It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
At a time when Rishi Sunak has been under siege from his own Tory MPs, the UK’s place on the annual list was made worse by scores for “leadership and foresight” putting it in 20th place.
It was also hit by coming 27th in “financial stewardship”. The findings come amid a report of an exodus by companies from the City of London. Prime minister Rishi Sunak steps out of 10 Downing Street. The UK was marked down for weak leadership (PA)
Despite Brexit and the fallout of leaving the EU, Britain’s position was boosted by coming second in the “reputation and global influence” category, being only beaten by France. Overall Singapore came top of the index. However, Brexit hurt the UK badly in its international trade score, with it dropping by 26 places.
The report noted that leadership makes an important difference.
It stated: “What public sector leaders decide, do, or say impacts public trust in government. Good leaders create and sustain cultures of integrity, competence, and service. They have a clear sense of medium- and longer-term pathways for their government and country. They cultivate the foresight needed to anticipate emerging challenges and opportunities.”
It scored countries’ governments for ethical leadership, long-term vision, adaptability, strategic prioritisation and innovation.
Meanwhile, financial stewardship was scored on government debt levels, spending efficiency, budget surplus, and risk premium. Jeremy Hunt is in charge of the nation’s finances. The UK was also marked down for its financial stewardship (PA)
The UK’s global influence score was high but was harmed by being outside the EU, meaning that its status on international trade had dropped from joint second to 28th.
The findings were the conclusion of CGGI’s panel of experts and leaders in the world of business and government.
They included Dr Reuben Abraham, chief executive of Artha Global; Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the World Justice Project; Dr Christian Bason, founder of the Transition Collective; Nathalie Delapalme, chief executive of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation; Adrian Brown, executive director of the Centre for Public Impact; Dr Ed Olowo-Okere, vice president at the World Bank; Dr Manuel Gerardo Flores Romero from the OECD; and Professor Kent Weaver, professor of public policy and government at Georgetown University.
Labour has jumped on the findings as evidence that the political chaos under the Tories and uncertainty surrounding Rishi Sunak’s leadership coupled with the fallout of Liz Truss’s mini-budget have put the UK into decline.
Shadow chief Treasury secretary Darren Jones said: “These new rankings fly in the face of Rishi Sunak's argument that we are turning the corner.
“The United Kingdom is a brilliant place with so much potential, but we have been disastrously let down by 14 years of chaos, with five prime ministers in seven years and our economy still reeling from the Tories’ bombshell mini-budget.
“Labour has a real plan to turn the page on this decline. With Keir Starmer's Labour Party, we will spur on a decade of renewal with strong fiscal rules, a new national wealth fund to make smart, strategic investments in the industries of the future, and public services we can be proud of again.”
The findings come as Sir Keir Starmer in effect launched Labour’s election campaign with a top promise of “economic stability” in his six first steps published on a new pledge card.
But Downing Street sources said they found the findings “strange” and “lacking in evidence”.
A source close to the prime minister said: “I would point you to GDP stats and what they showed last week. Joint fastest growth in the G7, one of best and fastest recoveries since pandemic (Germany and others still in recession) so not sure how the facts tally with their rankings.”
Mercedes workers in Alabama vote against joining UAW
Filip Timotija Fri, 17 May 2024 THE HILL
Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama voted against joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) Friday, dealing a blow to the union that hopes to make progress in the south following a successful election in Tennessee last month.
Workers at the Vance, Ala., plant voted 2,642 to 2,045 against joining the union, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Around 5,100 auto workers were eligible to participate.
UAW hoped to continue its momentum in the south, following a historic win in April at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where approximately 73 percent of workers voted in favor of joining the union.
UAW has a week to challenge the result of Friday’s vote.
“Our goal throughout this process was to ensure every eligible Team Member had the opportunity to participate in a fair election,” Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) said in a news release following the results’ announcement. “We thank all Team Members who asked questions, engaged in discussions, and ultimately, made their voices heard on this important issue.”
UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges against the German manufacturer, claiming that Mercedes intimated workers in the lead-up to the contest, therefore breaching U.S. labor law.
If found liable, Mercedes could be forced to bargain with the union, under the NLRB standard.
“They tried to paint the union in a bad light, Fain said, later adding “We’re here to help people. That’s what we’re here for. We don’t have to intimidate or threaten nobody. We believe in democracy, we believe in workers having a voice and making their own decision.”
UAW President Shawn Fain was undeterred by the outcome, vowing that UAW will continue its efforts around the country and will ultimately organize auto manufacturing plants, including one in Vance where luxury SUVs are made.
“Sometimes Goliath wins a battle, but ultimately David will win the war,” Fain said in a press conference following the results’ announcement Friday.
“These workers will win their fair share and we’re going to be there every step of the way. We’ve been here before, we know what we’re taking on and this company like most others operates off [of] the same playbook, fear, threats, intimidation.”
Fain said that despite the loss, the union will continue “fighting” and plow ahead in hopes of organizing more in the South, an area of the country historically not as welcoming to the unions.
During the process, UAW faced political opposition from leaders of various states in the south.
Six governors warned workers in mid-April against joining the UAW, saying that it would impact their jobs and the “values we live by.”
Fain’s union spearheaded a walkout last year on the former “Big Three” auto makers. In the end, they were able to strike an agreement with all three automakers —General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — in October after a six-week strike.
“We’ll go back, we’ll, we’ll assess things, see where we are and keep moving, Fain said.
Blow to UAW as Mercedes workers in Alabama vote against unionization
Michael Sainato
THE GUARDIAN Fri, 17 May 2024 One of the Mercedes plants in Alabama.Photograph: Nora Eckert/Reuters
The United Auto Workers has failed in its effort to unionize workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a blow to the union’s plans to build its membership in the southern states.
The loss on Friday comes amid the UAW’s ambitious union-organizing campaign to organize 150,000 non-union auto workers around the US.
In April the UAW won a landslide victory at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where 73% of workers voted to unionize.
The final vote was 2,642 against union representation and 2,045 for. Fifty-six per cent of workers voted no.
Southern states have for decades successfully fought off unionization drives in an attempt to keep down labor costs – a practice critics have called the “Alabama discount”.
“Mercedes is a better place thanks to this campaign,” said Shawn Fain in a press conference after the results were announced. He cited the end of two-tier wages and a replacement of the chief executive as some of the successes workers won during the organizing campaign.
He said: “The federal government and the German government are currently investigating Mercedes for the intimidation and harassment that they inflicted on their own workers, and we intend to follow that process.”
At Mercedes, the union faced significantly more aggressive opposition to worker organizing efforts than at Volkswagen, including from Republican elected officials and business groups that campaigned against the union vote.
David Johnston, a worker at the Mercedes battery plant since August 2022, said he jumped at the chance to work at Mercedes when he heard they were directly hiring.
But promises and claims that were made to him when he was hired became exposed as false or misleading, he said, such as workers never being forced to work Sundays, or the two-tier wage system, and unilateral changes made by the company.
“They have changed their own handbook many times since I was originally hired, in just two years. They have also changed our schedules. My schedule personally has changed about six times since I was hired on,” said Johnston.
These factors and his previous experience working under a union contract inspired him to support the unionization effort, he said. Johnston said Mercedes-Benz’s attempt to dissuade workers from unionizing had only assisted workers’ organizing efforts.
Mercedes-Benz moved to head off the union drive by eliminating a two-tier wage system at the plants. That decision came after it was announced 30% of workers had signed union authorization cards.
“That quite honestly backfired for the company. It really showed workers that they’ve been listening to us the whole time, but did not care about us,” said Johnston. “It wasn’t until we decided that we wanted to union that the company even would respond to us.
“This isn’t political, regardless of what the governor wants to say. This isn’t something that the UAW came down to us seeking us to join them. This was us going to them asking them to represent us, that we would be allowed to call the shots on how we organized, and this has been 100% worker-driven. The people that are going to unionize are the people that live in the south.”
Now workers will push for a first union contract at Volkswagen as the UAW sets its sights on expanding their union wins in the auto industry. The UAW has so far announced reaching 30% thresholds of workers signing union authorization cards at a Toyota engine plant in Troy, Missouri, in March and at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama, in February.
Sharon Block, a law professor at Harvard Law School and former NLRB official, said: “There are legal avenues open to the UAW to challenge the outcome.
“As Mercedes’ anti-union campaign ramped up, the UAW filed a number of unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, alleging that Mercedes crossed the line from strongarm to unlawful tactics in the plants. In addition, there is an investigation under way into whether Mercedes violated German law by undertaking such an aggressive anti-union campaign in the US.”
A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz said: “We look forward to continuing to work directly with our team members to ensure MBUSI is not only their employer of choice, but a place they would recommend to friends and family.”
Alabama Mercedes employees overwhelmingly vote against joining union, slowing UAW effort in South
TOM KRISHER and KIM CHANDLER Updated Fri, 17 May 2024
UAW Mercedes David Johnston, right, a worker at Mercedes, thanks UAW President Shawn Fain following a press conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on May 17, 2024, after workers at two Alabama Mercedes-Benz factories voted overwhelmingly against joining the United Auto Workers union.
(AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, voted overwhelmingly against joining the United Auto Workers on Friday, a setback in the union’s drive to organize plants in the historically nonunion South.
The workers voted 56% against the union, according to tallies released by the National Labor Relations Board, which ran the election.
The NLRB's final tally showed a vote of 2,642 to 2,045 workers against the union. A total of 5,075 voters were eligible to vote at an auto assembly plant and a battery factory in and near Vance, Alabama, not far from Tuscaloosa, the board said. Nearly 93% of workers eligible to vote cast ballots.
The NLRB said both sides have five business days to file objections to the election. The union must wait a year before seeking another vote.
UAW President Shawn Fain told workers the results were not what the union had hoped for, but he said the UAW eventually will prevail. “These courageous workers reached out to us because they want justice,” he said.
He likened the union organizing effort to the fight between David and Goliath: Sometimes Goliath wins a battle, “but ultimately, David will win the war,” he said. “These workers will win their fair share.”
Fain said whether the union challenges the election results will be up to UAW lawyers. The union already has filed unfair labor practice complaints against the company alleging that management and anti-union consultants tried to intimidate workers. The company has denied the allegations.
“Obviously we’re following through on complaints, both here and in Germany” where Mercedes is headquartered, Fain said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who has campaigned against the union, wrote in a post on X that auto manufacturing is one of the state’s crown jewel industries, and the state is committed to keeping it that way.
“Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW,” she wrote. “We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election.”
Worker Melissa Howell, who opposed joining the union, said she and other employees realized that the UAW was making lofty promises that it couldn't put in writing, including pay of $40 per hour, pensions and better benefits.
“They kept repeating over and over, ‘You’re not going to lose anything. We're going to start with what you have right now,'” Howell said. “That's when we really started letting people know, 'Hey, hold up. It's all negotiable.'"
But Rick Garner, 60, who works in quality control at the Mercedes assembly plant and supported joining the union, said workers were shown an anti-union video every day ahead of the vote, while union opponents targeted employees who they thought could be persuaded to vote no.
“I’m disappointed in the people that flipped and believed the persuaders,” Garner said.
The loss slows the UAW's effort to organize 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion auto factories largely in the South.
The voting at the two Mercedes factories comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.
The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less drawn to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial Midwest states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would have represented a huge plum for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements that Southern states have bestowed on foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
Ivey and other Southern governors warned that voting for union membership could, over time, cost workers their jobs because of the higher costs that the auto companies would have to bear.
Yet the UAW was campaigning from a stronger position than in the past. Besides its victory in Chattanooga, it achieved generous new contracts last fall after striking against Detroit Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Workers there gained 33% pay raises in contracts that will expire in 2028.
Top-scale production workers at GM, who now earn about $36 an hour, will make nearly $43 an hour by the end of their contract, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes has increased top production worker pay to $34 an hour, a move that some workers say was intended to fend off the UAW.
Shortly after workers ratified the Detroit contract, Fain announced a drive to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion plants, mostly run by foreign-based automakers with plants in Southern states. In addition, Tesla’s U.S. factories, which are nonunion, are in the UAW’s sights.
It turns out that the union had a tougher time in Alabama than in Tennessee, where the UAW narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with workers at the factory. The UAW has accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to try to intimidate workers.
In a statement Friday, Mercedes said it looks forward to “continuing to work directly with our team members so they can build superior vehicles for the world.”
The company said its focus is on providing a safe and supportive work environment.
In an interview before the votes were tallied, Marick Masters, a business professor emeritus at Wayne State University in Detroit, said a loss would be a setback for the union but suggested it would not deal a fatal blow to its membership drive. The union will have to analyze why it couldn’t garner more than 50% of the vote, given its statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing an election, Masters said. The UAW wouldn’t say what percentage or how many workers signed up.
The loss could lead workers at other nonunion plants to wonder why Mercedes employees voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn’t think it will slow down the union.
The union has said it will continue organizing efforts at nonunion plants run by Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda.
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Krisher reported from Detroit.
Mercedes-Benz Exec Implores Workers Ahead Of Union Vote: ‘Give Me A Chance’
Dave Jamieson
HUFFPOST Updated Fri, 17 May 2024
The top Mercedes-Benz executive in the U.S. had a not-so-subtle message for workers as they headed to the polls this week to vote in a potentially historic union election.
Federico Kochlowski, the new president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, wrote in a letter to employees at the plant in Vance, Alabama, that the election marked “an important decision about how we work together for years to come.”
“And although I respect everyone’s right to take a position on this matter, I prefer that we work on our future together without anyone else between us,” he wrote, according to a copy obtained by HuffPost.
Kochlowski sounded as though he was pleading with employees near the end of the letter, telling them he was “a person of my word.”
“When I tell you I’m going to do something, you can trust that I will do everything in my power to make it happen,” he wrote. “I hope you’ll give me a chance to do what I came here to do.”
More than 5,000 employees at the plant are voting Monday through Friday this week to determine whether they join the United Auto Workers. The UAW has struggled to unionize manufacturing plants in Alabama, so an election win would mark a major organizing victory.
A Mercedes-Benz spokesperson said the company “can’t comment on individual correspondence.” The letter viewed by HuffPost had been mailed out to an employee last Thursday.
The letter Federico Kochlowski sent to Mercedes-Benz employees in Alabama ahead of the union vote. He asked workers to "give me a chance." Obtained by HuffPost
Rick Webster, an employee at the plant and member of the union’s organizing committee, said workers had been pulled into meetings leading up to the vote to hear talking points against the union.
“It’s been nonstop anti-union. We’ve had to go to meetings every day to watch videos or have them read off a piece of paper,” he said. “They’ve spent all this money on all these commercials and everything else. ... They’re just blowing all kinds of money on this thing, and it just hasn’t fazed us.”
The letter from Kochlowski prompted a rebuke from IndustriALL, the global union federation based in Europe that has come out in support of the UAW. The group says the Vance plant is Mercedes’ only non-union plant in the world.
IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie sent a letter to Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius on Tuesday to say he was “appalled” by the company’s “ongoing and massive violations of the principle of neutrality” in the union election.
It’s been nonstop anti-union. We’ve had to go to meetings every day to watch videos or have them read off a piece of paper.Rick Webster, Vance plant employee
The agreement states: “In the event of organization campaigns, the company and its executives shall remain neutral.”
Høie wrote to Källenius, “I expect you to intervene immediately to ensure that neutrality prevails at least for the remaining four days of the vote.”
The news outlet Labor Notes reported earlier this week that Mercedes had enlisted a local pastor to speak to workers and discourage them from unionizing. “Mercedes-Benz has been an uplift for people like me,” Rev. Matthew Wilson said in a video aired at the plant, according to Labor Notes.
The UAW is coming off a landmark election win last month in Tennessee, where it unionized the Volkswagen plant after two previous failed attempts. The union is hoping a win this week in Alabama could turbocharge more organizing at auto plants in the South, despite continued political pressure from figures like Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who’s urged workers to vote against the UAW.
Webster predicted the union would prevail regardless.
“We’re gonna win this thing on Friday,” he said.
What It’s Like Voting Union Inside Alabama Mercedes Plant
In the election on whether to join the United Auto Workers, being held over five days this week at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, the union negotiated rules to try to minimize management influence. The vote is taking place inside the plant.
Workers are allowed to vote on company time, at designated intervals. A golf cart carrying a union observer, a company observer, and a National Labor Relations Board agent tours the 5,200-worker plant. The agent announces through a bullhorn, and by holding up a card, that workers in a certain area are now excused to go vote, if they choose to.
Jacob Ryan, a Mercedes worker and an observer for the union, said that management personnel are not supposed to be in the area at the time of the announcement. It is his job to make sure they are not herding workers to the polls.
Ryan said Mercedes had initially wanted its managers to be the ones making the announcement, but the union resisted.
Mercedes has been requiring people to watch anti-union videos at their team meetings at the start of the shift. The time for discussing quality or safety problems from the day before is cut short so people can watch these mandatory videos, according to Rob Lett, who works in the battery plant and has nine years’ seniority.
‘THIS IS OUR TIME’
On day three of the voting, Ryan was guardedly optimistic. He said that in an area he formerly worked in, the body shop, the best he had hoped for was a 50/50 split and that was now his prediction.
In the paint shop, Ryan said, “when the announcement came, people were like ‘This is our time! Let’s go! Let’s get it!’” Both union and anti-union stickers are being worn on hardhats and clothing.
Ryan was one of several Alabama auto workers who attended the Labor Notes Conference in Chicago in April. One workshop he attended was “Inoculation,“ about preparing your co-workers for management’s reaction to organizing.
Deb Sandifer, a materials handler, said the voting where she acted as a union challenger (observing the voting process on the union’s behalf and challenging potentially ineligible voters) took place in a curtained-off area that had been used to store empty boxes. She said management personnel were not in the area: “We made sure of that.“
She has seen more anti-union stickers in recent days and is “ready for the real thing”—the vote count on Friday morning, which she will be off work to observe.
‘WE WANT TO BE VISIBLE’
Kay Finklea, a 23-year employee who works in quality, said even at the last minute, union supporters are still answering a lot of questions.
“We are staying present so people can see that we are here,” she said. “We want to be visible in numbers. We are telling each other to have on your union attire, have people see you.“
Workers are required to wear a Mercedes shirt when they are on the clock—but they can unbutton it and have a union shirt underneath. They also have bracelets, caps, and vests.
Ryan said they had been handing out shirts and trying to set up “voting parties.“ That’s where people on a certain team get in early and wear their union shirts and go vote all together.
UAW's push to unionize factories in South faces latest test in vote at 2 Mercedes plants in Alabama The Canadian Press Thu, May 16, 2024
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union faces the latest test of its ambitious plan to unionize auto plants in the historically nonunion South when a vote ends Friday at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The voting at the two Mercedes factories — one an assembly plant, the other a battery-making facility — comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen's assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.
The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less drawn to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial Midwest states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would represent a huge plum for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements that Southern states have bestowed on foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
Some Southern governors have warned voting for union membership could, over time, cost workers their jobs because of the higher costs that the auto companies would have to bear.
Yet the UAW is operating from a stronger position than in the past. Besides its victory in Chattanooga, it achieved generous new contracts last fall after striking against Detroit Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Workers there gained 33% pay raises in contracts that will expire in 2028.
Top-scale production workers at GM, who now earn about $36 an hour, will make nearly $43 an hour by the end of their contract, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes has increased top production worker pay to $34 an hour, a move that some workers say was intended to fend off the UAW.
Shortly after workers ratified the Detroit contract, UAW President Shawn Fain announced a drive to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion plants, mostly run by foreign-based automakers with plants in Southern states. In addition, Tesla's U.S. factories, which are nonunion, are in the UAW's sights.
About 5,200 workers at the Mercedes plants are eligible to vote on the UAW, the union's first election there. Balloting is being run by the National Labor Relations Board.
The union may have a tougher time in Alabama than it did in Tennessee, where the UAW had narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with workers at the factory. The UAW has accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to try to intimidate workers.
In a statement Thursday, Mercedes denied interfering with or retaliating against workers who are pursuing union representation. The company has said it looks forward to all workers having a chance to cast a secret ballot “as well as having access to the information necessary to make an informed choice” on unionization.
If the union wins, it will be a huge momentum booster for the UAW as it seeks to organize more factories, said Marick Masters, a professor emeritus at Wayne State University's business school who has long studied the union.
“The other companies should be on notice," Masters said, “that the UAW will soon be knocking at their door more loudly than they have even in the recent past.”
If the Mercedes workers reject the union, Masters expects the UAW leadership to explore legal options. This could include arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that Mercedes' actions made it impossible for union representation to receive a fair election.
Though a loss would be a setback for the UAW, Masters suggested it would not deal a fatal blow to its membership drive. The union would have to analyze why it couldn't garner more than 50% of the vote, given its statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing an election, Masters said. The UAW wouldn't say what percentage or how many workers signed up.
A UAW loss, he said, could lead workers at other nonunion plants to wonder why Mercedes employees voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn't think an election loss would slow down the union.
“I would expect them to intensify their efforts, to try to be more thoughtful and see what went wrong,” he said.
If the UAW eventually manages to organize nonunion plants at Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda with contracts similar to those it won in Detroit, more automakers would have to bear the same labor costs. That potentially could lead the automakers to raise vehicle prices.
Some workers at Mercedes say the company treated them poorly until the UAW's organizing drive began, then offered pay raises, eliminated a lower tier of pay for new hires and even replaced the plant CEO.
Other Mercedes workers have said they prefer to see how the company treats them without the bureaucracy of a union.
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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
Tom Krisher And Kim Chandler, The Associated Press
Saturday, May 11, 2024
The United Auto Workers faces a key test in the South with upcoming vote at Alabama Mercedes plant
Fri, May 10, 2024
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — After 20 years at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama, Brett Garrard said he is “not falling for the lies anymore” and will vote for a union.
The company has repeatedly promised to improve pay and conditions, but Garrard said those promises have not materialized.
“Mercedes claims that we’re a family, one team, one fight. But over the years, I’ve learned one thing: This is not how I treat my family,” Garrard said.
A month after workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee overwhelmingly voted to unionize, the United Auto Workers is aiming for a key victory at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama. More than 5,000 workers at the facility in Vance and a nearby battery plant will vote next week on whether to join the union.
A win at Mercedes would be a major prize for the UAW, which is trying to crack union resistance in the Deep South, where states have lured foreign auto manufacturers with large tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
Garrard, 50, and other workers supporting the union told The Associated Press that their concerns include stagnating pay that has not kept up with inflation, insurance costs, irregular work shifts and a sense of being disposable in a plant where they assemble luxury vehicles that can cost more than $100,000.
“Yes, we’re Southern autoworkers, but we deserve autoworker pay,” Garrard said.
Mercedes currently advertises a starting hourly wage of $23.50 for full-time production members with pay topping out at about $34 in four years, according to a state worker training website. Several workers said they company recently increased pay only to try to stave off the union push.
Jacob Ryan, 34, has worked for Mercedes for 10 years, starting as a temporary worker around $17 per hour for “the same exact work” before being hired full time. Ryan, who says inflation is eating into employee paychecks, said he pays close to $1,200 each month for his son’s day care and his daughter’s after-school care.
“None of it goes to the employees. We’re stuck where we were, paying way more for everything,” Ryan said.
Ryan said the union push is getting more traction this time after the UAW won more generous pay for workers with Detroit’s three automakers.
After a bitter series of strikes against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall, UAW members made big economic gains under new contracts. Top production workers at GM, for instance, now earn $36 an hour, or about $75,000 a year excluding overtime, benefits and profit sharing, which topped $10,000 this year. By the end of the contract in 2028, top-scale GM workers would make $42.95 per hour, about $89,000 per year.
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. said in a statement that the company looks forward to all workers having a chance to cast a secret ballot "as well as having access to the information necessary to make an informed choice” on unionization.
The company said its focus is to “provide a safe and supportive work environment” for workers.
"We believe open and direct communication with our Team Members is the best path forward to ensure continued success,” the statement said.
Worker Melissa Howell, 56, said that when she casts her ballot next week — voting begins Monday and will end Friday — she’ll vote against the union.
Howell, a quality team leader who has worked at the Mercedes plant for 19 years, is suspicious of the UAW after a bribery and embezzlement scandal that landed two former union presidents in prison. She grew up in Michigan and heard relatives employed by automakers speak poorly of the union.
Mercedes, she said, treated workers badly for a couple of years, aiding the union’s efforts to organize. But the company began improving conditions after the UAW started recruiting during the past few months, she said. The company did away with a lower tier of wages for new hires. The old plant CEO was replaced with a new one who walks the factory floor and listens to workers, she said.
“I feel like the improvements the company is making, it’s getting people to think long and hard,” Howell said.
Wearing a “Union YES” button at a rally outside a Tuscaloosa church, David Johnston, 26, said he thinks momentum is swinging in favor of the union.
“Everybody’s confident. Everybody knows we are going to win,” Johnston said.
Organizing workers at Mercedes will be tougher than it was at Volkswagen’s plant in Tennessee, largely because the UAW has not previously recruited enough workers to earn a vote at the Mercedes plant, said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University.
But the overwhelming Volkswagen win on the third plantwide vote since 2014 gives the union huge momentum heading into next week’s election, Wheaton said. At Volkswagen, the union had experience recruiting at the plant and knew workers from previous organizing drives, which ended with narrow losses, he said. A UAW win at Mercedes would be a bigger victory than at Volkswagen because it would come on the first try.
Wheaton said he wouldn't be surprised if the UAW wins at Mercedes, “but it’s tougher if you don’t have that same infrastructure in place.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and five other Southern governors have urged workers to resist the union, saying it could threaten jobs and stymie growth of the automotive industry in the region.
Ivey said in a statement that Mercedes has “positively impacted” tens of thousands of Alabama families since the plant opened in 1993 but the union "interest here is ensuring money from hardworking Alabama families ends up in the UAW bank account."
The Alabama vote comes on the heels of two high-profile labor fights in the state — an effort to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer and the end of a nearly two-year strike at Warrior Met Coal, where miners said they took cuts in pay and benefits several years ago to keep the mines open but did not see those benefits restored with the company regained its footing.
Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, said unions have a long history of helping build the middle class in the state.
“This vote can be a turning point for Alabama for organized labor who is already seeing a rise in membership," said Jones, the son of a steelworker and grandson of a coal miner.
Kim Chandler And Tom Krisher, The Associated Press
Thursday, May 09, 2024
Pro-Trump thinktank tells Sunak to take US diplomacy lessons from David Lammy
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has received praise from a surprising source
David Cameron warns Donald Trump's 'peace plan' would appease Putin
A right wing British think tank which supports Donald Trump has praised David Lammy for his US diplomacy.
The Legatum Institute has told Rishi Sunak and the Tories to learn lessons from Labour’s shadow foreign secretary after he made another successful trip to Washington DC ahead of what many think will be a Labour general election victory.
The think tank, funded by hedge fund billionaire Christopher Chandler, has recently opened a UK-US Special Relationship Unit at its offices in Mayfair which is pushing to promote UK/ US diplomatic relationship.
The thinktank has been impressed by the way that Mr Lammy has reached out to both sides of the aisle in the US and even made attempts to connect with the Trump camp.
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Archive)
Mr Lammy went as far as to shock many by defending Mr Trump over his comments on Nato, claiming the former President is “misunderstood” and that under his presidency the alliance had become “much better funded”.
Sarah Elliot , senior adviser for the UK-US Special Relationship Unit, told The Independent: “David Lammy has been doing a high profile tour of the US, almost as a practice run if Labour do win the upcoming general election and he becomes the Foreign Secretary.
“David Lammy has also softened his usually negative commentary on former President Donald Trump, a diplomatic move in case Donald Trump wins the upcoming US election.
“Lammy said Labour was committed to the special relationship regardless of whoever wins the US election, and even spoke positively of Trump’s calls for increased defence spending, and name-dropping Sen JD Vance more than once.
Lammy defended Trump over Nato (via REUTERS)
“Such diplomatic leadership will surely put pressure on the UK conservatives, seeing the Labour Party priming US politicos for their future prominence.”
Labour’s diplomatic moves have been closely watched by political interests on both sides of the Atlantic because of the possibility that Trump could win back the White House almost at the same time Sir Keir Starmer could enter Downing Street.
Mr Lammy met with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday during his visit to Washington.
He also gave a keynote speech to the Hudson Institute where he said that he and Mr Trump could find “common cause,” suggesting that as a “good Christian boy” and “small-c conservative,” he shares some views with Republicans.
He added: “You’re going to struggle to find any politician in the Western world who hasn’t had things to say in response to Donald Trump.”
Mr Lammy’s softening over Trump is a huge turn around since 2018 when he wrote for Time magazine: “Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath.
“He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long.”
Saturday, May 04, 2024
New Japanese lily species identified, 1st addition to sukashiyuri group in 110 years
Classification of these plants bloom to double the number of taxonomic groups through morphological study, DNA analysis
OSAKA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
IMAGE:
AMONG THE CHARACTERISTICS DIFFERENTIATING THIS LILY FROM OTHER SUKASHIYURI ARE ITS LEAVES, WHICH CURVE ALMOST LIKE A CLAW AT THE TIPS.
A new species of the Japanese lily known as sukashiyuri has been identified for the first time since 1914 by a research team led by Dr. Seita Watanabe, a specially appointed assistant professor at the Botanical Gardens and the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University.
Dr. Watanabe questioned the classification used up to now for sukashiyuri group, which usually has orange flowers. These lilies have high ornamental value, having been exported from Japan for more than two centuries. There have been only four taxonomic groups, but Dr. Watanabe and his team sought evidence to prove that there were more.
Traveling across Japan to observe the lilies, record images, gather specimens, and obtain DNA from plant materials, the research team members conducted a detailed analysis of the form and structure of the plants and their DNA. The results of their extensive work revises the conventional classification into eight taxons, including what they have named Lilium pacificum, the first new species of Japanese lily in 110 years.
Lilium pacificum grows on coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean on Honshu from Ibaraki Prefecture south to Shizuoka Prefecture and the Izu Islands.
“It has an interesting characteristic: the tips of its leaves are curved into a claw-like shape,” Dr. Watanabe enthused. “Based on the new understanding of these eight taxonomic groups, we found that seven are endemic to Japan, each adapted to its environment, whether coastal or mountainous, and evolving unique traits.”
Dr. Watanabe added: “Our research shows that these plants have differentiated through complex processes, and we hope that our work will provide clues for speciation studies. In the past, individual differences may have been overlooked because of the apparent simplicity of the plants. Through this research, I was reminded of the importance of morphological observation.”
Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
Biosystematic studies on Lilium (Liliaceae) II. Evolutionary history and taxon recognition in the L. maculatum–L. pensylvanicum complex in Japan
Nature publishes the largest "tree of life" of flowering plants to date
UCO researcher Manuel de la Estrella is part of an international team, which has developed the "tree of life" of flowering plants as a tool with a multitude of uses, from the classification and identification of plants, to conservation
UCO researcher Manuel de la Estrella is part of an international team, led by the Kew Botanical Gardens, which has developed the "tree of life" of flowering plants as a tool with a multitude of uses, from the classification and identification of plants, to conservation in the face of climate change
Charles Darwin, the father of the Theory of Evolution, was haunted by a certain quandaryuntil his death: the sudden appearance and rapid diversification of plants that have flowers and fruits, angiosperms, which represent 90% of the plants on the planet. For him it was an "abominable mystery" that numerous subsequent studies have sought to clarify. An international study published in the journal Nature, and in which Manual Estrella, a researcher in the Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology at the University of Cordoba Manuel de la Estrella, has participated, sheds a little more light on the mystery by generating a large tree of life of angiosperms after analyzing 9,500 species, 200 fossils and 1.8 billion "letters" of genetic code.
The study, spearheaded by the Kew Botanical Garden an institution that houses one of the largest collections of plants, involved 279 scientists from 139 organizations and 27 countries. This broad participation facilitated access to collections around the world to analyze DNA, compare different sequences and establish relationships between different plant species. Thus, they have worked both with recently collected samples (with well-preserved DNA), and with samples preserved in herbaria, some more than 200 years old, and whose DNA was degraded.
Technological development is what has made it possible to analyze so much information and reconstruct the history of flowering plants' evolution. Previous studies focused on obtaining genetic information from chloroplasts, a part of plant cells related to photosynthesis and which appear in high quantities in plant cells. The problem is that they offered information on just a few genes. Now, thanks to a molecular analysis tool (Angiosperms353), the team has been able to focus on revealing the information of the nuclear genome, another part of cells that, unlike chloroplasts, is not numerous, but rather unique, offering more information. With this tool they have managed to sequence 353 genes from the DNA of each plant. This information, 15 times greater than that from previous studies, has resulted in the development of the largest tree of life so far for angiosperms.
In addition, they have analyzed data from 200 plant fossils, which served to reconstruct the temporal range of kinship relationships between species and verify that plants underwent very rapid diversification, giving rise to more than 80% of the main lineages that exist today, shortly after their origination.
UCO professor Manuel de la Estrella worked with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship at the Kew Botanical Garden, studying Detarioideae, abundant plants in the tropical area of Africa and belonging to the Leguminosae (pea or carob) family. He states that the tree "will serve as a foundation for many more subsequent studies, thanks to the large amount of information it offers." These studies that can range from the classification and identification of plants, to the discovery of new medicinal compounds, bioengineering, genetic improvement, and the conservation of plants in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Reference:
Zuntini, A. R., Carruthers, T. et al, Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms, Nature (2024). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07324-0, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0
A team at the University of Cordoba has developed a methodology that defines the cultivable space between two-axis photovoltaic modules, with the aim of promoting the conversion of existing plants over to agrivoltaic production
In Alcarras de Carla Simón, the Solé family glimpses the end of its traditional and not-very-profitable peach plantation due to the arrival of solar panels. The conflict between land use for sustainable energy vs agricultural production is a hot topic that is reflected in cultural products, and also in research.
Agrivoltaics, which is defined as the shared use of land for agricultural and photovoltaic production, is presented as a strategy to resolve this conflict, and the TEP215 - Physics for Renewable Energies research group at the University of Cordoba seeks to promote these types of plants through its research. In one of their latest works they have developed a model that is able to gauge the cultivable space between two-axes solar collectors at existing photovoltaic plants. This type of two-axis module moves following the sun, like a kind of sunflower, to maximize its performance.
"In this work, we chose a type of photovoltaic installation that already existed to see whether we could redirect it and integrate crops for agricultural production into these existing facilities," said Rafael López, a Professor of Applied Physics.
The methodology was developed based on a theoretical simulation of solar astronomy and the spatial geometry of a photovoltaic plant with this type of two-axis solar panel, and indicates the areas in which crops could be located without interfering with the movement of the solar panels or creating shadows; that is, without reducing photovoltaic production.
Another of the authors, a researcher at the Department of Electrical and Automatic Engineering Luis Manuel Fernández, points out that "the work also takes into account backtracking, which is a methodology developed by the group based on a process that prevents the panels from casting shadows on each other during their movement."
Using an actual photovoltaic installation located in Cordoba, "El Molino," with two-axis solar trackers and backtracking, the model reveals the cultivable areas between panels. The simulation at that plant revealed that 74% of the land between the panels is cultivable by crops less than 1.4 m high.
This model could be applied, refining and adjusting parameters, to other existing plants to understand the possibilities of shifting over to agrivoltaic; that is, combining photovoltaic and agricultural production, "both of which are productive and profitable," stated Rafael López.
"This work represents an advance in the possible conversion and agrivoltaic use of existing large photovoltaic plants, improving their sustainability, contributing to the necessary deployment of agrivoltaics, and advancing the fight against climate change," the researchers said.
This system entails a win-win relationship since the crops would also benefit from the panels' shading, especially in extreme climates, maintaining soil moisture for longer.
The establishment of legislation on agrivoltaics and field trials with different types of crops are the next steps to be taken for this type of land use to be implemented.
Reference
Varo-Martínez, M. & Fernández-Ahumada, L.M. & Ramírez-Faz, J.C. & Ruiz-Jiménez, R. & López-Luque, R., 2024. "Methodology for the estimation of cultivable space in photovoltaic installations with dual-axis trackers for their reconversion to agrivoltaic plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C). DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.122952
CREDIT: CRAIG CHANDLER/UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING;/UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
Plant life first emerged on land about 550 million years ago, and an international research team co-led by University of Nebraska–Lincoln computational biologist Yanbin Yin has cracked the genomic code of its humble beginnings, which made possible all other terrestrial life on Earth, including humans.
The team — about 50 scientists in eight countries – has generated the first genomic sequence of four strains of Zygnema algae, the closest living relatives of land plants. Their findings shed light on the ability of plants to adjust to the environment and provide a rich basis for future research.
The study was published May 1 in the journal Nature Genetics.
“This is an evolutionary story,” said Yin, who led the research team with a scientist from Germany. “It answers the fundamental question of how the earliest land plants evolved from aquatic freshwater algae.”
Yin’s lab in the Nebraska Food for Health Center and the Department of Food Science and Technology has a long history of studying plant cell wall carbohydrates, a major component of dietary fibers for humans and farm animals; lignocelluloses for biofuel production; and natural barriers to protect crops from pathogens and environmental stresses.
All current plant life on land burst from a one-off evolutionary event known as plant terrestrialization from ancient freshwater algae. The first land plants, known as embryophyta within the clade of streptophyta, emerged on land about 550 million years ago — their arrival fundamentally changing the surface and atmosphere of the planet. They made all other terrestrial life, including humans and animals, possible by serving as an evolutionary foundation for future flora and food for fauna.
The researchers worked with four algal strains from the genus Zygnema — two from a culture collection in the United States and two from Germany. Scientists combined a range of cutting-edge DNA sequencing techniques to determine the entire genome sequences of these algae. These methods enabled scientists to generate complete genomes for these organisms at the level of whole chromosomes — something that had never been done before on this group of algae. Comparing the genomes with those of other plants and algae led to the discovery of specific overabundances of cell wall enzymes, signalling genes and environmental response factors.
A unique feature of these algae revealed by microscopic imaging — performed at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, the Universität Hamburg in Germany and UNL’s Center for Biotechnology — is a thick and highly sticky layer of carbohydrates outside the cell walls, called the mucilage layer. Xuehuan Feng, the first author of the paper and a Husker postdoctoral research associate, developed a new and effective DNA extraction method to remove this mucilage layer for high purity and high molecular DNAs.
“It is fascinating that the genetic building blocks, whose origins predate land plants by millions of years, duplicated and diversified in the ancestors of plants and algae and, in doing so, enabled the evolution of more specialized molecular machinery,” said Iker Irisarri of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change and co-first author of the paper.
The team’s other co-leader, Jan de Vries of the University of Göttingen, said, “Not only do we present a valuable, high-quality resource for the entire plant scientific community, who can now explore these genome data, our analyses uncovered intricate connections between environmental responses.”
The four multicellular Zygnema algae belong to the class Zygnematophyceae, the closest living relatives of land plants; it is a class of freshwater and semi-terrestrial algae with more than 4,000 described species. Zygnematophyceae possess adaptations to withstand terrestrial stressors, such as desiccation, ultraviolet light, freezing and other abiotic stresses. The key to understanding these adaptations is the genome sequences. Before this paper, genome sequences were only available for four unicellular Zygnematophyceae.
Yin said this research aligns with one of the National Science Foundation’s 10 Big Ideas — “Understanding the Rules of Life” — to address societal challenges, from clean water to climate resilience. The discovery also holds significance in applied sciences, such as bioenergy, water sustainability and carbon sequestration.
“Our gene network analyses reveal co-expression of genes, especially those for cell wall synthesis and remodifications that were expanded and gained in the last common ancestor of land plants and Zygnematophyceae,” Yin said. “We shed light on the deep evolutionary roots of the mechanism for balancing environmental responses and multicellular cell growth.”
The international research collaboration includes about 50 researchers from 20 research institutions in eight countries — the United States, Germany, France, Austria, Canada, China, Israel and Singapore. Other Husker researchers on the team are Chi Zhang, professor of biological sciences, and Jeffrey Mower, professor of agronomy and horticulture.
Funding for UNL’s portion of the research came primarily from Yin’s NSF CAREER award, the Nebraska Tobacco Settlement Biomedical Research Enhancement Fund, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy.
Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological complexity is underpinned by intricate networks of genes, whose coordinated action shapes plant bodies through various molecular mechanisms. All of these magnificent forms burst forth from a one-off evolutionary event: when plants conquered Earth’s surface, known as plant terrestrialization. Among those algae most closely related to land plants, diverse body types are found – ranging from single-celled algae to more complex cell filaments. From this group of relatives, an international group of researchers led by the Universities of Göttingen and Nebraska–Lincoln has now generated the first genome data of such complex specimens, on four filamentous “star algae” of the genus Zygnema. Their results were published in Nature Genetics.
The researchers worked with four algal strains in total, two from a culture collection in the USA and two that have been kept safe in the Algal Culture Collection at Göttingen University (SAG). The research involved more than 50 scientists from nine countries who combined a range of cutting-edge sequencing techniques to elucidate the entire DNA sequence of these algae. The advanced methods enabled them to generate complete genomes for these organisms at the level of whole chromosomes – something that had never been done before on this group of algae. Comparing the genes on the genomes with those of other plants and algae led to the discovery of specific overabundances of signalling genes and environmental response factors. Dr Iker Irisarri, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, explains: “Many of these genes underpin molecular functions that were important for the emergence of the first multicellular terrestrial plants. It is fascinating that the genetic building blocks, whose origins predate land plants by millions of years, duplicated and diversified in the ancestors of plants and algae and, in doing so, enabled the evolution of more specialized molecular machinery”.
Professor Jan de Vries, University of Göttingen, says: “Not only do we present a valuable, high-quality resource for the entire plant scientific community, who can now explore these genome data, our analyses uncovered intricate connections between environmental responses. This sheds light on one of land plants’ most important features: their ability to adjust their growth and development so that it aligns with the environment in which they dwell – a process known as developmental plasticity.”
Original publication: Feng X et al: “Genomes of multicellular algal sisters to land plants illuminate signaling network evolution”,Nature Genetics 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01737-3
Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological complexity is underpinned by intricate networks of genes, whose coordinated action shapes plant bodies through various molecular mechanisms. All of these magnificent forms burst forth from a one-off evolutionary event: when plants conquered Earth’s surface, known as plant terrestrialization. Among those algae most closely related to land plants, diverse body types are found – ranging from single-celled algae to more complex cell filaments. From this group of relatives, an international group of researchers led by the Universities of Göttingen and Nebraska–Lincoln has now generated the first genome data of such complex specimens, on four filamentous “star algae” of the genus Zygnema. Their results were published in Nature Genetics.
The researchers worked with four algal strains in total, two from a culture collection in the USA and two that have been kept safe in the Algal Culture Collection at Göttingen University (SAG). The research involved more than 50 scientists from nine countries who combined a range of cutting-edge sequencing techniques to elucidate the entire DNA sequence of these algae. The advanced methods enabled them to generate complete genomes for these organisms at the level of whole chromosomes – something that had never been done before on this group of algae. Comparing the genes on the genomes with those of other plants and algae led to the discovery of specific overabundances of signalling genes and environmental response factors. Dr Iker Irisarri, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, explains: “Many of these genes underpin molecular functions that were important for the emergence of the first multicellular terrestrial plants. It is fascinating that the genetic building blocks, whose origins predate land plants by millions of years, duplicated and diversified in the ancestors of plants and algae and, in doing so, enabled the evolution of more specialized molecular machinery”.
Professor Jan de Vries, University of Göttingen, says: “Not only do we present a valuable, high-quality resource for the entire plant scientific community, who can now explore these genome data, our analyses uncovered intricate connections between environmental responses. This sheds light on one of land plants’ most important features: their ability to adjust their growth and development so that it aligns with the environment in which they dwell – a process known as developmental plasticity.”
Original publication: Feng X et al: “Genomes of multicellular algal sisters to land plants illuminate signaling network evolution”,Nature Genetics 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01737-3
The filamentous streptophyte alga Zygnema growing in a cell culture flask
Microscope image of Zygnema circumcarinatum, a filamentous alga with a star-shaped chloroplast. Because of this feature, algae of the genus Zygnema are also called "star algae" (scale is 50 µm, corresponding to 0.05 mm)
Recent findings that plants employ a drought-survival mechanism to also defend against nutrient-sucking pests could inform future crop breeding programmes aimed at achieving better broadscale pest control.
Using an advanced fluorescent biosensor (ABACUS2) that can detect tiny changes in plant hormone concentrations at the cellular scale, scientists saw that abscisic acid (ABA), usually linked with drought response, started closing the plant’s entry gates within 5 hours of being infested with spider mites.
Microscopic leaf pores (stomata) are important for gas exchange but are also the major sites for water loss. When there is a water shortage, plants act to conserve water by producing the drought stress hormone ABA to close their stomata.
Coincidentally, the closure of stomata also obstructs the preferred entry points for nutrient-sucking pests like spider mites. The two-spotted spider mite is one of the most economically damaging pests – it’s not fussy and attacks a broad range of more than 1000 plants, including 150 crops. Barely visible to the naked eye, these tiny pests pierce and then suck dry plant cells. They can build up to enormous numbers very quickly and can be one of the most destructive pests in the garden and horticulture industry, spoiling house plants and reducing yields of vegetables, fruit and salad crops.
There has been debate about ABA's role in pest resistance. Initially, it was noticed that stomata close when plants are attacked by nutrient-sucking pests, leading to various hypotheses, including that this closure could be a plant response to losing water due to the pests' feeding or even that the pests act to close stomata to prevent plants from sending distress volatiles to pest predators.
In a collaboration between the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP) in Spain and Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU), researchers studying how thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) responds to the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) have determined the plant leaps into action almost immediately, employing the same hormone as for drought to also block spider mites from penetrating plant tissues and, as a result, significantly reducing pest damage.
The findings published in Plant Physiology found the peak closure of stomata is achieved within a time frame of 24 to 30 hours.
“Open stomata are natural apertures where pests like aphids and mites insert their specialised feeding structures, called stylets, to pierce and then suck out the nutrient rich contents from individual sub-epidermal cells”, said Irene Rosa-Díaz, who carried out the spider mite experiments at SLCU and CBGP during her PhD with Professor Isabel Diaz at the Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Universidad Polytécnica de Madrid, and National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (UPM-INIA) .
The plant leaps into action almost immediately, employing the same hormone as for drought to also block spider mites from penetrating plant tissues and, as a result, significantly reducing pest damage.
“We were able to show mite infestation induced a rapid stomatal closure response, with the plant hormone ABA rising in the leaf tissues – highest in stomatal and vascular cells, but also all other leaf cells measured. We showed through multiple different experiments that stomatal closure hinders mites. Plants that were pre-treated with ABA to induce stomatal closure and then infested with mites showed decreased mite damage, while ABA-deficient mutant plants where stomata cannot close well and plants that have a more stomata are more susceptible to mites.”
Alexander Jones’ research group at SLCU develops in vivo biosensors that are revealing hormone dynamics in plants at unprecedented resolution, including ABACUS2 that quantified cellular ABA in these mite experiments.
Dr Jones said the study highlights the important interactions between biotic and abiotic stresses in plants: “Early warning cues from mite feeding induces a cascade of immune signalling molecules, including jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA), among other chemical responses. Together, these results show that ABA accumulation and stomatal closure are also key defence mechanisms employed to reduce mite damage.
“The next step is to investigate what the initial mite-produced signal is that the plant is detecting that then results in ABA accumulation. The biochemical mechanisms being used by the plant as signals of pest attack could be anything, including mite feeding vibrations, mite salivary proteins, chemicals produced by the mites or mite activity, direct cell damage (wounds) or other molecules associated with the mites.
“Identifying the initial triggers could potentially be used to develop new crop treatments to arm the plants ahead of predicted pest infestations. Importantly, efforts to select for plants with altered stomatal traits, which already must balance a photosynthesis vs water conservation trade-off, could also consider resistance to damaging pests.”
Reference
Irene Rosa-Díaz, James Rowe, Ana Cayuela-Lopez, Vicent Arbona, Isabel Díaz, Alexander M. Jones (2024) Spider mite herbivory induces an abscisic acid-driven stomatal defense. Plant Physiology
