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A medic carries a Palestinian boy killed in an Israeli strike near a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 24, 2023.
HARD NUMBERS: Gaza hospitals in critical condition, trust in US media plummets (again), Mexican cops ambushed, autoworker strike expands, revisiting Grenada 40 years later
23: After more than two weeks of siege and airstrikes by Israel, only 23 of the Gaza Strip’s 35 hospitals are still functioning, according to the World Bank. The enclave’s five main health facilities are filled beyond capacity. Gaza authorities report at least 5,700 dead in Israel’s retaliation for the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas in southern Israel.
32: Only 32% of Americans trust the mass media, matching the historic low reached in 2016, according to a new Gallup poll. A historic high of 39% say they don’t trust mass media “at all.” Note that the survey was conducted before a number of mainstream media organizations initially misreported the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital bombing in Gaza. From a historical perspective, the highest level of trust ever recorded was 72%, back in ... 1976.
13: Gunmen in the Mexican state of Guerrero killed at least 13 law enforcement officials, including a local police chief, in an ambush on Tuesday. Overall, Mexico’s homicide rate has been gradually falling after reaching record highs during the pandemic. But Guerrero, which lies about 100 miles south of Mexico City and is home to the famous resort of Acapulco, has seen a surge of violence as drug cartels vie for turf. It’s now the second deadliest state for Mexican police.
5,000: The United Auto Workers union expanded their ongoing strike against the big three US carmakers on Tuesday, calling on some 5,000 employees at a GM plant in Texas to stop work. The plant, in Arlington, is one of GM’s most profitable. There are now some 45,000 workers on strike at facilities belonging to GM, Ford, and Stellantis. GM said Sunday the current work stoppage would cost it some $200 million per week.
40: Exactly 40 years ago, in one of the more lopsided conflicts of the Cold War, the US led an invasion of the tiny Caribbean island nation of Grenada, where a pro-Soviet regime had been in power since 1979. In the days before the invasion, Grenada’s Marxist PM Maurice Bishop was executed by a rival faction within his government. On the pretext of protecting US students in Grenada from deepening unrest, Ronald Reagan sent in several thousand Marines and special forces. Cynics noted that the invasion immediately drew US media attention away from the scene in Beirut, where two days earlier a suicide bomber had killed hundreds of US Marines in an attack that Washington blamed on Hezbollah. The Grenadian Marxist regime was overthrown after a few weeks of fighting, and elections were held several months later. Bishop’s body was never found.
An autoworkers strike in Canada
Could the US autoworkers strike affect Canada?
Experts say the U.S. strike won’t initially have a significant effect on the Canadian market, but serious dangers are lurking. If the strike persists, or if new plants join, it could have a huge impact on the auto parts industry north of the border, costing Canadian companies billions in revenue.
The issue is that the US plants rely on Canadian suppliers for many of the auto parts and components they use. In fact nearly half of the auto parts that Canadian companies make are exported to the US. So if plants south of the border stay idle for long, demand for those Canadian-made parts will plummet. One Canadian auto parts industry leader is already warning of production delays and even work stoppages in Canada if the US strike goes on for long.
Meanwhile Ford earlier this week averted a similar strike by nearly 5,700 Canadian autoworkers by reaching an 11th hour tentative deal. But there’s still a longer-term threat to the job security of autoworkers on both sides of the border: the rise of EVs, which generally require less labor to manufacture, and automation, which is replacing workers with robots altogether. Taken together, those two things stand to reduce required labor hours and cause job losses over time.
Neither the Ford deal in Canada – nor any strike resolution in the U.S. – is likely to address that issue for auto workers in the long-run.
In short: no matter what, buckle up for more labor unrest in the auto industry on both sides of the border.
Striking United Auto Workers members picket outside the Stellantis Jeep Plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Autoworkers’ strike highlights Biden’s union problem ahead of 2024 vote
Bad news for US President Joe Biden: as the United Auto Workers’ strike enters its fifth day, labor and climate priorities are colliding in a crucial election year.
While Biden calls himself the most “pro-union president in American history,” a wave of major private sector strikes is the last thing he wants as he heads into 2024. What’s more, in addition to their grievances with Big Auto, the UAW sees a threat in another of Biden’s priorities: his green agenda. Most plants that produce electric vehicles are not unionized, and many of the batteries they require are made in China. This is catnip for leading GOP candidate Donald Trump, who called on workers to “stand strong against Biden’s vicious attack on American labor,” as well as fellow Republicans who blame Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and electrification push for workers’ troubles.
Democrats traditionally depend on a coalition of labor and progressive voters; any erosion of that support weakens their re-election prospects in what could be a tight race in 2024. Biden also needs to hold the state of Michigan, where the UAW is a strong player: in 2020, Biden just barely won the state’s 16 electoral votes.
A prolonged autoworkers’ strike would seriously damage the American economy, imperiling Biden’s re-election bid. And yet Union Joe has to walk a fine line. Last Friday he attempted to shore up his union bona fides, stating that “record corporate profits… should be shared by record contracts for the UAW.”
But that, in turn, only raised the ire of business interests. US Chamber of Commerce president Suzanne P. Clark accused Biden of “promoting unionization at all cost.” Biden can’t catch a break – and it’ll only get tougher as election day approaches.