that criminal groups in Tamaulipas target buses "often taking passengers and demanding ransom payments."

The men whisked Carolina away to a house where she said she and other migrants were raped.

She said she was freed after family members paid $3,100 in ransom. Reuters was unable to independently verify the payment. She did not report the attack to police, saying she saw no point.

An Ecuadoran woman said that while in captivity in Reynosa her kidnappers repeatedly allowed a drug dealer to rape her in exchange for his deliveries of a white powder, which she suspected was cocaine.

One night, she clutched her figurine of the Christ child, tiptoed past her sleeping captors, and escaped through the window. "I still have nightmares," she said, speaking from New Jersey in August.

Reuters is withholding the full names of the survivors at their request. To corroborate their accounts, Reuters reviewed medical and psychological reports; criminal complaints and legal declarations; financial records, photos and videos supplied by the survivors, attorneys and advocates.

The state attorney general's office has opened seven rape investigations of foreign women in the first half of 2023. Four were opened in June alone.

Only one of the eight survivors Reuters interviewed reported the attack to authorities: a Honduran woman who said she was raped inside a migrant camp in Matamoros in late May. No one has been arrested, authorities said.

Olivia Lemus, head of Tamaulipas' human rights commission, said official data represents a fraction of the cases. "Migrants are afraid to file reports," Lemus said. "The fact that there aren't more reports doesn't mean that this crime isn't occurring."

Mexico's national migration agency, Tamaulipas' security agency, and Mexico's foreign ministry did not answer questions about sexual violence against migrants.

Juan Rodriguez, head of the Tamaulipas migrant services agency, said the agency was "attentive" to the issue.

"Unfortunately, sometimes things happen. We can't deny it."

A Venezuelan migrant said he was kidnapped in May in Reynosa by a cartel while traveling to the border for his confirmed CBP One appointment. He couldn't raise the full $800 ransom, so he was forced to work for two months to pay off the remaining $200, he said.

Two other migrants who said they were held at the house during the same time period confirmed the man was forced to work against his will, and that they heard female migrants being raped.

On the nights the Venezuelan man was tasked with standing guard over the other migrants, he said he watched the cartel members ask the man in charge of the house for permission to rape the women of their choosing.

He said the answer was always the same: "Take her."

(This story has been refiled to remove a duplicate dateline)

(Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener in Reynosa and Matamoros, Ted Hesson in Washington, Mica Rosenberg in New York City and Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City. Additional reporting by Jackie Botts in Mexico City, Daniel Becerril in Reynosa and Matamoros, and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco. Editing by Mary Milliken and Suzanne Goldenberg)

An Ecuadorean migrant clasps her hands while recalling how she was held kidnapped and sexually trafficked near the U.S.-Mexico border

In Texas, water levels are so low a rarely-seen underwater cave and century-old ruins have appeared

Amanda Jackson and Zoe Sottile, CNN
Sat, September 30, 2023 

Water levels are so low at Canyon Lake in Texas that an underwater cave and remnants of communities that stood more than a century ago at the site are reappearing.

The lake, located in Comal County just northeast of San Antonio, is a man-made lake spanning 8,200 acres with 80 miles of shoreline. It was constructed in 1958 to help mitigate flooding and preserve water and was filled with water by 1968, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The area has experienced little rain over the summer. The drought combined with high heat to produce all-time low water levels. On Wednesday, the level fell to 890.89 feet, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers, which the agency said is about 18 feet lower than normal and the lowest recorded level in recent history.

JM Perez captured images on Tuesday showing the cave, which is usually underwater. He said the rare sighting was bittersweet.


“I work on the lake, so I’ve been watching it drop,” he told CNN. “We are a little over 18 feet low now. It is very sad to see it but on the other hand, it is very cool seeing some of the hidden caves. As well the history that is coming to the surface.”

A bridge and rubble from a previous house that was underwater at Canyon Lake in Texas reappeared due to historically low water levels. - JM Perez

The towns of Hancock and Crane’s Mill, founded by German immigrants in the 1850s, once occupied the space now filled by water, according to CNN affiliate KSAT. Some of Perez’ images show remnants of a house that laid on the lake’s flood as well as the Hancock bridge.

The water levels seemed to drop precipitously – in images captured by Porsche Devol on September 2, only a small portion of a cave was visible and now photos show a vast entrance with rock formations and stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

“I haven’t seen the water this low since I moved here,” Devol told CNN. “It’s actually kind of sad.”

The US Army Corps of Engineers told CNN they regularly monitor water levels at the lake and they close lakeside recreation facilities for safety reasons when the water is too low. In addition to the cave and remnants of the former communities, trash and other items have also appeared as the lake’s surface has dropped, according to the agency.

“It is common to find dumped items whenever the lake level drops,” Clay Church, a spokesperson for the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth District, told CNN. “Old tires seem to be the most common items that we find.”

The US Army Corps of Engineers also urged people to use caution when visiting the lake. “As the lake level drops, there are more underwater hazards such as tree stumps and large rocks that are at or near the surface,” Church said. “These hazards present greater risks to boaters and swimmers.”

BOOK EXCERPT

How the British justice system allowed Nazi war criminals to live undetected

Jon Silverman
Fri, September 29, 2023 


In July 1995, 84-year-old Szymon Serafinowicz shuffled into the spotlight after 40 years of suburban anonymity in the Surrey commuter belt town of Banstead. To the astonishment of neighbours, who had taken him to be an unassuming pensioner, he was the first person to be prosecuted for murder under the 1991 War Crimes Act, accused of Holocaust atrocities more than half a century old.

But after two years of delay, Serafinowicz was found to be suffering from Alzheimer’s, and his trial, due to be held at the Old Bailey in 1997, was never held. His crimes were thus never fully revealed. And his victims, accordingly, were never granted a measure of posthumous justice.

Now, however, those wrongs can be righted, as research conducted with Robert Sherwood for our new book reveals definitively for the first time his wartime monstrosities, and how the failings of the British justice system over many decades allowed Serafinowicz and others like him to escape prosecution.

Serafinowicz, it turns out, was a man with a remarkable and unsavoury past, a murderer of Jews in his native Belarus and a henchman of the wartime puppet leader of the occupied territory, who spent a lifetime trying to overthrow Soviet rule.

Then and now: Serafinowicz – unassuming-looking in later life

During the war, he was the commander of auxiliary police, known by the Germans as schutzmannschaften, in the towns of Mir and Turets in what was then Belorussia. The original source of the allegations against him was an investigation conducted by a team from the Soviet secret police NKVD team in 1945. It was an audit of atrocity: “2,754 people from Mir district killed, tortured, or burnt alive listed – 1,750 in Mir, 450 in Turets. The main criminals in the area were: Serafimovitch Semion [the Russian spelling of his first name]...”

Serafinowicz seems to have been driven by revenge. In the winter of 1939-40, when Belorussia fell under Soviet rule as part of the Nazi-Soviet pact that divided up Poland, his wife’s parents were deported to central Russia and did not survive. As the manager of a flour mill, Serafinowicz himself is likely to have been regarded by the Soviets as ‘suspiciously bourgeois’. But after the Nazis turned on the USSR and began operation Barbarossa in 1941, Belarus fell under German control.

As a virulently anti-Communist Belorussian nationalist, Serafinowicz confessed to Scotland Yard officers in 1993 that in 1943 he was handpicked by Belorussia’s pro-Nazi quisling, Radoslav Ostrowski, to form a so-called Jagdzug. The purpose of these units was to track down Jews who had escaped organised massacres. Ultimately, about four in five of the pre-war Jewish population of Belorussia, over half a million people, were murdered by the Nazis and their local allies.

Despite such murderous anti-Semitism, Ostrowski was welcomed to Britain after the war. In 1950, for example, he travelled to Edinburgh for a conference of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. By this time, Serafinowicz too had landed on these shores.

By day he was a labourer on building sites in London; by night, a senior activist in various anti-Soviet nationalist organisations – which used to meet at Ostrowski’s home in Cathnor Road, Shepherd’s Bush.

Ostrowski was said to have recruited Serafinowicz to form a Jagdzug, to track down Jews who had escaped massacre

This despite the fact that, as early as 1947, M15 had passed on allegations to the Home Office that Serafinowicz was a war criminal. Serafinowicz had arrived in the UK, like many of his fellow Belorussian nationalists, the previous year, claiming to have fought with the Free Polish Forces, who were allies of Britain. But he was denounced as a killer by a fellow soldier and implicated in executions and the burning of villages.

What happened next is a scar on the reputation of Britain’s celebrated interrogator of captured Nazis, Colonel Alexander Paterson Scotland, who commanded the London Cage, which had become the home of the War Crimes Investigation Unit after the war.

It was he who was charged with carrying out an investigation into Serafinowicz. The quality of Scotland’s inquiry can be judged by his report: “Serafinowicz was brought to the London Cage on 30 April. Serafinowicz makes a good impression, he is a pleasant and easygoing type, has a somewhat sly character, possessing a slightly shifty eye, but could not be described as anything approaching a brutal type.”

Paterson, who carried out an investigation into Serafinowicz, but deemed him ‘pleasant and easygoing’

Scotland’s casual exoneration of a man responsible for many hundreds of deaths could be said to be emblematic of Britain’s response to the presence of war criminals in its midst until the passage of the 1991 War Crimes Act. But, as our book reveals, even armed with criminal legislation, the legal authorities provided no more than a scant measure of justice for the victims.

Other suspects accused of even more egregious atrocities did not even suffer the indignity of prosecution. Take, for example, Harijs Svikeris, a long-time resident of Milton Keynes, who was presumed to be one of the three “strongest” cases when the war crimes inquiries began. Svikeris, a Latvian, had been a platoon captain in the infamous Arãjs Kommando, a unit established for the sole purpose of ridding their country of Jews and Communists and, with merciless savagery, proved remarkably successful in doing that.

Over the years, fellow members of the Kommando testified about Svikeris’s role in killings in both Latvia and Belorussia. When I spoke to the head of Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Unit, Chief Supt. Eddie Bathgate, shortly after he retired, he admitted: “Svikeris was a powerful case and I would cheerfully have put him on the charge sheet. The interviews with him were videotaped and you could see he was guilty. One of my last remarks to the CPS was ‘you are not going to be able NOT to prosecute Svikeris’.” But prosecutors refused to proceed without the testimony in open court of eyewitnesses to his crimes.

There was one case that garnered attention even before the War Crimes Act was passed. Anton Gecas, a former National Coal Board manager, living in Edinburgh, had previously gone by the name Antanas Gecevicius and had been a commander of the 12th Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion, whose wanton cruelty in murdering the Jews of Slutsk in 1941 was cited at the Nuremberg Tribunal.

Gecas sued Scottish Television for defamation over a documentary detailing his participation in massacres in Belorussia. He lost the case at the Court of Session in 1992, the judge, Lord Milligan, declaring that he was ‘clearly satisfied’ that Gecas was a war criminal. He too was never tried, for the same reason as Svikeris.

War criminal Gecas lived in Edinburgh, having worked as a manager at the National Coal Board - PA

This is a story about a palpable lack of judicial transparency. Neither Scotland Yard nor the CPS published a final report on the war crimes inquiries. Had they done so, questions would undoubtedly have been raised about the delay in bringing Serafinowicz to full trial, ignoring a key recommendation that the age of witnesses and potential defendants would mean that justice delayed was bound to be justice denied.

It is time to admit that the due process of law denied by the Nazis to their victims has shielded many of the perpetrators to the bitter end. If there is any justice to be found, it may lie with the demise of Svikeris. In July 1995, shortly after the UK announced the prosecution of Serafinowicz, Svikeris suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Milton Keynes. It was reported that he died clutching a newspaper open at a page that carried the headline: ‘First man to be charged with Nazi war crimes arrested in Surrey’.

Safe Haven: The United Kingdom’s Investigations into Nazi Collaborators and the Failure of Justice by Jon Silverman and Robert Sherwood is published by Oxford University Press on October 5, 2023. 

NATO NATION BUILDING

Four more officials held after Libya flood disaster

AFP
Fri, September 29, 2023 

People walk past the body of a victim from the flood which devastated Derna, eastern Libya

Libya's prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of four more officials, bringing to 12 the number held as part of an inquiry into this month's flood that killed thousands.

Flooding caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya on September 10, leaving at least 3,893 people dead and thousands more missing.

The seaside city of Derna was the worst-hit in the flash flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami. It burst through two dams and washed entire neighbourhoods into the Mediterranean.

The four additional suspects, including two members of the Derna municipal council, were arrested for suspected "bad management of the administrative and financial missions which were incumbent upon them", said a statement issued overnight Thursday-Friday by the prosecutor general's office in Tripoli, western Libya.

On Monday the office ordered the arrest of eight officials, including Derna's mayor who was sacked after the flood.

Libya's prosecutor general Al-Seddik al-Sour belongs to the internationally recognised government in the country's west. A rival administration in the flood-stricken east, is backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

The eastern government has said it plans to host an international donors' conference in Benghazi on October 10 to focus on the reconstruction of flood-ravaged areas, but its failure to involve the Tripoli government has drawn mounting criticism from donors.

Libya has been wracked by division since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

- 'Separate' reconstruction plans -

The United States called on Libyans to set aside their political differences and agree a framework to channel aid to eastern towns.

"We urge Libyan authorities now to form such unified structures –- rather than launching separate efforts –- that represent the Libyan people without delay," US special envoy Richard Norland said in a statement Friday.

"A proposal to hold a reconstruction conference in Benghazi on October 10 would be much more effective if it were conducted jointly and inclusively."

Norland echoed concerns already expressed by the United Nations that mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure that foreign aid is spent accountably.

"Libyans need to be assured public funds are used transparently, accountably, and that assistance goes to those in need," the US envoy said.

On Thursday during talks with the European Commission, UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily said he had called for funds to be monitored.

"I... emphasised the need for a joint assessment of reconstruction needs of storm-affected areas to ensure the utmost accountability in the management of reconstruction resources," he said.

On Friday, the eastern authorities said they would begin paying compensation to people affected by the disaster, which a UN agency has said uprooted more than 43,000 people.

"Cheques have been handed over to the mayors" after a relief committee received records of damage caused by the flooding, the government based in Libya's east said in a statement.

People whose homes were destroyed would receive 100,000 dinars ($20,500) in compensation, Faraj Kaeem, the eastern administration's deputy interior minister, said separately.

Those with partially destroyed homes would get 50,000 dinars, while those who lost furniture or household appliances would be given 20,000 dinars, he said.

The eastern administration announced on Wednesday the creation of a fund for the reconstruction of Derna.

The authorities have yet to specify how the new fund will be financed, but the eastern-based parliament has already allocated 10 billion dinars to reconstruction projects.

bur-ila/dv/kir/ami

As extreme downpours trigger flooding around the world, scientists take a closer look at global warming's role

Mohammed Ombadi, 

Assistant Professor of Climate and Space Sciences Engineering, University of Michigan

THE CONVERSATION
Sat, September 30, 2023

Torrential downpours sent muddy water racing through streets in Libya, Greece, Spain and Hong Kong and flood parts of New York City in September 2023. Thousands of people died in the city of Derna, Libya. Zagora, Greece, saw a record 30 inches of rain, the equivalent of a year and a half of rain falling in 24 hours.

A few weeks earlier, monsoon rains triggered deadly landslides and flooding in the Himalayas that killed dozens of people in India.

After severe flooding on almost every continent this year, including mudslides and flooding in California in early 2023 and devastating floods in Vermont in July, it can seem like extreme rainfall is becoming more common.

So, what role does global warming play in this? And importantly, what can we do to adapt to this new reality?

A powerful storm system in 2023 flooded communities across Vermont and left large parts of the capital, Montpelier, underwater. 

John Tully for The Washington Post via Getty Images

As a climate scientist with a background in civil engineering, I am interested in exploring the links between the science of climate change and extreme weather events on one hand and the impacts those events have on our daily lives on the other. Understanding the connections is crucial in order to develop sound strategies to adapt to climate change.
Thirstier atmosphere, more extreme precipitation

As temperatures rise, the warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor. Evaporation of water from land and oceans also increases. That water has to eventually come back to land and oceans.

Simply, as the atmosphere absorbs more moisture, it dumps more precipitation during storms. Scientists expect about a 7% increase in precipitation intensity during extreme storms for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming.

This increase in the amount of moisture that air can hold is what scientists call the Clausius Clapeyron relationship. But other factors, such as changes in wind patterns, storm tracks and how saturated the air is, also play a role in how intense the precipitation is.
Liquid vs. frozen: Rain matters most

One factor that determines the severity of floods is whether water falls as rain or snow. The almost instantaneous runoff from rain, as opposed to the slower release of water from melting snow, leads to more severe flooding, landslides and other hazards – particularly in mountain regions and areas downstream, where about a quarter of the global population lives.

A higher proportion of extreme rainfall rather than snow is believed to have been a key contributor to the devastating floods and landslides in the Himalayas in August 2023, though research is still underway to confirm that. Additionally, a 2019 examination of flood patterns across 410 watersheds in the Western U.S. found that the largest runoff peaks driven by rainfall were more than 2.5 times greater than those driven by snowmelt.

Rainfall intensity is projected to increase more in certain regions by the end of the 21st century, based on climate model data. Light colors show a twofold increase and dark colors indicate an eightfold increase in future rainfall extremes compared to the recent past. Mohammed Ombadi., CC BY-ND

In a 2023 study in the journal Nature, my colleagues and I demonstrated that the intensity of extreme precipitation is increasing at a faster rate than the Clausius Clapeyron relationship would suggest – up to 15% per 1 C (1.8 F) of warming – in high-latitude and mountain regions such as the Himalayas, Alps and Rockies.

The reason for this amplified increase is that rising temperatures are shifting precipitation toward more rain and less snow in these regions. A larger proportion of this extreme precipitation is falling as rain.

In our study, we looked at the heaviest rains in the Northern Hemisphere since the 1950s and found that the increase in the intensity of extreme rainfall varied with altitude. Mountains in the American West, parts of the Appalachian Mountains, the Alps in Europe and the Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains in Asia also showed strong effects. Furthermore, climate models suggest that most of these regions are likely to see a sevenfold-to-eightfold increase in the occurrence of extreme rainfall events by the end of the 21st century.
Flooding isn’t just a short-term problem

Deaths and damage to homes and cities capture the lion’s share of attention in the aftermath of floods, but increased flooding also has long-term effects on water supplies in reservoirs that are crucial for communities and agriculture in many regions.

For example, in the Western U.S., reservoirs are often kept as close to full capacity as possible during the spring snowmelt to provide water for the dry summer months. The mountains act as natural reservoirs, storing winter snowfall and then releasing the melted snow at a slow pace.

A series of atmospheric rivers in California dumped so much water on the region that Tulare Lake, which had dried up years earlier, reemerged as water spread across miles of California farmland. 

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

However, our recent findings suggest that with the world rapidly shifting toward a climate dominated by heavy downpours of rain – not snow – water resource managers will increasingly have to leave more room in their reservoirs to store large amounts of water in anticipation of disasters to minimize the risk of flooding downstream.
Preparing for a fiercer future

Global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing, but people still need to prepare for a fiercer climate. The destructive storms that hit the Mediterranean region in 2023 provide a cogent case for the importance of adaptation. They shattered records for extreme precipitation across many countries and caused extensive damage.

A main factor that contributed to the catastrophe in Libya was the bursting of aging dams that had managed water pouring down from mountainous terrain.

This underscores the importance of updating design codes so infrastructure and buildings are built to survive future downpours and flooding, and investing in new engineering solutions to improve resiliency and protect communities from extreme weather. It may also mean not building in regions with high future risks of flooding and landslides.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Mohammed Ombadi, University of Michigan.

Read more:

Summer 2023 was the hottest on record – yes, it’s climate change, but don’t call it ‘the new normal’

How climate change intensifies the water cycle, fueling extreme rainfall and flooding – the Northeast deluge was just the latest

Monsoons make deserts bloom in the US Southwest, but climate change is making these summer rainfalls more extreme and erratic

Mohammed Ombadi has received funding from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to conduct the Nature study discussed in this article.

Scientists Discover That Africa’s Namib Desert Has A Human Population After Believing It Disappeared 50 Years Ago

Tomas Kassahun
Fri, September 29, 2023

Scientists have found a population of people in Africa‘s Namib desert that were believed to have disappeared 50 years ago. Anthropologists initially believed that the community disappeared when the languages spoken in the region died out. However, experts are now realizing that this group kept its genetic identity when their native language disappeared.

The Kwepe, one of the groups in southern Africa’s Namib Desert, spoke the Kwadi language.

“Kwadi was a click-language that shared a common ancestor with the Khoe languages spoken by foragers and herders across Southern Africa,” said researcher Anne-Maria Fehn, according to SciTechDaily.

Through DNA research, experts found the descendants of the people who spoke Kwadi. The team also traced Bantu-speaking and other groups whose language was believed to be lost.

The team of researchers included scientists from the University of Bern in Switzerland, as well as the University of Porto in Portugal and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. According to the researchers, the Kwadi-speaking descendants share a common ancestry, which is only found in groups from the Namib desert.

“Previous studies revealed that foragers from the Kalahari desert descend from an ancestral population who was the first to split from all other extant humans. Our results consistently place the newly identified ancestry within the same ancestral lineage but suggest that the Namib-related ancestry diverged from all other southern African ancestries, followed by a split of northern and southern Kalahari ancestries,” said researcher Mark Stoneking.

The people who spoke Kwadi started speaking Bantu languages more recently, scientists said.

“A lot of our efforts were placed in understanding how much of this local variation and global eccentricity was caused by genetic drift — a random process that disproportionately affects small populations — and by admixtures from vanished populations,” said researcher Dr. Sandra Oliveira from the University of Bern.

Opinion

Joe Biden joined the picket line, but did Donald Trump help create the UAW strike?

Steve G. Parsons
Sun, October 1, 2023 

Springfield News-Leader



On Friday, Sept. 22, what began as a targeted stand-up strike by 13,000 UAW workers at three plants owned by Ford, GM and Stellantis was expanded to an additional 38 locations for GM and Stellantis. On Tuesday, President Biden joined the UAW picket line in Michigan, something no president has done before. I believe this is not an appropriate action for a U.S. president. One should be tempted to believe that Biden has done more to help the UAW strike than any other president — but you would be wrong.

Part of the reason the UAW is in a strong position to strike is because of the replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the U.S. Mexico Canada Association (USMCA, in 2019/2020). The USMCA created greater business restrictions in the auto industry in three ways. First USMCA requires 75% of vehicles parts be made in North American (up from 45% in NAFTA A and up from 62.5% under later NAFTA requirements). Second, auto manufacturing and parts manufacturing must be performed by workers earning at least $16/hour. And third, North American car and truck manufacturers will also have to purchase 70% of their steel and aluminum in US, Mexico or Canada in order to avoid tariffs.

Every action or policy change has winners and losers. There are three categories of losers for the greater restrictions on the auto industry implemented under USMCA. First, there are the small Mexican auto manufacturers and auto parts manufacturers who can’t afford to pay $16/hour; some will, in the long run, go out of business or cease to export to the U.S. or Canada. The second group of losers are the employees who would have had a job, albeit at lower wages, who are now without that job in the auto industry, the auto parts industry, or other support industries in Mexico and the U.S. In the long run, this includes U.S. UAW workers (or potential employees who would have been UAW members) as manufacturers substitute away from union labor to greater levels of automation. Job losses also occur as more plant closures occur (as many as 17 plants by Stellantis alone if UAW demands must be met). Addition job “losses” occur since each year U.S. auto sales will be less than they otherwise would have been. One estimate was 1.3 million fewer vehicles per year due to higher auto prices — before the strike. Obviously, post-strike numbers will be even greater.

The third group of losers are consumers who pay higher prices for vehicles, as much as $2,200 per vehicle — before the effects of the strike.

The obvious winners are those who actually keep a job in the auto industry at higher wages both in the U.S. and in Mexico.

To many readers this description of USMCA may come as a surprise. President Trump touted the deal as good for trade and a win for — well — everybody. The final was clearly pro-union, endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who said USMCA produced “considerable progress on workers’ rights.” Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, claimed that union leaders greatly “improved” USMCA in later iterations.

The free enterprise and free trade-oriented Cato Institute stated: “Regulation is a general problem in the USMCA, even more than it was in NAFTA.”

Would Donald Trump really have left us with a trade deal worse than NAFTA and with so many business restrictions? The short answer is — yes. Unlike most prior Republican leaders who favored free trade, Donald Trump is essentially a protectionist. This is the same man that said import tariffs are “beautiful.” His increased import tariffs (especially on Chinese goods and components imported by U.S. businesses) increased costs to American consumers by between $17 billion and $48 billion annually.

Let me identify one more winner from USCMA and the strike — Tesla. Business Insider states: “Ford and GM already spend $20 more an hour on factory workers than Tesla. The UAW's demands would more than double that gap.” The higher costs for the Big 3 and the higher resulting prices for Big 3 vehicles are great news for Tesla.

USMCA and higher import tariffs would not have come into existence without Donald Trump. His pro-union protectionist policy greatly strengthened the UAW and its ability to strike and/or negotiate higher UAW wages. This leads to higher prices for consumers. The higher prices caused by “protecting” some American jobs, while losing others behind the scenes is simply bad policy.

Steve G. Parsons, Ph.D,. is a retired consulting economist with former clients around the world. He was also an adjunct professor for more than 20 years at Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught the economics of technology to graduate students in the school of engineering.

Posts misquote Biden's remarks at UAW strike

Natalie WADE / AFP USA
Fri, September 29, 2023 

Joe Biden became the first sitting US president to visit a picket line, grabbing a bullhorn to address striking auto workers in the state of Michigan on September 26, 2023. But social media posts sharing a video of the visit misrepresented his statement to members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) to make it appear as a gaffe.

"Joe Biden minutes after slipping on steps of Air Force One: 'I marched a lot of UAW picket lines when I was a Senator since 1973. But I tell you what -- first time I've ever done it in person.'" says an X post from Benny Johnson, a conservative podcast host, who has been fact-checked by AFP several times.

Screenshot of an X post taken September 28, 2023

The same clip garnered thousands of views on X, here and here, as Biden appeared on the picket line outside a General Motors parts distribution center in Belleville, Michigan, to show his support for auto workers as they petition for a 40 percent pay raise.

Biden is often the target of posts that make him appear confused or asleep in public appearances -- playing to those who argue he is too old for the job. However, despite the online claims the president did not say that this is the first picket line he has attended "in person."

In the video, Biden clearly says: "I marched in a lot of UAW picket lines when I was a senator -- since 1973 -- but, I tell you what, it's the first time I've ever done it as president."

This is reflected in the official White House brief, documenting the president's remarks (archived here).

Screenshot of a White House press brief with elements highlights by AFP, taken September 29, 2023

This dialogue is also clear in other videos reviewed by AFP including C-SPAN footage (archived here) and news reports (archived here).

The president's trip came a day before Donald Trump spoke at a non-union car parts factory in Michigan, a visit he made in lieu of attending the second Republican presidential debate in California.

More of AFP's reporting on misinformation about US politics is available here.

Ford workers walk out as UAW expands strike to Chicago Assembly Plant: ‘It’s our time’

Robert Channick, Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune
Updated Fri, September 29, 2023 




Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune/TNS

The United Auto Workers expanded its strike to Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant, instructing thousands of workers on the city’s Southeast Side to walk off the job Friday in the union’s ongoing labor dispute with the Big Three automakers.

In an online address to members Friday morning, UAW President Shawn Fain called on the Chicago Ford plant and a GM assembly plant in Michigan to join more than 18,000 other autoworkers at plants and parts distribution centers nationwide on the picket line as the union seeks a new four-year contract.

“We’re on strike until they get this right,” said Chris Pena, president of UAW Local 551, which represents assembly line workers at the Chicago Ford plant.

The Chicago Ford plant has about 4,600 workers on three shifts making the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and Police Interceptor SUVs, the automaker said Friday. In 2019, Ford spent $1 billion to transform the nearly century-old Torrence Avenue facility, which phased out production of the Taurus sedan to focus on building SUVs.

The Explorer, which is made exclusively at the Chicago Assembly Plant, is among Ford’s best-selling vehicles.

Ford also employs about 1,000 hourly workers at a nearby stamping plant in Chicago Heights who are members of UAW Local 588. Those workers have not been called to strike by the union.

The UAW represents 146,000 members across the U.S. Earlier this month, the union directed about 13,000 workers to walk off the job and onto the picket line at a GM plant in Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Ohio and a Ford factory in Michigan.

Last week, Fain gave marching orders to 5,600 parts and distribution workers at 38 locations across 20 states to walk off the job, including 92 workers at a GM parts distribution center in Bolingbrook and a Stellantis facility with 95 employees in Naperville.

With the addition of nearly 7,000 workers Friday, the expanded strike against the Big Three automakers includes more than 25,000 UAW members at 43 facilities in 21 states.

The union is seeking pay increases, shorter workweeks and improvements to retiree pensions and health care plans amid record profits for the Big Three automakers, among other demands.

Ken Thomas said when he began working at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant 45 years ago, he and his co-workers were well-paid.

“Unlike now,” Thomas said from the picket line Friday, in the shadow of the plant’s sign advertising the iconic blue and white Ford logo. “The pay is probably less than what I made then,” he said, accounting for cost-of-living increases.

The 66-year-old from Merrillville, Indiana, said he’ll probably be fine financially. But he’s worried that “it’s rough” for new employees — particularly the younger generations as prices of necessities such as housing and groceries continue to go up.

“What we’re fighting is actually no different than what our forefathers fought in the ’30s and ’40s. And it’s a wage gap,” he said. “The problem is that it’s way out of control now.”

Thomas, who began decades ago as an assembler on the engine line and now works as an inspector, was one of about five dozen strikers protesting outside the plant Friday morning, some holding signs declaring “Record profits record contract,” some wearing stickers stating “I don’t want to strike but I will.”

“It’s our time!” one striker yelled.

“Our time!” a crowd of union workers chanted back over the din of cars honking in solidarity as they drove by on Torrence Avenue.

Felicia Green, 56, a final line inspector at the plant, noted the historic nature of the larger labor action, which marks the first time the UAW has called for a strike against all three automakers in the Detroit-based union’s 88-year history.

Green, who lives in Merrillville, said she has been working for Ford for 30 years, first at a plant in Rawsonville, Michigan, and later at Flat Rock, Michigan.

“I personally am inspired,” she said. “Because this is something we’ve never done. But today I had the courage to come over here and just be proud of what we’re doing, for the cause.”

Last week, Fain cited progress in negotiations with Ford in bypassing the automaker — and the Chicago plant — from additional walkouts. This week, it was a different story, with Stellantis the only automaker spared additional strike actions.

“Despite our willingness to bargain, Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress at the table,” Fain said. “What we win at the bargaining table depends on the power we build on the job. It’s time to use that power.”

During a news conference Friday, Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said the biggest stumbling block in UAW negotiations revolves around four EV battery plants in development — three in Kentucky and Tennessee that are a joint venture with a South Korean partner, and one the automaker is building itself in Michigan.

“What’s really frustrating is that I believe we could have reached a compromise on pay and benefits,” Farley said. “But so far the UAW is holding the deal hostage over battery plants.”

“Keep in mind, these battery plants don’t exist yet,” he said. “They’re mostly joint ventures and they’ve not been organized by the UAW yet because the workers haven’t been hired and won’t be for many years to come.”

Ford paused construction Monday of its $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, amid the negotiations with the UAW.

Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the automaker’s internal combustion division, said adding the Chicago Assembly Plant to a strike that two weeks ago shut down its plant in Wayne, Michigan, which makes the Bronco, will take an economic toll.

“If this continues, week after week, of course, it will have a substantial impact on our business,” Galhotra said.

Gerald Johnson, who heads up global manufacturing for GM, posted an online message to employees Friday morning after the expanded strike call, saying the automaker stands “ready and willing” to continue negotiating with the UAW on a new contract.

“Calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress,” Johnson said. “The number of people negatively impacted by these strikes is growing and includes our customers who buy and love the products we build.”

Stellantis dodged any additional strike actions.

Fain said “significant progress” in negotiations with Stellantis “moments before” the strike announcements Friday included reinstating cost-of-living adjustments that were suspended during the Great Recession in 2009.

“We are excited about this momentum at Stellantis and hope it continues,” Fain said.

In February, Stellantis “indefinitely” idled its 60-year-old auto plant in Belvidere and laid off its last 1,200 union workers after halting Jeep Cherokee production amid dwindling sales. Repurposing the 5 million-square-foot plant likely remains part of any new labor agreement, with everything from a “megahub” parts distribution center to building EV battery components on the table, according to sources familiar with negotiations.

Stellantis said in a statement Friday that it has “made progress in our discussions, but gaps remain.”

As the picket line continued outside the Ford plant Friday afternoon, a driver passing by stopped and dropped off a case of water, expressing support for the strikers.

“A Good Samaritan,” said Frank Stottlemire, a quality operations system coordinator at the plant.

The Hobart, Indiana, resident has worked at Ford for 24 years, and his grandmother and several other family members were also employed by the company.

But he isn’t certain Ford will continue to be such a desirable workplace long term or engender the same worker loyalty in the future. He said newer employees don’t get a pension, a factor that’s helped retain him as an employee for two and a half decades.

“There’s no loyalty to something that doesn’t give you a pension,” he said. “You spend your life in here, and you don’t get a pension?”

Brittany Montgomery, 33, of Momence in Kankakee County added that she has a good job working at the plant, but it’s “a lot of wear and tear on your body.”

Both Stottlemire and Montgomery noted that inflation and the prices of gas, groceries and housing keep rising, without a commensurate wage increase.

“There’s a lot of people here who can’t afford to drive a Ford,” Montgomery added.


The United Auto Workers added thousands of members to the picket lines as it continues to negotiate a new contract with the Big Three automakers. Ford employees in Chicago are among the latest batch of autoworkers called to join the strike.

Ford: UAW holding contract negotiations 'hostage' over electric vehicle battery plants

Olivia Evans, Louisville Courier Journal

Updated Fri, September 29, 2023 


Hours after UAW International President Shawn Fain called thousands of additional workers to join a strike against the Detroit Three automakers, Ford held a media call, saying the "collective future is at stake” for both Ford and the UAW.

“We succeed or we fail together,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said.

Farley called the contract proposal Ford offered the UAW on Sept. 12 "historic" and said it would put its workers in the top 30% of all full-time manufacturers in the U.S. based on proposed wages and bonuses.

But the UAW has held the negotiations "hostage" over electric vehicle battery plant concerns, which are not directly related to this contract, Farley said.

“If the UAW’s goal is a record contract, they have already achieved this,” Farley said. “It is grossly irresponsible to escalate these strikes and hurt thousands of families.”

The autoworkers strike — against Ford, General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis — is the first UAW strike at Ford in nearly 50 years. As of noon Friday, more than 25,000 autoworkers were on strike across more than 40 plants nationwide.

The contract Ford proposed boosted wage increases by more than 20%, will restore cost-of-living allowances, eliminate wage tiers, offer layoff protections for permanent workers, made product commitments for all UAW plants in America, along with a handful of other things, according to a slideshow presented by Ford. The company has continued to negotiate and improve its offer since Sept. 12, a press release stated.

Throughout the negotiations, Fain has shared concerns that the transition to electric vehicles will cause harm and job loss for UAW workers, but Ford officials continue to deny this. Vice President, Americas Manufacturing & Labor Affairs, Ford Blue, Bryce Currie said that Ford is actually adding jobs to support its EV expansion and adding jobs to its non-electric vehicle plants.

Farley said the UAW is focusing on the company’s battery plants currently in development, such as the BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale. The plants are joint ventures and workers will have to decide about unionizing after they open.

“[Electric vehicles] have become a political football and it’s a shame,” Farley said.

In response to Farley's comments Friday, Fain said he doesn't know why "Jim Farley is lying about the state of negotiations … we are far apart on core economic proposals like retirement security and post-retirement healthcare, as well as job security in this EV transition, which Farley himself says is going to cut 40% of our members’ jobs.”

Farley said the future of the American auto industry and the industrial Midwest stands to be impacted the most as the UAW strike continues.

“That is why we are going to keep trying to reach an agreement with the UAW,” Farley said.

Ford has already felt significant impacts with both the Chicago Assembly and Michigan Assembly Plants down as strikes carry on at those facilities. On top of this, Ford suppliers nationwide are experiencing negative impacts, including hundreds of thousands of workers potentially facing layoffs in the near future as the strike continues, Liz Door, Ford's chief supply chain officer said.

"If this continues week after week, it of course will have a substantial impact on our company," said Ford Blue President, Kumar Galhotra.

Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at oevans@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @oliviamevans_.

US auto strike expands with 7,000 more workers joining

Daniel AVIS
Fri, September 29, 2023 

Members of the United Auto Workers Local 230 walk the picket line in front of the Chrysler Corporate Parts Division in Ontario, California, on September 26, 2023, in solidarity with "Big Three" autoworkers currently on strike (Patrick T. Fallon)

Another 7,000 members of the biggest US automobile workers' union on Friday joined its already major strike against the country's "Big Three" Detroit car manufacturers.

The latest walkouts leave a total of some 25,000 workers on strike in 21 states -- or around 17 percent of the United Auto Workers' membership.

UAW president Shawn Fain said the latest members to join the strike were at two plants in Chicago and Michigan, who downed tools at 1600 GMT.

"Our courageous members at these two plants are the next wave of reinforcements in our fight for record contracts," Fain said.

The industrial action is the first-ever joint strike at the major automakers -- Ford, GM and Chrysler producer Stellantis -- in a push for higher salaries and other improvements.

Fain noted however that he would not call on additional members to suspend their activity at Stellantis due to "significant progress" on several points currently under discussion.

Fain mentioned a mechanism for adjusting salaries to the cost of living as well as the right to strike in the event of a site closure or relocation announcement by the manufacturer.

The union has asked for a 40 percent pay raise over the next four-year contract, while the three companies have been offering raises of around 20 percent.

It's also been negotiating to represent workers at battery plants planned by Ford, which the auto giant has so far resisted.

UAW has used the targeted strike, which began on September 15, as a bargaining chip, ramping up the pressure on the three automakers in a bid to reach a deal.

- 'Holding the deal hostage' -

Ford President Jim Farley, who has remained relatively silent until now, came out strongly Friday against Fain's negotiating tactics.

"I believe we could have reached a compromise on pay and benefits, but so far the UAW is holding the deal hostage over battery plants," he told reporters.

Fain later hit back. "I don’t know why Jim Farley is lying about the state of negotiations. It could be because he failed to show up for bargaining this week, as he has for most of the past ten weeks," he said.

"If he were there, he’d know we gave Ford a comprehensive proposal on Monday and still haven’t heard back."

Ford recently paused construction at one of its plants, and warned it may have to scale back its ambitions for the project.

Stellantis said in a statement it has been "intensely working with the UAW to find solutions to the issues that are of most concern to our employees while ensuring the company can remain competitive."

"We have made progress in our discussions, but gaps remain," it said, adding it was committed to reaching "a fair and responsible agreement that gets everyone back to work as soon as possible."

- The strike gets political -

The strike has ramped up the significance of Michigan's swing state status in the 2024 presidential election.

Earlier this week, Joe Biden became the first sitting US president to stand on a picket line, joining UAW members in Michigan in a bold pitch for blue collar votes against likely election rival Donald Trump.

Wearing a UAW baseball cap, the Democrat used a bullhorn to tell red-shirted workers they deserved "a hell of a lot more than what you're getting."

Trump's Republican party is typically hostile toward unions, though is often able to pick up significant numbers of working class votes. Trump spoke at a non-union auto facility in the Detroit suburbs saying that he wants "a future that protects American labor, not foreign labor."

On Friday, Fain called Biden's visit a "historic day."

"The most powerful man in the world shows up for one reason only," he said. "Because our solidarity is the most powerful force in the world."

"When we stand together united in the cause of economic and social justice, there's nothing we can't do," he added.

UAW strikes spread to Chicago, Lansing as 7,000 more workers join the picket line

WGN - Chicago
Fri, September 29, 2023 at 3:18 PM MDT

The United Auto Workers union says its two-week strike against Detroit automakers will spread to 7,000 more workers at a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors assembly factory near Lansing, Michigan. 

READ MORE: https://wgntv.com/news/uaw-threaten-to-expand-strikes-against-big-3-automakers-friday/

UAW strike: Car workers escalate action, clouding US economy

Natalie Sherman - BBC

Business reporter, New York
Fri, September 29, 2023 

A walkout targeting Detroit's Big Three started on 15 September

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is expanding a strike at some of America's biggest car firms, sending the row over pay and benefits into its third week.

Union boss Shawn Fain said 7,000 more staff at Ford and General Motors factories are set to walk off the job.

The latest action did not target Stellantis, reflecting new momentum in those talks, he said.

Roughly 18,000 workers were already on strike in a dispute that has cast a cloud over the US economy.

US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who is running for re-election, both visited the Detroit area this week to address the issue, which comes as labour tensions simmer across the country.

The union opened talks seeking a roughly 40% rise in pay over four years and an end to practices that give newer hires lower pay and fewer benefits, among other demands.

The companies have maintained that the union's requests would hurt their ability to invest in the long term. They have countered with a roughly 20% pay increase and some other concessions.

On the picket line in Michigan this week, many workers said they were ready for an extended fight.

"People are fed up. We want there to be a middle class," said Emily Yettaw, who has worked at GM for 17 years. "They're making billions in profit and we deserve better."

Emily Yettaw, right, is among the GM workers on strike in Ypsilanti Michigan

The union, which represents 146,000 workers at the three companies, has been slowly ratcheting up pressure on the car makers to strike a deal since labour contracts expired on 14 September.

The latest action expands the work stoppages to a Ford factory in Chicago that makes Explorers, and a GM factory in Michigan which makes large crossover SUVs such as the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave.

The union's prior targets included 38 facilities that distribute parts to dealers and three factories - one at each company.

In a message to employees, General Motors said "calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress".

The company said it had not received a "comprehensive" reply since it put forward a proposal on 21 September. It said that offer provided workers with "historic wage increases and job security while not jeopardizing our future".

"We continue to stand ready and willing to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that benefits you and doesn't let the non-union manufacturers win," said Gerald Johnson, executive vice president for global manufacturing.

The economic impact of the action remains limited, but is building. In just its first week, the stand-off had led to an estimated $1.6bn (£1.3bn) in economic losses, including more than $100m (£81m) in lost wages - a cost that is weighing on local economies.

Jennifer Romero owns the Karma Coffee & Kitchen in Wayne, Michigan. Her shop, with a flier in the window supporting the strike, is located just down the road from a closed Ford factory. Jennifer says sales have been noticeably slow at her store.

Jennifer and David Romero said they supported the workers but could see the economic hit from the strike

"Our neighbourhood is mostly blue collar workers," she said. "If they're not working, they're not spending money and if they're not spending money, we're not making money."

For the car companies, which are facing heavy investment costs and intense competition as the industry ramps up production of electric cars, the timing of the dispute "could not be worse", said Wall Street analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

"This UAW debacle strike trajectory is like watching a slow moving car crash take place on black ice," he wrote in a note on Friday.

"This is a defining period for Detroit and the future of the auto industry as we firmly believe that if GM, Ford, Stellantis accept anything close to the deal on the table the future will be very bleak for the US auto industry."

For now, workers on the picket line in the Detroit area this week said they remained committed to the fight, despite the loss of income for many that will come from receiving just $500 (£410) in strike pay a week.

"It's ramen noodles and mac and cheese time," GM workers in Ypsilanti joked. "No more Red Lobster."

"I don't think anybody is scared to be out here," added Kemi Hooker, 53, who has worked for GM for 24 years. "We'll do what it takes".