Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where we are trying to wrap our heads around the effect that a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods will have on my ability to get Guaraná.
Trump Places 50% Tariff on Brazil in Retaliation for Bolsonaro Facing Trial
In an unprecedented move, Trump raised the tariff on all products made in Brazil from 10% to 50%.
Unlike the 21 other countries that were set to face “reciprocal tariffs” this week, Brazil was not on the list of countries that would see their tariffs rise above 10%.
However, Trump has been closely aligned with Bolsonaro, who refused to recognize the victory of Biden. Trump announced that the tariff was political retaliation for placing former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on trial for his attempt to assassinate Brazilian President Lula in 2023.
Trump defended Bolsonaro, saying that the trial was a “witch hunt.”
“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” wrote Trump in a letter announcing the tariffs.
President Lula vowed to fight the tariffs and continue taking on fascists in Brazil, the second largest democracy in the Americas.
“He needs to know that the world has changed. We don’t want an emperor,” Lula told reporters today. He also announced that Brazil would implement a reciprocal 50% tariff on American goods.
Ironically, the tariffs will more likely hurt Americans more than Brazilians as Americans purchase $4 billion more a year in Brazilian products than Americans sell to Brazil.
For more, check out The New York Times.
NEA Cuts Ties to Zionist Group ADL
In an unprecedented move, the National Education Association, the largest union in the country, decided to cut ties with the Zionist group the AntiDefamation League, over their targeting of teachers’ union activists protesting the genocide in Palestine. From Mondoweiss:
In a momentous vote, the National Education Association’s 7,000-member policymaking body cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League. On July 6, the NEA’s national Representative Assembly approved New Business Item 39, committing that the NEA ‘will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.’ The reasoning: ‘Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.’
The ADL has been a ubiquitous presence in U.S. schools for nearly forty years, pushing curriculum, direct programming, and teacher training into K-12 schools and increasingly into universities – often over the objections of students, parents, and educators. While the ADL has positioned itself as an anti-bias organization (until recently publicly abandoning much of that work), it has increasingly been understood as policing and repressing social justice movements, and deploying “civil rights talk” to derail change.
For more, check out Mondoweiss.
Help Us Cover Internationalism in Labor Movement
While many labor journalists focus only on the United States, Payday has always recognized that we are part of a broader movement. We were the only publication on the left to cover Lula all the way from Sáo Bernardo dos Campos to the Oval Office,
At a time, when American democracy is under attack, it’s more vital than ever that we look to our comrades overseas for inspiration to fight in these times.
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Philly City Strike Ends as Shit Piles Up in Roving Garbage Strikes Nationwide
Late yesterday, AFSCME announced it had settled a nearly week-long strike, including thousands of garbage workers in Philadelphia. The union, which argued for a 32% wage increase over 4 years, instead won a 14% wage increase.
However, the images of garbage piled up on the sidewalks in Philadelphia are likely to inspire strikes of garbage workers across the country.
Currently, the Teamsters and others are engaged in a series of roving strikes nationwide against Republic Services, the second-largest private provider of waste management. Garbage workers strikes have spread to Illinois, Georgia, Washington State, and Massachusetts.
In the suburbs of Massachusetts, more than 400,000 residents have been affected by a strike of the giant private waste company, Republic Services.
“Right now they’re just not getting a fair deal,” Congressman Seth Moulton told WHDH. “This company has a reputation of giving people a raw deal across the country, but it’s hitting home right here in Massachusetts today.”
Last week, Republic Services garbage workers in Olympia, Washington went on strike. Now the strike is starting to expand across Washington State.
“These workers perform dangerous, high-stakes jobs that protect our communities and environment every single day,” Victor Mineros, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 396 and Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division told My Northwest about the national movement. “They deserve a contract that respects their contributions — not lowball proposals and corporate stonewalling. The company must bargain in good faith.”
In the Bay Area of California, the strike has spread to major cities including Richmond, Stockton, and Fairfield.
In Yakima Valley, Pandemic-Era Strikes Continue to Have Impact
During the early days of the pandemic, Payday Report covered an inspiring strike movement in the Yakima Valley of Washington State when farmworkers at 13 different apple-packing farms and warehouses went on strike. From Cascade PBS:
“After several weeks, the strikes ended in early June as worker committees came to agreements with their employers. Workers came away with promises of improved enforcement of safety protocols and communication around COVID, plus hazard pay for taking on the added risks of working during the pandemic — major victories for workers,” [political director of Familias Unidas Por La Justicia Edgar] Franks said.
“That was a big win,” he said. “We were seeing it every day: people under stress figuring out and solving problems.”
[Monson Fruit supervisor Armida] Rivera, the supervisor, was part of the worker committee involved in negotiations at Monson Fruit. She said her experiences with Franks and Familias Unidas helped her grow as an organizer.
Franks helped her and other workers realize the power they had to advocate for themselves, she said. She still considers Franks a mentor. “We’re working there from sunup to sundown … and we’re, like, so underpaid that we have to work every day, and we live [paycheck to paycheck],” she said. “Edgar [taught] us how to do more than we thought we could.”
For more, check out Cascade PBS
NFL Players Association Accused of Illegally Covering-Up Collusion by NFL
Finally, a shocking expose from ESPN revealed that the leaders of the NFL Players Association illegally kept secret from their union members, players in the NFL, details of how NFL owners illegally colluded to keep salaries low. From ESPN:
The NFL and senior leaders of the NFL Players Association struck an unusual confidentiality agreement that hid the details of an arbitration decision from players, including a finding that league executives had urged team owners to reduce guaranteed player compensation, multiple sources told ESPN.
On Jan. 14, arbitrator Christopher Droney ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence of collusion by owners in contract negotiations with quarterbacks after the record, fully guaranteed contract signed by quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022. Any such collusion to keep salaries down would violate the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the union.
But Droney concluded that the NFLPA showed "by a clear preponderance of the evidence" that commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's general counsel Jeff Pash had urged owners to restrict guaranteed money in player contracts.
The confidentiality agreement had kept details of the 61-page ruling a secret until two weeks ago, when the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast published the document and created a stir among union members. Some players told ESPN that they were surprised by details in the ruling and that they didn't understand why the union hadn't shared the ruling with them.
Links & News Elsewhere
- United Auto Workers move to unionize workers at another Alabama automotive plant
- Colorado Safeway strike ends as Albertsons and local union reach agreement
- Michigan lawmakers introduce state bills paving way for college athletes to unionize
- Sacramento County workers demand higher wages during single-day strike
- Hundreds of Minnesota healthcare workers are on strike
- ‘World Cafe Live’ production workers join IATSE Local 8 following voluntary recognition
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette lawyer argues against PG reporting — and facts — in bizarre 3rd circuit court appearance
- EPA puts 139 employees on leave who criticized leadership
- Nebraska independent Dan Osborn launches Senate bid after closer-than-expected 2024 challenge
- Finally, a look at why Mexico City protestors are angry about American remote workers moving there
Alright yinz, I’m gonna go to bed but seen yinz tomorrow. Keep sending tips, complaints, advices and cooking recipes to melk@paydayreport.com
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Melk
