UK

Government ‘minded’ to intervene over Telegraph sale deal – Culture Secretary

ARAB OIL BARONS CAN OWN FOOTBALL TEAMS BUT NOT NEWSPAPERS

Henry Saker-Clark, PA Deputy Business Editor
Wed, 22 November 2023 

The Government is considering a public interest intervention into an agreement which could hand an Abu Dhabi-backed fund control of the Telegraph newspaper, the Culture Secretary has announced.

Lucy Frazer said in a written statement she was “minded to” issue a Public Interest Intervention Notice, which could lead to an investigation by regulators.

It comes after Abu Dhabi-backed fund RedBird IMI said on Monday that it was poised to take control of the Telegraph Media Group and fellow publisher The Spectator after striking a deal with previous owners the Barclay family to help repay outstanding debts.

Telegraph Media Group entered receivership around five months ago

 (Jonatha Brady/PA)

But a group of Conservative MPs called on ministers to use the UK’s national security laws to investigate the potential deal.

The Culture Secretary said the possible intervention related to “concerns I have that there may be public interest considerations” over the loan to the Barclays and subsequent agreement with RedBird IMI – a joint venture between US firm RedBird Capital and International Media Investments of Abu Dhabi.

Ms Frazer said she had contacted Lloyds, the Barclays and RedBird IMI to inform them over the potential notice and given the parties until 3pm on Thursday to respond to her concerns.

It the Government decides to issue the notice, media regulator Ofcom would then assess public interest concerns over the move.

Meanwhile, the UK’s competition regulator – the Competition and Markets Authority – would also look into competition worries.

In the summer, lenders at Lloyds placed the media titles into receivership and sought potential buyers to help cover over £1 billion owed by the Barclays to the bank.

But the bank paused the sale process on Tuesday until at least early December to consider the fresh agreement.

RedBird IMI, which is led by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker, said it would provide a loan of up to £600 million, secured against the publications, with IMI also providing a similar loan against other Barclay-linked assets.

The fund said the deal includes an option to turn the loans into equity which would hand it control of the newspaper and magazine. It said it planned to “exercise this option at an early opportunity”.

The Spectator magazine was being sold in a separate process (Alamy/PA)

US-based RedBird said it would take over “management and operational responsibility” in the deal.

Any deal would need to receive clearance from the bank’s own regulatory process, alongside political scrutiny.

A raft of potential suitors including hedge-fund millionaire and GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall, Daily Mail publisher DMGT, Yorkshire Post owner National World and German publisher Axel Springer had all been linked with a takeover move for the Telegraph.

Meanwhile, DMGT and Rupert Murdoch’s News UK were both reportedly interested in a move for The Spectator.

Culture Secretary minded to intervene in Abu Dhabi’s Telegraph takeover

Christopher Williams

TELEGRAPH
Wed, 22 November 2023 

Ms Frazer has given the parties until 3pm on Thursday to respond to her concerns - Anadolu Agency

The Culture Secretary has told Lloyds Banking Group that she is minded to intervene to safeguard press freedom as it seeks to complete a £1.2bn debt repayment deal that would hand control of The Telegraph to a fund backed by Abu Dhabi.

Lucy Frazer has written to Lloyds, the Barclay family and RedBird IMI signalling that she will issue a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN) that would prompt regulators to investigate. She asked for more information about the complex arrangements and gave the parties until 3pm on Thursday to respond to her concerns.

The Barclay family are attempting to repay £1.2bn in overdue loans to Lloyds with new lending mostly sourced from Abu Dhabi royalty. RedBird IMI, a media investment fund, would be the vehicle for £600m of the total and would seek to immediately convert its loan into ownership of The Telegraph.

The Barclay family lost control of The Telegraph and The Spectator magazine in June. It has agreed new loans backed by Manchester City owner and UAE vice-president Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. Redbird IMI is mostly funded by him and his business in Abu Dhabi would provide the balance of the debt directly to the Barclay family.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, said: “Of number one importance is editorial independence of The Telegraph, which is absolutely critical. It is one of our oldest newspapers and a significant newspaper of record. Many will be concerned at the thought that it could be handed over to a foreign government.”

Ms Frazer has said she is minded to intervene in the deal despite allegations of threats by Lloyds.

The bank’s chief corporate affairs officer Andrew Walton warned officials in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) that using powers to protect the public interest in free expression risked angering Lloyds’s powerful shareholders.

Sources close to the discussions on Monday said the comments were interpreted as a threat, an interpretation Mr Walton rejected.

He said: “We made abundantly clear to the Government the significant implications to us and to our shareholders of a PIIN at this stage. It was not a threat but it was a very clear warning.”

Lloyds is lobbying hard for the PIIN to address only the conversion of the RedBird IMI loan into shares and not the overall debt repayment plan.

The bank fears that a broad investigation would mean the funds are not delivered to the Barclay family in time for a court hearing in the British Virgin Islands on December 4.

If the December 4 hearing goes ahead, a crucial entity in the chain of ownership would be liquidated and there would be no prospect of a full repayment of the £1.2bn debt.

In that scenario, Lloyds would be forced to restart an auction that was paused on Tuesday after its dealings with the Barclay family angered bidders including a consortium led by Sir Paul Marshall, the publisher of The Daily Mail and National World, a local newspaper group.

Mr Walton and his colleagues are instead lobbying for the debt repayment to be allowed to go through. They want Ms Frazer to trigger an investigation only into the second stage of the plan, the conversion of RedBird IMI’s loan into shares in The Telegraph. The fund has said it would cooperate with such a probe and that it would protect The Telegraph’s independence.

The conversion of the RedBird IMI loan into Telegraph ownership is planned for as soon as possible after the debt is repaid. An investigation of this stage alone could leave The Telegraph in regulatory limbo for several months, technically owned by the Barclay family but with rules in place to prevent them making changes to its operations.

If RedBird IMI’s Abu Dhabi links ultimately prompt Ms Frazer to block a takeover, there would be further uncertainty over ownership.

Dutch election: what happens next?

Here's what happens next after (FASCIST) Wilders' PVV (Freedom Party) won 35 seats in parliament ahead of the centre-right on 23 and left wing parties 26 seats, according to exit polls.

Richard CARTER
Wed, 22 November 2023 

The voting is just the start (Sem van der Wal)

Geert Wilders' far-right party has won most seats in the Netherlands' election, according to exit polls, but the country's fragmented political system means months of talking will be needed before the next government is formed.

Here's what happens next after Wilders' PVV (Freedom Party) won 35 seats in parliament ahead of the centre-right on 23 and left wing parties 26 seats, according to exit polls.

- 'Complex and exciting' negotiations -

76 is the magic number. That's how many seats in the 150-seat parliament any coalition needs to govern.

As soon as the final results are in, the calculators will be coming out to see what combination of the many competing parties can get to that number.

The new House of Representatives meets to begin the business of forming a cabinet -- "a complex and exciting process", as the parliament's own website describes it.

First, political parties appoint a "scout" to kick off initial talks.

Then parliament appoints an "informateur" to scope out the possible contours of a coalition agreement. Before 2012, this person was appointed by the monarch.

When it looks like a group of parties can work together, in comes a "formateur", who is almost always the person who won the election. That person starts the sensitive work of building a potential cabinet.

If all is agreed, the parties sign a coalition agreement and the new government sets out its plans in parliament, followed by a vote of confidence.

- How long does this take? -

Ages. Parties compete to get as much of their manifesto into the coalition agreement as possible, and that's even before the jockeying for ministerial jobs.

The last government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte took a record 271 days to form. It could take even longer this time.

"Amid high fragmentation, government formation remains almost even more important than the exact election result," said Herman Betten from the Teneo Research Group.

Most analysts do not expect a government to be formed before mid-2024.

- Who's in charge then? -

Until a new government is officially sworn in, the outgoing cabinet and prime minister run the country, in this case Mark Rutte.

Rutte prompted the early elections when his cabinet collapsed over immigration policy and he announced he was leaving national politics.

Things tend to run pretty smoothly in the interim period. This is a tried-and-tested process, as never in Dutch history has one party gained more than 50 percent of the vote.

- How stable are coalitions? -

The problem with the system is that with such slim majorities in parliament, a coalition is always at the mercy of a smaller party withdrawing support.

Already coalitions must incorporate a wide range of viewpoints from parties that are often relatively far apart politically and which have been attacking each other during the campaign.

Rutte's last coalition was especially fragile and ultimately fell apart over "irreconcilable differences" on immigration.

- What next for Rutte? -

Best-known internationally for cycling to work, sometimes munching an apple along the way, Rutte was a strong voice in Europe, sometimes irking his southern colleagues with his focus on fiscal discipline.

Speculation is rife he wants to become the new secretary-general of the NATO alliance when Jens Stoltenberg steps down.

Rutte has played down the idea, although admitting it would be an "interesting role". He said he believes the post should go to a woman.

ric/tw

Myanmar fireworks festival muted as clashes spread


AFP
Wed, 22 November 2023 

Men stand under a hot air balloon as it's about to be released during the Tazaungdaing festival in Myanmar (STR)

A brightly patterned hot air balloon spitting fireworks soared into the night sky above Myanmar's Shan state as a much-loved festival returned, but crowds stayed away from the military-backed event as violent clashes swell across the country.

Tuesday marked the return of the Tazaungdaing festival to the city of Taunggyi after a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic and unrest following the military seizing power in 2021.

The usually riotous event sees teams load batteries of fireworks into homemade hot air balloons, with referees judging both the design of the contraptions and the magnificence of their aerial explosions.


But this year's military-managed celebration was muted, with revellers staying away and a heavy presence of security personnel deployed as the junta battles coordinated attacks across the country.

Taunggyi lies towards the southwestern edge of Shan state, around 350 kilometres (220 miles) away from the state's northeast, which has seen intense fighting since an armed alliance of ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the junta on October 27.

Masked soldiers stood watch next to a signal-jamming truck in the city, and the shadows of others standing guard on the surrounding hills were silhouetted against the dusk sky.

A convoy of four-wheel-drive vehicles delivered local dignitaries -- some accompanied by pro-military militia bodyguards -- to the stage, where they watched hundreds of school and college students perform synchronised dances.

In the spectators' area across the fence -- usually packed with revellers -- people sat on blankets in small scattered groups.

"There are fewer people coming this year," said Nu Nu Sein, 70.

"I'm really sorry. Many more people should be here."

Launching the balloons requires teamwork and daring.

Team members hold up the heavy canvas balloons and inflate them by holding flaming torches underneath.

Once the balloon has filled with hot air, they attach a wooden frame loaded with fireworks, light the fuse and release the balloon.

The payload is timed to go off once the balloon has achieved a safe height, but in the past there have been injuries and even deaths from mistimed firings.

On Tuesday, teams banged drums and cymbals as each balloon was launched into the sky, the clamour competing with dance music thumping from a nearby fairground.

Win Aung, 54, said he enjoyed the event, despite the thinner crowds.

"We have to do it with the people we have here," he said after his team had launched their balloon.

"I really enjoy playing with gunpowder... I can't stand by when this festival arrives."

- Fighting rages -

A rock band on a stage belted out old favourites, including one wistful number about pretty Shan ladies selling local delicacies on the road to the town of Muse on the China border.

That road has been cut by the offensive launched last month by the alliance of ethnic minority groups across a swathe of northern Shan state.

The move has hampered the junta's ability to send reinforcements to tackle the offensive, which has seized a cross-border trade hub and dozens of military outposts.

Muse previously handled a sizeable share of border commerce with Myanmar's biggest trade partner, China, and the recent blockage is denying the cash-strapped junta taxes and foreign exchange.

In recent days junta-controlled media have published notices denying petrol shortages and restrictions on withdrawals at banks.

Wednesday's edition of the Global New Light of Myanmar refuted "false news" that young people were being press-ganged from the streets into serving as porters for the military.

The clashes in the north have galvanised other opponents of the junta, who have launched attacks in the east and west of the country in what analysts say is the biggest challenge to the military leadership since it seized power.

On Tuesday the military and anti-coup fighters said they were battling for control of a state capital in the east.

Anti-coup fighters also launched drone attacks on two airports in northern Sagaing region, hundreds of kilometres from Kayah, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said.

"I'm also scared coming here," said Nu Nu Sein at the festival in Taunggyi.

"I was asked not to go to very crowded places."

"I want all to be peaceful and happy. I wish no one had to face the situation like this."

Nearly half of Americans think the US is spending too much on Ukraine aid, an AP-NORC poll says

SEUNG MIN KIM and LINLEY SANDERS
Tue, November 21, 2023 

Ukrainian soldiers navigate on the Dnipro river by boat at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, June 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As lawmakers in Washington weigh sending billions more in federal support to Kyiv to help fight off Russian aggression, close to half of the U.S. public thinks the country is spending too much on aid to Ukraine, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Those sentiments, driven primarily by Republicans, help explain the hardening opposition among conservative GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are rebuffing efforts from President Joe Biden to approve a new tranche of Ukraine aid, arguing that the money would be better spent for domestic priorities.

Yet opposition to aid is down slightly from where it was a month ago in another AP-NORC poll. Now, 45% say the U.S. government is spending too much on aid to Ukraine in the war against Russia, compared with 52% in October. That shift appears to come mostly from Republicans: 59% now say too much is spent on Ukraine aid, but that’s down from 69% in October.

Nonetheless, the Republican resistance to continued Ukraine aid remains strong.

“I understand the citizens need help, but I feel like we’re spending way too much money on Ukraine when we have our issues here, on our own soil, that we need to deal with,” said Eric Mondello, 40, from Fountain, Colorado. Pointing to needs such as health care for veterans and homelessness in communities, Mondello added: “I understand the U.S. has been an ally to others, but I feel like, let’s take care of our people first.”

More than one-third (38%) of U.S. adults say that current spending is “about the right amount,” which is up slightly from last month (31%). Among Republicans, nearly 3 in 10 (29%) say the current spending is about right, up from 20% last month.

Paula Graves, 69, is among those who says the amount of spending for Ukraine is the right amount.

“Putin, he’s straight up evil. I don’t think there should be any question in anyone’s mind,” said Graves, of Clovis, California. "He’s a dictator. He’s infringed on human rights, he’s a very scary person and if Ukraine falls to him, who’s next? What country’s next?”

Graves, who says she is not affiliated with a political party but leans more conservative, said she believes the U.S. has a leadership role on the global stage and added: “I think we definitely need to put America first, but I don’t think that needs to be first and only.”

The White House has been repeatedly pressing lawmakers to pass Biden’s nearly $106 billion emergency spending package that he proposed in October, which includes more than $61 billion specifically for the war in Ukraine. The rest of Biden’s request has aid for Israel as it battles Hamas, money for various priorities in the Indo-Pacific region and additional resources to help manage migration at the southern border.

On Ukraine, the Biden administration is increasingly warning that the well of aid is running dry. In an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s effort to defeat Russian forces “matters to the rest of the world” and pledged that U.S. support would continue “for the long haul.”

That message was reinforced at the White House.

“As President Biden has said, when aggressors don’t pay a price for their aggression, they’ll cause more chaos and death and destruction," John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told the White House press briefing Monday. “They just keep on going, and the cost and the threats to America and to the world will keep rising.”

But Congress has rebuffed the White House efforts at bolstering Ukraine support at least twice in recent months. First, it ignored a roughly $40 billion supplemental request before a Sept. 30 funding deadline. Then last week, it passed a stopgap funding measure that keeps the government operating through early next year, but with no additional Ukraine aid.

In the Senate, a small bipartisan group is working on legislation that would combine fresh Ukraine assistance with stricter border measures to address concerns from Republicans that the U.S. was focused on needs abroad at the expense of issues closer to home. A broad majority of senators remains supportive of Ukraine aid, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., being one of the most stalwart supporters despite the isolationist strain in his party.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said lawmakers will continue to work on the Ukraine-border package over the Thanksgiving break and won't wait until mid-January — when Congress faces another government funding deadline — to act on Ukraine.

The big question mark is in the House, where still-new Speaker Mike Johnson — who had voted against Ukraine aid as a rank-and-file conservative — has spoken broadly of the need to counter Russian aggression yet faces unruly GOP lawmakers who have shown more hostility to continued support for Kyiv.

Johnson, too, is insisting that additional Ukraine aid be paired with tougher border measures, although it is far from certain that any immigration agreement that clears the Democratic-led Senate could pass the GOP-controlled House.

Half of U.S. adults are extremely or very concerned that Russia’s influence poses a direct threat to the United States. Democrats (53%) and Republicans (51%) are similarly concerned about Russian power – but Democrats are more likely than Republicans to see Ukraine as a nation of shared values to the U.S. and to support more aid for Ukraine.

About half of the public (48%) endorses providing weapons to Ukraine (57% among Democrats, 42% among Republicans). About 4 in 10 favor sending government funds directly to Ukraine (54% for Democrats, 24% for Republicans).

Americans have grown slightly more likely to say the U.S. should take “a less active role” in solving the world’s problems, compared with a September poll from AP-NORC and Pearson. Slightly fewer than half (45%) now say the U.S. should be less involved, up from 33% in September. Just 16% of Democrats now say the U.S. should take a more active role, down from 29% in September.

Peter Einsig, a Republican from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said he still believes the U.S. has a role to play abroad, but that he remains concerned about excessive government spending and federal debt.

Yet Einsig said he would be more inclined to support aid to Ukraine if there were more oversight into how the money was being used abroad, as well as a timeline of how much longer the U.S. would be providing support.

“We don’t have transparency on where the money is really, really going,” said Einsig, 40. “It’s a big lump sum.”

Four in 10 U.S. adults say Ukraine is an ally that shares U.S. interests and values. That view is most common among Democrats (53%), who are much more likely than independents (28%), Republicans (29%) and Americans overall to see Ukraine as a nation with similar values and needs. About half of Republicans say Ukraine is a partner that the U.S. should cooperate with, but say it is not a nation that shares U.S. values.

___

The poll of 1,239 adults was conducted Nov. 2-6, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

10 years later, a war-weary Ukraine reflects on events that began its collision course with Russia

HANNA ARHIROVA

Updated Tue, November 21, 2023

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — It happens every November, when the cold descends on Kyiv. The change in weather always makes Dmytro Riznychenko think back, and he is overwhelmed by his emotions.

“This is where it truly began," Riznychenko said, walking through central Kyiv's Independence Square recently, reflecting on the uprising that unleashed a decade of momentous change for Ukraine, eventually leading to the current war with Russia.

"Ten years of war and struggle,” the 41-year-old psychologist continued, wearily and reluctantly. “And it seems like the blood has only just begun to flow, truly. I regret nothing. But, God, it’s just so tiresome.”

On Nov. 21, 2013, the Moscow-friendly president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, announced he was shelving an agreement to bring the country closer to the European Union and instead would deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Outraged crowds soon filled Independence Square for peaceful anti-government protests. Later, after riot police used truncheons and tear gas to disperse the people, demonstrators set up tent camps with barricades, self-defense units and banners with revolutionary slogans. In response to the police violence, hundreds of thousands joined the demonstrations in early December.

The standoff reached a climax in February 2014, when police unleashed a brutal crackdown on the protests and dozens of people were slain between Feb. 18-21, many by police snipers. A European-mediated peace deal between the government and protest leaders envisioned the formation of a transition government and holding an early election, but demonstrators later seized government buildings, and Yanukovych fled to Russia.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance said 107 people were killed in the uprising.

Kateryna Gladka was a 23-year-old student when she joined the pro-Western crowds at the time, viewing it as the “revolution of her generation.”

“For me, the top priority was the value of freedom, basic freedom, and dignity.”

“We had to prevent a totalitarian regime and the return of Soviet things,” Gladka said in a telephone interview.

She recalls the police violence and blood staining the street near Independence Square, and “I very clearly understood that we had entered another stage.”

After Yanukovych's ouster, Russia responded in March 2014 by illegally annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Then, separatist forces backed by Moscow began an uprising in the eastern Ukraine region known as the Donbas, which grew into a long-running conflict, leaving thousands dead.

Finally, in February 2022, Putin launched his war that continues to this day, with tens of thousands of deaths on both sides amid Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.

“Yanukovych was that puppet, a figure for Moscow, which hoped to use him as a person to keep Ukraine on the Russian leash,” said Kateryna Zarembo, an analyst at the Kyiv-based think tank, The New Europe Center. “When he fled, it became clear to the Kremlin that they were losing Ukraine.”

Asked Tuesday about the 10th anniversary of the start of the uprising in Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia’s view that it was “a coup, a forceful coup financed from abroad.”

Ukrainians in 2013 had wanted the country to enter into a deal with the EU, but Putin pressured Yanukovych to pull out at the last minute. Ukrainian leaders who followed were more eager than ever to bring Kyiv into the Western fold.

“So what we saw in 2022 — that Ukraine had to be either part of Russia or destroyed — those intentions were seen earlier," Zarembo said. "When that didn’t happen, Russia intervened militarily.”

Despite the calamities, Ukraine has become more united than in its 32 years of independence and has drawn closer to the EU, the United States and the West in general — an outcome Putin had tried to prevent. Today, under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country has won widespread support and admiration amid the Russian invasion.

“All of this came at a very high cost,” Riznychenko said.

Standing on the Alley of Heavenly Hundred, so named to honor those killed in the uprising, he recalled the sniper fire from a special police unit known as Berkut, which was disbanded in 2014.

“There was a feeling that death had opened its arms,” Riznychenko said.

“It was cold, I remember how the dead were lying. I remember them under blankets near the Main Post Office. That I remember,” he added.

Now, their portraits are on permanent display on the street honoring those slain in what Ukraine calls its Revolution of Dignity, and Riznychenko said he later memorized the names. In 2014, he volunteered to fight in eastern Ukraine against the Moscow-backed separatists, and was injured in Ilovaisk.

Investigations of the shootings are continuing, and the Prosecutor General’s Office recently indicted five members of the Berkut police unit, all now living in Russia. Another 35 people are being investigated.

Independence Square today also features a multitude of small blue-and-yellow flags, with each symbolizing a fallen soldier in the war. Their numbers grow daily.

Every year, Gladka gathers with friends at a nearby restaurant, aptly named The Last Barricade, to commemorate the uprising. But after 21 months of war with Russia, the date brings conflicting emotions.

“To be honest, I am personally very tired of the fact that every generation has to die for Ukraine,” she said, noting that 10 years of her youth have been stained by violence, and she now wants a “normal and ordinary life.”

“This endless struggle is like some closed circle that just lasts for centuries,” she said.

___

Associated Press photographer Efrem Lukatsky contributed

Ukraine Uprising Anniversary
In this file photo taken on Dec. 8, 2013, Ukrainians break a monument to Vladimir Lenin in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 8, 2013. On Nov. 21, 2023, Ukraine marks the 10th anniversary of the uprising that eventually led to the ouster of the country’s Moscow-friendly president.

 (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)

Column: Nonunion automakers are matching the UAW's great contract, but that may be bad for the UAW

Michael Hiltzik
Wed, November 22, 2023 

UAW President Shawn Fain announces the start of a series of strikes that ultimately brought the union success in contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers. (Matthew Hatcher / AFP/Getty Images)

A funny thing happened in the wake of the United Auto Workers' recent contract settlements with major auto companies .

Toyota said it would give its workers a raise worth about 9% on its top pay rate, beginning in January.

Nissan said its 9,000 U.S. workers would get raises of about 10% and would end a two-tiered pay system.

When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six.
UAW President Shawn Fain

Honda announced a pay raise of 11% for workers at its plants in Ohio, Indiana and Georgia, along with an accelerated schedule of bringing workers up to the top rate to three years from six.

Subaru said it would raise pay at its plant in Lafayette, Ind., though it hasn't said by how much.

What's funny about these announcements is that none of these companies is covered by a UAW contract. But they could read the handwriting on the wall from the UAW's contract settlements. If they didn't UAW President Shawn Fain made sure they wouldn't miss the message.

As some of the leading nonunion shops in the industry, they responded almost instantaneously. Before the ink had dried on the union's agreements with GM, Ford and Stellantis (the owner of Chrysler and Jeep), he announced that his next targets would be the foreign automakers that had set up their shops in anti-labor states to keep unions from their doors.

“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” Fain said. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six.” (He also signaled that he would be pushing to unionize Tesla.)

There are a few ways to look at this. One is that the UAW has absorbed the lesson that the key to organizing new locations and recruiting new members is achieving victory in contract negotiations. That's what brings union membership out of the abstract and makes its benefits concrete.

Read more: Column: American unions have finally remembered how to win

Few things spell success like the contract terms reached by the UAW after its six-week strikes in September and October — including historic wage gains, the rollback of many concessions the union gave the companies to ensure their survival during the last recession, and assurances that the industry's transition to electric vehicle manufacture won't proceed without union participation. As far as that goes, the new contracts are a great advertisement for the virtues of union membership.

The improved wage scales and other workplace benefits announced by the Japanese automakers are, of course, good for those companies' employees, who become collateral beneficiaries of the UAW's efforts.

It's also true, however, that the nonunion companies' responses could successfully undermine the UAW's organizing efforts.

"When you have a half-unionized industry where the unions have real ability to make a difference, the non-union companies have to follow along or they are just inviting the unions in," labor historian Erik Loomis told me. "It becomes very easy to siphon off union support in a factory when the wages are the same plus the workers don't have to pay dues."

Indeed, the technique of fighting unionization by offering workers better pay and benefits is as old as, well, labor-management relations themselves.

In his 1993 memoir "Confessions of a Union Buster," former anti-union consultant Martin Jay Levitt related "the five key corporate failings that drive workers to seek union help," as his very first boss outlined for him: "lack of recognition, weak management, poor communication, substandard working conditions, and non-competitive wages and benefits."

If a company dealt with these issues, Levitt was instructed, "it can achieve a happy work force and never have to fear a union invasion."

None of that means that the raises announced by Toyota et al are, or should be, the equivalent of everything a union can offer workers at an organized plant or company.

There may be other benefits that aren't offered by the nonunion employers, including job security guarantees — especially in anti-union right-to-work states where many foreign automakers and some domestic manufacturers have set up shop, such as North and South Carolina, Indiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas and Georgia.

Read more: Column: A Teamsters strike against UPS could remake the union movement for the better

Nor should it escape workers' notice that the nonunion companies had to be goaded by the UAW's success into offering raises to their own employees.

"Why not the raise before the UAW's?" asks veteran union lawyer Thomas Geoghegan. "It should tell auto workers at Toyota, Honda, and Subaru, who had nowhere else to go anyway, that they were being paid less than they were worth."

The companies' motivation may be to keep the UAW from storming their gates, Geoghegan says, "but it may backfire by making the workers wonder why a raise now, and not before. We don't have truly competitive labor markets, paying people what they are worth — if we did, then that raise would have occurred without the UAW."

In other words, the UAW, along with other heavy industry unions such as the Teamsters, have a ways to go to reinforce their recent victories by carrying their fight to new plants in parts of the country — such as the Deep South — where they have long struggled to make headway.

They have a lot to show for their efforts thus far, and for at least the next year, an administration in Washington that has supported Americans' collective bargaining rights like no other administration in 90 years. At the moment, they appear to have the advantage over recalcitrant managements. Let's see what they do with it.

Get the latest from Michael Hiltzik
Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

UAW chief, having won concessions from strikes, aims to expand membership to nonunion automakers



UAW President-Interview
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks to a reporter from The Associated Press during an interview at the union's headquarters Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in Detroit.

 (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

TOM KRISHER and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER
Mon, November 20, 2023 

DETROIT (AP) — Entering contract talks with Detroit's three automakers, Shawn Fain set lofty expectations for what he could gain for his union members — and delivered on many of them. He secured significant pay raises, improved benefits, the right to strike over plant closures and a raft of other concessions.

But to the United Auto Workers president, the agreements that emerged from talks that were marked by six weeks of strikes were merely the start of a victory streak and a renaissance for the 88-year-old union. Now, Fain has set his latest ambitious goal: To gain UAW membership in nonunion companies across the industry — from foreign automakers with U.S. operations like Toyota to electric vehicle makers like Tesla to EV battery plants that will likely represent a sizable share of auto jobs in the decades ahead.

Already, Fain asserted in an interview with The Associated Press, the contracts have benefited workers in nonunion auto companies: Soon after the UAW won major pay raises for its workers, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Nissan — all nonunion operations — raised their own workers' pay in what Fain characterized as an obvious bid to stop the UAW from unionizing those workforces.

Last week, workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis collectively voted 64% to ratify the new settlement deals, which are among the richest contracts in the UAW 88-year history. The agreements ended many wage tiers, gave temporary hires better pay and a path to full-time work and boosted from around 6% to 10% the annual 401(k) contributions for those without pension plans.

According to Fain, workers at some nonunion plants, including the electric vehicle sales leader, Tesla, have contacted the UAW about joining the union, which hasn't even begun its organizing efforts. Fain noted that the nonunion companies didn't raise pay for their workers until after the UAW won general and cost-of-living raises, which should reach 33% by the time the contacts expire in 2028.

“Companies play their workers as fools sometimes,” he said in the interview. “They care about keeping more for themselves and leaving the employees to fend for themselves.”

Fain, who took office just eight months ago in the first direct election of UAW leaders in its history, said the time is right for labor unions to grow as they did in the 1930s and 40s, before they began a steady decline beginning in the 1950s. American workers, he said, are fed up with stagnant wages while corporate executives earn ever-growing multiples of median worker pay.

Companies, Fain said, will spend “limitless amounts” to try to stop the UAW, but the union can point to its Detroit contracts to show workers they will have a voice. In that way, he said, the union is a “great equalizer."

Fain declined to say which nonunion companies the UAW would target first. But high on the list is Tesla, whose biggest shareholder is CEO Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man and an outspoken opponent of the union.

“The world's richest man is the richest man for a reason,” Fain said. “They get this kind of wealth by exploiting other people.”

Musk, who also runs the rocket company SpaceX, is talking about shipping Tesla production to Mexico and other low-cost countries.

A message was left seeking comment from Tesla.

The union leader said he expects Toyota, Honda and others to fight the UAW's organizing effort by threatening to close factories or eliminate benefits. Musk has threated to end stock awards that go to production workers if they vote to join the union. Fain said the UAW, if given the opportunity, would negotiate to retain and increase those stock awards.

The union, Fain says, also will have to organize Detroit automakers' EV battery plants, which are joint ventures with South Korean companies. GM and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles, have agreed to bring their joint venture plants under the union's national contract, making it easier for the UAW to sign them up. Ford has not.

That, he said, could become a problem if Ford fights the UAW's efforts to organize at the plants in Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Unless they change their tune, it's going to be an all-out war,” Fain said.

Ford did agree to put a wholly owned battery plant being planned for Michigan and a planned electric pickup plant in Tennessee into the UAW contract. But in the interview, Fain accused CEO Jim Farley of agreeing to work with the union on the joint-venture plants — only to renege later.

“At that point, things didn't go well,” Fain said. “We had to make progress where we could, and we did.”

In response, Ford said in a statement that it negotiated in good faith with the UAW and agreed to work with it on a fair deal to address the issue of union representation of the battery plants.

“These are multi-billion dollar investments, and the future of our industry is in the balance, so any deal must make sustainable business sense,” the company said.

Fain declined to say what his fight would look like or if it could mean a strike against Ford in 2025, when the joint-venture plants are set to open.

“It just means we're going to do what we have to do to get it,” he said. “Those workers deserve their fair share of economic and social justice."

Ford has said it couldn't pledge to unionize the battery plants because its joint venture partner would have to agree and the plants aren't exclusively under its control. In addition, Ford has said, the plants haven't been built, and it can't agree to the unionization of workers who haven't been hired yet.

In the contract talks, Fain said, he would have liked to gain stronger pension increases for longtime workers with defined benefit plans. He'd also like steady pension checks for newer hires rather than 401(k) plans. The union plans to seek law changes requiring “retirement security” for all workers, and will push for the benefits in 2028 contract talks.

In the interview, Fain said he doesn't expect the higher costs that the automakers will absorb from the new contracts to lead them to build new factories in Mexico or Canada. The union, he said, can strike if a U.S. plant is closed and could take action if companies build new factories elsewhere.

The UAW, he said, will try to work with the companies. But he noted that partnering with the automakers in the past to address costs has typically benefited them to the exclusion of workers. He noted the concessions the UAW agreed to in 2008 to help the automakers survive dire financial problems.

This time, he said, union members negotiated for themselves but also won raises for nonunion workers in the South who would have received nothing without the UAW.

"That’s something to be proud of,” he said.

Why Nissan, Toyota workers can 'thank' the UAW for pay hikes

Foreign automakers are using a ‘union substitution' strategy in order to deter unionization, which means matching UAW contracts.

Pras Subramanian
·Senior Reporter
Tue, November 21, 2023

United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain calls it the “UAW bump,” in which non-union auto workers are seemingly getting pay hikes thanks to the UAW’s contracts with the Big Three. Whatever workers are calling the phenomenon, they are likely very grateful for the extra pay this Thanksgiving holiday.

Nissan became the latest non-union automaker to hike pay for its US workers, with the Japanese company increasing top wages by 10% starting this January. Workers not at the top wage scale will also receive hikes, with 9,000 US workers in total receiving these wage gains. Nissan also said it is eliminating wage tiers across its workforce.

If some of the wage gains and changes sound familiar, it is because they echo some of the gains reached by UAW workers in their bargaining process. The pattern agreements the UAW struck with GM, Ford, and Stellantis include a 25% hike in base wages through 2028, including an immediate 11% bump as well as ratification bonuses among other benefits.

Nissan’s pay hikes follow similar moves made by Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda in recent weeks for their US workers, none of whom are unionized.

UAW members hold picket signs near a GM assembly plant in Delta Township, Mich., Sept. 29, 2023. (Paul Sancya/AP Photo, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“Non-union workers can thank the UAW for their recent pay raises,” said automotive manufacturing expert Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions to Yahoo Finance. “It was entirely expected that wages would go up in the face of recent labor changes. There’s no reason for Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and the rest to raise their workers’ pay except for the pressure put on them from the union.”

Labor expert Marick Masters of Wayne State University calls what these foreign automakers are doing the “union substitution” strategy.

“Clearly, such actions by nonunion companies can be viewed as part and parcel of a ‘union substitution’ strategy, which seeks to deter unionization in specific companies by paying workers sufficiently comparable wages,” Masters said to Yahoo Finance.

Masters noted the non-union foreign automakers have “skillfully navigated” union avoidance in their US operations thus far. It also helps that these automakers have placed factories in states that are not generally union friendly, like Alabama (Honda), Georgia (Hyundai), Tennessee (Nissan), and Texas (Toyota).

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain speaks to a reporter from The Associated Press during an interview at the union's headquarters Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in Detroit. (Mike Householder/AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

While AutoForecast Solutions’ Fiorani said the foreign automakers needed to “narrow the gap” between the Big Three’s contracts with the UAW and their own workers in order to compete, there’s also the possibility that raising pay at these non-union companies helps them attract new labor from other industries as well.

“Raising their wages also enables them to recruit better for hourly workers, who compare wage offering not only to the unionized Big Three, but also other non-auto employers in their localities who may offer competitive compensation,” Wayne State’s Masters added. “This latter point is particularly important as wage rates have increased generally in the economy of the past couple of years after a long period of relative stagnation.”

For a union leader like Fain, moves by the Nissans and Toyotas of the world are music to his ears, in which the UAW hears a growing chorus of pro-union voices and new members.

"Even though you're not yet members of our union, that pay raise Toyota's giving you is the UAW bump," Fain said to Toyota workers. "UAW. That stands for, 'You are welcome.'"

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

Nissan Motor hiking wages at US auto plants after UAW deal

David Shepardson
Mon, November 20, 2023

A visitor is seen at Nissan Motor Corp.'s showroom in Tokyo

(Reuters) -Nissan Motor will hike top wages for workers at U.S. manufacturing plants by 10% in January after the United Auto Workers union reached new contracts with the Detroit Three automakers, a company spokesperson said on Monday.

The Japanese automaker said the wage hike takes effect Jan. 8 for production technicians, maintenance, and tool & die technicians. Workers not yet at top scale will also receive increases in wages. About 9,000 U.S. workers in total will get pay hikes.

Nissan said it is also eliminating wage tiers for U.S. production workers. In recent weeks, Hyundai Motor, Toyota Motor and Honda Motor have all announced they would hike U.S. factory wages after the UAW contract and as the union says it will work to organize nonunion plants operated by foreign automakers and Tesla.

Nissan said the pay hikes reflect its commitment to its employees in the United States "and enhancing our competitiveness."

The UAW labor deals with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis include a 25% increase in base wages through 2028, including an immediate 11% hike, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33%, compounded with estimated cost-of-living adjustments to over $42 an hour.

It also cut the number of years needed to get to top pay from eight years to three years, will boost the pay of temporary workers by 150% and make them permanent employees. The deal also includes significant retirement improvements.

The UAW for decades has unsuccessfully sought to organize auto factories operated by foreign automakers. UAW President Shawn Fain was in Washington last week for meetings on the union's organizing strategy.

President Joe Biden has backed the UAW in its quest to unionize other carmakers.

Nissan said over the last three years it has increased wages at its three manufacturing sites by 12-18.5% in total; previously cut time needed to reach top pay from eight to four years; added two paid holidays and increased paid parental leave for production workers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Grant McCool)

Volkswagen becomes the latest automaker to hike wages for U.S. factory workers

Reuters
Wed, November 22, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: The New York International Auto Show, in Manhattan, New York City

(Reuters) - Volkswagen said on Wednesday that it would hike salaries for production workers at its Tennessee-based Chattanooga assembly plant by 11%, weeks after the United Auto Workers union won significant pay and benefit hikes from the Detroit Three automakers.

The German company and other non-union automakers in the U.S. have come under increased pressure to improve pay and benefits following the record contracts achieved by the UAW in late October after thousands of its members went on a six-week targeted strike.

Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Toyota have raised wages for non-union U.S. factory workers in recent weeks amid signs that the union is turning its attention to organizing the workforce at foreign-owned and Tesla auto plants.

Hyundai Motor has also announced a 25% increase over the next four years for non-union production workers in Alabama and Georgia.

UAW President Shawn Fain told Reuters last week that the union was getting expressions of interest in organizing from many Tesla workers.

The Elon Musk-led company, which enjoys an operating profit advantage over other automakers, has not announced any salary hikes in the U.S.

Volkswagen's pay increase is effective from December, with a compressed wage progression timeline beginning in February.

(Reporting by Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

Israeli-Palestinian peace camp shaken but determined

Chloe ROUVEYROLLES-BAZIRE
Wed, 22 November 2023

Vivian Silver's brother Nir greets Arab-Israeli peace activist Ghadir Hani at the memorial service (Oren ZIV)

The Israel-Palestinian peace camp has long promoted dialogue against hatred and bloodshed but the passions inflamed by the deadliest Gaza war yet pose entirely new challenges for the movement.

Many of its activists believe that talking to each other is now more important than ever, at a time when the fighting rages unabated and both sides mourn their dead.

"It wasn't easy before the war," said Sulaiman Khatib of Fighters for Peace, a group he co-founded in 2006 and whose Israeli and Palestinian members hold weekly meetings and frequent protests.

"But now it's even more difficult, starting with the relationship with each of the societies, both in Israel and in Palestine, where the extremes have risen."

The Gaza war has brought levels of suffering unusual even by the brutal standards of the decades-old conflict that has seen two Palestinian uprisings and four previous Gaza wars.

Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mutilating corpses and dragging some 240 hostages back into the blockaded territory.

Israel has responded with an intense air and ground war that has levelled vast areas of Gaza and claimed more than 13,000 lives according to the Hamas government, while its 2.4 million people endure a punishing siege.

One recent evening, a small group of around 40 Israeli and Palestinian activists gathered by the walls of Jerusalem's Old City to observe 15 minutes' silence for "all the dead".

Standing with their eyes closed or crying, or sitting cross-legged, they listened to Jewish and Christian prayers under the gaze of often sceptical passers-by.

One onlooker remarked in an angry whisper, "How dare the Arabs do that?"

- 'Dehumanisation at a high' -

The peace camp has always made some people bristle on both sides and become ever more marginalised.

Yet it still counts more than 200 organisations, some more than 40 years old.

Among their ranks are environmentalists for peace, motorists who drive Palestinians to visit doctors in Israel, and joint Israeli-Palestinian choirs.

They remain convinced that they have been right to advocate dialogue.

One group, the Circle of Parents, is made up of Israeli and Palestinian families bereaved by the conflict.

"I already see people who may come and join us after so much violence," said its co-director Yuval Rahamim, based in Tel Aviv.

"It will be part of the personal process for some."

Most activists, initially stunned into silence by the October 7 attacks, resumed their discussion groups a few days later.

It hasn't been easy, they say, and not just because of logistical hurdles such as additional roadblocks in the occupied West Bank.

"It has never been that difficult to hear the other's point of view," said Avner Wishnitzer, another co-founder of Fighters for Peace.

In the current wartime climate, he said, all sides are torn by "the pain, the fear".

"Dehumanisation is at a high point. It will intensify. People -- of course not all -- are ready to see the other side's babies killed.

"There is no place for nuance, complexity. There is a rise of extremism on both sides".

Reflecting on the peace groups, he said, "we are a minority, maybe a smaller minority now. The space for free speech has narrowed significantly."

- 'People are on edge' -

The hurt from October 7 runs even deeper for some because peace activists were among the victims.

One of them was Vivian Silver, a founder of Women Wage Peace, who died at Kibbutz Beeri.

Khatib acknowledged the movement has been badly shaken and that many activists struggle with mixed and confusing emotions.

"There are many members who go to sleep consumed by frustration and wake up optimistic," he said. "It's not black and white, people are on edge.

"What has happened is so staggering that we don't want to participate in a form of status quo by persisting with our old ways of doing things."

Some non-government groups fear they will lose funding as donors reassess their relationships or redirect their cash to Gaza aid relief.

The Alliance for Middle East Peace, with more than 160 member groups, receives distraught calls every day from its members.

Its member Nivine Sandouka urged "an international peace fund" to be set up, modelled on past fund-raising efforts for conflict-torn Northern Ireland.

The group's veteran activist Doubi Schwartz said the movement will need time to find its bearings to maintain the dialogue towards peace.

"The red lines are part of the difficult and honest discussions between Israeli and Palestinian peace activists," he said. "The discussion about it will last for decades.

"The conversation we share and the ways we operate will evolve significantly. But the fact that people still want to talk to each other is something that makes me optimistic."

crb/sbh/dla/fz/kir

Gaza strikes kill family members of journalist targeted by death threats

Reuters
Mon, November 20, 2023 

A flare falls over Gaza, as seen from southern Israel

(Reuters) - Deadly strikes hit the Gaza home of a news photographer days after an Israeli media advocacy group questioned his coverage of Hamas' Oct. 7, prompting death threats against him on social media.

Yasser Qudih, who survived the strikes on the night of Nov. 13, said four projectiles hit the rear of his house, killing eight family members.

The attack was five days after the Nov. 8 report by HonestReporting questioning whether Qudih, a freelance photographer, and three other Gaza-based photographers had prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.


Reuters strongly denied HonestReporting's speculation, as did other international news organisations identified in the report.

Qudih had provided photos to Reuters during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen although he was not a Reuters staff photographer.

Qudih said he had returned home barely an hour before the strikes on his house which were seconds apart, and without warning, at around 7:50 p.m. (1750 GMT).

"Israel attacked my home," he said. Asked why, he added: "I don't know."

Reuters could not verify who was responsible for the strikes, why Qudih's home in southern Gaza was targeted or whether the strikes were linked to HonestReporting's Nov. 8 report.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which has launched a military offensive in Gaza in response to the Oct.7 attack, declined to say whether its forces had conducted the strike and, if so, what the target was.

"The IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organization Hamas. Questions of this kind will be looked into in a later stage," it said, in answer to questions from Reuters.

In a statement, Reuters said it was "deeply saddened "to learn of the deaths of Qudih's family members. It also said HonestReporting made "baseless accusations" against Qudih.

"Thereafter, numerous threats against his safety circulated online. HonestReporting later accepted that its accusations were unfounded," Reuters said.

"The situation on the ground is dire, and the IDF's unwillingness to give assurances about the safety of our staff threatens their ability to deliver news about this conflict without fear of being injured or killed."

TWO-STOREY HOUSE

HonestReporting's Nov. 8 report prompted the Israeli prime minister's office to say the journalists were accomplices in "crimes against humanity". Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz suggested they should be treated as terrorists and hunted down, and a former Israeli envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said they should be "eliminated".

After issuing its report, Honest Reporting's executive director, Gil Hoffman, told Reuters on Nov. 10 that his organisation accepted as "adequate" statements by Reuters and other media organisations cited in its report that they had no previous knowledge of the attack.

HonestReporting did not respond to requests for comment on the attack on Qudih's home. Requests were submitted by Reuters to HonestReporting on Thursday.

In a reply to Reuters on Thursday, Danon, a member of Israel's governing Likud party, reiterated his initial remark when asked about the strikes on Qudih's home.

"Every terrorist who illegally entered our communities on Oct. 7, every individual who arrived with the vile murderers who brutally assassinated, raped, mutilated, burnt and kidnapped their way through the south of Israel will meet the same fate," he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the Israeli military follows international law and takes "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

Gantz's office did not respond to a request for comment. Hamas did not comment on the attack on Qudih's home.

Qudih told Reuters he lived in a two-storey house that was home to only him and his immediate and extended family. About 20 people were at home during the strikes, which left a large crater in a yard behind the house and destroyed one side of the building.

The director of Nasser Hospital, the main hospital serving the area where Qudih lived, confirmed to Reuters that the names and ages of the eight family members killed were listed among the dead registered with the hospital.

(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark Bendeich, Editing by Timothy Heritage)