by dap | May 18, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A decisive vote against the United Auto Workers union at two Mercedes factories in Alabama on Friday sidetracked the UAW’s grand plan to sign up workers at nonunion plants mainly in the South.
But newly elected President Shawn Fain said the union will return to Mercedes and will press on with efforts to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen auto factories across the nation.
Employees at Mercedes battery and assembly plants near Tuscaloosa voted 56% against the union in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board.
The vote count handed the union a serious setback a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s 4,300-worker assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The NLRB’s final tally showed a vote of 2,642 against the union, with 2,045 in favor. Nearly 93% of workers eligible to vote cast ballots.
Marick Masters, a professor emeritus at Wayne State University’s business school who has long studied the union, said the UAW will have to analyze what went wrong and apply those lessons as it moves to other nonunion factories largely in the South.
“They’re going to have to go back to the drawing board,” said Masters, who added that the union will need to ask itself if it needs to get more workers to sign cards seeking a union election before calling for a vote. The union may also want to respond faster to management opposition, he said.
“Do they need to assess more realistically the actual level of grievances and how passionately workers are to stay committed to a union organizing effort in the face of opposition?” Masters asked.
Fain assured workers that the union will return, telling them the loss was a bump in the road, not failure. He said he told company officials the fight was not over.
“We’ve been here before, and we’re going to continue on and we’re going to win,” he said. “And I think we’ll have a different result down the road, and I look forward to that.”
The NLRB said both sides have five business days to file objections to the election, and the union must wait a year before seeking another vote at Mercedes.
Whether the union challenges the election will be up to its lawyers, said Fain, who accused the company of “egregious illegal behavior.”
The union already has filed unfair labor practice complaints against the company alleging that management and anti-union consultants tried to intimidate workers. Mercedes has denied the allegations.
“Obviously we’re following through on complaints, both here and in Germany” where Mercedes is headquartered, Fain said.
A big difference between the loss at Mercedes and the overwhelming win at Volkswagen, Fain said, was that Mercedes actively fought the union. “Obviously, Volkswagen was more neutral, and that wasn’t the case here,” he said of Mercedes, which he accused of holding captive meetings of workers to campaign against the UAW.
In a statement Friday, Mercedes said it looks forward to “continuing to work directly with our team members so they can build superior vehicles for the world.”
The company said its focus is on providing a safe and supportive work environment.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who has campaigned against the union, wrote in a post on X that auto manufacturing is one of the state’s crown jewel industries, and the state is committed to keeping it that way.
“Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW,” she wrote. “We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election.”
Worker Melissa Howell, who opposed joining the union, said she and other employees realized that the UAW was making lofty promises that it couldn’t put in writing, including pay of $40 per hour, pensions and better benefits.
“They kept repeating over and over, ‘You’re not going to lose anything. We’re going to start with what you have right now,’” Howell said. “That’s when we really started letting people know, ‘Hey, hold up. It’s all negotiable.’”
But Kirk Garner, 60, who works in quality control at the Mercedes assembly plant and supported joining the union, said workers were shown an anti-union video every day ahead of the vote, while union opponents targeted employees who they thought could be persuaded to vote no.
“I’m disappointed in the people that flipped and believed the persuaders,” Garner said.
The UAW won at Volkswagen largely because of the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits. Contracts reached with the Detroit Three automakers, General Motors, Stellantis and Ford, brought 33% raises between now and 2028 when the deals expire, giving the union a large recruiting tool.
Before VW, the United Auto Workers had little success at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less drawn to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial Midwestern states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would have represented a huge plum for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements that Southern states have bestowed on foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
It turns out that the union had a tougher time in Alabama than in Tennessee, where the UAW narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with workers at the factory.
Krisher reported from Detroit. AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York contributed to this report.
by dap | May 18, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
Mother-daughter scouting enthusiasts Kelluana Mack and Kendall Jackson, of Merrillville, say they don’t know what all the fuss is over Boy Scouts of America rebranding to Scouting America in the coming year.
The move is intended to promote inclusivity – something the Merrillville residents say has always been their scouting experience. Mack said when the pair first learned of BSA’s decision to rebrand, they thought it was a little funny.
“What’s in a name? We’ve been involved so long. It doesn’t really change anything. The goal is to work and help you and that’s not going to change,” Mack said.
Mack said Troop 53 run out of St. Timothy Community Church in Gary was established 88 years ago and has been operating out of the church for 70 years. She became involved in 1999 when her son joined at 5 years old.
“Officially, I started helping in 1999…in 2006 I became Scout Master,” Mack said. She also now works for BSA’s Munster office.
“The journey just went from there,” Mack said.
Jackson has been along for the ride with her mother since she was in the womb.
“Did I really get involved or was I kind of just there?” Jackson said. “Honestly, they were saying I was camping since before I was born. When I was born, I started going with on camping trips every weekend,” she said. “I would be there with all the boys just learning, not knowing what anything meant. I was just there having fun, and maybe terrorizing my brother a little bit.”
Venturing Crews have allowed girls from 14 to 21 to be part of a scout troop for almost three decades. In 2017, BSA allowed girls to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. The day she turned 14, Jackson started the troop’s crew.
“I kind of grew up with the idea I’ll never make Eagle. When I did turn 14, I started the crew,” Jackson said. When the opportunity arose in 2019 to be part of the program and reach rank, Jackson said she said, “Sign me up.”
She was 16 and had a brief window to earn rank. Eagle candidates must be in the program for at least 18 months and complete it before they turn 18.
“I was definitely on a time crunch,” Jackson said. She worked through the pandemic to earn the needed badges and complete her Eagle Scout project to be among the first group of women to earn the rank.
Jackson was among the more than 1,000 young women in the 2021 inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts. She said girls who have been around scouting, whose brothers were in scouting, know about the program and, like her, have always just participated.
“The girls who really wanted to join already knew about it,” her mother agreed. “I think maybe now more people will realize.”
The move announced at the Texas-based organization’s national meeting sends a strong message to everyone in America they can come to the program and be their authentic selves, Roger Krone, president and CEO, said.
Like other organizations, the scouts lost members during the pandemic when participation was difficult. The high point over the past decade was in 2018, when there were more than 2 million members. Currently the organization serves just over 1 million young people, including more than 176,000 girls and teens. Membership peaked in 1972 at almost 5 million.
Scouting has worked to be more inclusive, allowing gay members in 2013 and ending a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015. In 2018 girls were able to be accepted as scouts.
Mack said the biggest change she anticipates is to signage and stationery.
“Even the business cards, everything. As far as impacting the program. I don’t think it will. It won’t miss a beat,” Mack said.
cnapoleon@chicagotribune.com
The Associated Press contributed.
by dap | May 18, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
It’s official, Chicagoland. Periodical cicadas have arrived.
The large insects, which last emerged in the area 17 years ago, have been spotted in droves in pockets of the city and suburbs. On certain streets on the Far Southwest Side Saturday, cicadas dotted the sidewalks and blanketed the trees.
“It’s pretty exciting. It’s natural systems at their finest,” said Stephanie Adams, the plant health care leader at the Morton Arboretum. “You can just really appreciate them.”
The staff at the arboretum in Lisle first noticed cicadas Monday. By Friday, certain areas were crawling with the insects. Due to warmer weather, the insects appeared about a week earlier than anticipated, according to Adams. The timing of the emergence can be affected by even the slightest variances in soil temperature.
“I would say in people’s neighborhoods, if they have a known host tree, and it’s in a particularly sunny area, you’re going to see emergence earlier,” Adams said.
This year marks a rare
, with the cycles of the 17-year and 13-year cicadas aligning for the first time in
. The last overlap of Brood XIX, four species that appear every 13 years in the Southeast, and Brood XIII, three species that appear every 17 years in northern Illinois, was in 1803.
Brood XIX won’t emerge in Chicago, but will be
. Periodical cicadas only exist in two other countries — Fiji and India.
Nature-lovers Luke Van Schaik and Yvonne Rae have always been fascinated by the insects. It’s why they drove six hours from Ontario, Canada, to Illinois with their children this weekend. Saturday morning, their 8-year-old and 3-year-old played on a sidewalk in Beverly, watching cicadas crawl up their arms.
“We thought we’d take the kids to get some deep dish pizza, see the sights in Chicago, and then see how many cicadas we could catch,” Van Schaik said with a laugh.
Though females can
as they lay eggs, cicadas are harmless to humans. In fact, the insects are even
.
Beverly resident Keith Lewis, a self-proclaimed bug enthusiast, was brimming with excitement when he first spotted cicadas in his yard Friday. His walkway on South Bell Avenue in Beverly was littered with tan shells. For Lewis, the insects mark the passage of time. He can’t help but feel nostalgic.
“I’ve been waiting for them,” he said. “The last time that the cicadas emerged, my son was 4. And now he’s 21. It’s a milestone for me, it really is.”
After spotting the insects, Lewis has been posting the photos on the Cicada Safari app, a platform launched by researchers to track the historic double emergence. He also made cicada T-shirts to celebrate their arrival.
“I’m just so excited,” Lewis said. “I’m trying to enjoy it.”
Periodical cicadas have a life cycle of about four weeks, and are likely to remain visible through June. Most neighbors say they’ve yet to hear the insects’ signature singing, which usually begins a few days after a mass emergence.
It’s one of Karolyn Kuehner’s favorite things about cicadas. The Morgan Park musician takes comfort in their chirping and trilling.
“I enjoy the sound,” Kuehner said. “I was hoping we’d get both broods, because you have different songs. One sings higher than another. I think it’s beautiful.”
As Kuehner mowed her front lawn Saturday morning, her young crabapple trees were wrapped in delicate, protective netting. She first covered the saplings 10 days ago. Meanwhile, her oak tree was teeming with cicadas. Not that she minds.
“It’s just sort of part of the cycle of nature,” Kuehnr said. “I think when we can have that in the city, especially, that’s particularly lovely.”
Further north, Northbrook resident Linda Vering dodged cicadas in her driveway. They first appeared earlier this week and are already beginning to fly.
“We’re trying to be careful not to step on the newly emerged ones, but it’s kind of tricky,” Vering said. “And I have had a cicada flying on my hair before, which is really unpleasant.”
She mused that the Chicago area seems to be having one natural phenomenon after another this year.
“It’s like a second
,” Vering said with a laugh. “The eclipse, the
and now the cicadas.”
by dap | May 18, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is providing a $100,000 annual sponsorship to each Aces player for this season and 2025.
“The city of Vegas I’ve always said, it’s a big small town and they just want the best for the people here,” point guard Chelsea Gray said before the Aces home game Saturday against the Los Angeles Sparks. “They’re investing in us and so they put their money where their mouth is. We’ve done so much for the city and having fun doing it.
“It was a great moment for me and my teammates, of somebody actually putting funds behind, saying that they’re supporting and they want to have our back.”
The authority
of president and CEO Steve Hill telling the players in the locker room the news on Friday.
“The Aces have been on an historic run — two-time world champions,” Hill said on the video before informing the players. “We’re here to do something historic with them, too.”
And, probably, controversial.
The sponsorship does not violate the WNBA’s salary cap because the authority did not orchestrate the sponsorship with the club. But other teams are likely to raise questions about the fairness of the sponsorship and whether it violates the spirit of the cap rules.
Such a deal likely would give the Aces a tremendous advantage in landing free agents if other teams are unable to match the offering.
According to the website Spotrac, which tracks player salaries, the sponsorship is higher than the earnings of six Aces players.
“Definitely more than my salary,” said rookie Kate Martin, who makes $67,249, according to the website. “I’m super thankful. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming, but this is very much real life and that is what all these players deserve. I wouldn’t be getting this crazy bonus if it weren’t for how great all of these players have played in the last few years.”
The $100,000 also is a big addition even to what the top players make. A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum are the highest-paid Aces at $200,000 each and Gray is right behind at $196,267.
“(For) the LVCVA to see our value and to help close that pay gap, it says a lot about the character of the people that are there,” said Alysha Clark, whose salary is listed at $110,000. “So I’m extremely grateful. I’m honored to be able to represent this organization and this city and be able to put on for the city, give back to this city and pour into the community, and that’s what they did for us. It was really, really special.”
___
AP freelance writer W.G. Ramirez contributed to this report.
by dap | May 18, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
NEW YORK — Caitlin Clark brought in record ticket revenue for the New York Liberty in her first game in the Big Apple on Saturday.
The Liberty had over $2 million in ticket revenue for the game, a WNBA record, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk about the team’s revenue.
The game was sold out and tickets were hot on the secondary market. Clark’s first three games with the Indiana Fever have been huge for attendance. The Connecticut Sun sold out their home opener for the first time in 20 years. More than 17,000 fans turned out for the Fever’s home opener against New York on Thursday night.
Clark had one of the best games of her young pro career on Saturday, scoring 15 points in the first half.
She got going early against the Liberty, scoring 10 in the first quarter — more than she had in the meeting between the teams two days earlier in Indianapolis, where she just had nine. She looked more confident attacking on offense and even hit a few of her signature deep 3-pointers.
The league’s No. 1 draft pick was no stranger to playing on the biggest of stages, having brought so many new fans to the sport during her time playing at Iowa. She helped the Hawkeyes reach the NCAA championship game the past two seasons and routinely played in front of sellout crowds like the one in New York on Saturday.
Clark came into the game averaging 14.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds in her first two games.
She spent 10 minutes before the game signing autographs for dozens of fans who waited patiently for the rookie.
