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Even with Chris Licht out, how can CNN recover?
What happened to CNN?
The day after I wrote this, CNN’s David Zaslav (CEO of CNN’s corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery), fired Chris Licht, who oversaw a brief and chaotic run as the CEO and chairman of CNN.
Last August, I shared with you with my concerns about CNN’s new chairman and CEO, Chris Licht, who had just fired Brian Stelter and cancelled Stelter’s CNN Sunday show, “Reliable Sources.” The show had been a reliable source of intelligent criticism of Fox News, right-wing media in general, Trumpism, and the increasingly authoritarian lurch of the Republican Party.
I noted then that Licht had told the staff at CNN that he wanted less criticism of Trump and the Republican right — instructing them to stop referring to Trump’s “Big Lie” because he thought the phrase sounded like a Democratic Party talking point. Licht also wanted more conservative guests.
Why was Licht pushing CNN to the Trumpian right, when Trump continued to pose one of the most profound challenges to American democracy in history? I assumed it was because David Zaslav (the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s new corporate overseer) was behind the move.
But why did Zaslav want CNN in Trump’s corner? Because behind Zaslav was John Malone, the multibillionaire cable magnate who’s the leading shareholder in Warner Bros. Discovery and was a chief architect in the merger of Discovery and CNN.
Malone describes himself as a “libertarian,” although he travels in right-wing Republican circles. In 2005, he held 32 percent of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute. In 2017, he donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration.
Malone said he wanted CNN to be more like Fox News because, in his view, Fox News has “actual journalism.” Malone wanted the “news” portion of CNN to be “more centrist.”
Just before he was fired, Stelter wrote in his newsletter that Malone’s comments “stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice.” (A source told Deadline’s Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson that even if Malone didn’t order Stelter’s ouster, “it sure represents his thinking.”)
Soon after I related all this last August in this Substack letter, Licht phoned me. He was furious that I might question his motives. He rejected the charge that he was repositioning CNN to the right, or that Zaslav or Malone were behind the move. Licht told me he only wanted to turn CNN into a more trusted and less left-wing political source.
***
This past Friday, The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta published a long profile of Licht that’s become the talk of the media world. It confirms much of what I wrote last August (along with Licht’s angry call to me).
Alberta reports that Licht told CNN producers to downplay coverage of the first hearing of the congressional committee investigating January 6.
And that Licht got Trump to do the now infamous May 10 town hall by essentially giving Trump whatever he wanted. (After the town hall, CNN put Byron Donalds — a Trump-allied congressman — on a panel as a pundit.)
Alberta depicts Zaslav as the power behind the throne at CNN and Licht as his underling. Just before Alberta’s profile was published, Zaslav tapped David Leavy, a longtime lieutenant, to serve as CNN’s chief operating officer — a move likely to undermine Licht. Several CNN staffers told Stelter over the weekend that they think Licht will soon be out.
And what has this move toward the Trumpian right done for CNN? In recent months, its ratings have hit record lows. In March, CNN hit a three-decade nadir in viewership. In May, its primetime show ratings fell 25 percent from the year before.
In short: CNN under Licht, Zaslav, and Malone hasn’t picked up viewers who might otherwise tune in to Fox News or Newmax. Those viewers can always get Republican lapdogs and Trump sycophants more directly on these networks. The only real change is CNN has lost viewers who wanted a clear-eyed assessment of the ongoing threat to our democracy.
***
Sadly, there are still mainstream news outlets and journalists who believe that holding Trump accountable for what he has done (and continues to do) to this country is a form of partisanship, and that such partisanship has no place in so-called “balanced journalism.” This view is itself dangerous.
On his last CNN show, last August, Brian Stelter said:
It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue. It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces.
Precisely.
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A top adviser at the super PAC supporting former President Donald J. Trump's candidacy appeared before a Florida grand jury on Wednesday. (photo: Sophie Park/The New York Times)
Among those appearing before the grand jury in Miami was Taylor Budowich, who served as a spokesman for former President Donald Trump.
Among those who appeared for questions was Taylor Budowich, a former spokesman to Mr. Trump who now is a top adviser at the super PAC supporting Mr. Trump’s presidential candidacy.
It remained unclear what Mr. Budowich was asked by prosecutors working for the special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the inquiry, or what responses he provided. But Mr. Budowich was working for Mr. Trump during a period when the Justice Department began the investigation last year into his handling of the classified materials, after officials at the National Archives had spent much of 2021 trying to retrieve them.
After his appearance ended, Mr. Budowich posted a message on Twitter saying that he answered “every question honestly.” He described the grand jury inquiry as “a bogus and deeply troubling effort to use the power of government to ‘get’ Trump.”
His lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment.
Mr. Budowich’s appearance came amid signs that Mr. Smith was nearing the end of the documents investigation and was poised to make a decision about whether to bring charges against Mr. Trump or some of his aides. The special counsel’s office is also conducting a separate inquiry in Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The status of that investigation seems to be lagging somewhat behind the classified documents case.
Most of the documents investigation has been conducted by a grand jury sitting in Washington, which has heard from numerous witnesses over the past several months, including some of Mr. Trump’s White House advisers; some low-level workers at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida; and even more than 20 members of his Secret Service security detail.
Only a handful of witnesses — including some Mar-a-Lago employees — have appeared so far before the grand jury in Miami, which seems to have started hearing evidence last month, according to people familiar with its workings. It remains uncertain how many more witnesses are scheduled to testify before the Miami grand jury, which is sitting in the city’s federal courthouse.
Recently, there have been indications that the grand jury in Washington has either expired or paused hearing testimony, according to several people familiar with its workings. Some of those people said the last witnesses to appear for questioning in Washington did so in early or mid-May.
Should prosecutors ultimately charge Mr. Trump — which he and some of his advisers are said to believe is likely — it remains an open question whether Mr. Smith’s team would file an indictment in Washington, Miami or perhaps in both cities.
While many of the central events in the documents inquiry occurred in Florida — perhaps most notably a search of Mar-a-Lago by the F.B.I. last summer — the case was opened by national security prosecutors working out of the Justice Department in Washington. Legal experts have debated which location would provide prosecutors with the best venue to sustain criminal charges.
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LGBTQ supporters march in Des Moines, Iowa, March 1, 2023. (photo: Phil Roeder)
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
The largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization in the United States has declared its first-ever state of emergency due to an unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. The Human Rights Campaign says more than 525 anti-LGBTQ state bills have been introduced this year, in the 2023 legislative session; over 70 have become law.
In the latest move, on Tuesday, Louisiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature passed a ban on gender-affirming care for most minors, sending the bill to the Democratic governor, who’s opposed it, but a GOP supermajority in the Legislature could override his veto.
Most major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors and adults.
Also Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Florida’s bans on gender transition care for three transgender children amidst ongoing legal challenges. Their families filed a lawsuit arguing the bans are unconstitutional, and the judge agreed they represent, quote, “purposeful discrimination against transgenders.”
Meanwhile, in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, police declared an unlawful assembly Tuesday night after more than 500 people protested outside a school board meeting where a vote was scheduled on recognizing June as Pride month. A physical fight broke out between anti-LGBTQ protesters and LGBTQ supporters, and the brawl was so big, it was picked up by a local news traffic cam.
This comes as 2024 Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley tried to connect teen girls’ suicidal ideation to transgender rights during a CNN town hall Sunday.
NIKKI HALEY: The idea that we have biological boys playing in girls’ sports, it is the women’s issue of our time. My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t even know how I would have that conversation with her. How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms? And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year?
AMY GOODMAN: A recent report by The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ young people, found roughly half of transgender and nonbinary young people said they had seriously considered suicide over the last year. And 30% said laws and policies that target LGBTQ people had worsened their mental health.
This is Nebraska state Senator Megan Hunt, whose son is transgender, responding to Republican Governor Jim Pillen after he signed a bill last month that bans gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth. Hunt had joined a months-long filibuster to block the measure.
SEN. MEGAN HUNT: This person said that they had attempted suicide during this session in Nebraska, a trans person. And I said to them, “Do not let one of these trash people who I work with be the reason that you’re not here. They don’t matter. The potential you have for the rest of your life is so much bigger than the damage any of these trash people can do in their little four-year or eight-year term.” … Senator Kauth has stood up and said that trans kids are suicidal and depressed because they’re trans. No, it’s because of bullies like her, who are trying to legislate their existence and take away their right to be viewed as fully human in our culture and society.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the United States.
This is the first time in the 40-year history of your group that you’ve decided to issue this emergency declaration. Talk about why you did this, Kelley Robinson.
KELLEY ROBINSON: Thank you.
You know, we felt like we had a responsibility to do so. I mean, you’ve laid it out. We’ve seen unprecedented attacks at the legislative level. We’re seeing real-life violence impacting our community, from California to the one in five of every hate crime being motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias.
And in this moment, when people are traveling across the country, when they’re deciding to move or what schools to go to, we had a responsibility to let people know that, one, there’s an imminent health and safety crisis facing our community, and, two, there’s a dizzying patchwork the protections for us and for our families depending on the state that you’re in. This report lays it out and also gives resources on what your rights are and what you can do if you find yourself in one of these hostile states.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what’s behind this wave of — and “wave” doesn’t really state it accurately. We’re talking about, as you’ve documented, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bills that have been put forward across the country.
KELLEY ROBINSON: This is political theater. They are doing this to pander to a MAGA Republican base in so many of these states. Look, the majority of the people support the LGBTQ+ community. Seventy percent of Americans support the LGBTQ+ community and believe that legislatures should be standing with our values. One in five of Generation Z identifies as a member of one of this community, 20 million American adults. This is not an issue of the margins.
What we’re seeing play out is a loud and vocal minority that is sowing hate and fear against our community because they’re not willing to solve the real problems. If they actually cared about the safety of our kids, they would be moving forward legislation to prevent gun violence, the number one killer of our children, not taking away the rights of parents to support our kids in growing into their fullest selves.
AMY GOODMAN: Over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled a new Tennessee law restricting drag performances in public was unconstitutional. This is drag performer Cya Inhale at a Pride event in Franklin, Tennessee.
CYA INHALE: Having the answer finally delivered and that breath of fresh air and that weight off our shoulders that it’s finally gone, we don’t have to worry about it, is lovely. We can breathe easy for the rest of the year. There’s still a fight, and we still have to continue fighting. There are still other states that we are — drag is still being criminalized, that we still have to work on, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.
AMY GOODMAN: And in related news, a federal judge blocked parts of a Florida law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Judge Robert Hinkle asserted, “Gender identity is real,” and he ruled in favor of three families with three transgender children who will be allowed to obtain prescription puberty blockers. So there is very bad news but also good news, and some of these rulings are by Trump-appointed judges.
KELLEY ROBINSON: Yes, that’s very true. I mean, that’s just showing the extent to which they are going, how unconstitutional the laws are that they’re passing in these states.
But the thing that I really want to pull forward is the impact is real. The fact that over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced, even if they don’t pass into law, it is having a devastating impact on the safety and well-being of our community. And when you match that with easy access to firearms, with an extreme rhetoric of hate, that’s when we’re getting these real-life outcomes of violence, from kids having increased incidence of mental health crises to real assaults at Drag Queen Story Hours or bomb threats on hospitals.
That’s why this is such a crisis right now, because it’s got the legislative impact, the human impact, and then it’s creating a culture of fear for our community, because we know they’re trying to push us back into the closet right now. And we are doing all that we can to show up in joyful resistance and resilience to make that not the case, not only for ourselves today but for every young person that’s watching this play out.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about doing this as presidential candidates are coming forward and taking very strong stands against the gay community in the Republican field, everyone from Governor DeSantis of Florida to the former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Can you talk about what you hope declaring this national state of emergency, how it will affect the presidential campaign?
KELLEY ROBINSON: You know, I have to say that what I see playing out in the Republican primary is devastating, it’s sickening, and it’s horrifying. They are pandering, again, to an extremist base and sowing fear against our kids, against our trans children, only for political gain. They know that this isn’t where the majority of the country is. They know that we’ve identified 62 million voters in the country that prioritize LGBTQ+ issues when deciding who to vote for. That’s, of course, LGBTQ+ people, but that’s also our allies, our friends, our family.
We can’t allow them to continue this line of attack. And even more so, we’ve got to bolster up our champions. We’ve got to make sure that everyone that is a supporter and ally of this community turns into a champion in 2024 to hold the strongest line possible. We can’t cede ground to these bullies, especially politically.
At the end of the day, we also have to recognize that this is an intersectional attack. The same people that are coming after gender-affirming care are also attacking our access to abortion. The same people that are trying to outlaw the ability to teach queer theories in schools are trying outlaw — excuse me, ban books and outlaw the ability to teach about Black history. They are launching an attack on all of our communities that is truly a crisis to our democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about what’s happening in the United States going global, Kelley. In May, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, signed a sweeping anti-LGBTQ measure into law that makes same-sex relationship punishable by life in prison — even the death penalty in some cases. It’s one of the most draconian anti-LGBTQ laws in the world. In April, we spoke to the Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha about the role of U.S. evangelicals in pushing this law forward in Uganda.
FRANK MUGISHA: The homophobia and transphobia we are seeing towards queer and trans persons in Uganda is from the West. It is mostly peddled by extreme American evangelicals.
Just last week, we had American evangelicals in Uganda attending a conference that was titled “The Interparliamentary Conference on African Values.” But the agenda for this conference was anti-gay and anti-gender. In fact, some of the African members of parliament who attended this conference are trying to introduce similar legislation in other countries. For example, Kenya, a member of parliament who attended this conference in Uganda, that was heavily supported by American evangelicals, is now trying to introduce a similar legislation in Kenya. We are seeing this anti-gay propaganda and anti-gay legislations moving around Africa. Ghana already has one. We are worried about other countries, like Burundi, Tanzania, that could introduce similar legislations.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Frank Mugisha, the LGBTQ activist in Uganda. So many LGBTQ people are fleeing Uganda right now with the passage and signing of this law, Kelley Robinson. In that conversation, he particularly focused on the American evangelical Scott Lively, who talked about homosexuality as a Western agenda. Can you talk about how what’s happening in the United States is having such a massive effect globally?
KELLEY ROBINSON: I mean, it’s heartbreaking. It truly is. It is devastating to see how impactful that piece of legislation is in Uganda. And we know that it’s true, what he’s saying, that the same people that are pushing these anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the United States, they are exporting this hate. They are using places like Uganda and the full African region as a testing ground for what they hope to do in the United States of America. These are groups that are designated hate groups, like the Alliance to Defend Freedom. This is a true crisis.
You know, and it’s also heartbreaking because America used to be the beacon of hope. We used to be going to countries talking about what it means to expand rights to people. And now this is the legacy that we’re moving forward. All of us need to see this for exactly what it is: a precursor to what they also want to make true in the United States of America.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Kelley, if you can talk about what you feel people need to do in this time, as your organization has designated a national emergency?
KELLEY ROBINSON: I think that we need to recognize that, first, there are children looking to us to see what we are going to do and say in this moment, to see if we will stand up for their lives, if we will validate their humanity and their dignity. And all of us have a responsibility to do that vocally and proudly. We have to stand up and tell our stories in every way that we can about being a member of the community or being an ally to this community.
You have to take political action. Contact your legislators and tell them not to mess with our trans kids, not to mess with the LGBTQ+ community. And ultimately, we have to vote. We have to change the political dynamics in this country so that it is no longer advantageous to our opposition to attack the LGBTQ+ community. We can get on the other side of this issue, but we’ve got to do it together.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Kelley Robinson, I thank you so much for being with us, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. For the first time in its 40-year history, it has declared a national emergency for the LGBTQ+ community.
Coming up, Cornel West, the famed public intellectual, has just announced he is running for president to challenge both the Democratic and Republican parties. Stay with us.
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In an interview on NBC's 'TODAY,' the California governor said he will investigate migrant flights to Sacramento ordered by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. (photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)
In an interview on NBC's "TODAY," the California governor said he will investigate migrant flights to Sacramento ordered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"I know one was on the basis of all the interviews and all the facts that are now in evidence," Newsom told Jacob Soboroff of "TODAY" in an exclusive interview airing Thursday morning, adding, "Now we have to prove it."
"Now, who’s ultimately accountable and responsible? I mean, the buck should stop with Ron DeSantis and the games he’s playing," said Newsom, a Democrat. "But it’s the folks on the front lines that were doing the dirty work. And that’s ultimately what we have to determine, is where the culpability lands and resides."
Newsom's comments escalate a growing battle between two powerful governors from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Newsom — an increasingly national figure in the Democratic Party who is often discussed as a potential presidential candidate — has gone after DeSantis on issues from guns and abortion to education, Disney and other social issues.
Florida confirmed Tuesday that DeSantis' administration was responsible for the two private planes’ flying groups of migrants to Sacramento, the state capital, without coordination with California. Roughly three dozen migrants arrived on the two flights, which landed Friday and Monday.
Newsom tweeted at DeSantis on Monday, calling him a "small, pathetic man" and suggesting he could face kidnapping charges.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, also a Democrat, tweeted, "State-sanctioned kidnapping is immoral."
Soboroff asked Newsom whether DeSantis should be concerned that California law enforcement will arrest him when he visits the state for a fundraiser this month. Newsom said that was "hyperbole" but that there was "potential" criminality.
"They’re human beings used as pawns for a guy's political advancement. That's pretty sad and pathetic," Newsom said.
"This is California — fourth- or fifth-largest economy on planet Earth," he continued. "We mean business. And so Ron DeSantis should know that."
A spokesperson for Florida’s Division of Emergency Management said Tuesday that the migrants all went to California voluntarily.
"Through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California," the statement read.
“As you can see from this video, Florida’s voluntary relocation is precisely that — voluntary,” the statement said, adding that a contractor was present and made sure the migrants made it safely to a third-party nongovernmental organization.
DeSantis has been leaning heavily into immigration in his run for the GOP nomination for president, using it to go after former President Donald Trump.
Last year, DeSantis attracted national attention — and significant criticism — for flying about 50 migrants, most of them Venezuelan, from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, the wealthy liberal vacation spot in Massachusetts, without notice. In February, Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature expanded the program used for the flights.
On Monday, a Texas sheriff said he was recommending that a local district attorney file criminal charges after an investigation into the Martha's Vineyard incident; it wasn't clear who would face those charges.
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UPS workers and Teamsters members during a rally outside a UPS hub in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 21, 2023. (photo: Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg)
With UPS making astronomical profits and public support for unions holding strong, a Teamsters strike at UPS this August could be a watershed moment for the American working class. Two UPS drivers explain what’s at stake in the potential strike.
As the contract expiration looms less than two months away, other workers across the economy are also standing up to demand more. From a wave of successful union elections at Starbucks, Trader Joes, and other retail stores, to walkouts from Amazon to Hollywood, American workers fighting for dignity and fair compensation through collective action have momentum on their side. In return, employers have intensified their union busting.
The UPS contract fight therefore comes at a pivotal moment for US labor. What happens here could shape the direction of the movement for years to come — not only because this contract covers several hundred thousand workers who move 6 percent of US GDP daily, but also because the issues at stake in this fight are representative of those faced by workers across the economy.
This contract fight is about two visions of work in the twenty-first century. One is promoted by workers: equal pay for equal work, dignity and autonomy on the job, and a stable work-life balance. The other is promoted by Wall Street: hypersurveillance, low pay, subcontracting, gig work, and “flexible” scheduling practices that hurt workers and benefit bosses.
Teamsters Fighting Decades of Decline
At UPS, the first vision of work comes from rank-and-file Teamsters. As Alex Press and other labor journalists have detailed, the roots of this contract fight go back decades.
UPS was once a hallmark of secure union jobs. Now, 60 percent of the workforce is part-time, making around the minimum wage in many regions. Drivers in many locations are forced to work six days a week and up to fourteen hours a day in forced overtime. Managers follow drivers in personal vehicles and relentlessly harass workers to scare them into working faster. In 2018, former Teamsters president James P. Hoffa forced a contract upon members, despite a majority no vote, that kept part-time wages low and established the second-tier “22.4” driver position (named for the section of the contract that establishes the position), which resulted in new drivers making less money than existing drivers despite doing the same work, and giving them fewer overtime protections.
The rank and file responded to this onslaught by organizing through the reform caucus Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and fought concessions the whole way, building a movement in the process. TDU activists organized a “vote no” campaign in 2013 and again in 2018 against concessionary contracts. Then in 2021, TDU led the successful charge to elect a coalition slate of reformers to the union’s top leadership, on a platform of taking on employers like UPS more aggressively to reverse these concessions.
Now, UPS Teamsters are demanding a significant pay increase for part-timers to $25 an hour, the elimination of 22.4’s two-tier wages for package-car drivers, the end to forced sixth days of work, raising pension payouts for sixty thousand workers so they’re more equal across the country, no driver-facing cameras, more holidays, and an end to subcontracting and the use of gig workers.
The expectations of rank-and-file Teamsters are high. If the two-tier wage structure of drivers is not eliminated on day one of this contract, it is a strike issue. If part-time workers do not get a significant pay increase, it is a strike issue. If all workdays beyond the five-day workweek are not totally voluntary, it is a strike issue.
Some of these demands are about regaining ground that was lost by past union administrations. For example, the two-tier driver wages were only implemented in the last contract under Hoffa Jr. But for many workers, especially those hired since the last contract, this is about fighting for more. They kept the economy running throughout the COVID-19 pandemic without a penny of hazard pay and watched UPS make record profits off their backs while working forced overtime. Of course they now want their fair share.
The widespread support of these demands through the union’s ranks and the willingness to fight for them point to a simple truth: the Teamsters rank and file will not accept a half-deal, trade-offs, or “sharing the burden” with UPS. Teamsters are demanding more.
UPS and Its Marching Orders
The other vision of work comes from Wall Street, which is the real force that the Teamsters are fighting against at UPS. Seventy-two percent of UPS stocks are owned by Wall Street firms; the two largest shareholders are Vanguard Capital and BlackRock. These firms and others own and control most of the rest of our economy, meaning not just UPS but its main competitors, including FedEx and the railroads.
What does Wall Street want out of the UPS contract? Steady and massive profits.
From their perspective, UPS is one of the great success stories of the pandemic. From 2012 to 2019, UPS yearly profits ranged from $7.1 billion to $8.2 billion. In 2020, when the rest of the economy was suffering from the pandemic, UPS made over $8.7 billion in profits. In the years since, it reported the largest profits in its history: $13.1 billion in 2021 and $13.9 billion in 2022.
UPS will try to further increase these profits in the 2023 contract by asking for “flexibility” to schedule employees to work any of the seven days in a week, the installation of driver-facing cameras to further harass workers, and the continued use of gig workers to deliver packages.
The biggest impediment to Wall Street dictating terms for the entire logistics industry is the Teamsters’ UPS contract. Simply look to the competitors to see what corporations would do without an unionized counterforce at UPS: Amazon drivers paid nearly minimum wage and having their hours cut next week if they do not meet inhumane production standards this week; FedEx moving to eliminate all direct hires and switching to a 100 percent subcontractor model; workers forced to eke out a living in their cars, delivering packages, people, and food until enough money is made to pay off the car expenses and cover that month’s rent — if they’re lucky.
But Wall Street does not just want profits. They want power — hoarded for themselves and as far away from us as possible. They are constantly working to create the best possible economic conditions for profit-making, and there is no better condition for that than demobilizing and dividing the working class.
For that reason, far more important than any particular concession, Wall Street wants a deal at UPS without a strike, and they will be willing to give up a few of those concessions to get it.
A two-week strike could cost UPS approximately $3.2 billion. But more important, a strike at UPS would be the largest demonstration of working-class power seen in the post-COVID-19 economy. Every worker across the economy would learn that they have the power to win better conditions through the collective action of simply withholding their labor. That result is what Wall Street fears the most.
Unfortunately for UPS, the Teamsters will not be shaken. A strike authorization vote for UPS Teamsters is set to begin this week; IBT general president Sean O’Brien has urged all members to vote yes. TDU will work to ensure that the national negotiating committee receives the largest “yes” vote possible.
The UPS contract fight matters for the entire working class. If we want workers at Amazon, FedEx, and throughout the country to know that organizing a union leads to better pay and working conditions, greater control over their working lives, and opens the door to a better world, then there is no better opportunity to show what we mean than a strike victory against UPS and Wall Street this summer. A national, high-visibility strike led by a newly reformed union could point the way forward for many workers across the economy and reinvigorate the labor movement as a whole, by demonstrating that our collective power does not come from leaders at the bargaining table, but from the essential labor that rank-and-file workers perform to keep society running, and our power to withhold it.
Who Will Win?
The contract fight at UPS started nearly a year ago. Last August, Teamsters had contract kickoff rallies around the country. In the fall, UPS workers around the country filled out contract surveys, affirming the popularity of ambitious demands. Over the winter, thousands of Teamsters stood at gates and in break rooms handing out contract unity pledge cards, to educate each other and build support for the major contract demands they are willing to strike over.
In the spring, they held contract action team trainings around the country to map their workplaces, select picket captains, and develop organizing plans to engage their coworkers. And in the last month, rank-and-file TDU activists began petitioning at dozens of UPS “barns” to demand the company accept a higher national pension plan and raise part-time pay to $25 an hour. They remain firm in their high expectations. They want to win the best contract in Teamster history, and they’ll be willing to hit the streets in a walkoff on August 1 to do it if they have to.
While UPS will do everything it can to negotiate a settlement before August 1, ultimately, the decision to strike will come down to the 340,000 UPS Teamsters who have fought concessions for decades and now have the wind at their backs. At the 2021 IBT Convention, TDU activists led the successful charge to end the hated rule that allowed Hoffa Jr to force the last contract on UPSers in 2018. Now a simple majority vote will rule on a contract vote.
Will a majority of UPS Teamsters even accept a tentative agreement without striking, given the immense power they know they have, the ground they need to recover, the public support they enjoy, and how much they have to gain? Thanks to decades-long reform efforts, that will be their decision to make.
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Volkswagen do Brazil, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, was established in Brazil in 1953. Here a 1973 SP2 model developed for the Brazilian market. (photo: Arild Vågen/Wikimedia Commons)
Prosecutors in Brazil are seeking reparations for decades-old human rights violations allegedly committed by Volkswagen in the Amazon during the military dictatorship.
This was the experience of hundreds of rural workers who were subjected to slavery-like labor in the 1970s and 1980s on the Vale do Rio Cristalino ranch in Pará, a state in northern Brazil spanning part of the Amazon. The ranch owner was Volkswagen do Brasil, the Brazilian subsidiary of the German automaker.
Nearly half a century later, prosecutors in Brazil are seeking reparations for the victims of modern slavery on the Volkswagen ranch. Their accusations of human rights violations are backed by a vast body of evidence. But Volkswagen rejects all allegations and denies being responsible for the use of slave labor on its farm. In March of this year, the company walked away from negotiations with prosecutors.
The case shines a light on Volkswagen’s cozy relationship with the military governments that ruled Brazil throughout the 1964-1985 dictatorship—and how these governments facilitated all manner of socioenvironmental abuses. It also highlights the challenges in holding powerful corporations to account.
The Volkswagen Farm in the Amazon
In 1973 Volkswagen acquired around 140,000 hectares of land in Santana do Araguaia, south Pará, with the objective of turning the forest into cattle pasture. The company was seeking a fiscally advantageous way of investing its profits from the auto industry and harbored the ambition of developing an optimized cattle breed. It had the blessing and encouragement of the military government, for whom this ranching project fitted into its policy of aggressively developing the Amazon.
Under the nationalist slogan “integrar para não entregar” (integrate so as to not submit), the military governments oversaw the construction of roads cutting through the Amazon and backed the creation of sprawling ranches like Volkswagen’s Vale do Rio Cristalino farm, all with the aim of populating and monetizing the rainforest.
This developmentalist policy was destructive. It came at a heavy socioenvironmental price, riding on the exploitation of poor Brazilians, leading to an Indigenous genocide, and kickstarting the widescale deforestation that besets the Amazon to this day—all funded by the Brazilian taxpayer, as companies like Volkswagen were generously subsidized for their Amazon activities.
Volkswagen received R$700 million in present-day value (around $140 million) from the Brazilian government through tax deductions and other fiscal perks, according to estimates from prosecutors today. “And these resources were used to cut down the forest, create environmental damage, violate labor laws, and use slave labor,” says Ricardo Rezende, a Catholic priest and anthropologist who first denounced Volkswagen 40 years ago.
Nonetheless, the ranch became a losing enterprise in 1980, and Volkswagen decided to sell it in 1986.
“A Brutal and Violent Reality”
Rezende moved to Pará in 1977 while working for the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization linked to the Catholic Church. He says he immediately started receiving reports of slave labor and assassinations taking place on the ranches in the region, owned by massive corporations. One of them was the Volkswagen farm.
In 1983, three workers managed to escape the ranch and recount the abuses they suffered and witnessed there. Rezende made the accusations against Volkswagen public.
“The workers were punished, they received false promises in some of the poorest municipalities of Brazil and were trafficked into the farm, and when they got there, they were faced with an extremely brutal and violent reality,” says Rafael Garcia, the prosecutor leading the current investigation into Volkswagen’s human rights violations.
This reality included poor sanitary conditions, exposure to health dangers like malaria, exhausting working conditions carried out under armed supervision, and “all kinds of physical and psychological torture,” says Garcia.
Debt bondage and a harsh geography prevented the workers from leaving. Matheus Faustino, a researcher who decades later worked on identifying some of the victims as part of the Group on Contemporary Slave Labor (GPTEC) coordinated by Rezende at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, explains how the workers were forced to buy everything they needed—from the tarpaulin under which they sheltered to their work supplies and food—at exorbitant prices from a canteen run by the so-called gatos, the contractors who hired them on behalf of Volkswagen to clear the forest for pasture.
“They always finished the work [they’d been hired for], but they were always in debt—and they’d have to start another round of work,” Faustino says. In one particularly shocking case, he says, two workers from the state of Tocantins were sold to another ranch.
Back in 1983, Rezende’s accusations were picked up by the international press, but he says they made little noise in Brazil. “I suspect that the main reason wasn’t the fact that we were in a dictatorship. I think the main reason for the silence of the Brazilian press was the importance of Volkswagen in advertising,” he says.
Volkswagen denied the accusations, laying the blame for any abuses that may have been taking place on contractors. But investigators say it is impossible that the company did not know what was going on. “Volkswagen was fully aware of the conditions to which the workers were submitted. The farm manager himself, [Andreas] Brügger, never denied knowledge of what was going on inside,” says Garcia.
Rezende recalls an encounter with Brügger during a visit to the farm in 1984, when the Swiss national confronted him. “He challenged me, he said ‘give me the name of a farm that does things differently.' I said, ‘I have no name, but everyone who is doing this [using slave labor] is wrong, including yourselves. The fact that everyone is doing it doesn’t legitimize it.’”
Feeble attempts to investigate and prosecute Volkswagen at the time went nowhere. “In the same way that we couldn’t trust the local police, we also had problems with prosecutors and the judiciary. Due to the moment, which was the dictatorship, due to the context which was one of threats and deaths. And the authorities didn’t act, either out of fear or because they were complicit with the crimes,” says Rezende.
The priest sat on his archive of documents for years, waiting for a more propitious moment.
Holding Volkswagen to Account
More than 25 years after the end of the dictatorship, a National Truth Commission set up by former president Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) to investigate the abuses of the military era found that several corporations had closely collaborated with the military’s repression. Volkswagen was among them.
The company appointed a historian to look into its past in Brazil, and in 2020 it reached an agreement to pay R$36 million ($7.3 million) in compensation for its role in helping the military dictatorship identify supposed “subversives” among the workers at its car factory in São Bernardo do Campo, in the state of São Paulo. It was around that time, in 2019, that Rezende handed over his body of evidence on the human rights violations committed by Volkswagen in the Amazon to labor prosecutors.
“[The Volkswagen case] fits into a perspective of memory and truth and finding out what happened during the military dictatorship, of establishing the facts,” says Garcia, who launched an investigation based on the evidence provided by Rezende.
The Labor Prosecution Office (MPT) identified around 15 men who had worked in conditions of modern-day slavery on the Volkswagen farm—“a considerable number of workers considering the time [passed] and absence of documentation,” Garcia notes—and summoned Volkswagen last year to negotiate compensation.
Modern-day slavery remains a widespread problem in Brazil. According to Faustino, some 56,000 people have been freed from slavery-like labor conditions since 1995, while the NGO Walk Free recently estimated that there are approximately one million people in situations of modern-day slavery in Brazil.
“Brazil has a legacy from slavery that impacts society today,” says Faustino, while stressing that the country also has an active civil society and robust legislation to effectively fight this dehumanizing and illegal practice.
Under the current government led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 1,201 people were freed from slavery-like labor conditions between January and April of this year. “Slavery-like labor is a plague, and we will prioritize its eradication. […] We will restart inspections of degrading work, rigorously punishing those who use slavery-like labor,” said Labor Minister Luiz Marinho.
In the Labor Prosecution Office, Garcia and his team are still working to punish the abuses from the last century. They are seeking R$165 million ($33.5 million) in reparations from Volkswagen.
But after several rounds of talks, Volkswagen abruptly left the discussions in March. The company said in an email statement that it “rejects all the allegations presented in the records of the current investigation into Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino and disagrees with the unilateral presentation of facts presented by third parties.”
Garcia says that Brazil is now preparing to take the matter to court, both in Brazil and in international human rights courts in the Americas and Europe.
“Volkswagen has an obligation to recognize [the abuses] and compensate the victims and Brazilian society,” the prosecutor stresses. But even if this attempt at reparations proves successful, Rezende and Faustino highlight that many other abuses from that period—perpetrated by Volkswagen and other companies—remain unacknowledged and unpunished. Meanwhile, the very same exploitative dynamics in which employers blame contractors for inhumane labor practices rooted in racism and oppression persist in Brazil today.
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Owens Lake and the Owens Valley in Lone Pine, California, on March 23. (photo: Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
The return of Owens Lake threatens billions of dollars in efforts to stem air pollution, while the resurgent Mono Lake is generating cautious optimism.
Owens Lake, which dried up in the 1920s after its streams were diverted to quench the thirst of Los Angeles, has re-emerged. The new water on the dry lake bed threatens to damage infrastructure designed to keep down dust, a problem that emerged when the lake was drained decades ago.
The salt lake’s re-emergence could ultimately cause more air pollution and be a setback to a yearslong project in which the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has spent billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Mono Lake, beleaguered by three years of drought, is expected to rise by several feet, a welcome reprieve as the lake has struggled to reach target levels.
The contrast between the two lakes, which are about 115 miles from one another, shows the complicated and differing impacts of the “big melt,” as meteorologists have nicknamed the process. Some areas are benefiting from the water now coming from this winter’s historic snowfall; others are struggling to handle flows, which are expected to peak soon in many parts of the state.
The impacts are also a reminder that across California’s heavily engineered landscape, where the climate seesaws between too wet and too dry, nature has found no shortage of methods to foil humanity’s plans to control water — or control the consequences of taking that water away.
Holly Alpert, the acting water director for Inyo County, where Owens Lake is located, said the wet year paints a picture of the past. Groundwater levels are rising; rabbit and sage brushes are broadening their reach. But climate change has intensified California’s pattern of booms and busts — and Alpert said she is already planning for the next drought.
“We’re seeing so much water in the valley that it makes me think about what the valley might look like before water export,” she said. “The big years, they’re really interesting. You get to see this water, but what scares me more are the droughts. They do tend to be multiyear. They seem to be getting worse.”
Los Angeles took much of Owens Valley’s water more than a century ago.
In the early 1900s, representatives of Los Angeles quietly bought up land and water rights in the Owens Valley. By 1913, engineers completed the Los Angeles Aqueduct to divert much of the valley’s water over more than 230 miles to the growing city. The events — which touched off violent “water wars” between Owens Valley residents and city interests — were the inspiration for the 1974 film “Chinatown.”
Owens Lake would never be the same.
“By the early 1920s it completely desiccated and it effectively has been a dry lake since then,” said Steve Bacon, an associate research professor of geology at the Desert Research Institute.
The dried lake became the biggest source of dust in the United States, a pollution problem that hampered nearby residents’ health and forced Los Angeles — after legal agreements — to control pollution.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which operates the aqueduct and is responsible for the dust, said ratepayers have spent about $2.5 billion to control dust and that department efforts have achieved a 99.4% reduction.
Today, in most years, a few thousand acre-feet of water typically fills portions of the lake bed, including a salty brine pool. Some areas are covered in gravel while others are flooded with a shallow layer of water or have vegetation growing — all patchwork projects on the lake bed to control dust.
After a wild season of snow and rainfall, that work is now at risk.
After March storms, floodwaters breached the aqueduct and about 7,000 acre-feet flowed into Owens Lake before the damage could be repaired, according to LADWP aqueduct manager Adam Perez.
More is on the way. By April 1, the Eastern Sierra snowpack that feeds Owens Valley streams was nearly three times as large as usual — a record year causing historic flows.
But the aqueduct sometimes can’t handle the sediment in these huge flows, forcing LADWP to send some water to the dry lake bed.
“When you look at what’s potentially forecasted for Owens Lake — we’re looking at 160,000 — 170,000 acre-feet of water,” Perez said, referring to a measure that describes how much water it takes to cover an acre of land with one foot of water. An acre-foot of water is roughly equivalent to the volume of two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
“The valley is very green right now. You drive down 395 and you can see lots of flowers on either side of the road,” Alpert said. “It looks like a massive body of water.”
The department has prepared all spring for the lake to refill. Perez estimated the department will spend between $20 and $40 million to fortify and protect infrastructure. Workers raised and lowered berms around dust projects to try to direct unwanted water away from them.
Perez said the department drained its reservoirs this spring so they could better manage peak flows, which are expected by the middle of June. The aqueduct is currently supplying about 80% of Los Angeles’ water needs. Crews are directing excess water on spreading grounds — areas in the valley where water can seep in and restore the water table.
But Perez expects damage to dust infrastructure as salty water intrudes on dust-controlling vegetation, for example.
“We’ll be dealing with water well beyond this summer,” Perez said. “There will be some losses.”
Dust is unlikely to be a problem next year on the dampened lake bed. What happens after that is unclear.
“It’s sort of counterintuitive. We think ‘more water, less dust impacts.’ But as it recedes and dries again, it could lead to more dust,” Alpert said.
A 2 ½-hour drive north is Mono Lake — the most protected salt lake in the American West — where this season’s heavy flows could accelerate its restoration.
The Mono Lake Committee, a nonprofit environmental organization, expects the lake to rise more than 5 feet this summer.
The Mono Lake Committee was formed in the 1970s to help prevent the lake from following in Owens Lake’s footsteps. Mono Lake provides habitat for important saltwater species, including brine shrimp and brine flies, and is also a critical stopover for millions of migratory birds each year. The committee succeeded in court in 1983 and was able to restrict the amount of water the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power can pull from the lake.
In the 1990s, the California State Water Resources Control Board set a target elevation for the lake at 6,392 feet above sea level. In April, before the snowmelt, the lake remained about 12 feet below that mark.
Geoff McQuilkin, the committee’s executive director, blames climate change, in part, for the shortfall, saying that longer droughts and “climate whiplash” have slowed progress.
He’s pushing for further changes to LADWP’s diversion, arguing that the state should seek to preserve the gains from this winter.
“We’re pretty worried about the condition of the lake,” McQuilkin said. “This past winter, like at the Great Salt Lake, is giving us a reprieve — a little extra time to figure things out.”
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