Kickstart: 'Keep the companies guessing'

The UAW's decision to strike at a selected number of locations — a General Motors site in Missouri, a Stellantis assembly plant in Ohio and Ford's Wayne assembly plant in Michigan — may sound like a relief for those outside the auto industry who feared a complete shutdown.

People inside the industry, however, recognize that there is no such thing as a small strike in the complex auto world.

"Shutting down any one part reverberates through the smallest and largest manufacturers rather quickly," John Walsh, president and CEO of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, told our sister paper Crain's Detroit Business.

There's no guarantee those will be the only sites facing a strike. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members that it is taking a "new strategy." He called on select facilities to walk out but told other local chapters to stand by for future action.

"This strategy will keep the companies guessing," he said. "If we need to go all out, we will."

The world built by Lego bricks hasn't always been so colorful.

The Washington Post writes that, in fact, Lego A/S first began producing the plastic bricks in only five colors: red, yellow, blue, white and transparent.

"Very few colors, very simple color system," Signe Weise, a corporate historian at Lego, told the Post.

Today you can buy them in 200 colors.

Reporter Kati Perry worked with the website Rebrickable.com and its database to track the color shift. Their analysis pointed to the first big change in the late 1970s. The number of color choices have ebbed and flowed through the years, reflecting changes in society and the markets.

It's only been 20 years since diversity entered the Lego figurine equation. The characters were always made in yellow, which was considered "ethnically neutral," Perry writes. In 2003, Lego introduced a Lando Calrissian character to its Star Wars offerings, marking the first brown figurine. It was quickly followed by a range of other skin tones.

"It's important for us because using different colors, especially when we talk skin tones, is what enables us to represent more people," Weise told Perry. "More people, more children and more adults feel represented in our sets."

Supporters of fees for plastics products often note that the extra cost encourages consumers to recycle and reduce consumption.

What happens, though, when communities actually do cut their consumption?

In Sweden, national leaders have promised to eliminate the fee.

A 3-kroner (25-cent) tax on plastic bags in Sweden will be eliminated in late 2024, national leaders said, citing a big drop in retail plastic bag use since the tax began.

Our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes that Swedes used an average of 74 bags per person in 2019, prior to the tax. In 2022, that average dropped to 17. The European Union's target is 40 bags per person.

The move — led by the nation's conservative leaders — came with a caution from private and public environmental groups worried that Swedish habits could change without the tax, leading to an increased risk for plastics pollution.