Protests In Israel, Unions In 2024 Election, Candidates Housing Plans

0:02Israel is seeing the largest mass protests since the war in Gaza began after six more hostages were found to have been killed. Protesters blame the prime minister for failing to bring them home alive. Will the action force a ceasefire in hostage exchange deal? I'm Michelle Martin. That's Leila Fuddle. And this is Up First from NPR News. Labor unions are more active than ever this election cycle. Union members will be at the center of their communities, bringing their friends and family and their neighbors to the polls. Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning with President Biden in Pittsburgh today.

0:35Will union support be enough to win swing states like Pennsylvania? And both presidential candidates have put America's housing issues on their agenda, but they have very different and vague plans to fix them. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

0:56This message comes from NPR sponsor Walmart. Did you know that Walmart is one of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2025? It's no surprise. Walmart is investing$1 billion in training and development to help associates build lasting careers with or without a degree. In fact, 75 % of Walmart management started in hourly roles. With benefits like health care, paid parental leave, and tuition support, Walmart isn't just a place to work. It's a place to grow. Learn more at walmart.com slash spark. In Israel, a nationwide general strike is underway, crippling much of the country. And last night, protests broke out in several Israeli cities in one of the largest anti-war demonstrations to date.

1:45This is all part of a nationwide outpouring of grief and frustration after the bodies of six hostages were recovered from Gaza over the weekend.

1:59They demanded an end to the war and a deal to bring remaining hostages home. Official autopsies by Israel showed that all six had been shot in recent days. That according to a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Health. For more, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Good morning, Kat. Hey, Leila. So let's start with this general strike today. How is that playing out? Yeah, so a lot of things are closed. Many schools, government buildings, the airport even closed for a few hours this morning. And a lot of private businesses have closed in solidarity as well. It's pretty quiet in my neighborhood, for example.

2:32The nation's largest labor union here said that, quote, only a strike will shock and went on to call for a ceasefire deal immediately. This is the first time this has happened since the war began last October. But I should also say not all areas of Israel are abiding by the strike. You know, that's showing the deep divisions that are present in this country right now. I was looking at these incredible images of just people as far as you could see in these protests in Tel Aviv. You were there. What were you seeing and hearing? Yeah. So like you said, the streets in downtown Tel Aviv were packed with people stretching for blocks and blocks.

3:03They were shutting down intersections. People were climbing on top of bus stops. And, you know, they were waving Israeli flags, chanting to bring the remaining hostages home, holding signs calling for an end of the war and other signs calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a murderer and a criminal. Like you said, the autopsies showed that these six hostages were all killed just days ago. And many people think that if Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire deal earlier, they would still be alive. People are really, really angry. Here's Tel Aviv resident Ori Elman. He calls Netanyahu by his nickname, Bibi.

3:35Bibi needs to decide that he wants to sign the deal. Bibi is the prime minister. He holds the key for the deal. He can keep on putting more and more obstacles and demands. But that's not relevant. Every single person I talked to last night blamed the death of these hostages on Netanyahu, saying that they believed he was the one obstructing the ceasefire deal. So where do things stand with that deal that people are calling for? It's really hard to know exactly. There are negotiating teams still working through the technical parts of a possible deal. But even just yesterday, Netanyahu dug in, saying that he won't give up Israeli military control of a strip of land between Egypt and Gaza called the Philadelphia Corridor.

4:13He said that this is vital to his goal of eliminating Hamas and the militant group's access to the smuggling tunnels there. This has been one of the main sticking points in the deal, and Netanyahu is not budging. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the past few weeks, as the ceasefire deal has been in negotiations. So the war is still very much continuing there. Yeah, and it's about to enter its 12th month. Tens of thousands of people killed, mostly women and children, according to health officials there over that time. And what is the situation today?

4:44Well, over the weekend, Israel and Hamas agreed to a very limited pause in fighting in certain areas of Gaza as UN officials, UN health workers began a very ambitious and challenging vaccination campaign against polio. They were able to vaccinate more than 72 ,000 children yesterday, according to health officials there, which is good. But it's well below the 600 ,000 goal that they have for this three-day campaign. That's NPR's Kat Lounsdorff in Tel Aviv. Thanks, Kat. Thanks, Leila.

5:20When Democrats gathered in Chicago for their national convention, unions were front and center. We know that when unions succeed, all workers win. And protected the pensions of millions of union workers. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class. And today, Vice President Kamala Harris will mark Labor Day with President Biden in Pittsburgh, a city with a strong union history. And PR's Don Gagne joins us now to talk about the labor movement's active role in this election. Hey, Don. Hey there. So unions have been an important constituency for Democrats for a long time, but it feels like they're getting some extra attention this campaign season.

6:04Why is that? I mean, the stakes are just so high. This election, by all accounts, is shaping up to be very close. It'll come down to just a few states, and union members play a big role in battleground states, especially places like Pennsylvania and Michigan. The extra attention is also due to some new leadership within the movement. Take the United Auto Workers Union. Sean Fain, he's become a force nationally since taking over as president of that union last year. He led a national strike, a successful strike. Now he's got the standing to really take an aggressive approach to getting friends of labor elected.

6:42Just give a listen to Fane at the Democratic convention. Kamala Harris is one of us.

6:51She's a fighter for the working class. And Donald Trump is a scab. That is classic Sean Fain, in your face, using very, very strong language. Okay, that's why Democrats are courting these voters. What are union leaders themselves doing to organize? It's a lot more visible than it's been in past years, and I've covered this for a long time. They're always out there at labor, working phone banks, canvassing, all of that. But this year, it seems to be at another level. The AFL-CIO's president, Liz Shuler, stresses, though, that it is still really about that person-to-person contact at Union Halls, in the break room, wherever.

7:37Union members will be the ones who will be at the center of their communities, educating voters, bringing their friends and family and their neighbors and coworkers to the polls. that old-fashioned person-to-person getting people to the polls is what the labor movement's bread and butter is. And so we're going to continue to do that. It does, though, Layla, also this year include a growing presence on social media. Unions are all over, Facebook Live, TikTok, Twitter, X. So it's not replacing personal contact, but that's an important piece of it. Okay, but Republicans are still trying to go after these voters as well.

8:18What kind of pitch are they making and is it working? They're talking about the economy, job security, inflation, how they say climate change legislation will hurt auto companies, forcing them to transition to electric cars. All of that stuff is playing out. Trump, too, has been courting unions in the battlegrounds really since he first appeared on the scene, and he's had some success. He's not carrying the union vote, but he's managed to cut into the Democrats' traditional margin. And in a close, close race, that could be enough. It is not unusual to find Trump supporters who are also, say, wearing a UAW or a Teamsters t-shirt at one of his rallies.

9:02NPR's Don Gagne. Thank you, Don. My pleasure.

9:12The cost of living is a big issue for voters, and the cost of housing is a big part of that. And both presidential candidates have plans to address that high cost of housing, but there are few details and lots of questions. And Paris Jennifer Ludden is here to help us sort through them. Good morning. Hello. So let's start with Vice President Kamala Harris. She's put out an ad on her housing ideas, and has been talking about this. What's her plan? Well, the main part of the biggest part of it is to boost our supply of housing. And that really is the core problem. I mean, this country has a severe shortage of especially affordable housing that has pushed up prices.

9:50Harris says she would build 3 million new housing units in four years. Theoretically, not impossible, but certainly ambitious. The first reality check here is to pay for it. Congress would need to approve that. And even if it did, there's another big challenge to building lots of housing, it's restrictive zoning. Jung Choi with the Nonpartisan Urban Institute says those rules are controlled by states and cities, not the federal government. So unless they kind of cut down more restrictive land use and zoning regulations, then it would probably be more difficult to attain that free million goal.

10:27On top of that, Choi says you need enough workers and materials on hand to, you know, really ramp up construction that much that fast. Okay, so 3 million new apartments and homes, doable, but not easy. But what else is Harris proposing? Two ideas. They get mixed reviews from housing experts. She wants to give$25 ,000 to help first-time homebuyers. Now, Troy thinks helping more people own is good, but she says it's Econ 101. If you boost demand by giving people more money, when there's such limited housing supply, it could just drive up prices. Also, Harris wants to rein in tax breaks for big investors who buy up single-family homes and rent them out.

11:07They can price out people who want to buy. But Choi says those companies are a small slice of the market. All right, let's turn to former President Trump. Of course, he has a record from his first term in office or his only term in office so far. What do we know about his plans if he were to win another term? We don't have that many details in what Trump is thinking about housing, even though, of course, he started out as a real estate developer. But for years and again in this campaign, he has spoken out strongly against low-income housing. He says it brings down property values. He calls it an attack on the suburbs.

11:42Seamus Roller at the National Housing Law Project supports tenants' rights. He says when Trump was in office, he also was no fan of public housing programs. There were significant cuts to the federal housing programs proposed under Trump, but I would expect to see similar cuts proposed. It really depends on what Congress looks like as well. Beyond that, Trump says that deporting immigrants would free up more housing. Now, housing experts aren't sure how big a dent that would make, but they do say it could hurt new construction, which depends on immigrant labor. Trump also wants to build more housing on federal land, which the Biden-Harris administration has also supported.

12:20And he basically says he'd make it cheaper to buy a house because he'd bring down interest rates. But of course, Michelle, that power lies with the Federal Reserve and not the president. Complicated and a long-term project to be sure. That is NPR's Jennifer Ledden. Jennifer, thank you. Thank you.

12:39And that's Up First for Monday, September 2nd. I'm Laila Faldig. And I'm Michelle Martin. Your next listen is Consider This from NPR. We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. in just 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode of Up First was edited by Carrie Kahn, Megan Pratz, Catherine Laidlaw, Mohamed El-Badisi, and Jan Johnson. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Chris Thomas, and Lindsay Totti. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott.

13:16Join us again tomorrow.