DL Open Thread: Friday, September 15, 2023

Lest there be any doubt that the cause is righteous, the following comments should clear it up for you:

The nation’s largest business lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is pointing a finger of blame directly at the Biden administration for the failure to head off a walkout.

“The U.A.W. strike and indeed the ‘summer of strikes’ is the natural result of the Biden administration’s ‘whole of government’ approach to promoting unionization at all costs,” the chamber’s president, Suzanne P. Clark, said in a statement.

General Motors chief executive Mary Barra expressed her dissatisfaction: “I’m extremely frustrated and disappointed. We don’t need to be on strike right now.” She said that G.M. “put a historic offer on the table” with gross wage increases of more than 20 percent, in addition to better job security and “world-class health care.”

I especially like what UAW President Shawn Fain had to say:

“This is the end of company unionism, where the companies and the union work together in a friendly way, because it hasn’t been good for our members,” he said in an interview as the vote count neared completion.

Somewhere, a pro-Chamber governor is putting on a heavy-duty pair of leak-proof Depends.

Gen Z For Me!  They clearly recognize that nothing will be done on climate change without drastic intervention:

Six young people are preparing to appear at the European court of human rights to try to compel 32 nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in the world’s largest climate legal action to date.

Aged from 11 to 24, the six Portuguese claimants, say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.

After another summer in which wildfires raged across Portugal, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Italy, the young people will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court in 13 days’ time that the 32 European nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.

Crowdfunded by people around the world, who have donated more than £100,000, they are seeking a binding ruling from the judges to force the countries to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in what would be a historic milestone in climate litigation.

“This case is unprecedented in its scale and its consequence. Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves in front of any court anywhere in the world,” said Gearóid Ó Cuinn, of Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which is supporting the claimants.

Speaking Of Pro-Chamber Governors…:  Medicare Advantage continues its inexorable march to screw retired government employees.  No group too small to screw:

Apparently, no group of retirees is too small for these companies. A combination of an Insurance Brokerage (Assured Partners) and United Health Care have descended into tiny upstate New York Cortland County to engorge themselves on the Medicare benefits from about 400 retired county employees.

The majority cohort of our grossly ill-informed county legislators were told they were going to save $800,000 per year if they forced the retirees into the UHC “advantage” program. That was all they needed to hear. On August 24th after shockingly minimal notice to the retirees, and even deceiving the retirees as to when they would actually vote on it, the legislators voted to shove the retirees into the “advantage” pipe. They first announced they would not vote on it until October. Then the Legislative Chairman pulled a sneak maneuver and suddenly put it on the agenda for August 24th– contrary to what he had publicy stated previously. He apparently feels this was an appropriate thing to do, he must think himself very clever putting that one over on the retirees. They then bum-rushed the vote through before hardly anyone knew they had moved the vote up by over a month. No hearings, no chance to present witnesses or actual evidence about why the plan might not be best for the retirees—just a rushed, sneak vote with the republican majority ramming it through.

If I didn’t know any better (he snarked), I’d almost think this is their normal modus operandi.  Which reminds me, this should be a defining question for our candidates for Governor.  BHL danced around this question at our 7th RD Committee meeting, wouldn’t answer it.  Haven’t yet heard a definitive statement from Matt Meyer.  We deserve to know where both stand on this issue. 

Time for a topic-appropriate letter to the editor.  This one from the Delaware State News:

As a Delaware retiree following the ongoing situation regarding the proposed changes to the state retirement insurance program, it is amazing how quiet most of the legislators have been publicly.

It was good to read all of the comments that were appearing daily in the Delaware State News, which show that both retirees and state workers are opposed to any change of the promise made by the state to the workers at the time of their hiring. Keep up the good work.

To make sure our voice is heard loud and clear, let your senator and your representative of your district know not only how you feel but let them tell you via their return answer to you how they feel about this situation.

Let the legislators know that we will not forget at their reelection times. We have the power of the vote. United, we stand strong. Divided, we fall. We must not weaken as time goes by. We must be diligent.

Richard Senato

Dover