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NUMSA Press Statement

31 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), representing over 300,000 metalworkers, stands shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity with our comrades of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)—specifically Warehouse Local 6 and Longshore Local 10—in their heroic battle against C&H Sugar Refinery in California.

NUMSA recognises this fight for what it is and we resolutely stand with our comrades in defence of the ILWU’s right to strike in order to win this battle. This is an attack by the world’s largest sugar refinery to force a poverty-wage contract onto its workforce. By stripping healthcare benefits, slashing overtime, and demolishing the seniority system, C&H Sugar has declared an open war on workers. In South Africa, we are all too familiar with greedy bosses who prioritise profit over human lives.

Capital knows no borders in its pursuit of profit, and neither does our international working-class solidarity.

C&H Sugar’s attempt to unload the vessel Tai Herald—carrying sugar extracted from Negros Island in the Philippines—is a profound outrage. In April this year, state armed forces slaughtered 19 people on Negros Island, including sugarcane workers. That sugar is drenched in the blood of our fallen Filipino comrades.

Since Local 6 took to the picket lines on 15 June, C&H Sugar has deployed every dirty tactic in the union-busting playbook. The company shamefully used scab labour to bypass Local 10’s picket lines at private industrial dock, Levin’s Terminal in Richmond.

Then they mobilised the police—the armed wing of the ruling class—to protect scab labour and attack comrades picketing at the C&H facility in Crockett. During the powerful Bay Area port shutdown on 21 July, police issued dispersal orders and arrested ten union members and supporters.

Yet, in shutting down the ports that day, ILWU demonstrated the collective power of organised labour. You showed the world that not a single wheel turns, not a single light shines, and not a single ton of cargo moves without the consent of the working class! It is us, the working class, who ultimately produce the wealth!

NUMSA condemns the police for acting as C&H Sugar’s private security force. History has repeatedly taught us—from the dark days of apartheid in South Africa, to the docks of California today—that the state apparatus will always unleash violence to protect capitalist profits.

Over the years NUMSA and ILWU have shared a special relationship built on internationalism and solidarity.

To President Mike Villeggiante, the leadership of ILWU Local 10, the courageous striking workers of Local 6, and every supporter on the picket line, we say:

Your fight is our fight! An injury to one is an injury to all!

Issued by:

Irvin Jim
NUMSA General Secretary
073 157 6384

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Stands in Solidarity with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union—An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

NUMSA Press Statement

30 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) welcomes the landmark judgment handed down on 27 July 2026 by Acting Judge Tyuthuza in the High Court of South Africa (Northern Cape Division, Kimberley). NUMSA has successfully halted the rushed, callous liquidation of Ekapa Minerals (Pty) Ltd and secured a court order placing the diamond mining company under supervision and business rescue. This judgment is a decisive victory for the working class over cold corporate indifference. Workers lives and livelihoods are not disposable and must come before corporate interests!

Before outlining the details of this judgment, NUMSA dips its red flag to half-mast in remembrance of the five workers who tragically lost their lives 890 meters underground at Ekapa mine following the catastrophic mudslide in February this year. This is a painful reminder of the human cost paid by workers in the mining sector. We extend our deepest solidarity to their grieving families.

On 3 March 2026, Ekapa announced it had applied for provisional liquidation on an ex-parte basis. As NUMSA we immediately rejected this rushed attempt to liquidate the company, condemning management for taking such a drastic decision without even consulting the Union or the government, and while the bodies of our fallen workers remained underground.

For months, over 1,000 workers at Ekapa were left stranded without salaries, while over 300 workers suffered unilateral layoffs. When NUMSA proposed that management opt for Business Rescue instead of liquidation to save jobs, the company flatly rejected our constructive proposal.

Rushed liquidations disproportionately serve shareholders and directors while leaving workers destitute. In March 2026, NUMSA initiated urgent legal proceedings to force the company into Business Rescue to defend job security and the livelihoods of the local community.

On 27 July 2026, the Kimberley High Court ruled on the following key issues in favour of NUMSA:

1. The High Court endorsed NUMSA’s application as inherently urgent, recognising that the protection of workers’ livelihoods and the rescue of distressed companies cannot wait.

2. The provisional liquidation order granted on 3 March 2026 has been officially suspended, putting an immediate stop to the forced destruction of the mine’s assets.

3. The High Court confirmed NUMSA’s right as a recognised trade union and majority representative of the workers to apply for Business Rescue.

4. The High Court rejected the arguments presented by the employer and liquidators, who claimed the mine had no future. The Court satisfied itself that the business rescue plan prepared by interim Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) Mr. Marius Van Tonder demonstrates clear, viable prospects.

Crucially, the evidence proved that the mudslide was localised to specific underground levels (Level T890) and that other operational areas (including Wesselton, Surface Mining, and upper levels T580, T555, and T760) remain intact, fully functional, and commercially viable.

5. The court recognised that liquidation would cause catastrophic value destruction—including the automatic lapsing of the valuable mining right under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.

Business Rescue preserves the mining right, unlocks a substantial receivables base (including over R400 million owed by group entities), and leverages post-commencement financing of R25 million to maintain operations as a going concern.

6. Under the proposed restructuring, approximately 500 direct jobs will be saved immediately on a scaled-down model, with independent creditors positioned to receive a significantly higher return (up to 100 cents in the Rand over 36 months) compared to a forced-sale liquidation.

To those who ask what happens if the BRP cannot ultimately “turn the ship around”: the Companies Act explicitly allows the BRP to terminate proceedings, at which point suspended liquidation takes effect.

However, as the High Court noted that plain logic and the evidence presented proved that the employer’s opposition failed to persuade the court against trying to save the mine. Law and constitutional values dictate a clear preference for saving viable businesses, preserving economic activity in the Kimberley region, and protecting workers lives and livelihoods over an unnecessary liquidation.

Following this landmark judgment, NUMSA calls for the liquidators and management of Ekapa to immediately co-operate with the appointed interim BRP, Mr. Marius Van Tonder.

NUMSA salutes its members at Ekapa for their resilience throughout this difficult period and commends our legal team, Lerato Lenyehelo Attorneys, for delivering this victory for the working class.

NUMSA remains committed to fighting for every single job and ensuring that workers lives and livelihood always come before corporate profit.

A feedback meeting for NUMSA members will take place on Friday 7 August at Galeshewe Hall to report back on the business rescue proceedings at Ekapa Mine.

A luta continua! The struggle continues!

Issued by:

Andile Zitho
NUMSA Northern Cape / Free State Regional Secretary
083 253 8561

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Wins Kimberley High Court Battle to Save Jobs at Ekapa Mine: Liquidation Suspended and Business Rescue Granted

JUDGMENT DOWNLOAD: JUDGMENT- NUMSA v Ekapa Minerals (Pty) Ltd Others (2026-119276) 27 July 2026

NUMSA Press Statement

25 July 2026

NUMSA condemns the Trump allies in Congress who have subpoenaed Breakthrough News and The People’s Forum, together with other progressive organisations. On 21 July 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee demanded both organisation’s internal communications, records and finances by 7 August.

This attack is not just about these organisations. This fascist action follows a propaganda document issued by the U.S. State Department titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” This fraudulent report is a weaponised tool of empire designed to vilify, intimidate, and target progressive organisations like The People’s Forum and Breakthrough News. It advances sweeping lies aimed at criminalising international solidarity, and falsely framing anyone who opposes the illegal, criminal blockade against the heroic people of Cuba—or who fight for social justice—as “left-wing terrorists.” The Report even openly references Senator Joe McCarthy’s witch-hunt for the destruction of a robust socialist movement that existed in the United States until it was crushed following World War II.

This is clearly a political attack on organisations that speak truth to empire. It falls part of an escalating crusade against all progressive organisations and any group or person who expresses opposition to the ultra-right, racist, and pro-war, imperialist policies of the Donald Trump administration. We recognise this method. In South Africa, the United States kept our own liberation movement on its terrorist list while it bankrolled the racist apartheid system. This is the desperate application of apartheid style Red Scare tactics!

The empire is tightening its brutal blockade against Cuba. Working-class children are the first to suffer. Total blackouts of electricity have become the order of the day. Before the Cuban Revolution, the island was a playground for US elites. Under the dictator Batista, they gambled and propagated the vices their own society rejected. The Cuban Revolution reclaimed the dignity of the Cuban people. Under the heroic leadership of Fidel Castro, Vilma Espin and others, Cuba built a socialist society where healthcare and education are human rights that are accessible to all, not commodities centred on profit for an elite few!

The same United States leaves close to 40 million of its own people in dire poverty. Simultaneously it continues to support the spread of racist Zionist ideologies throughout the world and the genocide of the Palestinian people. It has extorted 13 billion US dollars from its colonial seizure of Venezuela’s oil. Thirty-two Cuban soldiers died in January defending the independence of Venezuela when President Nicolas Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped by US imperialism.

Following the devastating earthquake in Venezuela that completely collapsed nearly 200 buildings and killed over 5000 people, the U.S. has not lifted any sanctions – severely restricting the country’s ability to respond to the disaster. This month, the empire sanctioned Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism. It has wasted more than 40 billion dollars on a failed attempt to bring Iran to heel. That is the morality of a system that punishes dignity and rewards greed.

Here in South Africa, we are under the same threat. Right-wing Afrikaner nationalists see the end of apartheid as an unfortunate hiccup. They have teamed up with the right-wing political establishment in the United States. They demand that South Africa surrender its sovereignty to the likes of Elon Musk, and they peddle lies and imperialist propaganda about a white genocide taking place in our country. NUMSA says no! We will not trade our freedom for the interests of racist capital.

NUMSA stands with all peoples who are rejecting tyranny. We stand with the brave journalists at Breakthrough News and the young activists leading The People’s Forum in New York, where our General Secretary has spoken. The People’s Forum is being attacked for raising levels of consciousness through successful political education programs and progressive cultural work that unite people across historic lines of division.

The People’s Forum has played an important role since October 2023 in mobilising mass opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and in the mobilisations against ICE’s terrorist assault against immigrant families, and the brutal US blockade that is designed to destroy the people of Cuba.

Breakthrough News is being targeted for reporting on Washington’s crimes and those who organise and resist imperialism around the world – from the Palestine solidarity movement to the Congo, Sudan and the Alliance of Sahel States. NUMSA’s struggles have been broadcast on Breakthrough News many times where the struggles and victories of workers take centre-stage.

At a time where majority of the media we consume around the world is controlled by five profit-driven mega corporations, media like Breakthrough News which feature organisations like ourselves, are more important than ever!

An attack on The People’s Forum and Breakthrough News is an attack on the international working class. Hands off The People’s Forum and Breakthrough News!

Issued by:

Irvin Jim
NUMSA General Secretary
073 157 6384

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Stands in Solidarity with The Peoples Forum and Breakthrough News in the United States of America

NUMSA Press Statement

24 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) confirms members are on strike at Atlantis and Townland Mine, based in Botshabelo Local, Mpumalanga. NUMSA members submitted demands to the employer on 15 April 2026. Having received no adequate response, our members downed tools and embarked on strike action from 15 July 2026.

NUMSA demands the following:

1. Transport: The employer has failed to provide transport for workers, particularly for night shift workers and those who reside in Doornkop and have no means of transport to and from work.

2. Basic Rate of Wages: A revised monthly basic rate across all occupational categories:

• General Worker (R15 000 p/m)
• Articulated Dump Truck (R19 000 p/m)
• Canter (R16 000 p/m)
• Tractor Loader Backhoe (R17 000 p/m)

3. Housing Allowance: R 3 500 per month.

4. Night Shift Allowance: R 100 per night.

5. Production and Safety Bonus: R 5 500.

6. Medical Aid/Medical Insurance: 100% employer contribution.

7. Long Service Monetary Recognition: For workers with long-standing service to the company.

8. Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Payment: In line with the company’s transformation obligations.

9. Skills Development: Access to structured training and skills development programmes.

10. Access to Production Target Figures: Full disclosure to workers of production targets used to determine bonuses and performance.

Despite these demands being tabled since April, the employer has responded only on wages, offering a mere 4.5% increase, while failing to respond to the remaining nine demands. This selective engagement is a clear demonstration of bad faith and arrogance on the part of the employer.

While our members are on a legitimate and protected strike, the employer is continuing production through the employment of undocumented foreign nationals. This is not incidental — it is a deliberate strategy of capital to exploit the most vulnerable layer of the working class – workers without documentation or legal protection.

This happens in order to break strikes, suppress wages, and undermine the collective power of organised labour. This practice exposes the real face of super-exploitation: capital does not care about the nationality of the worker it exploits, only about the cheapest and most easily disciplined labour it can find.

The employer has further compounded these violations by:

• Blocking non-union members from participating in the strike;
• Failing to provide workers with proper access to water and toilets, in violation of the agreed picketing rules;
• Failing to place pickets in the correct picketing areas, as set out in the picketing rules;
• Failing, to date, to respond to any of the outstanding demands.

NUMSA condemns in the strongest terms an employer that responds to legitimate worker demands with silence, that uses undocumented foreign nationals to break a protected strike, and that violates the basic rules of engagement during industrial action.

Our members will not be intimidated, divided, or starved into submission. We call on all relevant authorities to take note of the employer’s conduct regarding undocumented labour. We further call on all progressive forces to stand with our members at Atlantis and Townland Mine until all demands are met.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

Issued by:

Collen Mahlangu
NUMSA Mpumalanga Regional Secretary
CollenM@numsa.org.za
083 253 7408

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Members Embark on Strike at Atlantis and Townland Mine Over Employer Arrogance and Unresolved Demands

NUMSA Press Statement

23 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) salutes the heroic, unyielding NUMSA members at First Battery in East London! When management targeted 125 workers with forced retrenchments, NUMSA did not back down. We issued a 48-hour strike notice on 2 July 2026 and launched direct, powerful strike action on 6 July 2026.

Through the unified, militant action of workers, combined with unwavering solidarity, together we have forced management to concede! On 22 July 2026, NUMSA signed a groundbreaking Memorandum of Agreement that converts our collective power into a decisive victory for all affected workers.

Management thought they could push workers out with standard, bargain-basement packages. This NUMSA-led strike changed the game. We have forced First Battery to agree to terms that directly cushion and protect our members.

What exactly has this secured for workers?

• Enhanced severance packages: Retrenched workers will receive 3 weeks’ remuneration per completed year of service for their first six years, plus one week per year thereafter.
• R70,000 ex-gratia payment: In addition to severance pay, every retrenched worker will receive a massive R70,000 lump-sum ex-gratia payment.
• Full July salary and statutory pay: Retrenched workers remain employed until 31 July 2026 and will receive full July remuneration, along with pro-rata annual bonuses, accumulated leave payouts, and long-service awards.
• Fast-tracked payments: Management is bound to immediately request SARS tax directives without delay, ensuring funds are transferred into workers’ bank accounts within 10 working days of receiving the directives.
• Challenging unfair selection criteria: Management has been forced to investigate bona fide concerns regarding unfair selection, LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) applications, and skill retention manipulations.
• Voluntary Severance Packages (VSP) going forward: Following a two-month operational review, the company must offer a VSP process on these exact same improved terms before contemplating any further retrenchment processes.
• Upcoming Workers Indaba: Metair senior management will conduct an employee engagement session to present the company’s strategy and provide employees with an opportunity to raise suggestions and improvement initiatives, in the form of a NUMSA and First Battery Conference Workers Indaba over 2 days (preferably over the weekend without disrupting production).

The outcomes of such an Indaba will be addressed by both the senior leadership of NUMSA and senior leadership of Metair and could be facilitated by an external third party. The ultimate intent of the initiative will be to find solutions that are mutually beneficial to both parties.

This agreement demonstrates once again that when workers stand united under the red flag of NUMSA, bosses are forced to listen. As majority representative at First Battery, this agreement covers all affected workers under Section 23(1)(d) of the Labour Relations Act.

Having secured these critical victories, NUMSA has officially suspended the strike, and workers are expected to return to work and normal shifts by Thursday 23 July, 2026.

Striking employees who return to work by this date, will be provided with a R2 000 (two thousand Rand) advance, to assist with transport costs. The advance will be recovered in four equal monthly deductions, commencing in August 2026.

We remain vigilant. We will closely monitor the execution of every cent owed to our members and ensure the company strictly investigates every selection grievance.

Let this be a warning to employers everywhere: NUMSA will fight relentlessly to defend and advance the interests of the working class!

Issued by:

Irvin Jim
NUMSA General Secretary
073 157 6384

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Secures Major Settlement Victory for First Battery Workers After Militant Strike Action!

NUMSA Press Statement

8 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is making an urgent, call to all relevant stakeholders to intervene immediately and halt the impending slaughter of jobs at Transalloys—South Africa’s last remaining manganese smelter in the Emalahleni Municipality in Mpumalanga Province.

The company’s suspension of operations and shutdown of all furnaces on 1 July 2026 has placed over 600 direct jobs on the chopping block, directly threatening the livelihoods of thousands of working-class families who depend on this plant for survival.

Transalloys CEO and General Operations Manager, Mr. Theo Morkel, has stated that the company is engaged in negotiations with Eskom over skyrocketing electricity tariffs. Management has made it clear: if a sustainable tariff is not secured, they will permanently shut down operations.

While management claims the retrenchment consultation process with organised labour has concluded, the Board of Directors has not yet taken the final decision. They claim to remain hopeful for an Eskom breakthrough. However, the working class cannot afford to live on hope while our livelihoods hang by a thread.

NUMSA warns that the permanent closure of Transalloys will deal a devastating, irreversible blow to the local economy. Beyond the immediate destruction of 600 direct jobs, an estimated 10,000 indirect jobs across the supply chain may be obliterated.

We refuse to fold our arms and watch eMalahleni be turned into another economic ghost town, following the catastrophic closure of EVRAZ Highveld Steel! The working class cannot continue to pay the price for skyrocketing energy costs and state failures.

We demand that Eskom, the Department of Electricity and Energy, and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) stop dragging their feet. They must urgently lock heads with the company and organised labour to hammer out an immediate rescue package to secure the future of Transalloys.

NUMSA believes a temporary electricity tariff relief package—similar to bailouts previously granted to other energy-intensive smelters—is a non-negotiable, practical necessity while a long-term strategy is formulated to address the energy crisis suffocating the ferroalloy industry.

NUMSA remains committed to defending every single job. We urge all stakeholders to act with maximum urgency before another strategic industrial asset is sacrificed at the altar of high electricity costs, leaving hundreds of workers stranded in poverty.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

Issued by Collen Mahlangu

NUMSA Mpumalanga Regional Secretary
CollenM@numsa.org.za
083 253 7408

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Demands Immediate Intervention To Save Transalloys And Halt The Brutal Destruction Of Working Class Jobs! 

NUMSA Press Statement

7 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) confirms that members at Nigel John Riley (NJR) Steel Potchefstroom have embarked on an indefinite protected industrial action at employer’s premises on 6 July 2026. This action follows a protracted dispute and deadlock.

The employer arrogantly refused to accede to workers’ legitimate demands. After conciliation failed, the Commissioner issued the Certificate of Non-Resolution, which legally entitled workers to exercise their constitutional rights to strike. In compliance with the Labour Relations Act (LRA), NUMSA issued 48 hours’ notice on 3 July 2026 for strike to commence on 6 July 2026.

In a desperate and unlawful attempt to intimidate workers, the employer retaliated on the same day by issuing a “Lock Out Notice” and threatened to lock out all workers wishing to participate in the protected strike. This is clear victimisation and a direct attack on the worker’s constitutional rights.

The employer has rejected every demand and is further pushing that workers withdraw all demands before they will even table an offer. This is bad faith bargaining of the highest order.

Below are NUMSA’s demands:

1. 10 % wage increase across the board.
2. Payment of backpay from the expiry date of the previous agreement.
3. Introduction of funeral cover without any clause that compromises workers and their families.
4. Introduction of Operator Assistance in all areas where single operators are exposed to safety risk and excessive workload. No workers should die in the name of profit.
5. Introduction of medical aid with the company contributing 80% and workers contributing 20%.
6. The payment of meal allowance for all drivers required to work away from workplace or overtime.

NJR Steel Potchefstroom continues to maximise profit year after year while treating the very workers who create wealth as disposable. The management is intent on keeping workers and their families in perpetual poverty and refuses to afford them basic dignity.

This is not just about wages. This is about an employer that believes profit must come before the livelihoods of the workers who sustain and create that very profit. This is about ending an era in which capital gets richer while labour grows poorer and is then blamed for its own exploitation.

NUMSA rejects this super exploitation. We also reject any attempt by an employer that seeks to force us into negotiating with a gun to our heads. We reject an employer that would rather lock workers out than pay them a living wage.

We call on the community, customers and all progressive forces to support NUMSA members at NJR Steel at Potchefstroom.

This strike will continue until management returns to the table with a reasonable offer that addresses all demands in full. Workers are not asking for charity. They are demanding their fair share of the wealth they produce.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

Issued by Kabelo Ramokhathali

NUMSA Sedibeng Regional Secretary
KabeloR@numsa.org.za
083 461 5918

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA Members at NJR Steel Potchefstroom Embark on Indefinite Protected Strike Over Wage Exploitation and Employer Greed

NUMSA Press Statement

6 July 2026

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision by First Battery to proceed with the retrenchment of 165 workers. These job losses could have been avoided. They are the direct consequence of poor decisions by a management team that completely lacks the vision required on how to position its business strategy within the Automotive industry. This is the very same management that has failed to position First Battery to meet the specifications of the Automotive industry, leaving the company unable to supply batteries that meet necessary competitive standards.

As a result, under the watch of its management, First Battery has lost its market share and no longer supplies companies such as BMW SA, MBSA, Ford SA, Toyota SA. Not only has this management failed to take the necessary measures to continue to supply the Automotive Industry but instead it has adopted strategies that are contrary to Masterplan Vision 2035, which encourages all companies to drive localisation with a target of reaching 60% localisation by 2035. Instead of driving localisation this company decided to dump imported batteries in South Africa and supply imported batteries to BMW which are manufactured in Germany. NUMSA rejects this.

We call on BMW SA and our members in BMW to call on BMW to review its decision to use imported batteries that are dumped into SA instead of making sure the batteries are manufactured locally.

NUMSA is clear that the 165 workers earmarked for retrenchment are the innocent victims of wrong decisions made by an arrogant management team that relies entirely on unilateral actions and management prerogative For a sustained period of more than five years, First Battery has continually retrenched workers—the very people who did not create this crisis, yet are being forced to pay for a company that is consistently losing its market share due to a visionless leadership.

During the Section 189 consultation process, NUMSA put forward reasonable alternatives. As required by the Labour Relations Act (LRA), an employer must disclose relevant information to enable the Union to advance informed alternatives. Instead, senior management rejected NUMSA’s alternatives without even considering them. This is a clear sign that the company had already taken a cold corporate decision to dismiss these workers, rendering the entire consultation process nothing but a sham.

Consequently, after First Battery management issued termination letters, NUMSA was left with no choice but to issue a 48-hour notice for a legally protected, indefinite strike, which will commence on Monday, 6 July 2026.

This strike has been taken by NUMSA as a last resort because of First Battery management and the Metair group senior leadership which completely refused reasonable alternatives. For instance, NUMSA demanded and placed for consideration to the company the following alternatives to avoid forced retrenchments:

1. To deal with the dumping of batteries that are eroding the market share of First Battery, we demanded that both NUMSA and the company must have a discussion with both the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to discuss counter measures at an industrial policy level such as increasing tariffs to protect the local market.

2. We were very clear to First Battery, that when we deal with cost cutting measures for a turnaround of a company there should be no holy cows. All costs incurred by the company must be disclosed. For instance, we demanded to know their total cost for electricity per annum for the past 3-5 years.

3. We told them that we can see management is clearly targeting labour costs by retrenching ordinary workers, yet they have failed to clarify what they are doing about skyrocketing scrap costs that are severely bleeding the company’s balance sheet. High scrap costs are a clear indicator that a factory is in the hands of deadwood management that lacks the capacity to run efficient production processes. As usual, ordinary workers are made the sacrificial lambs so that a greedy, untransformed layer of management can maintain their gravy-train salary packages and unjustified bonuses.

The exorbitant factory scrap costs that should have been addressed before even thinking about retrenchments are detailed below:

• The company’s scrap is mainly caused by poor process management, old machinery (+20 years) and poor maintenance.
• Total Factory scrap 2026 YTD = R49 million (Jan – June 2026).
• Total Factory scrap 2025 = R104 million (Jan – Dec 2025).
• Total Factory scrap 2024 = R92 million (Jan – Dec 2024).

The fundamental question that First Battery could not answer is this: What is the total wage cost of these 165 workers, who are paid starvation wages, compared to the lifeless cost of scrap? Stopping this internal wastage was entirely within management’s purview, and the savings could easily have secured these jobs. This is one of the concrete alternatives we put to them which was rejected.

4. We demanded concrete information through a legal application process. In the presence of a CCMA commissioner, the company initially agreed that NUMSA could file this application for disclosure. However, once they received our application, management started all sorts of technicalities despite having agreed that the application must be filed, citing that the 60-day period was over, and the information we were demanding was irrelevant.

This is a clear stance of a company that is not prepared to give information to the union so that we can be able to advance meaningful alternatives from an informed position. NUMSA responded to their sham response as follows:

“NUMSA further records that the mere expiry of the 60-day period referred to in section 189A(7) of the Labour Relations Act does not relieve the Company of its continuing obligation to engage in a meaningful joint consensus-seeking process, particularly where material information remains outstanding and where NUMSA has formally invoked the disclosure mechanism contemplated in the Facilitation Regulations.”

5. The Company refused to disclose strategic decisions. Below is what we demanded and what the company refused to disclose:

• The decision to import batteries instead of manufacturing locally for BMW: The rationale, objective criteria, cost comparisons, and why the company refused to invest in the capital infrastructure required to meet BMW’s specifications locally. We demand a full cost breakdown of the financial benefits the company claims to derive from these imports.
• The abandonment of other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs): Whether the company supplied manufactured batteries to MBSA, Ford SA, VW SA, Isuzu, or Toyota SA in the last five years; whether they are currently supplying them with imports or locally manufactured batteries; and the financial considerations underlying the decision to shift away from local production – this must include a full breakdown of cost comparisons and financial considerations.
• The shift to aftermarket only: The projected income for the next five years focusing strictly on the aftermarket versus a scenario where local OEM manufacturing was maintained.
• Cost Drivers: Full financial details on profitability factors, including water and electricity costs over the last five years so as to enable a proper comparison, management interventions to reduce these costs and what was the success rate in doing so, current senior management and executive remuneration (salaries and bonuses) compared to the total wage bill, savings from unfilled executive positions in not filling vacant senior management positions, operational costs for the Benoni and East London manufacturing plants (as well as the Cape Town and Durban branches), and the total projected cost of the currently contemplated retrenchments.

6. NUMSA as a Union is well-informed that even if the company had agreed to engage jointly with NUMSA in pursuing countermeasures to protect the market of First Battery and other companies whose market share is being eroded by the dumping of batteries that add absolutely no value in the local market, these measures sometimes take time.

As such, it is always important to find ways and means to alleviate pressure from a distressed company like First National Battery, as they claim to be. We put forward an alternative to alleviate their plight, noting that NUMSA has always worked with the DOL. Given their situation of reducing costs, we proposed that we could jointly apply through the CCMA and the UIF for a training lay-off scheme which would pay the salaries of workers while we look at other alternatives that the union and company can negotiate on, especially if the company is prepared to disclose information.

As if it is not funny, this company rejected all the alternatives we have advanced. Their passion represents a backward attitude which reminds us of the old apartheid order, where Black people were not regarded as people who can think. That is why we have no reason to think otherwise; we can only conclude that the only reason NUMSA’s alternatives and our well-thought-through process to work with the company to save jobs was rejected is because NUMSA is a Black majority union and the workers who are being retrenched are Black and African workers.

7. We wrote to Metair Group CEO Paul O’Flaherty calling for his intervention to ensure that he organised a meeting that can find a solution to the current impasse and dispute. He didn’t object to meet with us. However, he was only prepared to meet with NUMSA after workers had been retrenched.

We reject this stance from the CEO of such a big strategic group in the economy of South Africa. NUMSA demands, and it is our position, that it is in the best interests of all parties that Paul must wake up and smell the coffee. He must be prepared to meet with NUMSA.

That includes that as a leader of the group it cannot be that they are only prepared to give workers starvation wages and a severance package of R10 000. That baseline was only grudgingly offered after NUMSA leadership personally flew to East London to salvage the consultation process. The cost of NUMSA staff who participated in this process since it started, far exceeds R100 000 with officials flying between Johannesburg and East London. Some had to land in Port Elizabeth because there were no flights and hire a car.

8. Yet a company whose cash flow has consistently improved refuses to give workers, who will never have a job again, a decent Voluntary Severance Package (VSP) lump sum of R200,000. Settling at these higher thresholds is standard practice across various stable companies we negotiate with. Yet they have guts to tell us that these workers deserve R10 000!

Our analysis of their financial cash and availability in the past couple of years can be defined as follows: We made this submission on numbers, calling on them to make a VSP lump sum amount of R200 000 so that there is no need for them to go for forced retrenchments. Instead, they must put together a decent package which must be offered to workers based on the VSP.

We rejected the lie that the company is bankrupt as the figures do not correspond with the lies. It is a matter of fact that this company is financially stable. Their argument that they want to retrench because they are not financially stable is not confirmed by numbers. Below is their financial cash flow year after year which is ranging between:

• The cash generated from operations increased by more that R100 million between 2024 and 2025. In essence this is a 67% increase.
• So, net cash flow from operating activities increased by more than R90 million from 2024 and 2025 which is in essence an 82% increase.
• Cash and Cash equivalent increased by more than R100 million between 2024 and 2025, which is a huge improvement compared to the negative of R40 million in 2024.

The key take away from this deep NUMSA assessment is that there is absolutely no reason why workers should be thrown into the streets to join the sea of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

The least First Battery could have done is to agree with the Union and make an offer of a decent package targeting workers closer to retirement in some companies. Usually, we would offer such packages to workers aged 55 and above. If we are not making the required number, parties by agreement can offer the same package to workers below offering them a VSP.

Such a package should have been negotiated and agreed with the Union if they were not driven by a backward, primitive attitude that is anti-worker and union bashing.

Instead of First Battery senior management seriously engaging on any of these proposals, management has chosen to rush ahead with retrenchments. On Friday, 26 June 2026, the company informed NUMSA that it intends proceeding with the retrenchment of 165 employees from 1 July 2026.

Indeed, workers have now been issued with retrenchment letters. NUMSA demands that First Battery immediately withdraw these notices. This decision is both unacceptable and unnecessary, and management must return to the negotiating table instead of showing the Union the middle finger.

The evidence presented during the consultation process demonstrates that management has consciously allowed the company’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) business to decline. Rather than supplying locally manufactured batteries to vehicle manufacturers, First Battery increasingly imports batteries to service major automotive customers, such as BMW and the rest of the 7 OEMS.

This means that products which South African workers have the skills, experience and capacity to manufacture are instead imported into the country. This is exactly how de-industrialisation has taken place in this country for the past three decades to date. As a Union we condemn any company in South Africa that takes a path that champions further de-industrialisation of our economy.

As a Union we have consistently demanded the economic cluster of government led by DTIC under honorable Minister Tau, that is about time that government must be decisive. Companies like Goodyear, which closed its manufacturing plant last year while maintaining its lucrative local distribution network, alongside companies like ZF LIFETEC, must be banned from importing products that South African factories and workers have the skills, experience, and capacity to manufacture locally, retain jobs and supply the auto industry and the rest of other sector.

In our submission we even told the Minister the section of the act that can be used to justify the formation of such a position into law. We do not understand what is difficult about that when Trump makes the law to protect American manufacturing though his X handle on social media. Why can our government not to the same.

First Battery workers in Benoni, Cape Town, Durban and the majority in East London are effectively being retrenched to make way for imported products at the back of management’s failure to maintain the OEM business.

NUMSA demands that Metair CEO Paul O’Flaherty immediately fire the deadwood management in East London that has done nothing to grow this business.

Every single South African must understand that every imported battery represents production stolen from a South African factory—production that could have supported local jobs, put food on the table for local families, developed our industrial capabilities, and driven economic growth.

Instead, production and jobs are being shifted offshore, only for the finished products to be dumped back into our market, adding zero value to our economy while leaving our people unemployed.

Faced with this reality, the government, led by the DTIC, must accept responsibility for the rampant de-industrialisation facing our economy. Government must move swiftly to develop aggressive countermeasures to protect the local economy through tariffs, maximising our options within WTO rules. This includes imposing strict standards and homologation measures on imports.

Government must realize that there is no substitute for a rigorous, vibrant industrial policy centered on the state-directed ownership, control, and beneficiation of our country’s vast mineral endowments. We must use our mineral resources to champion local manufacturing, protect existing industrial capacity, create new jobs that pay a living wage, and build entirely new industrial sectors.

South Africa cannot continue speaking about industrialisation and localisation while allowing companies to replace locally manufactured products with imports. Every imported product that displaces local production weakens domestic manufacturing, destroys decent jobs and undermines government’s own industrial policy objectives.

The jobs we lose through retrenchments and plant closures are not a joke! Those jobs will never come back in whatever shape or form! We have seen this tragedy play out globally; it happened in Detroit and Chicago, where thriving industrial zones that once employed 40,000 workers were hollowed out, leaving nothing behind but museum pieces to show schoolchildren what manufacturing used to look like.

In the political chemistry we can conclude that it is what led to the rise of right wing political populism which delivered the right wing Donald Trump of today who is a champion of not well thought through imposition of tariffs to protect what he feels constitute a break between the present and the past, representing nothing of the interests of the working class.

NUMSA is not confused. If Paul the Metair CEO fails to intervene, work with NUMSA to resolve the current strike, and accept that their vision and business strategy must be influenced by the Union, this retrenchment of 165 workers will be a drop in the ocean.

Very soon, First Battery will close because the current adopted strategy amounts to committing class suicide in manufacturing. You cannot take clueless idiots, stubborn marketeers who have no clue of the position of a company that must drive manufacturing to drive critical sectors of the economy.

South Africa cannot build an inclusive economy by importing products that our own workers are fully capable of manufacturing. Every factory that closes, every production line that is replaced by imports and every skilled worker who loses a job weakens our country’s industrial future.

It is against this background that the Union demands First Battery immediately withdraw all hasty, opportunistic, and unprincipled retrenchment notices. This is not a company suffering from a shortage of money; these workers are the victims of a greedy, vicious capitalist system represented by managers who care only about maximising shareholder returns and securing their own executive bonuses.

NUMSA leadership remains ready to sit down with the Metair CEO Paul O’Flaherty and his leading detachment management. While we have absolutely no confidence in the local management team because of how it has conducted itself, we are the last ones to dictate solutions to challenges of this nature.

We remain very firm that we decided to embark on a strike as a last resort. We want to advise Paul and all his managers to withdraw all unnecessary veiled threats such as that they will dismiss workers because there are no signed picketing rules.

Such an attitude stinks and we absolutely reject it with the contempt it deserves. As such we have instructed NUMSA officials to approach CCMA and it must facilitate negotiations of picketing rules which parties can agree to in line with the accepted rules on what constitutes a strike.

The fact that the company is anticipating misconduct before our members have even set foot on a picket line shows they are looking for an excuse to manufacture a crisis. It is a tactic completely identical to the old, racist, paranoid Rooi Gevaar tactics of the past, and it will fail.

Issued by:

Irvin Jim
NUMSA General Secretary
073 157 6384

For more information, please contact:

Mbali Ngwenda
NUMSA Media & Communications
mbalin@numsa.org.za
078 458 0617

For more information:

NUMSA Head Office: 011 689 1700

NUMSA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NumsaSocial

NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media

NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/

PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA condemns First Battery’s arrogant decision to retrench 165 workers and declares formally protected strike action from Monday, 6 July 2026

We checked 12 fast food chains for ultra-processed ingredients. Only one had none Anthony Lacey August 20, 2026

Fast food chains – think popular places like KFC, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut – can be quick and easy places to grab a meal. And many of us do.

U.S. families get almost a third of their calories from somewhere other than home.

But if you’re looking to eat less ultra-processed food, or UPF, eating out can be a challenge. 

Diets high in UPF have been linked to many poor health outcomes, including Type 2 diabetes, depression, heart disease and even early death. 

Unlike companies that sell packaged food, restaurants aren't required to post ingredient lists. And the food industry has pressured the government to delay a much-needed definition of UPF, which could support policies that help people make healthier choices.

EWG took a closer look at the menus from 12 of the top fast food spots in the U.S. to help families on the go find less-processed options:

• Arby’s
• Burger King
• Chick-fil-A
• Chipotle
• Dominos
• KFC
• McDonald’s
• Panera
• Pizza Hut
• Subway
• Taco Bell
• Wendy’s

There was one surprising standout: Chipotle’s food menu contains no ultra-processed ingredients.

Some of the other places offer a few non-UPF options, if you know how to look for them.

53 ingredients, none ultra-processed

Because fast food chains aren’t required to make ingredient lists public, our review was limited to the most recent information available online. It isn’t a comprehensive look at all fast food – but it does suggest that some chains, like Chipotle, are better than others when it comes to ultra-processed food.

Every menu item at Chipotle is made from some combination of 53 total ingredients. That includes the flour used to make tortillas, vegetables for guacamole and salsa, and seasonings to prepare beans, rice, meat and poultry. It also includes the rennet and cultures used to make cheese. 

That doesn’t mean you should make every meal a burrito bowl. Depending on which ingredients you choose, nutrients like sodium and saturated fat can quickly climb above the average adult’s recommended daily limit. 

But if you keep those caveats in mind, you can get a good amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals from whole food sources.

Other less-processed options

At most other fast food restaurants, it’s harder to find a meal that isn’t ultra-processed.

That’s because industrial ingredients are a cheap way to mass produce flavorful foods with long shelf lives. They also help create consistency – the reason a Big Mac in Los Angeles tastes the same as a Big Mac in Kansas City.

But some options are better than others:

Soups, salads and grain bowls that aren’t built on highly processed breads

Most burger buns, pizza crusts and sandwich breads at fast food chains are made with highly processed, enriched flour with low nutritional value. They may also contain potentially harmful chemicals like azodicarbonamide, or ADA, potassium bromate and TBHQ.

Chicken, fish and tofu that hasn’t been breaded – or beans

Sandwich meat and pizza toppings like pepperoni or sausage are ultra-processed and have been strongly linked to higher cancer risk. Most breaded or fried chicken and fish fillets at fast food restaurants are ultra-processed because of the way they’re prepared.

Basic dressings and seasonings like olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper

Dressings, dips and sauces are common sources of artificial colors, flavors, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners and other additives. Chick-fil-A’s fat-free honey mustard dressing alone has more than 20 different ingredients. You can also try just using less.

Some sides and breakfast items

Many restaurants also offer minimally processed sides like applesauce, fruit, corn on the cob and house or side salads (not including dressing).

Panera’s breakfast menu offers Greek yogurt with berries and steel-cut oats with strawberries and pecans, made mostly of minimally processed foods, though each has added sugar.

Drinks like water, black coffee, and unsweetened iced teas

Most sodas and other sweet drinks – including specialty coffee drinks – are either high in added sugar or contain artificial sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose. Taco Bell’s dirty sodas can have more than 100 grams of added sugar, which is double the recommended daily limit.

When it comes to food, being basic is a good thing. When in doubt, look for foods you recognize and flavors you could probably create in your own kitchen.

For some help eating healthier

It’s not practical for people to avoid every ultra-processed food. There’s a reason our food supply is full of them: They’re widely available, affordable, appealing for consumers and extremely profitable for companies. 

The Food and Drug Administration isn’t helping – at least not yet. It has repeatedly failed to regulate ultra-processed foods and has delayed an official definition of UPF. Instead, in August it sent a white paper on defining UPF for White House pre-publication review, several steps removed from a formal definition that could support policies like front-of-package labeling and school nutrition standards.

But you can start simple by making a few healthier swaps. Check if your favorite restaurants post ingredient lists and nutrition facts. Look for more whole foods and avoid longer lists of ingredients you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen.

When it comes to grocery shopping, you can check EWG's Food Scores, which rates more than 150,000 products on nutrition, ingredients and processing, and flags UPF for you. Shoppers on the go can also use EWG’s Healthy Living app.

Finally, follow Fed UP! – a new coalition of scientists, researchers and public health advocates dedicated to exposing the harms of UPF.

Areas of Focus Food Ultra-Processed Foods Authors Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN Guest Authors Adam Levin (EWG communications intern) August 20, 2026

• The Trump administration is repealing a ban on roads in millions of acres of public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Allowing greater access by motor vehicles could disrupt numerous environmentally sensitive habitats. (Field and Stream)
• Traffic engineers could take advantage of aviation technology to detect and deter conflicts at intersections. (ITS International)
• The CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority blames increasing regulation for slow progress on the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line, 20 years in the works. (Fresno Bee)
• As the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority electrifies its trains, should it go with tried-and-true overhead wires or cutting-edge battery technology? (Commonwealth Beacon)
• A spike in serious crime on Charlotte Area Rapid Transit last year coincided with a drop in ridership (WCNC). Meanwhile, North Carolina’s state auditor is calling for gates or turnstiles at every light rail station to improve security and fare collection (Queen City News).
• Atlanta transit riders want the same impeccable service MARTA offered during the World Cup to continue on. (Appen Media)
• Amtrak’s Mardi Gras line along the Gulf Coast has served 150,000 passengers in its first year, twice the initial projection. (Transportation for America)
• Seattle shattered a record for bike and scooter trips across the Fremont Bridge in July, a sign that the pandemic dip is over. (Seattle Bike Blog)
• Stephanie Nahkleh argues that a car-centric zoning code, not greedy developers, is to blame for Santa Fe’s ugly sprawl. (We Can Have Nice Things)
• Smart Growth America highlights a quick-build road diet in Winchester, Kentucky.
• Lloyd Alter says he expected a Canadian appeals court to overturn a ruling calling Doug Ford’s anti-bike lane policy unconstitutional, but he didn’t expect the judge to sound like such a car-brained jerk. (Carbon Upfront!)
• A Dutch town built a chain-driven ferry for cyclists and pedestrians to pull themselves across a river. (Core 77)
• In Tokyo, visitors can ride on one of the few streetcars that survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima. (Japan Today)

EWG: California’s extreme heat, soaring utility bills make cooling unaffordable for millions Anthony Lacey August 19, 2026

SACRAMENTO – California is experiencing more frequent and dangerous heat days, but sky-high utility bills mean millions of people can’t afford to run air conditioning that could keep them safe, a new Environmental Working Group report finds. 

EWG is calling on policy makers to prioritize solutions like customer-sited solar electric devices that can drastically lower or eliminate annual utility costs for air conditioning. 

Heat advisory days defined as “extreme” or “major” – those threatening the health of anyone without cooling or hydration – jumped an average of 55% statewide over the last two decades, the report shows. Increases in the number of these days ranged from 30% to 145% depending on the region.

At the same time, California families are spending $4 billion a year on home air conditioning, adding$95 to $800 to annual utility bills. Almost 7 million ratepayers are already in some form of utility debt and paying some of the highest electricity bills in the U.S.

The result is an impossible choice for many households: Either risk the harmful effects of exposure to extreme heat or get needed cooling relief and fall further behind on utility bills.

“California is getting hotter and many families throughout the state can’t afford to stay safe from the heat because electricity is so expensive,” said Josh Wink, EWG fellow and report co-author. “Californians shouldn’t have to pick between making ends meet or suffering the health threats of extreme heat, but that’s the situation millions are now in.”

Heat risk is rising fast

EWG found California counties averaged 191 days, or 52.3%, of the year that the National Weather Service defines as experiencing major or extreme heat risk. 

These days put people at risk of heat stroke, severe dehydration, mental health challenges, and other forms of heat injury. Even “minor” hot days can threaten the safety of heat-sensitive people, although the major and extreme days are of the biggest concern.

The increase in these days over the last 20 years includes:

• San Francisco: 145% increase
• Sacramento County: 111.4% increase
• Santa Clara County: 100% increase
• Riverside County: 58.1% increase
• Fresno: 54.6% increase
• San Diego County: 40.2% increase
• Los Angeles County: 30.8% increase

Rising heat isn’t just an inland problem. Traditionally mild coastal regions are also seeing steep jumps in major and extreme heat days, though the range varies significantly. For example, San Francisco saw 2 days on average compared to 42 days in San Bernardino County, with other areas falling somewhere between both ranges.

While coastal communities experience less frequent extreme heat, they are also the least equipped to cope with the soaring heat. Only 70% of these communities have home air conditioning compared to 92%in inland counties, according to U.S. Census data. In some areas, like San Francisco, it’s as low as 35%.

Renters also lack equal access to air conditioning. Statewide, 64% of two- to four-bedroom apartment units have air conditioning, EWG found, compared with 80% of single-family homes statewide. 

“The negative effects of climate change, such as extremes of heat, wildfire smoke, and air pollution are associated with early pregnancy loss, preterm births, preeclampsia, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and stillbirth,” said Dr. Hayley Miller, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco.

“Heat stress symptoms in pregnant patients do overlap with common pregnancy complications like nausea, muscle cramps, rashes, nosebleeds, dehydration, even contractions similar to preterm labor symptoms,” Miller added.

Access to a vital resource

“We often hear from our partners who do home visits for asthma about families having to choose between opening their windows to cool their homes but allowing the smoke in and impacting their child's asthma or keeping their windows closed so their child can breathe, but suffering from unsafe temperatures in the house,” said Brandon Kitagawa, Senior Policy Associate with Regional Asthma Management & Prevention, a project of the Public Health Institute. 

“To be clear, making homes resilient to extreme heat will be difficult. It will require significant investment in building retrofits and eliminating barriers to implementation, but the benefits for our communities’ health and wellbeing is worth it. 

“We will need every tool at our disposal to address this challenge, so we are happy to see the state considering steps to make the adoption of balcony solar easier in California, as it would reduce the cost of using air conditioning, particularly when it is most needed,” added Kitagawa.

According to U.S. Census data, 78.61% of California households statewide have access to air conditioning devices at home, but that prevalence varies widely by dwelling type and region. 

“No matter where someone lives in California, they are facing heat risks that would have been unimaginable two decades ago. Many are in homes not built for this kind of heat,” said Wink.

Even though home cooling is a vital resource, ever-increasing utility bills mean some residents opt against using air conditioning to prevent making the bills even worse. An estimated 7 million Californians are behind on their bills.

Clean, reliable solar power can help

Customer-sited solar electric generating devices – whether rooftop solar or smaller balcony solar systems – are a proven way to bring down or even fully cover cooling costs, EWG’s research shows. 

A typical residential rooftop solar system generates enough electricity to cover a home’s central air conditioning needs for a year. Even a balcony plug-in solar system can help, producing enough power to offset the electricity that a window air conditioning unit needs.

But red tape makes it hard for many Californians to access solar. That’s why EWG is supporting SB 868, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). If enacted, it would cut through those barriers and make it easier for renters and homeowners to get these systems. The bill cleared the Senate in May and is pending in the Assembly.

“Access to balcony solar is a no-brainer in terms of lowering people's costs, increasing generation of clean, renewable energy, and just giving people the ability to control at least part of their energy future,” said Wiener. “So it's really important and I'm really excited that we're almost at the finish line.”

EWG recommends that state policymakers prioritize expanding access to residential solar of all types and sizes in response to the extreme heat.

NOTE: EWG hosted a virtual press briefing on the new analysis featuring Josh Wink, Dr. Hayley Miller, Brandon Kitagawa and Sen. Scott Weiner. The recording of the event can be found here.

###

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. Visit www.ewg.org for more information.

Areas of Focus Energy Renewable Energy Family Health California Balcony and rooftop solar could cover home cooling costs, if policy makers prioritize access Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 August 19, 2026

The Indonesian Peasants’ Union (SPI) expresses its deepest condolences and solidarity following the earthquake that struck the East Nusa Tenggara/Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) region on Saturday (15/8/2026).

The post Indonesia : SPI Calls for Solidarity for Victims of the NTT Earthquake appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Today, news outlets reported that Donald Trump plans to nominate White House Domestic Policy Deputy Director Dr. Heidi Overton — an anti-abortion extremist who celebrated the Supreme Court overturning the right to abortion — to serve as his Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. The FDA plays a critical role in safeguarding the health of people across the country, including by making science-based decisions about medication abortion, birth control, and other essential reproductive healthcare.

Overton has an extensive anti-abortion record. She celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a “huge victory,” and has advocated for the politicization of government agencies to help advance a nationwide anti-abortion agenda. She previously worked at America First Policy Institute, an extreme conservative think tank made up of former Trump administration officials, where she authored a brief pushing disinformation about the safety of medication abortion and calling for additional, medically unnecessary restrictions on access to mifepristone.

Overton’s nomination comes as the FDA rushes to advance a politically motivated, sham “study” of mifepristone, and remains under close scrutiny from anti-abortion groups and leaders who relentlessly demand that the agency takes decisive action to restrict access to medication abortion care.

Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:

“Donald Trump is trying to put an anti-abortion extremist in charge of any agency that could seriously undermine reproductive healthcare—including the agency that could roll back access to mifepristone nationwide. Heidi Overton celebrated the fall of Roe, spread junk science about medication abortion, and openly called for remaking the FDA to serve a political agenda instead of the health of the country. Her nomination is another alarming step in Trump’s plan to weaponize every part of the federal government to restrict abortion nationwide.”

If confirmed, Overton would succeed Martin Makary, who resigned as FDA Commissioner in May. Initial reports of Makary’s departure from the FDA emerged just after a meeting between White House staff and anti-abortion groups, who expressed frustration the FDA has not sufficiently wielded its power to ban mifepristone outright. Anti-abortion groups then shifted their demands to acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, who called anti-abortion leaders within hours of being appointed and said that accelerating the review was his top priority.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With populations of grassland birds continuing to decline and the nation’s cattle herd at its smallest size in more than 70 years, legislation introduced last week in the...

WISCONSIN (August 19, 2026) — At a perilous time for America’s grasslands and the birds that depend on them, the National Audubon Society is proud to recognize seven Wisconsin farms and ranches...

More than a century ago, American families could flip through a Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, pick out a house, and have nearly everything they needed to build it delivered to them at an affordable price. Tens of thousands of Sears homes are still standing today – a testament to an era when a starter home could be both attainable and built to last. Today, as more Americans are priced out of the housing market, Groundwork Collaborative released a new proposal to revive the Sears home model for the 21st century.

The Modern Sears Home: Resurrecting the Affordable American Starter Home for a New Generation, authored by Groundwork’s Noah Ball-Burack, Emily DiVito, and Alex Jacquez, outlines a federal initiative to deliver, over eight years, 500,000 high-quality factory-built homes directly to American families across the country for under $215,000.

Today, the national median home price hovers above $400,000, and the starter home – what used to be the first rung on the ladder to economic security – is all but extinct. In some communities, starter homes can cost $1 million or more, putting homeownership further out of reach for many families.

The Modern Sears Home Program would deploy the federal government’s purchasing power, land access, and ability to finance and site homes at scale to bring the cost of new, high-quality homes within reach. Furthermore, by guaranteeing demand for hundreds of thousands of factory-built homes, the program would also give private manufacturing firms the certainty they need to expand production, lower production costs, and increase housing supply. By bringing affordable homes directly to communities where the private market has fallen short, the Modern Sears Home Program could expand homeownership in rural areas and open the door for families who have historically been shut out of the housing market.

The idea has vast public support. New polling shows that three in four voters support the Modern Sears Home Program and the proposal enjoys broad support across party lines, including 80% of Democrats, 72% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans. Additionally, 69% of voters, including majorities across party lines, say the program would make homeownership feel more attainable.

By some estimates, Sears sold more than 70,000 catalog kit homes during the 20th century, many of which are still standing today in states like Ohio, Illinois, New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Groundwork’s Senior Advisor for Economic Policy, Emily DiVito, shared the following:

“For too many families, homeownership has gone from a milestone to a mirage. Decades of under-building have left us with an affordable housing shortage that’s pricing people out of their communities. Policymakers must pursue creative, tangible, and lasting solutions that bring homeownership back into reach. The Modern Sears Home program does just that.”

Lindsay Owens, President and CEO of Groundwork, reacted:

“I grew up in a Sears Home, and I know the comfort and stability these houses offer the families who live in them. That’s something far too many families can’t count on anymore, as Wall Street and corporate landlords squeeze every last penny out of homeowners and renters alike. Reviving the promise of a Sears home is a chance to make quality and affordable housing the rule, rather than the exception.”

In the paper, the authors write:

“Sears offered these homes for profit. The federal government – with greater resources, lower borrowing costs, and unmatched power to scale – can do it better...[with] the kind of public ambition that once sent 30,000-piece home kits rattling on rail cars across the country to families who otherwise thought homeownership a distant aspiration...The Modern Sears Home program is that ambition made actionable.”

The North American plains bison stands as a symbol of both rampant devastation wrought by colonizing powers and of the potential to bring a species back from the brink of extinction.

The legacy of that destruction, and the promise and perils of the recovery, are indelibly etched in the DNA of the survivors and their ancestors, according to research just published in Science.

“Ancient DNA is rewriting the story of one of America’s most iconic conservation successes,” said Beth Shapiro, a University of California Santa Cruz researcher and the paper’s senior author. The new results show “both what the 19th-century collapse actually did to bison genomes and what a smarter, genomically informed path forward could look like.”

For millennia, an ocean of bison numbering in the millions swept across the center of North America, shaping ecosystems and the Indigenous peoples who lived there. But by the early 20th century, there were just a few hundred left, their numbers depleted by overhunting, habitat loss and systematic slaughter sanctioned by the U.S government to help subjugate bison-dependent tribes.

Since then, conservation work by some of these same tribes, and others, has led to a modest recovery. Today, more than 20,000 bison live in the wild, largely in protected land such as Yellowstone National Park. More than 400,000 are raised for commercial uses such as meat.

But the recovery has been dogged by questions. Since current bison are descended from such a small population, have they lost genetic diversity or become inbred? Did a quixotic attempt to breed bison with domesticated cattle irreversibly tamper with their genetics? Similarly, did a decision to move thousands of plains bison into the territory of wood bison break down the genetic wall between the closely-related species?

To answer these questions, Shapiro and colleagues turned to the latest scientific tools for deciphering a species’ history in its DNA. They collected samples from 115 ancient bison, dating back as much as 20,000 years and as recently as 100 years ago, when the last survivors of the slaughter remained. They also gathered tissue from 45 modern-day bison.

When they sequenced the genomes, the results offered both good news and cautionary lessons about the current state of bison conservation.

 

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Among the ancient samples, the genetics of plains bison were remarkably similar regardless of their location. That suggests a genetic flow across the landscape relatively uninhibited by geography. By contrast, today’s wild plains bison are confined to small pockets of land. There are at least four groups with distinct, shared genetic fingerprint that differs from the other groups.

The findings point to the need for managing the remaining bison more as a single herd, the authors write. Given the geographic barriers, that could mean using modern reproductive techniques to help blend the DNA of these different herds, much as modern cattle are carefully bred using tools such as artificial insemination.

While this points to the potential risks of continuing with traditional management methods, the findings also show reasons to be hopeful. Although the modern herds are distinct from each other, collectively they contain levels of genetic diversity similar to their ancestors.

Fears of contamination from cattle also appear to be overblown. The analysis turned up traces of livestock DNA in roughly a third of the modern-day bison genomes. That means the majority of bison hadn’t been tainted. And in those that did contain evidence of cattle, it represented less than 2% of their genomes.

The news is slightly more complicated for wood bison, the larger relative of the plains bison that lives in Canada’s boreal forest. In the 1920s, the Canadian government moved around 7,000 plains bison into Wood Buffalo National Park, which at the time was home to the last surviving 1,500 wood bison.

The legacy of that transplant remains today. The study showed that wood bison are genetically distinct – having diverged from plain bison approximately 3,000 years ago. But it also revealed that today’s wood bison carry significant plains bison DNA. The individual wood bison genomes were between 7% and 64% from plains bison.

Despite this, the results show “that wood and plains bison are substantially distinct and should continue to be managed separately,” said Parks Canada bison ecologist Greg Wilson, a coauthor of the study.

Now, thanks to DNA, bison managers have a clearer roadmap for moving forward, and the tools to know if they are veering further off course.

“Until now, managers didn’t have a genetic baseline for what ‘healthy’ bison diversity looked like before the 20th-century collapse and management,” said Shapiro. The new study “is a great example of using ancient DNA to facilitate management decisions in the present.”

Oppenheimer, et. al. “Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison.” Science. Aug. 6, 2026.

Photo: Getty Images for Unsplash

Several critical water bills that we are tracking at Restore the Delta were heard in the Legislature this week – here are some key updates. 

SB 872 Passes Through Committee

SB 872, a bill that would create a dedicated fund to address two major threats to California’s water supply, aging levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and sinking canals in the State Water Project (SWP), passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee with unanimous approval. 

We’re excited by the bill’s passage of this hurdle, as it nears final approval by the legislature. Thank you to Senator McNerney for advancing legislation that prioritizes safeguarding California’s water supplies, protecting critical infrastructure, and preparing the state’s water system for future challenges. SB 872 continues to an Assembly floor vote before it returns to its house of origin for reconciliation.

We encourage you to call your Assemblymember, urging their “aye” vote on SB 872.

Please find and call your representative to tell them:

You support advancing legislation that prioritizes safeguarding California’s water supplies, protecting critical infrastructure, and preparing the state’s water system for future challenges.

AB 2218 Passes Through Committee

AB 2218, a bill that seeks to address inequities in California water policy inflicted on California Native tribes, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee AB 2218 continues to a Senate floor vote before it returns to its house of origin for reconciliation.

As California faces growing climate-driven challenges, policymakers and communities increasingly recognize that equitable and sustainable water management must incorporate Tribal rights, traditional ecological knowledge, and Tribal governance. AB 2218 directs state agencies to strengthen consultation with Tribes during water rights investigations and develop policies that address water related harms resulting from state-sanctioned termination, removal, and assimilation of California Native American tribes.

We encourage you to call your Senator, urging their “aye” vote on AB 2218.

Please find and call your representative to tell them:

• Recognizing historical wrongs and considering solutions does not substitute concrete actionable plans to remedy historical inequities on California Tribes. 
• Healthy rivers, resilient fisheries, and thriving landscapes are inseparable from the cultural and subsistence practices that have guided stewardship for generations.

AB 2026 is Held in Appropriations 

In another positive development, AB 2026 was held in Senate Appropriations, effectively killing the bill for this legislative session. AB 2026 is not the narrow groundwater recharge measure its supporters describe. Instead, it creates broad new pathways to divert already-over allocated surface water, weakens public and environmental review, and shifts risk onto rivers, Delta communities, salmon, Tribes, and existing water users.

Restore the Delta supports responsible groundwater recharge, but AB 2026 is the wrong approach. We will continue to advocate for groundwater recharge policies that are guided by science and administered through the State Water Board’s established regulatory framework, not through broad statutory shortcuts that bypass water-rights, fish and wildlife protections, and the public interest.

CLICK TO FIND AND CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES 

The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday moved forward with its plan to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule, threatening the fate of 44.7 million acres of national forest. The proposal, published in the Federal Register today, would strip road-building bans from roadless areas in every state except Idaho and Colorado, which have their own separate rules, and would handle the 9.4-million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska through a related executive order.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins framed the repeal as a wildfire measure, but a group of wildland fire experts wrote to Rollins last year warning that wilderness areas have the lowest number of wildfire ignitions of any forest type. New roads tend to be associated with more human-caused fires, not fewer.

The public has already weighed in on this matter when USDA first floated this repeal last August. Out of 625,000 comments submitted during a preliminary comment period, 99 percent opposed it, according to a CWP analysis. Colorado College’s 2026 Conservation in the West poll found that two-thirds of voters across Western states oppose building new industrial roads in undeveloped public lands for mining, oil and gas development, or timber harvests.

Public comments on the new proposal are due by September 21.

Minnesota governor moves to shield the Boundary Waters from mining

Four months after Congress voted to lift a 20-year federal mining ban in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed an executive order Tuesday directing state agencies to halt new leases, permits, and environmental review for nonferrous mining in the Rainy River Headwaters Watershed, covering roughly 350 square miles. A poll conducted for Save the Boundary Waters last August found that 57 percent of Minnesota voters oppose sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed, compared with 23 percent in favor, and that 68 percent statewide want permanent legislative protection to be a top priority.

Quick hits Trump admin announces intent to move forward with Roadless Rule repeal

NOTUS | E&E News | The Hill | New York Times | Associated Press | Flathead Beacon | Oregon Capital Chronicle | The Guardian | More Than Just Parks | KNAU | Colorado Public Radio | Statesman Journal | GearJunkie | Center for Western Priorities [press release]

Walz executive order moves to block copper mining near the Boundary Waters

MPR News | E&E News | Wes Siler’s Newsletter

Opinion: When the bulldozers move before Tribal consent

Native News Online

Border wall expansion brings protests to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, other Arizona locations

KJZZ | 13News | KOLD [photos]

Proposed changes to rules that protect historic sites ignite pushback in Colorado

Colorado Sun

A watchdog says Yosemite is using Flock cameras. The National Park Service is pushing back

Outside | 404 Media

Native fish displaced in lower Dolores after drought, fire

Durango Herald

‘Extreme Motus’ all-terrain wheelchair now available to rent at Zion National Park

ABC4

Quote of the day

I just think that every American should be free to visit our national parks without their location being traced and tracked by the federal government. Wild places are at the core of American freedom and nobody should be afraid to visit them.”

—Anonymous NPS park ranger, 404 Media

Picture This
@coparkswildlife

Science at work ✅ Antero Reservoir – Our salvage

It’s no easy feat to corral, capture and then transport nearly 1,000 trout in a few hours –– especially when they’re mostly 18+ inches long and weigh several pounds. But, our aquatic biologists, hatchery, state park and local staff did just that earlier this summer.

During the last stages of draining the reservoir, it became crunch time to salvage as many fish as we could. First, we had to wait for the water level to be perfect –– low enough to safely work in the dam’s outlet channel, but high enough to still hold fish. Once the remaining fish were concentrated in the outlet channel, there was just enough room to work with block nets, holding pens and electrofishing equipment.

In the waist-high pool of water, our teams temporarily stunned the fish so they could be caught and consolidated into holding net pens. The fish were then taken to hatchery trucks waiting nearby, and driven to Eleven Mile State Park.

 



Featured photo: Trillum Lake, Oregon Mt. Hood National Forest. USFS<

The post Forest Service moves to repeal Roadless Rule despite 99 percent public opposition appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

You can’t win them all, but a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario is winning pedestrians and cyclists on both sides of the US-Canada border.

The bicycle and pedestrian path on the brand new Gordie Howe International Bridge opened on Aug. 5 — nine days after the bridge itself opened, and despite President Trump’s threatening to hold up its opening earlier this year amid deteriorating relations and trade disputes with the country’s northern neighbor.

“It is quite the game-changer,” remarked Chris Palmer, one of more than 3,400 visitors of the path on its opening day. “It is … a remarkable political phenomenon. It was a great experience.”

So great, in fact, that bridge officials temporarily closed the path to manage the massive inaugural crowd.

Drivers must pay to cross the 1.5-mile span, but access to the car-free portion is free and open to the public year-round. Visitors can explore scenic trails and protected bike infrastructure at both ends of the trip — neatly documented in an online map created by the Detroit Greenways Coalition, a Michigan-based bike advocacy organization.

The Gordie Howe Bridge has one of the only bikable crossings between the US and Canada.

The president, meanwhile, spent the better part of the year leveraging the Gordie Howe in US-Canada relations — and succeeded in delaying its opening by a month. The Canadian government, which funded the entirety of the project, disinvited US officials from the bridge’s opening.

All that drama failed to put a damper on the thrill of a new bike connection for Detroit-Windsor locals.

Recommended ‘Big Brother’ At U.S. DOT: Bike Lanes Aren’t Just ‘DEI,’ They’re Also Unsafe Gersh Kuntzman July 17, 2026

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Todd Scott, the executive director of the Detroit Greenways Coalition.

Scott has advocated for the inclusion of bike and pedestrian access on the bridge since 2009, when the Gordie Howe Bridge — named for the Canadian-born star player for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team — was little more than a hypothetical. But when Canada first sought public input on the bridge’s design, the two most common responses were requests for biking and walking access.

“I have to imagine that [the bridge’s planners] are super glad with their decision,” said Scott.

The cable-stay bridge contains a twelve foot pedestrian and bike pathway, connecting the US and Canada.

Seventeen years later, both sides of the border have significantly upgraded their waterfronts to include bike routes, protected lanes and car-free trails.

On the Detroit side, the under-construction Joe Louis Greenway circles the city with nearly 30 miles of car-free routing. Pedestrians and bike riders can use the greenway to connect virtually anywhere in the city upon its completion in the early 2030s. Six new miles are expected to open by the end of this year. The route will connect directly to the Gordie Howe Bridge, extending its benefits across the border.

“‘This is one, I think, of the most important urban trail projects in the country,” said Scott.

The Gordie Howe Bridge has spurred infrastructure investments throughout Detroit.

The ride across the Gordie Howe rivals the extensive infrastructure upgrades on each of its ends.

“You’re riding over a piece of art,” Scott said. “It just looks stunningly beautiful.”

Americans aren’t the only ones celebrating the newly-opened link.

“It was absolutely thrilling,” said Lori Newton, the former executive director of Bike Windsor Essex, which spearheaded advocacy for the bike trail on the Canadian side. “It changes the whole view and the whole feeling of the neighborhoods that it goes through.”

Pedestrians and cyclists have advocated for nearly two decades for a path across the Detroit River.

The ride across was particularly impactful for Newton, who has spent several years advocating for the path alongside Scott and whose cyclist husband passed shortly before the bridge’s opening.

“He would be so excited that I was going up there for a ride with Todd,” she said.

Newton and Scott’s longtime partnership reflects one of the more extraordinary benefits of the newly-established car-free route. Windsor and Detroit have long celebrated a close relationship, but after the US tightened border security following the Sept.11 attacks, the two cities’ relationship weakened.

The new bridge represents a new day for the two cities. The inclusion of a car-free lane on the Gordie Howe promises immense economic benefits for the entire Great Lakes region — which won over otherwise bike-skeptical politicians and business leaders.

“There wasn’t a fight … it was building a business case,” Newton said.

Recommended Study: Bicycling Generates $365 Million in Economic Activity in Iowa Angie Schmitt January 26, 2012

And the largest benefits of the trail are those still yet-to-be seen.

Local advocates hope to see new tourism and local investment as a result of the bridge. Newton hopes bridge will bring a wider array of people onto bikes, particularly seniors searching for an accessible way to stay mobile.

“Cycling is more than 20 guys in Lycra on bikes zooming past,” she said.