Opinion

Editorial: This Labor Day, work-life balance is on the table

The LA Times Editorial Board
Mon, September 4, 2023 

Striking hotel workers and supporters protest outside the InterContinental hotel in downtown Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The United Auto Workers union authorized a strike later this month if it can’t reach deals with the Big Three Detroit carmakers, General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. Among the union’s proposals: a four-day workweek with five-day pay.

The UAW’s argument is that demanding schedules, including mandatory overtime, along with stagnant wages and the lingering effects of the pandemic have pushed its members to their breaking point. Now is the time to end the grueling work culture that forces people to put their job ahead of their needs.

“If COVID did anything, it made people reflect on what’s important in life, and it sure as hell isn’t living in a factory,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video update to members last month. “Workers are working longer hours, they’re working harder than they ever have for less money. Something’s gotta give here. Workers don’t have time to do the things that make them whole, to pursue hobbies or take care of family issues, because their life evolves around work.”

Read more: Editorial: What if every week was a four-day workweek?

The pandemic did lead to a rethinking — and upheaval — of work and workplaces. From the Great Resignation, when tens of millions of workers resigned, often for a job change, to quiet quitting or the idea of doing the bare minimum of one's job, the last few years have put a spotlight on what workers want and need from their jobs, and what they're not getting. That includes attaining a healthy work-life balance.

Some employers have embraced the movement to adopt a four-day workweek as a way to retain employees in a competitive labor market and reduce burnout. Companies that have adopted the model, including crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and online thrift store ThredUP, say they find workers can be as productive in four days as in five, in part because they are more rested and focused.

Of course, pay and benefits are central to any discussion of working conditions. The 32-hour workweek idea may ultimately take a back seat to other UAW demands, including wage hikes and an end to the tiered scale that pays new hires less. Still, by making the four-day workweek a central part of its platform, the UAW is drawing much-needed attention to the need for better work-life balance protections.

Read more: Opinion: The SAG-AFTRA actors' strike shows L.A. is leading the labor movement

Last year, railroad employees threatened to strike over the lack of guaranteed sick days. To avoid a strike, President Biden and Congress forced the unions to accept new contracts that raised pay but didn’t provide paid sick leave. However, political pressure and public shaming continued, and now about 60% of union railroad employees have paid sick leave and more predictable rest schedules. There's been a recognition among railroads that keeping workers healthy and rested was better for morale, turnover and, ultimately, the companies' profits by ensuring reliable service.

In the "hot labor summer" strikes across Los Angeles by hotel staff, city employees, actors and Hollywood writers, there’s an underlying commonality: the desire to make sure their jobs provide a good quality of life. And that means the ability to afford and have time for a life outside of work.

Read more: Op-Ed: Laborers who fought for 40-hour weeks a century ago wouldn't want you to send work emails from bed

Unite Here Local 11 has made the case that the region’s high housing costs have priced hotel workers out of the cities where they work, forcing them to commute hours each day, sleep in their cars and live in overcrowded conditions. Some teeter on the edge of homelessness, despite working long hours. The union has pushed for higher wages, along with a fee on hotel bills to help fund affordable housing for hotel workers.

SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America have argued the entertainment business is at a tipping point and the strikes are necessary to ensure people can make a stable career in Hollywood. Historically, actors and writers have been able to attain a middle-class lifestyle, but shifts in the industry have whittled down incomes, limited career advancement and forced workers to hustle from gig to gig to maintain the same standard of living.

The focus on work-life balance is welcome, particularly as technology has blurred the lines between work and personal time and employees are more often expected to be "on" when they're supposed be off. It's in the interest of employers, workers and society to encourage and protect the ability of people to live a full life, outside of their job.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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UAW's Fain says union stands united as contract deadline looms

Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press
Mon, September 4, 2023

With a strike deadline looming, UAW President Shawn Fain told a cheering crowd of organized labor workers and supporters Monday at Detroit's annual Labor Day parade that “We are 10 days out and have a lot of work to do."

“The UAW is back in the fight and we are ready to stand united to win economic and social justice,” Fain said about ongoing contract negotiations with the Detroit Three

Meanwhile, on Monday at a Labor Day event in Philadelphia, President Joe Biden told reporters that he doesn't expect the UAW to strike any of the Detroit Three auto companies, as discussions intensify among autoworkers, union leaders, auto company executives and investors.

“No, I’m not worried about a strike until it happens. I don’t think it’s going to happen." Biden said, when asked about a potential auto strike.

When asked about Biden’s comments at Monday’s Labor Day parade, Fain said he was “shocked by that reaction.”

UAW President Shawn Fain talks to a crowd following the Labor Day parade Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023.

“He must know something we don’t know,” Fain told reporters. “Maybe the companies plan on walking in and giving us our demands the night before. He’s on the inside of something I don’t know about. Our intent is not to strike. Our intent is to get a fair agreement. “

Labor Day returns

Monday's event was a return of the annual Labor Day Parade to downtown Detroit after a three-year pandemic hiatus. A message of solidarity, social and economic justice and workers’ rights was loud and clear amid those who marched and chanted.

This year's theme “Labor United Stronger than Ever!” comes amid current negotiations for a new, four-year contract, with the Detroit Three. The current contract expires at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14 and UAW autoworkers have already voted to authorize a strike if an agreement is not reached.

More: UAW files unfair labor charges against GM and Stellantis; Ford proposal tossed in trash

More: UAW President Shawn Fain responds to workers worried about pay loss during a strike

Thousands of organized labor members took to the streets and center stage in Corktown on Monday, celebrating American workers, solidarity and what they stand for on this Labor Day.

The parade kicked off at 9 a.m. on a hot, sunny morning starting on Michigan Avenue at Sixth Street. This year, the parade headed west on Michigan Avenue into Corktown instead of the usual trek to downtown Detroit.

As expected, there was a sea of those wearing red for solidarity, holding signs and chanting. Workers' shirts and placard signs included messages of “End Tiers” referencing the two-tiered pay system, “record profits, record contract” echoed by UAW members as they marched with fellow workers, families and children.

Among those leading the parade with Fain was Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO president, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor.

Shuler said the workers are “fired up."

People chant while marching during the Labor Day parade along Michigan Avenue in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, to Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station.

“They are fired up, they got us through this pandemic, they sacrificed and now they want their fair share,” Shuler said. “We are seeing it here with the UAW, we are seeing it with bakery workers, nurses and hotel workers all across this country. Working people are on the rise.”

Marching in the parade, Dingell called labor the “backbone of the American economy.”

“What’s going to happen here in the next two weeks is people recognizing that working men and women are the backbone of our economy and they need to be paid a fair and decent wage.”

The parade was made up of several unions including the UAW, Teamsters, state workers, building trades and others, marched west on Michigan Avenue in Corktown ending at Roosevelt Park with Ford’s Michigan Central Station in the backdrop.

More than a half dozen elected and union officials took the stage before a cheering crowd delivering messages of support for workers, workers' rights and solidarity. Those speaking included Dingell; Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist; U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit; U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly; U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit; state Rep. Joe Tate, D-Detroit; Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and others.

Supporting workers

Teamster Nicholas Daly, 28, of Monroe, was joined by his wife, Lindsay, at the parade

“I’m here to support union members,” Daly, who works for Coca Cola said. “It means a lot to be part of the labor movement. The last time I had a job not in a union was in high school.”

Bob Wydra, a member of UAW Local 1284 at Stellantis’ Chelsea Proving Grounds, has been attending the parade since 2014.

“It’s especially important this year because it’s a contract year and gives us solidarity,” Wydra said. "It brings people and a sense of cohesiveness, like a pep rally.”

Teamster member and car hauler Darrell Buckner, of Lincoln Park, comes to the parade every year. “It shows solidarity and pride,” he said. His wife, Kirsten, and sons Darrell Jr. and Logan also attended.

Message to members

Fain delivered his much-repeated message that the automakers have seen record profits and workers deserve a fair share of social and economic justice. He noted that included $21 billion in the first six months of this year.

“Our workers deserve their share of equity in this and they are not getting it,” he said.

Fain also said that it’s not their intent to strike.

“Our intent is to get a fair agreement,” he said. There are three companies to bargain with and there are 10 days left to do it. “The goal is a fair and equitable agreement for our members. At the end of the day, if we are not there, there will be a strike.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW's Fain delivers message of fair contract at Labor Day parade

Biden says he thinks US auto workers' strike unlikely to happen

Trevor Hunnicutt
Mon, September 4, 2023 

U.S. President Joe Biden leaves following services at St. Edmond's Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach

By Trevor Hunnicutt

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that he did not think workers at the nation's three large automakers were likely to go on strike, despite a looming contract deadline later this month.

KEY QUOTE

"I'm not worried about a strike," the Democratic president said on Monday as he arrived in Philadelphia ahead of a speech for the U.S. Labor Day holiday. "I don't think it's going to happen."

THE TAKE

Late last month, the United Auto Workers union said its members voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike at the Detroit Three automakers if agreement is not reached before the current four-year contract expires on Sept. 14.

A strike by the UAW is not a certainty. But the substantial wage and benefit gains that UAW President Shawn Fain has demanded, and the intensity of the campaign the union has mounted, had some Detroit industry executives and analysts bracing for walkouts in September.

CONTEXT

* The National Labor Relations Board on Friday said it would open an investigation into UAW claims that General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis were not bargaining in good faith, claims that the automakers deny.

* Separately, Ford Motor said Thursday it had offered a 9% wage increase through 2027, far below the 46% wage hike being sought by the union.

* The UAW staged a 42-day strike against GM in 2019 before reaching a new contract.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; writing by Kanishka Singh; editing by Jasper Ward and Rosalba O'Brien)

Biden faces increasing pressure to deliver ‘win-win’ EV transition amid union talks

UAW talks: Why the shift to EVs is such a big deal to workers


Akiko Fujita
·Anchor/Reporter
Mon, September 4, 2023

Throughout his presidency, Joe Biden has touted himself as the "most pro-union president in history."

That claim is being tested as the President juggles two priorities at the center of his economic policy: accelerating the transition to clean energy and creating well-paying, union jobs.

As the threat of a strike looms amid negotiations between the United Auto Workers union and major US automakers, the White House faces increasing pressure to deliver on its promise of better wages and benefits for workers at electric vehicle facilities.

On Thursday, the Department of Energy announced it would provide up to $12 billion in loans to help carmakers retrofit existing manufacturing facilities for EV production and encourage those factories to create high-paying union jobs. The Energy Department stressed that the priority for federal grants would be given to "projects that are likely to retain collective bargaining agreements and/or those that have an existing high-quality, high-wage hourly production workforce."

"Under Bidenomics building a clean energy economy can and should provide a win‑win opportunity for auto companies and unionized workers," Biden said in a prepared statement.

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, stands with President Joe Biden during a tour of the Detroit Auto Show, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Detroit. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

The announcement, coming just weeks away from the Sept. 14 deadline for UAW and Detroit automakers to reach a new contract agreement, points to the delicate balance the administration is attempting to maintain between keeping its promise to the industry’s 150,000 unionized employees and accelerating the transition to clean energy.

UAW’s president Shawn Fain has publicly called for GM (GM), Ford (F), and Stellantis (STLA) to hike pay by 46%, return to traditional pensions, and implement a 32-hour workweek.

Some Wall Street analysts estimate the wage increases alone would increase the cost of EVs by roughly $1,500 to $2,000, creating a headwind to mass adoption and putting American carmakers behind foreign automakers that operate in "right to work" states to avoid unionization.

EV leader Tesla (TSLA) is the only American automaker that is not represented by a union.

"The UAW is certainly looking for all of the opportunities that as old school manufacturing of [internal combustion engine vehicles] closes down or shifts, that they have a seat at the table regardless of where those plants are opened," David Undercoffler, editor in chief at Autolist, said.

United Auto Workers Union president Shawn Fain speaks to members of Local 862 during practice pickets in Louisville, Ky., Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (Timothy D. Easley/AP Photo)

UAW’s demands point to a larger fear among auto workers about job security, as a move towards an all-electric future prompts a retooling of decades-old plants.

The absence of gas engines and transmissions makes EVs much simpler to manufacture, according to Undercoffler, triggering concerns about the need for fewer workers and fewer hours.

In its most recent round of layoffs, Ford attributed the cuts to a growth plan largely focused on a transition to electric, saying: "Delivering on the plan includes adjusting staffing to match focused priorities and ambitions, while raising quality and lowering costs."

"The critical issue in that transition is going to be wages," said Seth Harris, a professor at Northeastern University who served as acting secretary of labor under President Barack Obama. "Can workers earn the same quality wages in an electric vehicle battery plant that they were working?"

Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois, said UAW is well positioned to push for aggressive demands, largely because of the scale of investments going into the clean energy transition, stemming from Biden's landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Last month, the union successfully pushed to ratify an interim agreement at a GM factory that manufactures Ultium battery cells that immediately raised wages by $3 to $4 an hour.

"This is probably when their leverage is at its greatest because the domestic manufacturers really don't want to be shut down," Bruno said. "There's too much federal money that's available. There's too much investment that is now pouring into the United States."

The UAW has maintained that pressure on the president as well, holding back its endorsement of Biden’s reelection, citing concerns around electric vehicle policy. And there are signs that pressure may be spreading beyond Detroit now.

On Monday, a coalition of labor unions and civil rights groups launched a pressure campaign targeting Hyundai’s EV plant and suppliers, calling on the South Korean automaker to "enshrine high-road commitments to workers and their communities in an enforceable agreement."

"I think there will be pressure on all of these companies, particularly using the leverage of the electric vehicle credits in the Inflation Reduction Act to push them to provide good quality union jobs to their workers," Harris said.

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita.

Auto Strike Looms, Threatening to Shut Detroit’s Big 3

Neal E. Boudette
Sun, September 3, 2023 

An assembly line for the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck in Dearborn, Mich. on Jan. 25, 2022. (Brittany Greeson/The New York Times)

The United Auto Workers union and the three Detroit automakers have less than two weeks to negotiate a new labor contract, and a strike of some sort seems increasingly likely.

The union’s president, Shawn Fain, has primed rank-and-file members to be prepared to walk off the job if the union’s long list of demands for improved wages and benefits are not met.

A strike against one of the companies, especially a prolonged stoppage, could send an economic jolt through several Midwestern states and crimp the profits of General Motors, Ford Motor or Stellantis. GM workers walked out for 40 days in 2019 before reaching an agreement.

A strike against all three — a step the union has never taken but one Fain has said he is willing to call for this year — could have a noticeable impact on the broader U.S. economy.

“If that happens, even a short strike would impact economies throughout Michigan and across the nation,” said Patrick Anderson, the CEO of the Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, Michigan.

The talks are playing out as automakers are spending tens of billions of dollars to transition to electric vehicles, which require fewer workers to assemble than traditional gasoline-powered cars and trucks. The terms of the new contract will determine how both autoworkers and the companies fare in an EV-centric industry.

At the same time, significant wage and benefit gains could provide a tail wind for a union movement that has been gaining strength across several industries.

There are political stakes as well. President Joe Biden has declared that “the UAW deserves a contract that sustains the middle class” and has named a White House liaison to the union and the automakers. But the UAW has withheld an endorsement of his reelection bid so far, partly because of concern over the union’s share of EV-related jobs created with federal subsidies.

An agreement before the contracts expire Sept. 14 is still possible, and talks could continue beyond that date without a walkout. But Fain has repeatedly said he views Sept. 14 as a deadline — the day a strike could begin. He was elected to the UAW presidency last year as an insurgent, ousting the incumbent on a vow to take a more combative and confrontational approach in the talks than his recent predecessors.

“President Fain has declared war, and that usually means there’s going to be a battle, and that battle would be a strike,” said Sam Fiorani, the vice president of global vehicle forecasting at Auto Forecast Solutions, a market researcher. “The UAW leadership is in a position now where they have to prove to the members that they are fighting for them, so it’s pretty unlikely there won’t be a strike.”

The auto industry as a whole, including foreign-owned companies with operations in the United States, makes up about 3% of the country’s gross domestic product. A 10-day strike against the three Detroit automakers would result in total wage losses of $859 million and manufacturers’ losses of $989 million, according to estimates by Anderson’s firm.

In August, Fain sent each company a list of demands, including higher wages, improved benefits, a resumption of regular cost-of-living wage bumps to ward off the impact of inflation and an end to a wage structure that leaves newer hires making one-third less than veteran workers. Fain suggested as much as a 40% wage increase, noting that the CEOs of each of the companies had their compensation packages rise substantially in the last four years.

He also called for contract provisions that would require the automakers to pay workers to do community service if their plant closes, describing it as a way to deter the companies from shuttering factories and to protect towns and local economies from being ravaged by the loss of a major employer.

“The manufacturers can absolutely afford some of those demands, but the more they get, the less competitive the companies are going to be,” Fiorani said.

In a video message streamed on Facebook on Thursday, however, Fain said the union and the automakers remained far apart. Ford, he said, offered wage increases and other provisions that were “insulting” to the UAW.

In a statement, Ford said it had offered a 9% wage increase and one-time lump-sum payments that, combined, would increase a worker’s income by 15% over the four-year contract. Fain said lump-sum payments helped but did not improve a worker’s income over a long period.

The UAW and Ford are also at odds over profit-sharing bonuses, the use of temporary workers, cost-of-living wage increases, retiree health care and several other matters.

Fain said that GM and Stellantis had not provided counteroffers to the union’s proposals and that the UAW had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board contending that the two companies were not negotiating in good faith.

“I know this update is infuriating, and believe me when I say I’m fed up,” he said. “Our goal is not to strike. Our goal is to bargain a fair contract, but if we have to strike to win economic and social justice, we will.”

GM said it was “surprised by and strongly refutes” the charges in the NLRB complaint. “We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the U.A.W. and are making progress,” Gerald Johnson, GM’s vice president of global manufacturing, said in a statement.

Stellantis was “disappointed to learn that Mr. Fain is more focused on filing frivolous legal charges than on actual bargaining,” the company said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend this charge when the time comes, but right now, we are more focused on continuing to bargain in good faith for a new agreement.”

In recent weeks, workers have organized several dozen rallies and other gatherings to prepare for picketing. “I think the membership is energized,” said Christine Bostic, a battery tester at a GM electric vehicle plant in Detroit. “The facts are on our side. If it comes to a strike, I’m ready for that.”

To soften the impact of a stoppage, the union has amassed a strike fund of $825 million. It plans to pay striking workers $500 a week and cover their health insurance premiums while they are out of work.

In recent days, Fain joined the union’s negotiating teams in their talks with each of the automakers, an unusual step. Normally, the UAW president does not take a direct role until the final days or hours of negotiations.

On Wednesday, he took part in discussions with Stellantis, where tensions between the two sides have been high. When Stellantis responded to Fain’s demands with a list of cost concessions it wanted from the union, Fain took to Facebook to denounce them, dropping the document into a wastebasket.

Decades ago, when the UAW had more than 1 million members and the Big Three — GM, Ford and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis — had almost no foreign competition, a strike by the union could shut down a significant portion of the U.S. economy.

Today, the union is much smaller. GM, Ford and Stellantis employ about 150,000 UAW workers, and those companies make only a little more than 40% of the cars and trucks sold in the U.S. market.

But the union entered this year’s talks in a much stronger negotiating position than it had in years. In the past, the Detroit companies were struggling badly against foreign rivals that operate nonunion plants in the South, like Toyota and Honda, and had a significant cost advantage. In most of the last several contracts, GM, Ford and Stellantis had to get concessions on wages and benefits to survive.

Over the last 10 years, however, all three companies have rung up record profits, thanks in part to the concessions they won from the union as well as the shift in consumer preferences to high-margin trucks and large SUVs.

In the first half of this year, Ford made $3.7 billion and GM made $5 billion. Stellantis reported profits of 11 billion euros (about $11.9 billion).

In the past, the UAW has chosen one company — it was GM four years ago — as the “target” to focus on in the talks. Fain has said the union could target all three companies this time around, but many analysts think the union will eventually choose Stellantis. In addition to the strains between the company and the union, their talks involve a plant in Belvidere, Illinois, that Stellantis has idled and that the union wants the company to reopen.

Getting Stellantis to reopen the plant is a critical task for Fain. Four years ago, GM closed a plant in Ohio, and the UAW failed in its efforts to push the company to reopen it. In his campaign for the presidency, Fain promised members that his tougher approach would prove successful this time.

The union could get a hand in this battle from the federal government. On Thursday, the Energy Department said it had made $2 billion in grants and $10 billion in loans available to auto companies to convert existing factories that build gasoline-powered cars and trucks into plants that produce hybrid and electric vehicles.

Stellantis, like GM and Ford, aims to introduce several more electric models over the next few years and will probably have to retool some plants to make them. It is already building a battery plant in Indiana for its EV push.

Fiorani suggested that Stellantis could decide to overhaul the Belvidere plant to make electric models. “Stellantis could find a product to go in there,” he said. “For the UAW to truly win something, though, it has to be electric vehicles that Stellantis would plan on making for several years.”

c.2023 The New York Times Company

What happened to the G20’s new world order?

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Mon, September 4, 2023 

Alastair Grant//FILE

At the G20 summit in London in 2009, Britain’s then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown heralded a “new world order” in which rich and developing nations would come together to tame the inequities and excesses of globalization. At the height of a global financial crisis, Brown declared a “new progressive era of international co-operation.”

Fourteen years later, the G20 summit in India later this week will reflect how hopes of a global order based on a Western rules-based system have splintered, the world’s division into democratic and autocratic camps, and the way in which internal populism and protectionism in many states have eroded pushes for free trade.

Brave words about reforming carbon economies now face resistance as the economic price and political complications of fighting climate change emerge.

G20 member Russia is a pariah over the war in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin cannot risk travel in case he’s arrested for war crimes on an international warrant.

Xi Jinping, the leader of the world’s new superpower, China, likely won’t even show up to the summit.

It’s unlikely that the G20 meeting will produce any consensus on the war in Ukraine, given that Russia and probably China would block it.

The biggest risk of the summit is that it could actually heighten antagonism between many of the Western and developing nations that the group was set up to bridge. Any new mistrust between Western democracies and developing states in the G20 of course plays into the hands of Putin and Xi.

Xi’s reasoning is often opaque, but his no-show might be a protest at simmering border tensions and rising geopolitical angst with the great eastern Pacific superpower India, or could even be motivated by internal economic concerns over a property market crisis in China. But Xi did find time to attend an summit of the BRICS nations in Johannesburg last month.

The BRICS group – including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – welcomed new members Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates. The move was widely interpreted as another step by China toward creating its own competing world order to the US and its allies, in which it leads a group of developing states.

In that light, his absence from the G20 takes on a whole new perspective.

US President Joe Biden said at the weekend that he was disappointed that he wouldn’t see Xi, after a flurry of US foreign policy and trade officials visited Beijing in a bid to slow plummeting relations.

Biden might still be able to set up a bilateral meeting with Xi at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in San Francisco in November. But the jury is still out on whether Beijing is as keen on easing crisis-hit relations as much as Washington is.

Xi’s absence could offer Biden an opening to push forward his relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he welcomed to a glittering state dinner at the White House in June. The US would like to nudge India closer to security arrangements and political groupings involving its allies in the Pacific, as it seeks to counterbalance rising Chinese power.

But India is likely to go only so far, as its historic non-aligned status evolves into a posture of trying to have a foot in both camps.

New Delhi has disappointed the West by failing to forcefully condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has profited from cheap Russian oil following a boycott by US-allied nations. As a rising power that is still regarded as a developing nation, India is a leading member of both the BRICS and the G20.

Africa endures more severe warming than elsewhere, posing risk of conflict

Emma Farge
Mon, September 4, 2023 

Residents gather with their jerrycans to collect water from a tap in Mukuru slums within the Industrial area district, in Nairobi

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - Africa is heating up at a faster rate than the rest of the planet and enduring more severe climate and weather disasters such as droughts, a joint U.N.-African Union report said on Monday, warning that climate change could stoke conflict over resources.

The continent was hit by 80 extreme weather and climate hazards last year, said the report sent by the World Meteorological Organization to coincide with Africa's first climate summit in Kenya where financing is set to be in focus.

These disasters, such as the Horn of Africa's worst drought in 40 years and Algerian wildfires, resulted in 5,000 deaths and over $8.5 billion in economic damage, the report showed, citing an emergencies database. The real figures are likely to be higher due to reporting gaps, it said.

"Africa is responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions but is suffering disproportionately from climate change," the State of the Climate in Africa 2022 report said.

"Climate change and the diminishing natural resource base could fuel conflicts for scarce productive land, water, and pastures, where farmer-herder violence has increased over the past 10 years due to growing land pressure...," it added.

Already, communal violence over resources flares up frequently in parts of the semi-arid Sahel. On average, each African produced 1.04 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2021, less than a quarter of the global average.

The report said the average rate of warming in Africa was 0.3 degrees Celsius per decade in the 1991-2022 period, compared with 0.2 degrees in the world as a whole.

The warming has been fastest in North Africa which has been subject to multiple heatwaves since last year. That contributed to a fall in cereal production to 33 million tonnes or about 10% below the previous five-year average, the report said, although production in some other parts of the continent such as West Africa rose amid good rains.

Overall, the report said that agricultural productivity had fallen due to climate change, noting a decline of 34% since 1961 which is set to drive up import needs sharply.

Kenya bets on carbon credits as it hosts

climate summit

Nick Perry
Mon, September 4, 2023

Cash-strapped African nations want a much bigger share of a $2-billion carbon credits market that is forecast to grow five-fold by 2030 (Tony KARUMBA)

Deep within Kasigau, a sweeping wilderness of craggy hills and savannah roamed by elephants, a team armed with clipboards and measuring tapes is busy studying an unremarkable tree.

Gnarled and leafless, it nonetheless has great value: it stores carbon, and the team wants to know exactly how much is locked away across this semi-arid, half-a-million-acre (200,000-hectare) woodland in southern Kenya.

"We want to make absolutely sure we account for every single tree," said Geoffrey Mwangi, lead scientist at US-based company Wildlife Works, as the "carbon samplers" took the dimensions of another thorny specimen.

The data translates into carbon credits, and millions of dollars have been made selling these to corporate giants such as Netflix and Shell looking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions and burnish their green credentials.

As climate change accelerates and pressure mounts on companies and countries to lift their game, demand for carbon credits has exploded -- even as their reputation has taken a battering.

Cash-strapped African nations want a much bigger share of a $2-billion market that is forecast to grow five-fold by 2030.

Africa only produces 11 percent of the world's offsets yet boasts the planet's second-largest rainforest and tracts of carbon-absorbing ecosystems like mangroves and peatlands.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who is hosting a climate summit in Nairobi this week, said Africa's carbon sinks were an "unparalleled economic goldmine".

"They have the potential to absorb millions of tons of CO2 annually, which should translate into billions of dollars," he said on Monday.

- 'Massive interest' -

A single credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide removed or reduced from the atmosphere. Companies buy credits generated through activities like renewable energy, planting trees or protecting forests.

Carbon markets are largely unregulated and accusations that some offsets -- particularly forest-based ones -- do little for the environment or exploit communities have sent prices crashing this year.

Kenya already generates the most offsets in Africa and despite market uncertainty, sees the potential for a much bigger domestic industry capable of creating much-needed jobs and economic growth.

"There is massive interest. We have 25 percent of the African market (for carbon credits) in Kenya, and it's our ambition to expand this," Ali Mohamed, the president's special envoy for climate change, told AFP.

In Kasigau, about 330 kilometres (205 miles) southeast of Nairobi, landowners and communities are paid to keep the forest intact under a flagship carbon credit project run by Wildlife Works, a for-profit business and largest offset developer in Africa.

Joseph Mwakima from Wildlife Works said project revenue had employed around 400 people and funded water, education and health infrastructure in a long-underserved part of Kenya.

"These are things that were never really there," he told AFP.

Wildlife Works founder Mike Korchinsky said at least half of revenue went to communities.

The forests protected under the scheme were once cleared for firewood and charcoal, degrading a carbon sink and critical wildlife habitat.

Avoiding deforestation serves climate goals by keeping carbon in the soil and trees instead of allowing them to be released into the atmosphere. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project was the world's first to generate certified credits this way.

Wildlife Works says the project has been independently verified nine times since 2011, and has avoided roughly 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Kenya emits about 70 million tonnes of CO2 per year, according to Climate Watch, a platform managed by the World Resources Institute that tracks national greenhouse gas emissions.

- 'False solutions' -

The UN-endorsed African Carbon Market Initiative, launched at COP27 in November, believes 300 million credits could be generated annually on the continent by 2030 –- a 19-fold increase on current volumes.

For Kenya, this would mean more than 600,000 jobs and $600 million in annual revenue.

But these projections assume a carbon price far above current trades, and a massive increase in finance at a time of great volatility in a market struggling to build trust and integrity.

Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, more than 500 civil society organisations wrote to Ruto urging him to steer the conference away from carbon markets and other "false solutions... led by Western interests".

"In truth, though, these approaches will embolden wealthy nations and large corporations to continue polluting the world, much to Africa's detriment," it read.

Ruto's appointee to lead the summit, Joseph Nganga, said carbon markets acted "not as an excuse for emissions but as a means to ensure accountability" as rich polluting nations bore the cost.

Countries are moving to regulate the sector. Earlier this year, Zimbabwe announced it would appropriate half of all the revenue generated from carbon credits on its land, sending jitters through markets.

Kenya is finalising its own legislation. Mohamed said the government did not want to "chase away investors" but ensure transparency and a fair share for communities.

Korchinsky expressed confidence the Kasigau project "will hold up to whatever scrutiny is applied".

np/txw/ri/mca

US/UKRAINE/RUSSIA WAR CRIMES
Cluster munition deaths in Ukraine pass Syria, fueling rise in a weapon the world has tried to ban

ABBY SEWELL and OMAR ALBAM
Tue, September 5, 2023 



Doaa al-Hassan, 10 years old, who lost her hand to a cluster bomb in 2022, studies at a camp near the town of Ain Sheeb, northern Idlib province, Syria, on July 18, 2023. More than 300 people were killed by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, according to an international watchdog, displacing Syria as the country with the highest number of deaths from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

AIN SHEEB, Syria (AP) — More than 300 people were killed and over 600 wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, according to an international watchdog, surpassing Syria as the country with the highest number of casualties from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade.

Russia’s widespread use of the bombs, which open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets or submunitions as they are called, in its invasion of Ukraine — and, to a lesser extent, their use by Ukrainian forces — helped make 2022 the deadliest year on record globally, according to the annual report released Tuesday by the Cluster Munition Coalition, a network of non-governmental organizations advocating for a ban of the weapons.

The deadliest attack in Ukraine, according to the the country's prosecutor general’s office, was a bombing on a railway station in the town of Kramatorsk that killed 53 people and wounded 135.

Meanwhile, in Syria and other war-battered countries in the Middle East, although active fighting has cooled down, the explosive remnants continue to kill and maim dozens of people every year.

The long-term danger posed to civilians by explosive ordnance peppered across the landscape for years — or even decades after fighting has ceased — has come under a renewed spotlight since the United States announced in July that it would provide them to Ukraine to use against Russia.

In Syria, 15 people were killed and 75 wounded by cluster munition attacks or their remnants in 2022, according to the coalition's data. Iraq, where there were no new cluster bomb attacks reported last year, saw 15 people killed and 25 wounded. In Yemen, which also had no new reported attacks, five people were killed and 90 were wounded by the leftover explosives.

The majority of victims globally are children. Because some types of these bomblets resemble metal balls, children often pick them up and play with them without knowing what they are.

Among the casualties are 12-year old Rawaa al-Hassan and her 10-year-old sister, Doaa, whose family has lived at a camp near the village of Ain Sheeb in northern Syria’s opposition-held Idlib province since being displaced from their hometown in Hama province six years earlier.

The area where they live in Idlib had frequently come under airstrikes, but the family had escaped from those unharmed.

During the holy Islamic month of Ramadan last year, as the girls were coming home from school, their mother Wafaa said, they picked up an unexploded bomblet, thinking it was a piece of scrap metal they could sell.

Rawaa lost an eye, Doaa, a hand. In a cruel irony, the girls’ father had died eight months earlier after he stepped on a cluster munition remnant while gathering firewood.

The girls “are in a bad state, psychologically” since the two tragic accidents, said their uncle Hatem al-Hassan, who now looks after them and their mother. They have difficulty concentrating, and Rawaa often flies off the handle, hitting other children at school.

“Of course, we’re afraid, and now we don’t let them play outside at all anymore,” he said.

Near the village of Ram Hamdan, also in Idlib, Ali al-Mansour, 43, was tending his sheep one day in 2019 with his 5-year-old son in tow when the child handed him a metal object that looked like a toy and and asked him to take it apart.

“I tried to take it apart and it wasn't working, so I hit it with a rock, and it exploded on me,” al-Mansour said. He lost his eyes and his hands. Without a breadwinner, his family now lives on handouts from relatives.

Scattered submunitions often strike shepherds and scrap metal collectors, a common post-conflict source of livelihood, said Loren Persi, one of the editors of the Cluster Munition Coalition’s annual report. They also lurk in the fields where truffle hunters forage for the lucrative delicacy, he said.

Efforts to clear the explosives have been hampered by lack of funding and by the logistics of dealing with the patchwork of actors controlling different parts of Syria, Persi said.

Some 124 countries have joined a United Nations convention banning cluster munitions. The U.S., Russia, Ukraine and Syria are among the hold-outs.

Deaths and injuries from cluster munition remnants have continued for decades after wars ended in some cases — including in Laos, where people still die yearly from Vietnam war-era U.S. bombing that left millions of unexploded cluster bomblets.

Alex Hiniker, an independent expert with the Forum on the Arms Trade, said casualties had been dropping worldwide before the 2011 uprising turned civil war in Syria.

“Contamination was being cleared, stockpiles were being destroyed," she said, but the progress "started reversing drastically” in 2012, when the Syrian government and allied Russian forces began using cluster bombs against the opposition in Syria.

The numbers had dropped off as the war in Syria turned into a stalemate, although at least one new cluster bomb attack was reported in Syria in November 2022. But they quickly spiked again with the conflict in Ukraine.

U.S. officials have defended the decision to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine as necessary to level the playing field in the face of a stronger opponent and have insisted that they will take measures to mitigate harm to civilians. This would include sending a version of the munition with a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer unexploded rounds left behind after the conflict.

State Department officials did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Hiniker said she and others who track the impacts of cluster munitions are “baffled by the fact that the U.S. is sending totally outdated weapons that the majority of the world has banned because they disproportionately kill civilians.”

The “most difficult and costly part” of dealing with the weapons, she said, “is cleaning up the mess afterwards.”

___

Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

The US sent cluster munitions to Ukraine but activists still seek to bolster a treaty banning them

JAMEY KEATEN
Tue, September 5, 2023 




- A Yemeni man displays an American-made CBU 58A/B, cluster bomb, in a police compound in Sanaa, Yemen on Oct. 5, 2016. Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions are striving to prevent erosion in support for it after what one leading human rights group calls an “unconscionable” U.S. decision to ship such weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. Advocacy groups in the Cluster Munitions Coalition released their latest annual report on Tuesday Sept. 5, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

GENEVA (AP) — Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions, which harm and kill many more civilians than combatants, are striving to prevent erosion in support for the deal after what one leading human rights group calls an “unconscionable” U.S. decision to ship such weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia.

Advocacy groups in the Cluster Munitions Coalition released their latest annual report on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting next week of envoys from the 112 countries that have acceded to or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the explosives and calls for clearing areas where they litter the ground — often during or after conflicts.

A further 12 countries have signed the convention. The United States and Russia are not among them.

Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, who has long championed the 15-year-old convention, says the coalition was “extremely concerned” about the U.S. move in July, after an intense debate among U.S. leaders, to transfer unspecified thousands of 155mm artillery-delivered cluster munition rounds to Ukraine.

More than 20 government leaders and officials have criticized that decision, the coalition says.

Hoping to avoid defections from the convention, Wareham says supporters hope signatories will “stay strong — that they do not weaken their position on the treaty as a result of the U.S. decision. And we don’t see that happening yet. But it’s always a danger.”

U.S. officials argue that the munitions — a type of bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area — could help Kyiv bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines.

U.S. leaders have said the transfer involves a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode. The bomblets can take out tanks and equipment, as well as troops, hitting multiple targets at the same time.

But Wareham cited “widespread evidence of civilian harm that (is) caused by these weapons. It was just an unconscionable decision.”

The report says civilians accounted for 95% of cluster munition casualties that were recorded last year, totaling some 1,172 in eight countries: Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Myanmar, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. The monitor noted efforts in places like Bulgaria, Peru and Slovakia to destroy their stockpiles of the munitions in 2022 and earlier this year.

Children made up 71% of casualties from explosions of cluster-munition remnants last year, the report said.

It said Russia had “repeatedly” used cluster munitions in Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine in February last year, while Ukraine had used them “to a lesser extent.”

Washington’s decision “is certainly a setback,” said Wareham, “but it’s not the end of the road for the Convention on Cluster Munitions by far.”