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Mickey Ray Williams, president of the USW local union at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama, with a tire made in Mexico.
Mickey Ray Williams keeps a Goodyear tire in his Gadsden, Alabama, conference room. Made in Mexico and imported to Gadsden, that tire induces fear.
It's an Assurance All-Season tire. Those were developed at Goodyear's Gadsden factory in 2014. Now some, or possibly all, are built in a brand-new, half-billion-dollar plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. And Goodyear is furloughing workers at its tire plant in Gadsden, where Williams is president of the United Steelworkers (USW) local union.
The workers took cuts when labor agreements were negotiated in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But Americans can't compete with Mexican workers earning $2 to $6 an hour.
This sad story is as old as NAFTA. That's a quarter-century of pain. An American corporation, GM or Nabisco or Carrier, builds a factory in Mexico. There, NAFTA will protect the company from tariffs when it imports the Mexican-made cars or Oreos or furnaces back into the United States. And in Mexico, the company can pollute freely, pay workers as little as $2 an hour, and establish company-controlled unions so workers can't bargain for more. It's a lose-lose for workers. American workers get fired; Mexican workers get exploited.
Goodyear hasn't closed the Gadsden factory. But the Mexican tire in Williams' conference room at the local union hall is a symbol of Gadsden workers' dread that it will. As the new plant in Mexico geared up, Goodyear laid off 175 workers in Gadsden and 60 at its plant in Danville, Virginia, this year. Meanwhile, Mexican workers protested poor working conditions with a one-day strike not authorized by the company-controlled union. Goodyear solved that problem. It sent its Mexican workers a clear message by firing 57 of the participants.
This is why the USW, and the rest of organized labor, opposes the proposed new NAFTA. It contains some new language regarding workers' rights and environmental protection. But it lacks meaningful enforcement provisions. Without them, corporations like Goodyear will continue to invest in Mexico while closing American factories. And workers in both countries will continue to get hurt.
Goodyear announced the layoffs in Danville and Gadsden in February. Many of the workers furloughed in Alabama were just starting out. "We got a young workforce in Gadsden," Williams said. "When you look at them and they have their little kids with them, it is just so sad. They are wondering, 'Where do we go from here?' A lot of them want to come back to work. They don't understand why an iconic American company would run out from under them."
The local union searched for jobs in the area for them. "A lot of them took a $10- to $13-an-hour cut in pay," Williams said. "They are downsizing, selling their cars, even their homes, to get cash." Some took transfers to other Goodyear plants, but that is wrenching. It means uprooting their whole family, moving far away from relatives and friends, and starting over.
At the local union meetings, Williams said, one question always comes up: What's going on at the plant in Mexico? "They are not mad at the workers in Mexico," he said. "They are mad that Goodyear went down there and underpaid those workers. They are mad that Goodyear is taking our work and moving it there."
And they are afraid. The workers took cuts when labor agreements were negotiated in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But Americans can't compete with Mexican workers earning $2 to $6 an hour.
The Gadsden workers have good reason to be fearful. They've seen corporations close American factories after building in Mexico. Over the past 20 years, the United States lost 5 million manufacturing jobs and nearly 90,000 factories. Some went to China or Vietnam or India. But a lot went to Mexico.
For example, in recent months, GM closed factories in Lordstown, Ohio, and Warren, Michigan, as part of its plan to shutter five plants in the United States and Canada and slash 14,000 North American jobs. Its shops in Mexico, however, are going gangbusters. It decided last year to manufacture the revived Blazer model in Mexico and has shifted production of several cars, SUVs and trucks south of the border. Now, GM is the top carmaker--in Mexico.
That is the legacy of NAFTA. And that's what congressional Democrats are committed to terminating with a new NAFTA. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed a committee to work with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to fix the proposed new NAFTA.
Committee members went to Mexico, where Goodyear denied them access to the factory. Afterward, the lawmakers demanded answers from Goodyear.
The lawmakers noted in a letter to Goodyear CEO Richard Kramer that the corporation signed a contract with a "protection" union before the plant had hired a single worker. Real unions are organizations formed by workers who elect leaders to negotiate with companies for better wages and working conditions.
Protection or company unions shield corporations from talks with actual worker representatives. They safeguard the corporation, not the employees. A protection union formed before anyone is hired obviously does not represent the workers.
Less than six months after the Mexican tire plant opened in November 2017, between 600 and 800 of its workers conducted a one-day wildcat strike to demand real union representation, higher wages and safer working conditions.
Safety in a tire plant is a life-and-death matter. After several incidents at the Goodyear plant in Danville in 2015 and 2016, inspectors found more than 100 health and safety violations and fined Goodyear $1.75 million. And that's in the United States, where standards are higher and Goodyear knew it was subject to regulation and inspection.
The congressional committee spoke with several of the workers Goodyear fired after the wildcat strike, and the lawmakers reported in their letter to Goodyear that the workers described: "poor working conditions, lack of protective gear and safety and overall training provided to workers, non-reporting of hazards, deductions that are taken from already low wages, and discrimination and harassment."
The committee, which sent a copy of its letter to Trade Representative Lighthizer, told Goodyear that the mistreatment of workers at its Mexican plant undermines any confidence lawmakers might have in labor reforms recently adopted in Mexico.
"While we are told that Mexico's labor reforms and a renewed NAFTA will lead to positive changes in Mexico and in America, what we saw at Goodyear clearly illustrates the entrenched way of doing business in Mexico that is based on exploiting a powerless workforce," the committee wrote.
The committee asked Goodyear to respond to the workers' allegations and to tell Congress what percentage of the tire production in Mexico is being exported to the United States, as well as how those imports will affect Goodyear's U.S. workers, like those in Gadsden.
On Monday, Goodyear sent a letter to the committee denying any and all wrongdoing. Kramer extended an offer for the committee to visit the plant in Mexico, with no explanation for why it rejected the lawmakers' earlier request to inspect the facility. The CEO provided no concrete answer to the committee's question about the percentage of Mexican-made tires that are exported to the United States or how that will affect the corporation's U.S. manufacturing.
Kramer described the relationship between the corporation and the protection union in Mexico as just hunky-dory--which would be expected since the company controls the union. He said Goodyear intends to comply with Mexico's new labor law forbidding protection unions, which means, of course, it has not yet.
Safety is a "core value for Goodyear," Kramer said, and, "Goodyear applies its global safety and environmental standards and practices in Mexico, just as it does in the United States." That will be of cold comfort to Mexican workers aware of Goodyear's 100 violations in Danville.
The letter is three pages of double-talk that satisfied no one, least of all Mickey Ray Williams and the workers in Gadsden.
Williams' father worked at Goodyear in Gadsden for 36 years, retiring from a good, family-supporting job in 2002. Williams has worked there for 17 years. But he doesn't think Goodyear will be around for his kids: "I hope that plant is here when my kids get old enough, but I have a feeling we are in trouble."
That tire in his conference room is a bad omen.
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.
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Mickey Ray Williams keeps a Goodyear tire in his Gadsden, Alabama, conference room. Made in Mexico and imported to Gadsden, that tire induces fear.
It's an Assurance All-Season tire. Those were developed at Goodyear's Gadsden factory in 2014. Now some, or possibly all, are built in a brand-new, half-billion-dollar plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. And Goodyear is furloughing workers at its tire plant in Gadsden, where Williams is president of the United Steelworkers (USW) local union.
The workers took cuts when labor agreements were negotiated in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But Americans can't compete with Mexican workers earning $2 to $6 an hour.
This sad story is as old as NAFTA. That's a quarter-century of pain. An American corporation, GM or Nabisco or Carrier, builds a factory in Mexico. There, NAFTA will protect the company from tariffs when it imports the Mexican-made cars or Oreos or furnaces back into the United States. And in Mexico, the company can pollute freely, pay workers as little as $2 an hour, and establish company-controlled unions so workers can't bargain for more. It's a lose-lose for workers. American workers get fired; Mexican workers get exploited.
Goodyear hasn't closed the Gadsden factory. But the Mexican tire in Williams' conference room at the local union hall is a symbol of Gadsden workers' dread that it will. As the new plant in Mexico geared up, Goodyear laid off 175 workers in Gadsden and 60 at its plant in Danville, Virginia, this year. Meanwhile, Mexican workers protested poor working conditions with a one-day strike not authorized by the company-controlled union. Goodyear solved that problem. It sent its Mexican workers a clear message by firing 57 of the participants.
This is why the USW, and the rest of organized labor, opposes the proposed new NAFTA. It contains some new language regarding workers' rights and environmental protection. But it lacks meaningful enforcement provisions. Without them, corporations like Goodyear will continue to invest in Mexico while closing American factories. And workers in both countries will continue to get hurt.
Goodyear announced the layoffs in Danville and Gadsden in February. Many of the workers furloughed in Alabama were just starting out. "We got a young workforce in Gadsden," Williams said. "When you look at them and they have their little kids with them, it is just so sad. They are wondering, 'Where do we go from here?' A lot of them want to come back to work. They don't understand why an iconic American company would run out from under them."
The local union searched for jobs in the area for them. "A lot of them took a $10- to $13-an-hour cut in pay," Williams said. "They are downsizing, selling their cars, even their homes, to get cash." Some took transfers to other Goodyear plants, but that is wrenching. It means uprooting their whole family, moving far away from relatives and friends, and starting over.
At the local union meetings, Williams said, one question always comes up: What's going on at the plant in Mexico? "They are not mad at the workers in Mexico," he said. "They are mad that Goodyear went down there and underpaid those workers. They are mad that Goodyear is taking our work and moving it there."
And they are afraid. The workers took cuts when labor agreements were negotiated in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But Americans can't compete with Mexican workers earning $2 to $6 an hour.
The Gadsden workers have good reason to be fearful. They've seen corporations close American factories after building in Mexico. Over the past 20 years, the United States lost 5 million manufacturing jobs and nearly 90,000 factories. Some went to China or Vietnam or India. But a lot went to Mexico.
For example, in recent months, GM closed factories in Lordstown, Ohio, and Warren, Michigan, as part of its plan to shutter five plants in the United States and Canada and slash 14,000 North American jobs. Its shops in Mexico, however, are going gangbusters. It decided last year to manufacture the revived Blazer model in Mexico and has shifted production of several cars, SUVs and trucks south of the border. Now, GM is the top carmaker--in Mexico.
That is the legacy of NAFTA. And that's what congressional Democrats are committed to terminating with a new NAFTA. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed a committee to work with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to fix the proposed new NAFTA.
Committee members went to Mexico, where Goodyear denied them access to the factory. Afterward, the lawmakers demanded answers from Goodyear.
The lawmakers noted in a letter to Goodyear CEO Richard Kramer that the corporation signed a contract with a "protection" union before the plant had hired a single worker. Real unions are organizations formed by workers who elect leaders to negotiate with companies for better wages and working conditions.
Protection or company unions shield corporations from talks with actual worker representatives. They safeguard the corporation, not the employees. A protection union formed before anyone is hired obviously does not represent the workers.
Less than six months after the Mexican tire plant opened in November 2017, between 600 and 800 of its workers conducted a one-day wildcat strike to demand real union representation, higher wages and safer working conditions.
Safety in a tire plant is a life-and-death matter. After several incidents at the Goodyear plant in Danville in 2015 and 2016, inspectors found more than 100 health and safety violations and fined Goodyear $1.75 million. And that's in the United States, where standards are higher and Goodyear knew it was subject to regulation and inspection.
The congressional committee spoke with several of the workers Goodyear fired after the wildcat strike, and the lawmakers reported in their letter to Goodyear that the workers described: "poor working conditions, lack of protective gear and safety and overall training provided to workers, non-reporting of hazards, deductions that are taken from already low wages, and discrimination and harassment."
The committee, which sent a copy of its letter to Trade Representative Lighthizer, told Goodyear that the mistreatment of workers at its Mexican plant undermines any confidence lawmakers might have in labor reforms recently adopted in Mexico.
"While we are told that Mexico's labor reforms and a renewed NAFTA will lead to positive changes in Mexico and in America, what we saw at Goodyear clearly illustrates the entrenched way of doing business in Mexico that is based on exploiting a powerless workforce," the committee wrote.
The committee asked Goodyear to respond to the workers' allegations and to tell Congress what percentage of the tire production in Mexico is being exported to the United States, as well as how those imports will affect Goodyear's U.S. workers, like those in Gadsden.
On Monday, Goodyear sent a letter to the committee denying any and all wrongdoing. Kramer extended an offer for the committee to visit the plant in Mexico, with no explanation for why it rejected the lawmakers' earlier request to inspect the facility. The CEO provided no concrete answer to the committee's question about the percentage of Mexican-made tires that are exported to the United States or how that will affect the corporation's U.S. manufacturing.
Kramer described the relationship between the corporation and the protection union in Mexico as just hunky-dory--which would be expected since the company controls the union. He said Goodyear intends to comply with Mexico's new labor law forbidding protection unions, which means, of course, it has not yet.
Safety is a "core value for Goodyear," Kramer said, and, "Goodyear applies its global safety and environmental standards and practices in Mexico, just as it does in the United States." That will be of cold comfort to Mexican workers aware of Goodyear's 100 violations in Danville.
The letter is three pages of double-talk that satisfied no one, least of all Mickey Ray Williams and the workers in Gadsden.
Williams' father worked at Goodyear in Gadsden for 36 years, retiring from a good, family-supporting job in 2002. Williams has worked there for 17 years. But he doesn't think Goodyear will be around for his kids: "I hope that plant is here when my kids get old enough, but I have a feeling we are in trouble."
That tire in his conference room is a bad omen.
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.
Mickey Ray Williams keeps a Goodyear tire in his Gadsden, Alabama, conference room. Made in Mexico and imported to Gadsden, that tire induces fear.
It's an Assurance All-Season tire. Those were developed at Goodyear's Gadsden factory in 2014. Now some, or possibly all, are built in a brand-new, half-billion-dollar plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. And Goodyear is furloughing workers at its tire plant in Gadsden, where Williams is president of the United Steelworkers (USW) local union.
The workers took cuts when labor agreements were negotiated in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But Americans can't compete with Mexican workers earning $2 to $6 an hour.
This sad story is as old as NAFTA. That's a quarter-century of pain. An American corporation, GM or Nabisco or Carrier, builds a factory in Mexico. There, NAFTA will protect the company from tariffs when it imports the Mexican-made cars or Oreos or furnaces back into the United States. And in Mexico, the company can pollute freely, pay workers as little as $2 an hour, and establish company-controlled unions so workers can't bargain for more. It's a lose-lose for workers. American workers get fired; Mexican workers get exploited.
Goodyear hasn't closed the Gadsden factory. But the Mexican tire in Williams' conference room at the local union hall is a symbol of Gadsden workers' dread that it will. As the new plant in Mexico geared up, Goodyear laid off 175 workers in Gadsden and 60 at its plant in Danville, Virginia, this year. Meanwhile, Mexican workers protested poor working conditions with a one-day strike not authorized by the company-controlled union. Goodyear solved that problem. It sent its Mexican workers a clear message by firing 57 of the participants.
This is why the USW, and the rest of organized labor, opposes the proposed new NAFTA. It contains some new language regarding workers' rights and environmental protection. But it lacks meaningful enforcement provisions. Without them, corporations like Goodyear will continue to invest in Mexico while closing American factories. And workers in both countries will continue to get hurt.
Goodyear announced the layoffs in Danville and Gadsden in February. Many of the workers furloughed in Alabama were just starting out. "We got a young workforce in Gadsden," Williams said. "When you look at them and they have their little kids with them, it is just so sad. They are wondering, 'Where do we go from here?' A lot of them want to come back to work. They don't understand why an iconic American company would run out from under them."
The local union searched for jobs in the area for them. "A lot of them took a $10- to $13-an-hour cut in pay," Williams said. "They are downsizing, selling their cars, even their homes, to get cash." Some took transfers to other Goodyear plants, but that is wrenching. It means uprooting their whole family, moving far away from relatives and friends, and starting over.
At the local union meetings, Williams said, one question always comes up: What's going on at the plant in Mexico? "They are not mad at the workers in Mexico," he said. "They are mad that Goodyear went down there and underpaid those workers. They are mad that Goodyear is taking our work and moving it there."
And they are afraid. The workers took cuts when labor agreements were negotiated in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But Americans can't compete with Mexican workers earning $2 to $6 an hour.
The Gadsden workers have good reason to be fearful. They've seen corporations close American factories after building in Mexico. Over the past 20 years, the United States lost 5 million manufacturing jobs and nearly 90,000 factories. Some went to China or Vietnam or India. But a lot went to Mexico.
For example, in recent months, GM closed factories in Lordstown, Ohio, and Warren, Michigan, as part of its plan to shutter five plants in the United States and Canada and slash 14,000 North American jobs. Its shops in Mexico, however, are going gangbusters. It decided last year to manufacture the revived Blazer model in Mexico and has shifted production of several cars, SUVs and trucks south of the border. Now, GM is the top carmaker--in Mexico.
That is the legacy of NAFTA. And that's what congressional Democrats are committed to terminating with a new NAFTA. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed a committee to work with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to fix the proposed new NAFTA.
Committee members went to Mexico, where Goodyear denied them access to the factory. Afterward, the lawmakers demanded answers from Goodyear.
The lawmakers noted in a letter to Goodyear CEO Richard Kramer that the corporation signed a contract with a "protection" union before the plant had hired a single worker. Real unions are organizations formed by workers who elect leaders to negotiate with companies for better wages and working conditions.
Protection or company unions shield corporations from talks with actual worker representatives. They safeguard the corporation, not the employees. A protection union formed before anyone is hired obviously does not represent the workers.
Less than six months after the Mexican tire plant opened in November 2017, between 600 and 800 of its workers conducted a one-day wildcat strike to demand real union representation, higher wages and safer working conditions.
Safety in a tire plant is a life-and-death matter. After several incidents at the Goodyear plant in Danville in 2015 and 2016, inspectors found more than 100 health and safety violations and fined Goodyear $1.75 million. And that's in the United States, where standards are higher and Goodyear knew it was subject to regulation and inspection.
The congressional committee spoke with several of the workers Goodyear fired after the wildcat strike, and the lawmakers reported in their letter to Goodyear that the workers described: "poor working conditions, lack of protective gear and safety and overall training provided to workers, non-reporting of hazards, deductions that are taken from already low wages, and discrimination and harassment."
The committee, which sent a copy of its letter to Trade Representative Lighthizer, told Goodyear that the mistreatment of workers at its Mexican plant undermines any confidence lawmakers might have in labor reforms recently adopted in Mexico.
"While we are told that Mexico's labor reforms and a renewed NAFTA will lead to positive changes in Mexico and in America, what we saw at Goodyear clearly illustrates the entrenched way of doing business in Mexico that is based on exploiting a powerless workforce," the committee wrote.
The committee asked Goodyear to respond to the workers' allegations and to tell Congress what percentage of the tire production in Mexico is being exported to the United States, as well as how those imports will affect Goodyear's U.S. workers, like those in Gadsden.
On Monday, Goodyear sent a letter to the committee denying any and all wrongdoing. Kramer extended an offer for the committee to visit the plant in Mexico, with no explanation for why it rejected the lawmakers' earlier request to inspect the facility. The CEO provided no concrete answer to the committee's question about the percentage of Mexican-made tires that are exported to the United States or how that will affect the corporation's U.S. manufacturing.
Kramer described the relationship between the corporation and the protection union in Mexico as just hunky-dory--which would be expected since the company controls the union. He said Goodyear intends to comply with Mexico's new labor law forbidding protection unions, which means, of course, it has not yet.
Safety is a "core value for Goodyear," Kramer said, and, "Goodyear applies its global safety and environmental standards and practices in Mexico, just as it does in the United States." That will be of cold comfort to Mexican workers aware of Goodyear's 100 violations in Danville.
The letter is three pages of double-talk that satisfied no one, least of all Mickey Ray Williams and the workers in Gadsden.
Williams' father worked at Goodyear in Gadsden for 36 years, retiring from a good, family-supporting job in 2002. Williams has worked there for 17 years. But he doesn't think Goodyear will be around for his kids: "I hope that plant is here when my kids get old enough, but I have a feeling we are in trouble."
That tire in his conference room is a bad omen.
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.
The senator said the negotiations could be "a positive step forward" after three and a half years of war.
Echoing the concerns of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders about an upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday said the interests of Ukrainians must be represented in any talks regarding an end to the fighting between the two countries—but expressed hope that the negotiations planned for August 15 will be "a positive step forward."
On CNN's "State of the Union," Sanders (I-Vt.) told anchor Dana Bash that Ukraine "has got to be part of the discussion" regarding a potential cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, which Putin said last week he would agree to in exchange for major land concessions in Eastern Ukraine.
Putin reportedly proposed a deal in which Ukraine would withdraw its armed forces from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, giving Russia full control of the two areas along with Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
On Friday, Trump said a peace deal could include "some swapping of territories"—but did not mention potential security guarantees for Ukraine, or what territories the country might gain control of—and announced that talks had been scheduled between the White House and Putin in Alaska this coming Friday.
As Trump announced the meeting, a deadline he had set earlier for Putin to agree to a cease-fire or face "secondary sanctions" targeting countries that buy oil from Russia passed.
Zelenskyy on Saturday rejected the suggestion that Ukraine would accept any deal brokered by the U.S. and Russia without the input of his government—especially one that includes land concessions. In a video statement on the social media platform X, Zelenskyy said that "Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace."
"Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace," he said. "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier."
Sanders on Sunday agreed that "it can't be Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump" deciding the terms of a peace deal to end the war that the United Nations says has killed more than 13,000 Ukrainian civilians since Russia began its invasion in February 2022.
"If in fact an agreement can be negotiated which does not compromise what the Ukrainians feel they need, I think that's a positive step forward. We all want to see an end to the bloodshed," said Sanders. "The people of Ukraine obviously have got to have a significant say. It is their country, so if the people of Ukraine feel it is a positive agreement, that's good. If not, that's another story."
A senior White House official told NewsNation that the president is "open to a trilateral summit with both leaders."
"Right now, the White House is planning the bilateral meeting requested by President Putin," they said.
On Saturday, Vice President JD Vance took part in talks with European Union and Ukrainian officials in the United Kingdom, where Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President in Ukraine, said the country's positions were made "clear: a reliable, lasting peace is only possible with Ukraine at the negotiating table, with full respect for our sovereignty and without recognizing the occupation."
European leaders pushed for the inclusion of Zelenskyy in talks in a statement Saturday, saying Ukraine's vital interests "include the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
"Meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a cease-fire or reduction of hostilities," said the leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Cancellor Friedrich Merz, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force."
At the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, British journalist and analyst Anatol Lieven wrote Saturday that the talks scheduled for next week are "an essential first step" toward ending the bloodshed in Ukraine, even though they include proposed land concessions that would be "painful" for Kyiv.
If Ukraine were to ultimately agree to ceding land to Russia, said Lieven, "Russia will need drastically to scale back its demands for Ukrainian 'denazification' and 'demilitarization,' which in their extreme form would mean Ukrainian regime change and disarmament—which no government in Kyiv could or should accept."
A recent Gallup poll showed 69% of Ukrainians now favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. In 2022, more than 70% believed the country should continue fighting until it achieved victory.
Suleiman Al-Obeid was killed by the Israel Defense Forces while seeking humanitarian aid.
Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian soccer star who plays for Liverpool's Premiere League club and serves as captain of Egypt's national team, had three questions for the Union of European Football Associations on Saturday after the governing body acknowledged the death of another venerated former player.
"Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?" asked Salah in response to the UEFA's vague tribute to Suleiman Al-Obeid, who was nicknamed the "Palestinian Pelé" during his career with the Palestinian National Team.
The soccer organization had written a simple 21-word "farewell" message to Al-Obeid, calling him "a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times."
The UEFA made no mention of reports from the Palestine Football Association that Al-Obeid last week became one of the nearly 1,400 Palestinians who have been killed while seeking aid since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and U.S.-backed, privatized organization, began operating aid hubs in Gaza.
As with the Israel Defense Forces' killings of aid workers and bombings of so-called "safe zones" since Israel began bombarding Gaza in October 2023, the IDF has claimed its killings of Palestinians seeking desperately-needed food have been inadvertent—but Israeli soldiers themselves have described being ordered to shoot at civilians who approach the aid sites.
Salah has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinians since Israel began its attacks, which have killed more than 61,000 people, and imposed a near-total blockade that has caused an "unfolding" famine, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. At least 217 Palestinians have now starved to death, including at least 100 children.
The Peace and Justice Project, founded by British Parliament member Jeremy Corbyn, applauded Salah's criticism of UEFA.
The Palestine Football Association released a statement saying, "Former national team player and star of the Khadamat al-Shati team, Suleiman Al-Obeid, was martyred after the occupation forces targeted those waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday."
Al-Obeid represented the Palestinian team 24 times internationally and scored a famous goal against Yemen's National Team in the East Asian Federation's 2010 cup.
He is survived by his wife and five children, Al Jazeera reported.
Bassil Mikdadi, the founder of Football Palestine, told the outlet that he was surprised the UEFA acknowledged Al-Obeid's killing at all, considering the silence of international soccer federations regarding Israel's assault on Gaza, which is the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and has been called a genocide by numerous Holocaust scholars and human rights groups.
As Jules Boykoff wrote in a column at Common Dreams in June, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has mostly "looked the other way when it comes to Israel's attacks on Palestinians," and although the group joined the UEFA in expressing solidarity with Ukrainian players and civilians when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, "no such solidarity has been forthcoming for Palestinians."
Mikdadi noted that Al-Obeid "is not the first Palestinian footballer to perish in this genocide—there's been over 400—but he's by far the most prominent as of now."
Al-Obeid was killed days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a plan to take over Gaza City—believed to be the first step in the eventual occupation of all of Gaza.
The United Nations Security Council was holding an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss Israel's move, with U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas Miroslav Jenca warning the council that a full takeover would risk "igniting another horrific chapter in this conflict."
"We are already witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale in Gaza," said Jenca. "If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction, compounding the unbearable suffering of the population."
"Whoever said West Virginia was a conservative state?" Sanders asked the crowd in Wheeling. "Somebody got it wrong."
On the latest leg of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders headed to West Virginia for rallies on Friday and Saturday where he continued to speak out against the billionaire class's control over the political system and the Republican Party's cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and other social programs for millions of Americans—and prove that his message resonates with working people even in solidly red districts.
"Whoever said West Virginia was a conservative state?" Sanders (I-Vt.) asked a roaring, standing-room-only crowd at the Capitol Theater in Wheeling. "Somebody got it wrong."
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, some in the crowd sported red bandanas around their necks—a nod to the state's long history of labor organizing and the thousands of coal mine workers who formed a multiracial coalition in 1921 and marched wearing bandanas for the right to join a union with fair pay and safety protections.
Sanders spoke to the crowd about how President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was supported by all five Republican lawmakers who represent the districts Sanders is visiting this weekend, could impact their families and neighbors.
"Fifteen million Americans, including 50,000 right here in West Virginia, are going to lose their healthcare," Sanders said of the Medicaid cuts that are projected to amount to more than $1 trillion over the next decade. "Cuts to nutrition—literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry kids."
Seven hospitals are expected to shut down in the state as a result of the law's Medicaid cuts, and 84,000 West Virginians will lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, according to estimates.
Sanders continued his West Virginia tour with a stop in the small town of Lenore on Saturday afternoon and was scheduled to address a crowd in Charleston Saturday evening before heading to North Carolina for more rallies on Sunday.
The event in Lenore was a town hall, where the senator heard from residents of the area—which Trump won with 74% of the vote in 2024. Anna Bahr, Sanders' communications director, said more than 400 people came to hear the senator speak—equivalent to about a third of Lenore's population.
Sanders invited one young attendee on stage after she asked how Trump's domestic policy law's cuts to education are likely to affect poverty rates in West Virginia, which are some of the highest in the nation.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes a federal voucher program which education advocates warn will further drain funding from public schools, and the loss of Medicaid funding for states could lead to staff cuts in K-12 schools. The law also impacts higher education, imposing new limits for federal student loans.
"Sometimes I am attacked by my opponents for being far-left, fringe, out of touch with where America is," said Sanders. "Actually, much of what I talk about is exactly where America is... You are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and if we had good policy and the courage to take on the billionaire class, there is no reason that every kid in this country could not get an excellent higher education, regardless of his or her income. That is not a radical idea."
Sanders' events scheduled for Sunday in North Carolina include a rally at 2:00 pm ET at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro and one at 6:00 pm ET at the Harrah Cherokee Center in Asheville.