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一 | DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers union significantly escalated its walkout against Detroit's Three automakers, shutting down Ford's largest factory and threatening Jeep maker Stellantis.In a surprise move Wednesday night, 8,700 members left their jobs at Ford’s Kentucky truck plant in Louisville.And Thursday morning, union President Shawn Fain hinted at further action against Stellantis. “Here's to hoping talks at Stellantis today are more productive than Ford yesterday,” Fain wrote on X, formerly Twitter, without saying what might happen.Ford's truck plant makes heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs, hitting the company's most lucrative products. The vehicles made at the plant generate $25 billion per year in revenue, the company said in a statement.Fain said in a statement that the union has waited long enough “but Ford hasn’t gotten the message” to bargain for a fair contract. “If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it,” Fain said.The strike came nearly four weeks after the union began its walkouts against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis on Sept. 15, with one assembly plant from each company. The company, however, called the strike expansion “grossly irresponsible” and said it has made strong wage and benefit offers to the union. It said the move puts about a dozen other Ford facilities at risk, as well as parts supply plants that together employ over 100,000 people.A Ford executive said the union called a meeting at the company's Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters Wednesday afternoon where Fain asked if the company had another offer. High-ranking Ford executives responded that they are working on possibly bringing electric vehicle battery plants into the UAW national contract, essentially making them unionized. But they didn't have a significantly different economic offer, the executive said. Fain was told the company put a strong offer on the table, but there wasn't a lot of room to increase it and keep it affordable for the business, the executive said.Fain responded by saying, if that's the company's best offer, “You just lost Kentucky Truck Plant,” said the executive. The meeting only lasted about 15 minutes, he said. In a video, Fain said the union moved because Ford didn't change its offer. “We've been very patient working with the company on this,” he said. “They have not met expectations, they're not even coming to the table on it.”The escalation against Ford shows that Fain is trying to increase pressure on the company, said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University who follows labor issues.But Ford and the other automakers have made concessions and raised wage offers, he said. The companies, he said, “may have reached their resistance points to varying degrees.” Executives, he said, have bottom line positions they can’t cross in terms of staying competitive with other automakers.Fain, Masters said, likely is testing how far he needs to push Ford before going to “full throttle,” by taking all 57,000 Ford members out on strike.The union’s move doesn’t leave him optimistic for a quick end to the strikes, Masters said. “I think the issues that remain on the table are quite thorny,” he said, pointing to union demands that all workers get defined benefit pensions and health insurance when they retire.The UAW expanded its strikes on Sept. 22, adding 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Assembly plants from Ford and GM were added the week after that. The Kentucky strike brings to 33,700 the number of workers on strike against the three automakers.Thus far, the union has decided to target a small number of plants from each company rather than have all 146,000 UAW members at the automakers go on strike at the same time.Last week, the union reported progress in the talks and decided not to add any more plants. This came after GM agreed to bring joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories into the national master contract, almost assuring that the plants will be unionized.Battery plants are a major point of contention in the negotiations. The UAW wants those plants to be unionized to assure jobs and top wages for workers who will be displaced by the industry’s ongoing transition to electric vehicles.Since the start of the strike, the three Detroit automakers have laid off roughly 4,800 workers at factories that are not among the plants that have been hit by the UAW strikes.The companies say the strikes have forced them to impose those layoffs. They note that the job cuts have occurred mainly at factories that make parts for assembly plants that were closed by strikes.The UAW rejects that argument. It contends that the layoffs are unjustified and were imposed as part of the companies' pressure campaign to persuade UAW members to accept less in negotiations with automakers. The factories affected by layoffs are in six states: Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana and New York. Sam Fiorani, an analyst with AutoForecast Solutions, a consulting firm, said he thinks the layoffs reflect a simple reality: The automakers are losing money because of the strikes. By slowing or idling factories that are running below their capacities because of strike-related parts shortages, Fiorani said, the companies can mitigate further losses.“It doesn’t make sense to keep running at 30% or 40% of capacity when it normally runs at 100%,” he said. Striking workers are receiving $500 a week from the union’s strike pay fund. In some states, laid-off workers could qualify for state unemployment aid, which, depending on a variety of circumstances, could be less or more than $500 a week. Fiorani said that as the strikes widen, more workers will likely be laid off at non-striking plants. Separate companies that manufacture parts for the automakers are likely to have laid off workers but might not report them publicly, said Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group in Lansing, Michigan. A survey of parts supply companies by a trade association called MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers found that 30% of members have laid off workers and that more than 60% expect to start layoffs in mid-October.。

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图片来源:Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council就在不久前,这只海獭正在美国阿拉斯加州偏僻、风景优美的威廉王子湾的海洋中觅食,然而不幸的是,它遇到了全美国最严重的石油泄漏事件之一。一艘油轮由于年久失修和船员的疏忽,在多次触礁后开始泄漏石油,一直持续了数天,最终有 3.7 万吨石油泄漏到了威廉王子湾中。这里美丽的生态环境因为这次泄漏中变得疮痍,长达 320 千米的海岸线受到了严重的石油污染。看着油乎乎、可怜的海獭,McCrory 的脑海中突然有了一个灵感。
四 | 作为理发师,他经常看到各种泛着油光的头发,他想到如果海獭的皮毛能吸附这么多的石油,那么人的头发是不是也可以?
图片来源:Pixabay他很快开始动手验证自己的想法:他收集了 2.5 千克左右客人被剪下的头发,放进了妻子的连裤袜,并将 2 只裤脚系在一起,让其变成了一个环形。在这之后,他将环形的连裤袜放在水池中,并将用过的机油倒在环形中间。随后他将连裤袜合在一起,发现连裤袜之外没有机油流出来,而当他把连裤袜从水中提起来时,发现大部分机油已经吸附在头发上——这些机油在头发表面分层聚集起来了。
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2020 年,该校的研究人员还发现,狗毛吸附原油的能力和人造纤维、聚丙烯吸附剂相当,会比另一种商业吸附剂——泥炭藓的效果更好。
六 | 人和狗狗的毛发可以作为一种有效、可持续的工具,来清除陆地上的石油污染物。不过这些吸附了石油的头发也不能留在海洋中,如果不及时处理,也会造成严重的生态危害。

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不过,由于缺乏维修资金,成千上万的石油井架和数千千米运输原油的管道正在慢慢腐烂,原油正在持续不断地往外泄漏。当地渔民经常能发现自己的渔网和捕获的鱼浸泡在原油中。图片来源:Joshua Stevens/美国航空航天局EOSDIS LANCE和GIBS/Worldview的MODIS/美国地质调查局的陆地卫星2021 年 9 月 25 日,美国航空航天局(NASA)的科研人造卫星 Aqua 经过这一区域时,其携带的中分辨率成像光谱仪(MODIS)拍摄下了完整的马拉开波湖。在这张照片中,马拉开波湖呈现为诡异、浓郁的墨绿色。水流和漩涡中是成片成片的绿色、棕褐色和灰色阴影。
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它揭示着马拉开波湖里已经持续了 10 年的遭遇:来自上游河流的污染物和富营养化,让其中的藻类大量繁殖、一次次暴发,而大量的原油还在持续不断地泄漏。然而当时几乎没有任何防治措施,当地的官员们会将污染淡化为“视觉问题”或认为“并不是一个大问题”。这也点燃 Estrach 的积极性,她想要试着去缓解马拉开波湖的石油污染问题。图片来源:Pixabay当看到“用人的头发治理石油污染”这个方法时,Estrach 第一感觉是有点疯狂,不过考虑到有这么多国家做了且取得了不错的效果,为什么不能在马拉开波湖试试呢?Estrach 创立了一个环保人士的活动网站“美人鱼项目”(Proyecto Sirena),投身在治理石油污染中,越来越多的志愿者也开始通过这一网站和 Estrach 一起收集人们剪下的头发,成千上万受到鼓动的人们也在类似的组织活动中积极捐出了自己的头发。
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一些人甚至还会带着自己的狗狗来剃毛。截至目前,Estrach 每 3 个月都能收集到 7 吨的头发。Sirena 回到自己此前就读的学校,尝试复刻与 McCrory 合作过的加州组织 Matter of Trust 使用头发的方法,来处理石油泄漏。针对于马拉开波湖湖面上的石油,他们采取了和 McCrory 相似的方法,把头发放进连裤袜后,将它们连接起来组成类似“香肠”网的结构。他们会用这些“香肠”网将水面上的浮油包住,防止它们进一步扩散。而对于海岸边的原油,他们会尝试将头发制成垫子,来对其进行清除。除此之外,Sirena 的团队也在考虑一些比较环保的方法,来处理吸附原油后的头发。
十 | 这些方法也极大地降低了处理石油污染的成本。
全球化的石油运输网络可以让从地下开采出的、丰富的石油,达到世界上绝大多数的角落,包括无数生境优美、有着独一无二生物多样性的区域。然而,一旦石油泄漏,海洋中的生态环境会由于石油对氧气的阻隔,生态平衡逐渐崩溃。石油也会威胁鱼、水鸟等生物的生存。
十一 | 而陆地上的石油污染会破坏土壤和地下水,威胁植物,甚至直接威胁人类的健康。除了这种简单有效的方法,我们或许还需要更全面的措施,来缓解工业化和生态环境的冲突。
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Published on:13:59:47