Colin Todhunter – The British Government Colludes with Monsanto. Crimes against Humanity and “Ecocide”

“The British Government has colluded with Monsanto and should be held accountable in the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity and ecocide.” Dr Rosemary Mason. The British public and the environment are being poisoned with a deadly cocktail of 320 pesticides. Moreover, Wales has become a storage dump for Monsanto’s most toxic chemicals. These are the …

DAVE COOKE – Déjà Vu: Shoddy Economic Study Touted by Automakers Flaunts Facts

The mid-term evaluation of fuel economy standards is in full swing, and with the close of the public comment period on the Technical Assessment Report from the federal agencies, we now have a better understanding of the types of arguments being used by automakers as they try to weaken the federal passenger vehicle efficiency standards—to no one’s surprise, it relies …

Six Subtle Cues That Someone Is Narcissistic

There are plenty of people high in narcissism who you can spot right away. The grandiose type of narcissists constantly try to draw attention to themselves, even or especially, at the expense of others. They feel entitled to special treatment and become enraged when they don’t get it. The vulnerable narcissists also need reassurance, but their insecurities are not expressed …

Jay Syrmopoulos – 10 Biggest Wall St. Banks Now Facing Legal Action for Price Fixing $320 Trillion Derivative Market

New York, NY – A class action lawsuit, filed last week, accuses two trading platforms and ten of Wall Street’s largest megabanks of conspiring to stifle competition in the $320 trillion dollar derivatives market for interest rate swaps. The lawsuit claims the banks “have been able to extract billions of dollars in monopoly rents, year after year, from the class …

Leid Stories – 10.27.15

Happy Motoring?: Behind the UAW-GM Tentative Agreement

The Benghazi Hearings: What Gave Hillary Her Big Break (Part 2)

Averting a midnight-Sunday threatened strike by mere minutes, the United Auto Workers union and General Motors announced a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract for 52,700 workers. They now must vote on the deal. Veteran auto worker and bargaining committee member Gary Walkowicz says worker solidarity is keeping both union leadership and corporate bosses in check.

We pick up from where we left off with the discussion on Hillary Clinton’s “triumph” at last week’s hearing on the attack on two mysterious U.S. “diplomatic” compounds in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012that left four Americans dead—including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, foreign service information management officer Sean Smith , and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Leid Stories listeners ask questions about Clinton that committee members never intended to.

Leid Stories – 10.26.15

The Benghazi Hearings: What Gave Hillary Her Big Break
Hillary Clinton, basking in the afterglow from the embers of last week’s congressional hearing on Benghazi, appears to have slithered through yet another rough—and potentially damaging—political patch.
Leid Stories explains what gave Hillary her big break, and listeners ask the basic questions that the former secretary of state still has not been asked, and likely won’t answer, even under oath.

Alternative Visions – Chrysler Auto Workers Fight To Resurrect Union Bargaining and Their Union – 10.16.15

Jack Rasmus welcomes long time UAW auto worker rank and file activist, Gregg Shotwell, to discuss the current negotiations between UAW and Chrysler Fiat. Gregg explains why the first proposed contract was rejected 2 to 1 by auto workers, and the issues remaining with the pending re-vote on a second proposal. Gregg explains the importance of the fight to end two tier second class worker citizenship in Auto, where 45% of the workers at Chrysler today are temp and receive half pay without retirement or health benefits. Key issues are discussed, including ending two tier, getting a raise after 10 years without any, demands for overtime pay after 8 hrs work, ending alternative work scheduling, preventing management from passing costs for the health care tax (Obamacare) onto workers, and other issues in the first rejected contract recommended by UAE ‘concession caucus’ leaders. Gregg explains how Chrysler was bought by Fiat without paying anything, and how managers, salaried workers and stockholders have gotten big payoffs the past decade while workers have been frozen in pay and benefits, despite Chrysler sitting on a $4 billion cash hoard and Chrysler workers have taken a 24% pay cut since 2007. The second contract proposal about to come up for another vote is discussed by Gregg. Both Jack and Gregg discuss the potential significance of the Chrysler contract for reversing trends that have devastated auto and other workers in the US and decimated US unions and collective bargaining. As Shotwell explains succinctly: US workers everywhere have been “working longer, harder and for less money”, not just in auto. Can Chrysler workers begin a ‘march back’ for US workers? Listen to the discussion by long time rank and filer, Shotwell, with decades and deep roots in the UAW.

Leid Stories – 10.05.15

Auto Workers Say ‘No’ to Contract; Put Union, Fiat Chrysler on the Ropes
Whole Foods’ Version of ‘Conscious Capitalism’: Cut 1,500 Jobs
With two-thirds of about 40,000 workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles rejecting a tentative contract last week, both the automaker and the United Auto Workers leadership are reeling from the stunning defeat—a harbinger of what might happen with contractions at General Motors and Ford Motor Company. The Big 3 employs 141,000 workers.
Alex Wassell, a veteran auto worker and member of Local 869, explains why the rank and file voted against the new contract.
Over the next two months, Whole Foods Market will cut 1,500 jobs—a move, it says, is necessary to bring down costs to consumers and to fund an upgrade in its technology.
Leid Stories in a commentary on Whole Foods’ recent questionable business practices asks: Is this what co-CEO and co-founder John Mackey means by “conscious capitalism?”

Leid Stories – 09.29.15

Fiat Chrysler Workers in Detroit Reject Contract; Strike Ahead?

Obama Goes Professorial, but Gets Read, at 70th U.N. General Assembly

A four-year tentative contract negotiated between the auto workers union and Fiat Chrysler appears headed for recall. More than 40,000 members of the United Automobile Workers currently are voting on whether to ratify the contract, but so far the UAW’s largest locals have voted against the deal.

Greg Gardner, labor reporter for the Detroit Free Press, explains why workers are against the contract and whether their thumbs-down on it is a harbinger of contract negotiations with Ford and General Motors. The Big 3 auto manufacturers employ about 141,000 workers.

At the opening of the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday, President Barack Obama was in full professorial mode, lecturing world leaders about international affairs. Several of them conducted teach-ins of their own that corrected the teacher’s syllabus.