Some 49,000 employees of General Motors walked off the job at 12 a.m. on Monday after negotiations fell apart between the United Auto Workers union and the Detroit-based carmaker. The UAW announced Sunday afternoon that it was readying for a nationwide strike, and no deal was reached before the midnight deadline. This marks the first national UAW strike since 2007. What are the issues that have brought the workers to this point, and what are the long-term implications?
Purdue Pharma, the embattled drug manufacturer that is accused of helping trigger the US opioid epidemic through its sale of the profitable but highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy Sunday. Will the Chapter 11 filing lead to the ultimate demise of the company, and how much of the personal fortunes of the billionaire Sackler family, which owns Purdue, will be available to compensate plaintiffs?
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran in the wake of Saturday drone attacks that struck a Saudi Aramco oil facility, which led Saudi Arabia to cut its daily oil production by half. While Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the strikes, Pompeo tweeted, "There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen." Tehran rejected those accusations, but US President Donald Trump said Sunday that the US was "locked and loaded" to respond. Is Pompeo trying to lure us into a war with Iran, similar to the one with Iraq?
"The US-led effort to force Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office has moved into a new stage, with rising fears of military conflict between Venezuela and Colombia, and the activation of a 70-year-old mutual defense treaty among countries of the Western Hemisphere," the Washington Post reported Sunday. "Members of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance agreed last week to invoke the 1947 pact, better known as the Rio Treaty, that allows joint actions ranging from economic sanctions to the use of military force and cutting transport and communications links. Foreign ministers of the treaty’s 19 member nations are due to meet later this month to decide which measures are necessary to stem the threat." Is this really going to result in a military conflict?
GUESTS:
Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Margaret Flowers — Co-editor of Popular Resistance.
Les Leopold — Director of the Labor Institute in New York, working with unions, worker centers and community organization to build a national economics educational campaign.
Mark Sleboda — International affairs and security analyst.
Ricardo Vaz — Writer and editor at Venezuelanalysis.com
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