Hate running? Get an under-desk treadmill and do this cozy TikTok walking workout instead
Matt Evans – October 24, 2023
Woman using a walkingpad in front of TV.
I consume quite a bit of online fitness content. It’s the nature of my job. Quite often, I get recommended on my feed clips of influencers running at night, gymming in the early hours of the morning, and people who are obviously on steroids, or using filters to change the shapes of their faces and bodies.
They’re the hardest workers in the room, rising and grinding, going hard rather than going home. It’s exhausting to watch, and I can see why it’s off-putting for new fitness starters. The influencers pushing the limits, using performance-enhancers, and editing their pics to attain perfection make exercise – and by extension, themselves – unattainable.
Therefore, it was quite refreshing to run across ‘cozy cardio’, the latest trend making low-impact exercise accessible and acceptable using the best under-desk treadmills at home. First popularized by TikToker Hope Zuckerbrow, she uses her walking pad for 30 minutes while watching TV, reading or listening to lofi music, occasionally wearing a fluffy bathrobe and sipping a protein coffee.
The trend exploded, getting reported on in several major news outlets (including, apparently, this one), and similar to its predecessor, the ‘hot girl walk’, the concept is aimed at making exercise a comforting, healing activity for people who might be intimidated by the gym or running outdoors. Walking to lose weight, sure, but also walking for pleasure and, well, coziness.
I’m not intimidated by either the gym or running, and I normally detest wellness trends on social media. They’re rarely backed by science and occasionally promote people doing potentially dangerous things for clout rather than health. However, this trend is anything but. Bringing exercise into your comfort zone with a low-intensity workout, in your own space on your own terms, is great. I love the idea of using exercise as a comforting, healing activity, and I’m a huge lofi music fan.
For those who decry the trend’s followers as ‘not working out properly’ or ‘hard enough’, I’d say it’s far preferable to not working out at all, as it’s beneficial for both body and mind. The Journal of the American Medical Association found that “associations between physical activity and depression suggest significant mental health benefits from being physically active, even at levels below the public health recommendations.”
Another report from Cambridge University found that 11 minutes of brisk walking every day is enough to reduce your risk of early death. Clearly, any amount of extra walking you can fit into your day is a Good Thing.
A sedentary lifestyle can be toxic for both body and mind, and activity – even low-intensity, enjoyable activity – is the panacea. If you don’t want to walk in the dark winter months, under-desk treadmills (or walking pads) are a way to get your steps in while you’d otherwise be watching one of the best streaming services.
Below are three of the best under-desk treadmills, or walking pads, we’ve tested, and the ones I’d recommend getting for all your cozy cardio needs. There are likely to be heavy discounts on many under-desk treadmills during the Black Friday sales period, and these are a few models worth keeping an eye out for. I’d also recommend getting one of the best fitness trackers to keep an eye on your step count.
Walking this many minutes a day can undo the harmful effects of sitting, study finds
Linda Carroll – October 25, 2023
Getty Images
Sitting all day is well-documented to be harmful for your health, from impeding your blood flow to increasing your risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Previous research has even shown that while regular physical activity can reduce some of the negative impact of sitting all day, it can’t undo all of it.
However, a new study found that brief periods of exercise may be more beneficial for your health than previously thought, even if you spend most of the day sitting. This strategy of small bursts of movement throughout the day is also known as “exercise snacking.”
Published Oct. 24 in the The British Journal of Sports Medicine, the new research found that the current recommendation of getting 150 minutes a week of moderate to rigorous physical activity can counteract the harm to your body from sitting for prolonged periods, the study’s lead author, Edvard Sagelv, a researcher at The Arctic University of Norway, told NBC News via email.
“This is the beautiful part: We are talking about activities that make you breathe a little bit heavier, like brisk walking, or gardening or walking up a hill,” he said. “Only 20 minutes of this a day is enough, meaning, a small stroll of 10 minutes twice a day — like jumping off the bus one stop before your actual destination to work and then when taking the bus back home, jumping off one stop before.”
The data came from almost 12,000 people ages 50 and older who wore movement-detection devices for 10 hours a day for four days and were tracked for at least two years. The researchers found that sitting for more than 12 hours a day versus eight hours increased risk of death by 38% — but this only applied to people who got less than 22 minutes of moderate to rigorous activity a day. They also found that the more people exercised, the more the risk of death decreased.
What about lower intensity activity? This only benefitted people who spent 12 or more hours a day sitting.
Previous research also shows the benefits of “exercise snacks.” Another study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that 30 to 40 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous activity mostly counteracts the damage done by lots of time sitting and, better yet, that the exercise can be done in short spurts.
“Physical activity of at least moderate intensity, equivalent to the current recommendations from the World Health Organization (150 to 300 minutes of activity of at least moderate intensity per week for adults), seems to attenuate the risk of death associated with high sedentary time,” said the study’s lead author, Ulf Ekelund, a professor in the department of Sport Medicine at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo.
“It is possible to split up the activity to as short as 1-minute bouts,” Ekelund said in an email. “We examined accumulated time in minutes in light, moderate and vigorous intensity, which effectively means that ‘every single minute counts.’ The newly released (WHO) guidelines suggest that you can accumulate physical activity in small bouts (such as taking the stairs) throughout the day.”
The study examined how various amounts of exercise and sitting interacted with one another. The researchers totaled all the minutes during the day that were shown to be active and sedentary by the accelerometers. It also found that you can undo the damage of sitting.
“We observed that those who were most active did not have a statistically increased risk of death regardless of high sitting time compared with the group with the highest MVPA (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) and lowest sedentary time,” Ekelund said. “Those in the middle group (11 minutes per day) had no increased risk of death if they belonged to the least sedentary (about 8.5 hours per day).”
It’s important to remember that sitting time includes not only time in the office but during the rest of the day, as well.
Sports medicine expert Matthew Darnell, Ph.D., is intrigued by the idea of short bouts of activity adding up to the recommended amounts.
“I really like that term (exercise snacks),” Darnell said. “It could be as simple as going for a walk around the block two times a day. Those little exercise snacks add up over time.”
However experts stress that you shouldn’t assume these studies mean you can sit all day except for a 22 minute walk and not have any negative health effects. Talk to your doctor or a trainer about the right amount of exercise for you based on your daily routine.
Clarence Thomas failed to fully repay $267,000 loan for luxury RV, inquiry finds
Martin Pengelly in Washington – October 25, 2023
The US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas failed to repay much – or possibly all – of a “sweetheart deal” to borrow more than $267,000 to buy a luxury motor home, a Senate committee found.
The existence of the $267,230 loan, made by the businessman Anthony Welters in 1999 and forgiven in 2008, was first reported by the New York Times. On Wednesday, the Times quoted Michael Hamersley, a tax lawyer and congressional expert witness, as saying “‘this was, in short, a sweetheart deal’ that made no logical sense from a business perspective”.
The original RV story came amid a torrent of reports, many by ProPublica, about alleged ethical lapses by Thomas, a conservative appointed in 1991 who has failed to declare numerous lavish gifts from rightwing donors.
Thomas denies wrongdoing but the reports, particularly concerning the mega-donor Harlan Crow, alongside stories about other justices’ undeclared gifts and windfalls, have prompted questions about impartiality on the conservative-dominated court and calls for ethics reform.
Senate Democrats have proposed such reform but it has little chance of success, given Republican opposition. The chief justice, John Roberts, has resisted calls to testify.
Supreme court justices are nominally subject to the same ethics rules as all federal judges but in practice govern themselves.
In the case of the luxury RV – a Prevost Marathon Le Mirage XL – Welters loaned Thomas the money in 1999. The businessman told the Times: “I loaned a friend money, as I have other friends and family. We’ve all been on one side or the other of that equation.”
But on Wednesday the Senate finance committee said it had now seen documents that showed an annual interest rate of 7.5% but no obligation to pay down the principal, only annual interest payments of $20,042. The committee also said it had seen a note from Thomas promising to abide by the terms.
“None of the documents reviewed by committee staff indicated that Thomas ever made payments to Welters in excess of the annual interest on the loan,” the panel said.
As described by the Times, when the loan came due, in 2004, Welters granted a 10-year extension “despite the fact that the previous year Justice Thomas had collected $500,000 of a $1.5m advance for his autobiography, according to his financial disclosures. Then, in late 2008, Mr Welters simply forgave the balance of the loan, according to the committee’s report.”
A contemporaneous note, the committee said, showed Welters saying Thomas’s “interest only” payments exceeded the value of the RV. But evidence did not back up this claim, with Welters having given investigators only one copy of a canceled check from Thomas, for the annual interest amount.
Hamersley told the Times: “No bank behaving in a commercially reasonable, arms-length manner would have given that loan in the first place. And a bank doesn’t just say, ‘Oh gee, you’ve paid a lot in interest – we’re good, no need to pay back what you actually owe.’”
Hamersley also said the Internal Revenue Service would treat any such gift as taxable income.
Ron Wyden, the Democratic chair of the Senate finance committee, said: “Now we know that Justice Thomas had up to $267,230 in debt forgiven and never reported it on his ethics forms.
“Regular Americans don’t get wealthy friends to forgive huge amounts of debt … Justice Thomas should inform the committee exactly how much debt was forgiven and whether he properly reported the loan forgiveness on his tax returns and paid all taxes owed.”
Calls for Thomas to resign, or to be impeached and removed, have proliferated. Such outcomes remain vastly unlikely but on Wednesday Caroline Ciccone, president of the watchdog Accountable.US, said Thomas had reached “a new low”, the justice going “about business as usual on the supreme court while skirting all ethics standards to cash in on his wealthy friends – to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Justice Thomas clearly views his position on our nation’s highest court as a chance to upgrade his own lifestyle with no consequences. As becomes more clear by the day, he is unfit to serve on our high court. Justice Thomas must resign.”
The Senate Finance Committee found Clarence Thomas never paid back a $267,230 loan from a rich friend.
The New York Times previously reported Thomas used the loan to buy a luxury RV.
The committee said Thomas never reported the forgiven loan on ethics filings.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spent $267,230 on a luxury RV with a loan from a wealthy friend, but never fully paid it back, the Senate Finance Committee said Wednesday.
The New York Times first reported on the loan in August, revealing Thomas paid $267,230 for a Prevost Marathon RV in 1999, or eight years after he was appointed to the Supreme Court. The Times found that while Thomas had told people he had saved up to make the purchase, it was actually financed, in part, by Anthony Welters, a wealthy healthcare industry executive and close friend of the justice.
The Senate Finance Committee launched an inquiry following the Times’ reporting and published its findings on Wednesday. The committee said Thomas paid interest payments on the loan but never paid a “substantial portion” of the loan, and possibly never paid back any portion of the principal.
Documents reviewed by the committee included a handwritten note from 2008 in which Welters told Thomas he would no longer seek further payments on the loan. The committee said the note also said Thomas had only made interest payments on the loan.
While the committee said additional documents related to the loan may exist, nothing they reviewed suggested Thomas ever made payments that exceeded the annual interest.
“Justice Thomas did not disclose this forgiven debt on his ethics filings, raising questions as to whether Thomas properly reported the associated income on his tax returns,” the committee staff said.
A representative for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
In a statement provided to Insider, Welters acknowledged the loan and said he believed it had been “satisfied.”
“Because the loan was made 25 years ago and completed 15 years ago, bank statements – which I sought – no longer exist. While not a tangible record, I continue to put stock in my contemporaneous belief,” Welters said.
“As anyone who has borrowed from or lent to family or friends, it’s simply not the same as a bank,” he added. “Bottom line, I lent a friend money. The loan was properly papered. The loan, I felt, was satisfactorily repaid.”
Welters previously told the Times the loan had been “satisfied” and acknowledged that Thomas used the money to “buy a recreational vehicle, which is a passion of his.” He did not answer additional questions about how much Thomas had paid back on the loan.
Editors note: This story has been updated to include comment received from Anthony Welters after publication.
Republicans’ New Speaker Pick Led Effort to Overturn 2020 Election
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling – October 25, 2023
It’s Day 22, and the House still doesn’t have a speaker, though the GOP selected another designee out of an apparent carousel of contenders late Tuesday.
Republican Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson, a four-term congressman representing Louisiana, is the latest of the batch to try to unify the divided caucus. Johnson’s beliefs are a sweet spot for many GOP members: He’s anti-LGBT and rallied against Roe v. Wade. And when it comes to the 2020 election, he’s just a less dumb version of Jim Jordan, who played a close role in January 6 but failed to secure the speaker’s gavel earlier this month.
In the days following the 2020 presidential election, Johnson played a more subtle but still key part: He led the amicus brief signed by more than 100 Republicans that sought to overturn election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Then, on January 6, 2021, 139 Republican representatives voted to dispute the Electoral College results, in large part thanks to a loophole nitpicked by Johnson, who The New York Times described as the “most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
According to the Times, it was Johnson’s lawyerly nuance that made him dangerous.
Offering possible objections based on what he described as “constitutional infirmity,” Johnson claimed there were grounds to reject the election results from states that permitted pandemic-induced state modifications to mail-in ballots and early voting systems that bypassed the approval of state legislatures.
Ultimately, it was Johnson’s work that allowed Republicans to seize on the events of January 6 for political profit, helping them transform their brand from dangers to democracy to defenders of electoral integrity, and garner grassroots support and donations from corporate backers who had once denounced them.
According to a leaflet from Johnson’s office obtained by Punchbowl News, Johnson’s core principles include: individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity—though none of those seemed to conflict with his belief in overturning the 2020 presidential election results.
Only a few GOP members have indicated so far that they will not support him in a floor vote. His endorsers include Majority Leader Steve Scalise, fellow contender Representative Kevin Hern, and perhaps most critical, Donald Trump.
The Michael Scott look-alike is the second person to snag the speaker nomination in just one day, after Majority Whip Tom Emmer resigned mere hours after his own nomination.
New House Speaker Once Blamed Abortions for Social Security, Medicare Cuts
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling – October 25, 2023
The new House speaker, Mike Johnson, has touted some extremely controversial opinions as a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus—but few as unsavory as his apparent hatred for a woman’s right to choose, sizing a woman’s worth up as her ability to create more workers for American businesses.
In a clip that surfaced Tuesday, Johnson put the onus of Republican cuts to essential programs on unborn children, claiming that if American women were producing more bodies to churn the economy then Republicans wouldn’t have to cut essential social programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
“Roe v. Wade gave constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America,” Johnson said, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
“You think about the implications of that on the economy; we’re all struggling here to cover the bases of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn’t be going upside down and toppling over like this,” he added.
Johnson has also co-sponsored at least three bills hoping to ban abortion at a nationwide level, including the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children From Late-Term Abortions Act, and the Heartbeat Protection Act of 2021, all of which carry criminal penalties of up to five years in prison for physicians who perform abortions.
Where previous nominees flailed around, caucus support for Johnson was resounding. Scalise and Jordan were both Speaker nominees for a number of odd days before it became clear there was no path forward; Jordan saw massive rifts form in his relationships with a handful of his caucus after they received a slew of death and other threats in his name. Emmer was the nominee for just over the run-time of Avengers: Endgame. But when Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) nominated Johnson on the House floor, caucus members reportedly cheered and chanted, “Mike! Mike! Mike!”
In his remarks, not only does Johnson claim Roe “gave constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children,” but he rails against the imagined economic detriments of abortion, pushing his caucus’ outlandish claim that by depleting a hypothetical workforce, abortion has defunded social security: “Think about the implications of that on the economy. We’re all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest,” Johnson says. “If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy we wouldn’t be going upside down and toppling over like this… Roe was a terrible corruption.” Mind you, social security and health care have been gutted in the last several years by Republican lawmakers, not people who choose to end a pregnancy.
Alas, this is the man who will be presiding over the House moving forward as the threat of another government shutdown looms. This is the man who will be relied on to forge the bipartisan agreements necessary to pass a budget and keep the wheels of our government in motion. You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not feeling overly optimistic about things right now.
Covid shots may slightly increase risk of stroke in older adults, particularly when administered with certain flu vaccines
Brenda Goodman, CNN – October 25, 2023
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/AP
Vaccines for Covid-19 and influenza may slightly increase the risk of strokes caused by blood clots in the brains of seniors, particularly when the two vaccines are given at the same time and when they are given to adults who are age 85 and older, according to a new study.
The safety signal was detected by experts at the US Food and Drug Administration who analyzed data from Medicare claims.
It is the second study to find an elevated risk of stroke for seniors after Covid-19 and flu vaccinations given together. The US Centers for Disease Control and FDA issued a public communication in January explaining that one of their near real-time vaccine safety monitoring studies—called the Vaccine Safety Datalink–had picked up a small and uncertain risk of stroke for older adults who received a dose of Pfizer’s bivalent Covid-19 vaccine and a high-dose or adjuvanted flu shot on the same day. That study triggered the FDA’s broader look at strokes after vaccination noted in the medical records of seniors on Medicare.
That said, the risk identified in the FDA’s study appears to be very small—roughly 3 strokes or transient ischemic attacks for every 100,000 doses given–and the study found it may be primarily driven by the high-dose or adjuvanted flu vaccines, which are specially designed to rev up the immune system so it mounts a stronger response to the shot.
In additional analysis of the Medicare claims data, the FDA researchers found a very slightly increased risk of stroke in adults ages 65 and older who’d only gotten a high dose flu shot. In absolute terms, the extra risk from high-dose flu shots amounted to 1-2 strokes for every 100,000 doses.
“The absolute risk is miniscule,” said Dr. Steve Nissen, a cardiologist and researcher at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “I mean it is trivial in comparison to the risk for people over 85 of dying from Covid.”
At least five other recent studies—many launched to try to tease out this link, have not found any additional risk of stroke after vaccination for Covid-19, influenza or both.
“Available data do not provide clear and consistent evidence of a safety problem for ischemic stroke with bivalent mRNA Covid-19 vaccines when given alone or given simultaneously with influenza vaccines,” said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, director of the Immunization Safety Office at the CDC in a public presentation of the data on Wednesday to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Researchers say they are continuing to probe the possible link, but in the meantime, they say everyone should still get vaccinated since any tiny increase in risk of a stroke after vaccination is dwarfed by the increased risk of stroke or other serious outcomes following either a flu or Covid-19 infection.
“The risk of serious disease associated with both influenza and Covid for the population at highest risk, which is of course, older persons, is so much greater than the potential increased risk associated with a vaccine,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University.
“That’s a hard equation for the average person to do,” Schaffner said.
Spread out your shots?
Schaffner said people who are worried could consider getting each shot at different times rather than together.
“That’s a reasonable thing to do,” he said.
Schaffner, who is in his mid-80s, said he got both his Covid and flu vaccines at the same time, in the same arm, and had very little reaction afterwards.
A few weeks ago, however, Dr. Peter Marks, head of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said he was planning to get his Covid-19 vaccine first, followed by his influenza vaccine about two weeks later.
“If you want to minimize the chance of interactions and minimize confusing the side effects from one with another, you wait about two weeks between the vaccines,” Marks said on an FDA stakeholder call in September.
Other experts said they hoped the information wouldn’t confuse people or deter them from getting their vaccines, since the benefits of getting them still greatly outweigh the risks.
“The bottom line is that these are small signals. We’re not entirely sure whether they are valid, and they certainly do not lead themselves to any change in the recommendations for people getting either Covid or influenza vaccines at the present time,” Schaffner said.
For the study, FDA investigators looked at the medical claims of more than 5.3 million adults ages 65 and older who were enrolled in Medicare and received a bivalent Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna. They saw no increased risk of stroke in the overall group after Covid-19 vaccination.
When they looked at adults ages 85 and older, they found an elevated risk of strokes caused by blood clots in those who’d had Pfizer vaccines, but not in those who got Moderna shots.
Seniors ages 65 and older who got a bivalent vaccine and high-dose or adjuvanted flu shot at the same time also had an increased risk of blood clots in their brains.
The study is observational, meaning it can only show associations, it can’t prove cause and effect. It was also posted as a preprint ahead of peer review by outside experts and publication in a medical journal.
Study sees link to seizures in young kids
A separate FDA investigation of more than 4 million records from three large commercial insurance databases, found a very small and tenuous link between seizures in children between the ages of 2 and 5 and Covid-19 vaccination. Children this age appeared to be slightly more likely to have seizures after Covid-19 vaccination compared to background seizure rates in the general population in 2020—a year when infectious diseases were lower in kids because of masks and social distancing.
The signal disappeared, however, when researchers compared it to background rates of seizures reported in US children in 2022, a year when infections in kids rebounded.
The study authors said their findings should be interpreted with caution, since most were associated with fevers, which are common in kids. Vaccination can also cause kids to run fevers.
They said they hoped their findings would be investigated in a more robust epidemiological study.
About 4% of children experience seizures triggered by fevers, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Dr. Phillip Yang, a cardiologist at Stanford Health Care, said the findings didn’t look particularly concerning.
“It’s not unusual after Covid vaccine that we have little bit of a fever that could trigger a seizure, and kids who are more susceptible to it. So again, it’s not a surprising finding,” Yang said.
Ford, UAW reach tentative deal to end strike including record pay raise
Joseph White and David Shepardson – October 25, 2023
FILE PHOTO: United Auto Workers (UAW) local 862 members strike outside of Ford’s Kentucky Truck PlantIn this article:
(Reuters) -Ford Motor and United Auto Workers (UAW) union negotiators reached a tentative labor deal after a six-week strike, UAW President Shawn Fain and the automaker said on Wednesday, agreeing a 4-1/2-year contract with a record pay boost.
The deal, which needs approval by union leaders and members, would be the first settlement of strikes by 45,000 workers against Ford, General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis that began Sept. 15.
“We told Ford to pony up and they did,” Fain said in a video post on Facebook, adding that the strike at Ford “has delivered”.
Fain said the UAW reached a historic agreement with Ford, including a 25% wage increase over the life of the contract. Ford workers will receive an immediate 11% wage hike. Including compounding and cost of living, worker pay will rise about 33% to over $40 an hour over the life of the contract.
In addition to the general wage hike, Fain said the lowest-paid temporary workers would see raises of more than 150% over the contract term and employees would reach top pay after three years. The union also won the right to strike over future plant closures, he said.
The UAW also succeeded in eliminating lower-pay tiers for workers in certain parts operations at Ford – an issue Fain highlighted from the start of the bargaining process, wearing T-shirts with the slogan “End Tiers.”
The Ford contract would reverse concessions the union agreed to in a series of contracts since 2007, when GM and the former Chrysler were skidding toward bankruptcy, and Ford was mortgaging assets to stay afloat.
“We know it breaks records,” Fain said in a video address Wednesday night. “We know it will change lives. But what happens next is up to you all.”
The UAW was preparing to strike at a key Ford facility in Dearborn this week if it had not reached agreement after striking at additional GM and Stellantis facilities this week.
But in an unexpected gesture to Ford, UAW-Ford Vice President Chuck Browning said in a video Wednesday that Ford workers now on strike should return to their jobs during the coming ratification process. That means production of Ford Super Duty pickups, Ford Bronco and Explorer SUVs and Ranger trucks could restart this week.
Ford confirmed the news. “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the UAW covering our U.S. operations,” Ford CEO and President Jim Farley said in a statement.
If the Ford contract is ratified, it would set the standard for bargaining at GM and Stellantis and expire on April 30, 2028.
In statements, GM and Stellantis said Wednesday they are working to secure agreements as soon as possible.
“This lays the groundwork for the next two contracts and they should fall in line fairly quickly because all three were within a narrow gap of each other,” Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.
“The strike so far has been painful for everybody and knowing what it takes to get a signed contract should bring them to the table much quicker,” he said.
The UAW ratcheted up pressure on the automakers by striking at each company’s most profitable plant – GM’s Arlington, Texas assembly plant, Ford’s Kentucky heavy-duty pickup factory and Stellantis’ Ram pickup plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Total economic losses from the auto workers’ strike have reached $9.3 billon, the Anderson Economic Group said earlier this week.
The UAW’s campaign for a record contract converged with union efforts in Hollywood and at delivery giant UPS to win big pay increases. It also became the focus of attention by U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican rivals who see Michigan and other auto states as pivotal to their 2024 campaign strategies.
Biden joined Fain on a picket line last month, and praised the tentative agreement in a statement Wednesday night as a “testament to the power of employers and employees coming together to work out their differences at the bargaining table.”
Absent from Fain and Browning’s summary of the contract terms Wednesday was mention of future pay and unionization at new joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories the Detroit Three are building with Asian partners.
Because they are owned by separate corporate entities, the automakers did not have to include those factories in this round of bargaining. Fain had pushed for assurances that battery plant wages would be comparable to wages at assembly plants, and expressed concern that UAW jobs at Detroit Three combustion powertrain plants would be lost over time to non-union battery operations.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Writing by Peter Henderson; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Christopher Cushing)
Instant view: Ford reaches tentative deal with striking UAW workers
Reuters – October 25, 2023
Striking United Auto Worker union members picket outside the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne
(Reuters) – Ford Motor and United Auto Workers (UAW) union negotiators reached a tentative labor deal after a six-week strike, UAW President Shawn Fain said on Wednesday, agreeing on a 4-1/2-year contract that would provide a record pay boost.
The union is still in striking GM and Stellantis.
Following are reactions to the tentative deal:
SAM FIORANI, VP OF GLOBAL VEHICLE FORECASTING, AUTOFORECAST SOLUTIONS
“This lays the groundwork for the next two contracts and they should fall in line fairly quickly because all three were within a narrow gap of each other.”
“The strike so far has been painful for everybody and knowing what it takes to get a signed contract should bring them to the table much quicker.”
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT
“I applaud the UAW and Ford for coming together after a hard fought, good faith negotiation and reaching a historic tentative agreement tonight. This tentative agreement provides a record raise to auto workers who have sacrificed so much to ensure our iconic Big Three companies can still lead the world in quality and innovation…
“Critical to building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, instead of from the top down, is worker power. It’s showing how collective bargaining works by providing workers a seat at the table and the opportunity to improve their lives while contributing fully to their employer’s success. This tentative agreement is a testament to the power of employers and employees coming together to work out their differences at the bargaining table in a manner that helps businesses succeed while helping workers secure pay and benefits they can raise a family on and retire with dignity and respect.”
JEFFREY SCHARF, CHAIRMAN, ACT TWO INVESTORS, FORMER GM HOLDER, ON UAW AND CHIEF SHAWN FAIN
“If they can use this as a lever to organize Tesla and companies like that, he’s brilliant. If they fail to organize the other companies and the differential causes jobs to go out of Detroit and to the other companies, then he’s a failure. He won the battle, but whether he wins the war or not, which is to have more union workers getting paid more, is unclear. That’s what I would be more worried about if I was a young auto worker. I would worry about whether this is going to cost me my job in the long-term.”
GENERAL MOTORS STATEMENT
“We are working constructively with the UAW to reach a tentative agreement as soon as possible.”
STELLANTIS STATEMENT
“We remain committed to working toward a tentative agreement that gets everyone back to work as soon as possible.”
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy, David Shepardson and Joe White; Editing by Peter Henderson)
