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"If Congress can bail out the crooks on Wall Street," said the senator, "please do not tell me that Congress can't support a secure retirement for working Americans."
Days after hearing the testimony of a fourth-generation autoworker whose family has experienced first-hand the shredding of the social contract over the course of several decades, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded on Monday that Congress swiftly pass legislation to cut the "unacceptable" rate of poverty among senior citizens and ensure that American workers can once again "retire with the dignity and the respect that they deserve."
In an op-ed for Fox News, Vermont independent senator wrote about the hearing he held last week as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee about the country's retirement crisis.
The committee heard from Sara Schambers, whose grandfather retired at 55 from his job as an autoworker at Ford Motor Company, receiving "a pension and good healthcare" provided by the company where he'd worked for three decades.
Schambers' grandmother had to retire early due to a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, "but she didn’t have to choose between paying her medical bills and buying dinner for her family, because her job provided her with the retirement security she needed."
In sharp contrast, Schambers told Sanders and the rest of the committee that she will not have healthcare or a pension when she retires from her job as an autoworker.
"For generations, getting a job at Ford meant stability and security," said Schambers. "It meant being able to plan for yourself and your children. It meant being able to buy a house and see a future for yourself. But for those of us who were hired in after the financial crisis, that has not been our truth."
Schambers said auto companies have been "adamant that they couldn't afford to add to our pension liability... and that giving back our pensions could affect their stock prices and possibly lead to lower credit ratings. Nowadays, a stock price is more important than 150,000 autoworkers."
In his op-ed, Sanders wrote that the loss of pension and fixed benefit plans among American workers—60% of whom had them in the early 1980s, compared to just 4% in 2023—has led to a 23% poverty rate among senior citizens, one of the highest rates compared to other wealthy countries, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
"In Denmark, only 3% of seniors live in poverty," wrote Sanders. "In France, the senior poverty rate is 4.4%. In Germany, it's 9.1%. In Canada, it's 12.3%. In the United Kingdom, it's 15.5%."
Sanders called on Congress to pass the Social Security Expansion Act, which he introduced last year with nine other senators, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).
The bill would make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years and expand the programs benefits for seniors and people with disabilities by $2,400 a year, making a difference to the 1-in-4 senior citizens who now live on less than $15,000 per year and 1-in-2 who live on less than $30,000 per year, as the Senate HELP Committee noted in a report ahead of the hearing last week.
In keeping with Sanders' longtime push to require the wealthy to pay their fair share into the program, the Social Security Expansion Act would apply the Social Security payroll tax to all income, including those from capital gains and dividends, for those who make more than $250,000 per year.
Currently, the senator wrote, the wealthiest Americans benefit from a cap on the Social Security payroll tax.
"Absurdly and unfairly, a billionaire pays the same amount of money into Social Security as someone who makes $168,700 a year," wrote Sanders. "That means, if you make up to $168,700 a year, you pay 6.2% of your income in Social Security taxes. But if you make 10 times more—$1,687,000—you pay just 0.62% of your income in Social Security taxes."
"That may make sense to someone," he added. It doesn't make sense to me."
In an interview with CNN over the weekend, Sanders was asked about a Republican proposal to raise the retirement age instead of properly funding Social Security by taxing the rich.
"Brilliant idea," said the senator sarcastically. "Yes, we've got our people, 87-year-olds packing groceries in a supermarket. You know, really? People have worked hard their whole lives, this is the richest country in the history of the world. Raise the retirement age, cut benefits? I don't think so."
Sanders proposed that every corporation in America should be required to either provide their employees with a retirement plan or "give workers the option of contributing to a federal pension plan similar to what members of Congress and federal employees receive."
"If Congress can provide trillions of dollars in tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations," said the senator, "if Congress can bail out the crooks on Wall Street who caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, and life savings back in 2008, please do not tell me that Congress can't support a secure retirement for working Americans."
"We not only secured a record contract, we have begun to turn the tide on the war on the American working class," UAW President Shawn Fain said.
The United Auto Workers has reached a tentative deal with Stellantis, the union announced on Saturday.
The news comes three days after the UAW announced a tentative agreement with Ford. The union has been on strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers since September 15 in its first ever work stoppage targeting all three companies at once. General Motors is now the only one of the three that has not agreed to a tentative deal.
"We've achieved what just weeks ago we were told was impossible," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video posted on social media. "The power of the Stand-Up Strike cannot be understated."
Over the course of the strike, Stellantis raised the value of its proposals by 103%, Fain said.
"At Stellantis, we not only secured a record contract, we have begun to turn the tide on the war on the American working class," he continued. "And we truly are saving the American Dream."
In one of the most notable aspects of the deal, Stellantis promised to add new products to the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois, which it had idled eight months ago, putting 1,200 UAW members out of work.
"UAW members across the country just showed the entire world the power that workers have when they go on strike."
"UAW family, it is my great honor to announce that we saved Belvidere," UAW Vice President Rich Boyer said in the video.
Stellantis agreed both to add a new vehicle to the existing plant and to add more than 1,000 jobs to a new battery plant in the community.
"They told us for years that the electric vehicle transition was a death sentence for good auto jobs in this country," Fain said. "We stood up and said, 'No.' With this agreement, we're proving them all wrong."
Other highlights of the deal include
"UAW members across the country just showed the entire world the power that workers have when they go on strike, and we have our most powerful tool at the ready to protect our jobs, protect our communities, and save the American Dream," Fain said.
Next, the UAW Stellantis Council will vote Thursday, November 2 on whether or not to send the agreement to members. If they vote yes, the membership will then vote on whether or not to ratify it. In the meantime, the approximately 14,000 Stellantis workers on strike will return to work, according to The Associated Press.
Bruce Baumhower, who is the president of a local union at a Toledo, Ohio, Stellantis Jeep factory, told APhe thought it would pass.
"Eleven percent is right on the hood," Baumhower said. "It's a historic agreement as far as I'm concerned."
The UAW has so far seen success with its strategy of calling walkouts at targeted plants controlled by the Big Three, instead of calling all of its members off the job at once.
"Congratulations to the UAW for standing up to corporate greed," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted in response to the news. "The strong pro-worker contracts negotiated with Ford and Stellantis are helping to rebuild the American middle class. GM. You’re next."
GM will now feel greater pressure to reach an deal as well, Rebecca Givan, associate professor at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, told the Detroit Free Press.
"They're in a race to the finish line now," Givan said. "GM does not want to be more than a few hours behind Stellantis. They know what they have to do and any waiting is dragging it out for no reason. GM loses money by waiting to get to what's likely a clear contract at this point."
This October is both Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the 110th anniversary of the Ford Model T. Ford Motor Company tells us they are "dedicated to fueling the spirit of those living with" breast cancer through their Warriors in Pink campaign. But in reality their cars and trucks are fueling the breast cancer epidemic.
A quarter of a million women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer annually, and more than 40,000 people will die of the disease this year. All of the hope, inspiration, and determination that Ford's Warriors in Pink promises to fuel will not change these grim statistics as long as Ford's cars and trucks continue to produce cancer-causing emissions.
Most conversations about breast cancer prevention focus on genetic testing. But inherited mutations accounts for only an estimated 10 percent of all breast cancers, leaving the majority of people diagnosed with the disease with no known risk factors. And many of the widely-accepted risk factors, such as when a woman starts her period or goes into menopause, are not things that a person can change.
Scientists looking for possible targets to prevent breast cancer have identified environmental toxins as important contributors to breast cancer risk. In 2009 President's Cancer Panel reported that "the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated."
Some of the first chemicals researchers have identified as increasing the risk of breast cancer are found in the exhaust from combustion engines: carcinogens and hormone disruptors such as benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Benzene is such a potent mammary carcinogen it has been linked to breast cancer in men. Virtually everyone in the U.S. breaths in auto exhaust. Again, the 2009 President's Cancer Panel recommended limiting exposure to auto exhaust noting that cars, trucks, and other passenger vehicles "are responsible for approximately 30 percent of cancer resulting from air pollution."
As one of the Big Three automobile manufacturers in the U.S., Ford is in a position to make a huge difference in reducing cancer rates by making clean vehicles.
If Ford truly wants us to believe they have "been active in the fight against breast cancer since 1993," why would they decide earlier this year to go full-throttle on sales of the highest-emission trucks and SUVs, while virtually eliminating lower emission passenger vehicles from their U.S. fleet? Why have they proudly announced a new diesel version of "America's best-selling" F-150 truck--when diesel is enriched with nitro PAHs, which are particularly potent mammary carcinogens? Why will they stop sales in the U.S. of their only 100 percent electric, zero emission car?
Attempting to brush aside criticism for these recent announcements, Ford is loudly touting plans for future investment in electrification--nearly all of which will be in China, where regulation standards are higher. Yet at a major auto show in the U.S. earlier this year, Ford notably failed to showcase any electric vehicles.
Breast cancer is a public health crisis and a social justice issue. We can't afford to hold our breath and hope Ford's promise of new, cleaner vehicles will come to the U.S. sometime down the road.
Ford Warriors in Pink sells branded clothes and other gear in order to raise money for four breast cancer charities. They provide "tips," "inspirational postcards," "healing music," and spotlight 122 "Models of Courage" in order to fuel "the spirit of those living with the disease." But this is nothing more than an attempt by Ford to distract attention away from their role in driving the breast cancer epidemic.
We can see through the pink-tinted smoke screen of Ford's Warriors in Pink. Truth be told, Ford's Warriors in Pink program is just another example of "pinkwashing." Breast Cancer Action first coined the term in 2002 to reveal the hypocrisy of companies that claim to care about breast cancer, but actually manufacture or sell products that are linked to increasing the risk of the disease.
Rather than cleaning up their cars, Ford tells us we need to "harness that fighting spirit." But the truth is, no matter how hard someone "fights"--how strong or determined or hopeful they are--up to 30 percent of all breast cancers will go on to spread or metastasize.
It's time for Ford to show their commitment to people affected by breast cancer by making the shift to 100 percent zero emission vehicles. Instead of pinkwashing and platitudes, Ford can "go further" by no longer making vehicles that produce exhaust.
One hundred and ten years ago, Ford made its name by bringing the Model-T to the masses. Now it's time Ford to bring an all-electric fleet to the masses. By turning away from cancer-causing combustion engines cars and towards zero-emission cars and trucks, Ford can truly help put the brakes on the breast cancer epidemic. After all, the best way to fight cancer is to prevent it in the first place.