Today on Stateside, with current contracts set to expire this weekend, the clock is ticking for General Motors and the United Auto Workers union to strike a deal. Plus, we'll hear how some white nationalists are blending xenophobic ideology with environmentalism and calling themselves “eco-fascists.”
Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
GM, union officials prepare for contract talks amid plant closings and FBI probes
- Current contracts between the UAW and General Motors expire just before midnight this Saturday. Once that deadline passes, several potential scenarios could play out: union leaders could announce a tentative contract agreement, extend the existing contract to keep on bargaining, or workers could strike at some or all of GM's plants.
- Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reports why a perfect storm of tariffs, recession fears, slowing sales, and automation costs has led to unhappy union workers.
Howes: As contract deadline nears, both GM and UAW have “legitimate claims”
- As the contract deadline for General Motors and the United Auto Workers union nears, how likely is it that autoworkers will strike? Daniel Howes is a business columnist with The Detroit News. He breaks down the union’s three major demands, the business and labor pressures that General Motors faces, and what’s at stake if the union does decide to strike.
Theater Talk: Back to the 80’s with “Cats”, plus “Come From Away,” and a new pay about how we use tech
- Encore Michigan’s David Kiley joined Stateside with a list of some of the top theater productions coming soon to a stage near you. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is running at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit through Sunday. Come From Away arrives at the Wharton Center in East Lansing this week, and The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence opens on Friday at the Open Book Theater in Trenton.
- Support for arts and culture coverage comes in part from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
How “eco-facists” are using environmentalism to promote white nationalism
- A number of white nationalists are aligning themselves with “eco-fascism." That's an ideology that blends racism and xenophobia with environmental issues. Both the accused Christchurch shooter and the alleged shooter in El Paso described themselves as “eco-fascists” in manifestos they posted online before those attacks.
- University of Michigan professor Alexandra Minna Stern is the author of Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right is Warping the American Imagination. She explains the beliefs at the center of eco-fascist ideology, and how those ideas are spreading across social media platforms.
In Michigan, judges rely on fining people to fund courts. New report says that system is “broken.”
- In Michigan, residents who appear in court face judges who rely on money from defendants to make their budgets work. That works out to criminal defendants being fined more than $418 million in fines and fees each year. The unanimous conclusion according to a final report out today from the Trial Court Funding Commission is that this funding system is "broken." Ingham County District Judge Tom Boyd is the chair of the Trial Court Funding Commission. He tells us what changes are needed to fix Michigan’s courts.
How the fight over abortion rights in MI became more partisan and secretive in just a decade
- Abortion has moved to the forefront of national politics. Where lawmakers stand on the issue has become a litmus test when determining if someone is a Republican or Democrat, but it hasn’t always been this way. As Michigan Public Radio Network’s Cheyna Roth reports, this particular political shift started around 1980.
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