GM Idles KCK Plant; Jeep Maker Submits New Contract Offer as UAW Prepare to Expand Strike
UNDATED (AP) — General Motors and Stellantis announced fresh layoffs Wednesday that they blamed on damage from the United Auto Workers strike, and the labor standoff grew more tense just two days before the union was expected to call for new walkouts.
Stellantis provided a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough by giving the union a new contract proposal. However, a company spokeswoman said the offer primarily covered non-economic issues.
It was not clear whether the Stellantis offer would satisfy union President Shawn Fain, who vows to announce new strike targets on Friday unless there is “serious progress” toward agreements with GM, Stellantis and Ford.
So far UAW workers are striking at just three factories, one for each company. It's a novel approach for the union, which in the past has focused negotiations on one company and limited a 2019 strike to GM. Fain says his approach will keep the companies guessing about UAW's next move.
“He is trying to distinguish himself from the old leadership of the UAW,” said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. “He's different, he's tough, and he's trying to put pressure on the companies.”
The three-plant strike has so far had limited impact on the automakers — probably by design, longtime industry observers say.
“The strategy is to incrementally apply pressure on the companies to encourage them to come to the table,” said Marick Masters, a management professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. “He is negotiating with the three companies simultaneously with the expectation that the one that is most vulnerable and will give them the best deal will surface from that strategy.”
However, if there is little sign of progress in the talks by Friday, Fain could take a more aggressive tack, “and they are going to strike where it hurts,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “For Ford, on the pickups — disrupting (production of) F-150s, and strategically striking GM and Stellantis in a way that could substantially impair 30% to 40% of the industry's production.”
Strikes that target production of popular models like the F-150 or the Dodge Ram would inflict a lot of pain on the carmakers, but the UAW could pack the same punch if it walks out of key engine and transmission plants.
Another clue of possible strike targets might be found in locations where UAW locals have announced they will hold rallies and practice picketing in the coming days. Those include a Ford plant in Louisville, Kentucky, a GM plant in Bedford, Illinois, and a GM truck plant in Arlington, Texas.
“If Friday comes and there is no major progress” at the bargaining table, “this will get a lot nastier,” Ives said.
The layoffs that GM and Stellantis announced Wednesday will be in Kansas, Ohio and Indiana.
GM said that the UAW strike at its assembly plant near St. Louis caused it to idle a plant in Kansas with about 2,000 workers because “there is no work available" — the plant depends on parts stamped in the St. Louis-area facility.
GM said it does not expect to restart the Kansas plant until the strike ends, and it won't provide supplemental pay to the workers. The company said the layoffs demonstrated “that nobody wins in a strike.”
Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, said it expects to lay off more than 300 workers in Ohio and Indiana because “storage constraints” caused by the UAW strike at its assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Asked for comment, a UAW spokesman referred to a statement last weekend in which UAW President Shawn Fain said layoffs were unnecessary and an effort to pressure workers to settle for less in contract negotiations.
Also Wednesday, about 190 UAW members walked off the job at ZF, a Mercedes supplier in Alabama, over wages, a lower scale for new workers, and health care benefits. The workers are covered under a different contract than those that UAW is negotiating with the three big automakers. A ZF spokesman said the plant was continuing to run, and the company hopes to reach an agreement with the workers soon.
The layoffs and the Alabama walkout ratcheted up tension two days before Friday's UAW deadline for the carmakers to show progress in meeting the UAW's demands. The union and the car makers continue to talk, but an industry official said Wednesday that the two sides remain far apart.
The UAW is seeking pay raises of more than 30% over four years, a restoration of defined-benefit pensions for all workers, and a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay. The companies are offering around 20% on pay and are staunchly resisting some of the union's other demands.
There was progress between one automaker and a labor union, but it happened in Canada.
Ford and Unifor, which represents Canadian auto workers, announced that they reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract just hours before a strike deadline. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. If ratified, it would cover more than 5,000 workers and provide a model for similar deals at GM and Stellantis operations in Canada.
(— Related—)
UAW Gives Friday Deadline for Progress in Strike Talks
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP/KPR) — The leader of the United Auto Workers says a limited strike targeting plants in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio may be expanded if significant progress toward a new contract agreement isn't made by Friday at noon. For the first time in its history, the UAW is striking at all three Detroit automakers at the same time, but the 13,000 workers on the picket lines are hitting only three facilities, one each at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. GM says that 2,200 workers at an assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, are expected to be idled as soon because of a shortage of supplies from the GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, near St. Louis, where workers walked off the job last Friday.
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State of Kansas Aims to Help Child Care Providers
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS/KMUW) — Kansas officials will begin offering child care providers free services including business software and hiring help in an effort to keep day care centers open. The state is experiencing a critical shortage of child care slots. Kelly Davydov, with Child Care Aware of Kansas, says most providers operate on razor-thin profit margins. “So, anything that we can do to support efficiency and effectiveness for the business side of childcare will only help childcare providers and make this an attractive professional and attractive business opportunity," she said. Officials hope the program will improve profitability for providers without hiking prices for families.
“We hear from providers across the state that oftentimes it's the business aspect of operating a child care program that can take quite a bit of time and be very costly," Davydov said. She hopes the new program will encourage more people to enter the field. A recent report found Kansas providers only have the capacity to serve 45% of families who need care.
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Thousands More Kansans Dis-enrolled from Medicaid Coverage
WICHITA, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) — Thousands more Kansans lost health insurance last month as the state continues to review Medicaid eligibility. The Kansas News Service reports that most of the dis-enrollments are due to paperwork errors. Nearly 82,000 Kansans have been dropped from Medicaid coverage since the state lifted a pandemic-era pause on dis-enrollments in the spring. Almost three-quarters of those have lost coverage due to paperwork problems. State health department officials say mail delays, changes in addresses and telephone hold times made it harder for people to complete the required paperwork. Officials said last month that they are staffing up to try to prevent more people from erroneously losing coverage.
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KDHE Announces $10 Million in Grants to Small Communities for Water Infrastructure
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) — Kansas leaders are awarding $10 million to small communities around the state to help with water infrastructure. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is giving 18 communities funding from the department’s Small Town Water and Sewer Infrastructure Assistance program. KSNT reports that the money will go towards improving water and wastewater systems. Miami, Riley and Reno counties are among those receiving grants.
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Rural Kansas Town Returns Invaluable Peruvian Artifact
PAOLA, Kan. (KAKE) — A rural Kansas town's museum had a Peruvian artifact estimated to be more than a thousand years old. Now, that artifact is returning to Peru. KAKE TV reports that the museum in Paola has started repatriating part of its collection. The Miami County Historical Society and Museum received a 38-piece collection of pre-Columbian artifacts from a Kansas City couple’s trust five years ago. Pre-Columbian is a term used to describe an era of thriving indigenous art in the Americas before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The museum began efforts to return the items more than a year ago. The artifacts are believed to have come from the Nazca region in Peru.
The collection was authenticated in 1991 and it was determined the countries of origin were Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru. Museum officials reached out to Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids’ office, which helped them get in touch with four embassies in Washington, D.C. Peru is the first country to send someone to collect the artifacts but the museum is now in talks with other countries to see if someone can collect the other items.
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Jayhawks Sell Out Stadium for BYU Game
LAWRENCE. Kan. (KPR) — The Kansas Jayhawks will play football in front of a full house in Lawrence this Saturday. The game against BYU is sold out. It’s the fourth sellout for the KU football program since Lance Leipold took over as head coach and the first sell-out since October 8, 2022. David Booth Memorial Stadium holds just over 47,000. Kick-off Saturday is set for 2:30 pm.
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Kansas Domestic Violence Shelters Seeing More Abused Pregnant Women
WICHITA, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) — The state’s domestic violence shelters are filling up at the same time extra pandemic aid from the federal government is ending. Domestic violence incidents have remained relatively consistent in Kansas over the past 30 years, but homicides are now increasing. Domestic violence is now recognized as a leading cause of maternal mortality. In fact, homicide claims more pregnant and postpartum Americans than any single pregnancy complication. The Wichita Family Crisis Center moved into a new building earlier this year and tripled its capacity. But executive director Amanda Meyers says it’s still not enough. “We are full of women who have just had babies. It’s a very dangerous time," she said. "The threat of more serious physical harm seems to be higher when the person is pregnant.” The rising demand comes as shelter directors say they’re facing a fiscal crisis: cuts to regular federal funding, plus the end of pandemic era aid. Advocates for domestic violence survivors say more attention needs to be focused on long-term violence prevention strategies. (Read more.)
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Associated Press Given Rare Glimpse into U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Maintenance
KANSAS CITY NATIONAL SECURITY CAMPUS, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. will spend more than $750 billion over the next decade to revamp nearly every part of its aging nuclear defenses. Officials say they simply can't wait any longer — some systems and parts are more than 50 years old.
For now, it's up to young military troops and government technicians across the U.S. to maintain the existing bombs and related components. The jobs are exacting and often require a deft touch. That's because many of the maintenance tasks must be performed by hand.
The Associated Press was granted rare access to nuclear missile bases and weapons production facilities to see how technicians keep the arsenal working while starting the government's biggest nuclear overhaul since the Cold War.
This is how they do it and who they are:
Because the U.S. no longer conducts explosive nuclear tests, scientists are not exactly sure how aging warhead plutonium cores affect detonation. For more common parts, like the plastics and metals and wiring inside each detonator, there are also questions about how the years spent in warheads might affect their integrity.
So workers at the nation's nuclear labs and production sites spend a lot of time stressing and testing parts to make sure they're safe. At the Energy Department’s Kansas City National Security Campus, where warheads are maintained and made, technicians put components through endless tests. They heat weapons parts to extreme temperatures, drop them at speeds simulating a plane crash, shoot them at high velocity out of testing guns and rattle and shake them for hours on end. The tests are meant to simulate real world scenarios — from hurtling toward a target to being carted in an Air Force truck over a long, rutty road.
Technicians at the Los Alamos National Lab conduct similar evaluations, putting plutonium under extreme stress, heat and pressure to ensure it is stable enough to blow up as intended. Just like the technicians in Kansas City, the ones in Los Alamos closely examine the tested parts and radioactive material to see if they caused any damage.
The lack of explosive tests — banned since the George H.W. Bush administration by an international treaty — has also meant that the scientists have been forced to rely on warhead designs that were created many decades ago.
That's because each of those original designs had been certified, and the best way to certify a weapon works as designed is to blow it up. Changing even one component introduces uncertainty.
Further complicating matters — because the weapons are so old — many of those original manufacturers and contractors have gone out of business. That has forced the nation's nuclear labs to reverse engineer old parts, such as a peroxide that was used to treat warhead parts, but is no longer in production. So lab technicians are working to reinvent it.
Re-engineering parts is getting easier with advances in computer-aided design and 3D printing. Kansas City technicians are experimenting with 3D printers to create some warhead parts, such as a micro-honeycombed, rubbery layer that will serve as a cushion for a warhead radar systems.
It's not unusual to see a 50-year-old warhead guarded or maintained by someone just out of high school, and ultimate custody of a nuclear weapon can fall on the shoulders of a service member who's just 23.
That is what happened on a recent afternoon in Montana at Malmstrom Air Force Base, where Senior Airman Jacob Deas signed a paper assuming responsibility for an almost 3,000-pound Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile warhead, as it was lifted out of the Bravo-9 silo and escorted back to base for work.
A sea swell of government retirements has meant that experience level in the civilian nuclear workforce has shifted dramatically. At the Kansas City campus, for example, just about 6% of the workforce has been there 30 years or more — and over 60% has been at the facility for five years or less.
That change has meant more women have joined the workforce, too. In the cavernous hallways between Kansas City's secured warhead workrooms are green and white nursing pods with a greeting: “Welcome mothers."
At Los Alamos, workers' uniform allowance now covers sports bras. Why? Because underwire bras were not compatible with the secured facilities' many layers of metal detection and radiation monitoring.
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Rising Rents in Kansas City Lead to More Evictions
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KC Beacon) — Rising rents in Kansas City have left more residents facing eviction. The national moratorium on evictions ended two years ago and landlords are looking to make up for lost income by raising the rent. The Kansas City Beacon reports that eviction efforts are now running higher than before the pandemic. So far this year, there have been nearly 1,400 evictions in Jackson County, Missouri.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced landlords to raise rental costs. Many are looking to recoup the money they lost due to the national eviction moratoriums. According to the website Rent.com, the Kansas City area saw the highest yearly increase in rent among the 50 biggest cities in the country. In Jackson County, renters pay an average of $1,044 per month.
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Attendance Up as 330,000 Patrons Attend 2023 Kansas State Fair
Hutchinson, Kan. (KPR) — More people attended this year's Kansas State Fair than last year. Despite a few rainy days, the 10-day event drew more than 330,000 people to Hutchinson earlier this month. That's nearly 13,000 more visitors than last year.
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Owner Announces Heartland Motorsports Park For Sale
TOPEKA, Kan. (TCJ) — The owner of Heartland Park in Topeka has announced that the facility will shut down after the racing season finishes at the end of October. The Topeka Capital Journal reports that the owner of the racetrack, Chris Payne, says he will put the property up for sale. Company officials are blaming, what they say is an "enormous and ever-increasing tax burden." The move toward closure of the park comes after the Kansas Court of Appeals sided with Shawnee County in July in a long-running tax dispute. Payne owes Shawnee County more than $2.5 in property taxes. Heartland Park has hosted multiple events including the Country Stampede music festival and the Menards NHRA Nationals, a major drag racing competition. Shawnee County officials say the taxes assessed to the Heartland Park property are appropriate.
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Amazon Hiring 2,500 in Kansas for Full, Part-Time and Seasonal Jobs
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Amazon is hiring 2,500 people in Kansas. KSNW TV reports that Amazon is looking to fill full-time, part-time, and seasonal roles at its Kansas facilities. Amazon needs 700 people to work in its fulfillment center in Park City and its delivery station in Wichita. The company says there are a variety of open positions, from packing and picking to sorting, shipping, and delivery.
The company plans to hire an additional 250,000 employees nationwide. Amazon employees get health, vision, and dental insurance starting on their first day. In addition, they offer a matching 401(K) retirement plan.
Jobs will be posted soon at amazon.com/apply.
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Virtual State Job Fair Highlights Hundreds of Open State Agency Positions
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — Kansas jobseekers are encouraged to attend the upcoming state agency virtual job fair next week. This month’s virtual fair, hosted by KANSASWORKS, will feature employment opportunities available across the state’s 98 government agencies. Currently, there are more than 700 vacancies across Kansas. The virtual job fair will be held from 8 am to 5 pm Wednesday, September 27. "These are good-paying jobs with great benefits," said Kansas Lieutenant Governor and Commerce Secretary David Toland.
Registration is required to participate in the event, regardless of previous participation. The Virtual Job Fair portal features a jobseeker training video, a list of participating employers, and channels for attendees to register and log in. Jobseekers are encouraged to dress professionally, as employers might request to engage in a video interview.
Candidates can participate through any digital device, but it is highly recommended to use a computer to be most effective during the job fairs. If a jobseeker does not have access to a personal computer, they are available at KANSASWORKS offices as well as local libraries throughout the state. Any individual with a disability may request accommodations by contacting their nearest workforce center at (877) 509-6757 prior to the event.
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Overland Park Gymnasts Compete for Spots on USA National Team
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (KPR) — Two gymnasts from Overland Park are among the elite few at this week’s USA team selection camp. The selection competition began Tuesday night outside Houston, Texas, and will conclude later tonight (WED). Amelia Disidore, a 17-year-old junior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, is attending her first USA team selection camp. It’s where the best in the U.S. - including Simone Biles - will have closed-door competitions to determine who competes at the world championships in Belgium and the Pan Am games in Chile later this fall.
Disidore, who likes to feed off crowd energy in live competition, says this business-like approach presents a challenge for her. "It is a little bit more intimidating," she said. Disidore finished tenth in all-around at the national championships last month. Leanne Wong, also of Overland Park, is at the selection camp, too. She earned a bronze medal in the all-around competition at the most recent national championships.
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Royals Push Back Self-Imposed Deadline for Decision on New Ballpark Location
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals are pushing back their self-imposed deadline of the end of September for deciding on a location for their new ballpark, though they remain confident that their final proposal will be put before voters on an April ballot.
The Royals are trying to decide between a downtown location, called the East Village, that would keep the replacement for aging Kauffman Stadium in Jackson County and a competing location across the Missouri River in neighboring Clay County.
Royals owner John Sherman has said multiple times the club hoped to decide on a location by the end of the month. But it must first reach an agreement with political leaders on a proposed financing package; the current lease with Jackson County includes a portion of a 3/8-cent sales tax that has paid for renovations and upkeep on Kauffman Stadium.
The stadium and accompanying ballpark village are expected to cost about $2 billion, the largest public-private partnership in Kansas City history. Sherman has said Royals ownership would pay for half of that total along with any overages.
“Leaders in both counties know a critical piece of the evaluation process will be negotiated lease terms so that the Royals, our future partner and, most importantly, the voters can know what to expect,” the team said in a statement Wednesday.
“With the framework of our current lease and willing partners on all sides, we are optimistic that the process will result in a win-win for the Royals and our next home,” the statement continued. “Although we will not have a site selected by the end of this month, we are more confident than ever that a world-class ballpark and surrounding district for entertainment, retail and housing will build on our region’s momentum, serve our citizens well, and further establish Kansas City as a top tier destination.”
Sherman has been planning on a replacement for Kauffman Stadium since purchasing the club in 2019, though the process was set back a bit by the pandemic. It has continued to move slowly as the Royals try to reconcile their needs with those of the two counties and the Kansas City Chiefs, who have shared the lease with Jackson County to help pay for Arrowhead Stadium.
Last month, the team unveiled plans for the two dramatically different locations. The downtown plan would consist of a ballpark anchoring a 27-acre development near the already thriving Power & Light District, while the Clay County location would provide a 90-acre tract capable of developing more commercial and residential properties.
Both of the plans, neither of which is finalized, were produced by Kansas City-based sports architecture giant Populous, which has renovated or designed more than 20 stadiums currently in use across Major League Baseball.
“Leaders in both Jackson County and Clay County know that we and the Chiefs need clarity on our stadium plans in time for the public to be fully informed for a vote in April 2024,” the Royals said. “We take our responsibilities very seriously to act in the best interests of both the Royals and our region, and we will continue our work to make sure this project is done right.”
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Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes Happy for Reworked Deal, Chance to Keep Winning Super Bowls in KC
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes was trying to walk a tightrope taking him three different directions while negotiating his revised contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, which effectively makes him the league's highest-paid player over the next four years.
Mahomes wanted to maximize his income. He wanted to leave salary cap space so the Chiefs could continue to surround him with championship talent. And he wanted to keep pushing the bar higher for other players seeking contracts around the league.
“You have to watch and see what's going on around the league and find that right spot,” Mahomes said Wednesday in his first comments since reworking his deal. “I think we found a good one in this negotiation we did to keep cap space to get other guys signed, but obviously I've got more money up front and we'll renegotiate when we get to the right time.”
Mahomes still has nine years left on his 10-year, $450 million contract, which set the standard for overall value when it was signed in 2020.
The revision essentially pushes some of the money from the last five seasons to the first four, giving him $210.6 million over that span — the most over any four seasons in NFL history.
Mahomes is due to make $56.85 million this season, $44.5 million next season, $50 million in 2025 and $56.76 million for the 2026 season, at which point the Chiefs and his representatives have agreed to meet again and discuss the future.
“You have a lot of great players that I want to be here so we can win a lot of Super Bowls,” Mahomes said. “I want to make a lot of money but I also want to win. You look back at players, and you look back at how they won and the perception of how they did things, and that's what I want to try to manage.”
The Chiefs are approaching an important point in the future of their burgeoning dynasty.
All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones is not under contract after this season, agreeing only to a reworked one-year deal to end his holdout last week. Left tackle Donovan Smith, linebacker Willie Gay Jr. and cornerback L'Jarius Sneed are also staring ahead at the possibility of free agency, which means the Chiefs could have plenty of holes to fill before next season.
Then there are Pro Bowl center Creed Humphrey, right guard Trey Smith and standout linebacker Nick Bolton, all of whom are eligible for contract extensions after the season — and all of whom will command a hefty price.
That is why the two-time league MVP placed so much importance on finding the right contract, not necessarily the richest one.
“I've always kind of liked it,” Mahomes said of the negotiating process. “If I didn't become an NFL player, I wanted to be a sports agent or work in sports marketing. I've always wanted to help players. I know I'm doing it a different way than some people, but I feel like it's the right way for me. ... Hopefully I'm giving us a chance to go out there and win football games as well.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who dealt with personnel decisions in Philadelphia but relinquished control of them in Kansas City, has marveled at the way Mahomes has kept an even keel even as the value of his contract has soared.
“He's not big on all of that. He just kind of moves through it like most things and wants to keep getting better,” Reid said, “and that is what he's doing. That's what makes him unique. You don't sit there and say, ‘Oh, he’s going to have a letdown.' You just say, ‘Hey, congrats,’ and keep moving. That's how he rolls. But I'm happy for him.”
In other news Wednesday, the Chiefs were missing several key players to injuries as they began practicing for Sunday's game against the Bears. Bolton is dealing with an ankle sprain and Gay has a bruised quadriceps, and while both of them went through an early walkthrough, neither of them were planning to practice.
Running back Isiah Pacheco is dealing with a bruised hamstring, Kadarius Toney with a sprained toe and fellow wide receiver and return specialist Richie James has an injured knee ligament that Reid acknowledged could keep him out for a while.
“Most of them are just day to day,” Reid said, “Richie might be a little bit longer.”
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Tom Parkinson and Kaye McIntyre. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. You can also follow KPR News on Twitter.