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Entertainment

5 Issues to Do on Labor Day Weekend

In 1997, the courtyard at MoMA PS1 became the main venue for “Warm Up,” a summer event that mingled art, music and design in order to draw new audiences. But things change. “Warm Up” certainly hasn’t gone away, but last fall, the institution began “PS1 Courtyard: an experiment in creative ecologies,” a program testing out ways to use the outdoor space that encourage community engagement.

The initiative’s projects include a fountain from Niki de Saint Phalle, part of a larger exhibition at PS1 that closes on Monday, and Rashid Johnson’s “Stage.” Visitors are welcome to get up on his installation’s large yellow platform and freely use its five live microphones of varying heights. By showing a microphone as a dynamic social tool, Johnson’s piece, which will be on view through the fall, indicates the many things a stage can represent: a site of protest, music making, solidarity and, most important, amplification of your voice.
MELISSA SMITH

Film Series

The maximalist moviegoing event of Labor Day weekend is “Lawrence of Arabia,” screening on Saturday and Sunday on 70-millimeter film at the Museum of the Moving Image. But for a minimalist alternative, try Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons — four features, each set at a different time of year, that Rohmer, the most conversation-oriented French New Wave director, turned out from the late 1980s through the late 1990s. (Together, the running times total roughly two showings of “Lawrence of Arabia.”) With the changing of the seasons, Film Forum is showing all the titles separately from Friday through Sept. 9.

Watching them in tandem illustrates how Rohmer — superficially so consistent and serene — subtly toys with structure and variation, recombining types of characters in friendships and romances that rarely develop as expected. The most summery is, naturally, “A Summer’s Tale.” Melvil Poupaud plays a commitment-phobe vacationing in Brittany who somehow winds up juggling a surfeit of commitments to women.
BEN KENIGSBERG

Jazz

In 1971, seeking refuge from an exploitive, increasingly commercialized jazz industry, the trumpeter Charles Tolliver and the pianist Stanley Cowell founded Strata-East, a record label offering artists creative freedom and relative commercial control. Though short-lived, Strata-East inspired Black musicians in other cities to undertake similar efforts. And it captured a moment in time: Nearly every Strata-East album simmers with the heat and tension of the Black Power era, delivering terse, syncopated rhythms and pushing jazz linguistics into a more spare, confrontational zone.

Cowell died last year after a prolific career, but Tolliver, 79, continues to perform. At Birdland through Saturday, he is celebrating the label’s 50th anniversary with an ensemble of all-stars, including some who recorded on Strata-East in the 1970s: the tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, the pianist George Cables, the bassist Buster Williams and the drummer Lenny White. Sets are at 7 and 9:30 p.m. The late show on Saturday, which will also be livestreamed at dreamstage.live, will feature a guest appearance by the storied bassist Cecil McBee and will be hosted by the actor Danny Glover.
GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Even workaholics know they should take it easy this weekend, and fans of “Workaholics” will recognize the headliner at Carolines on Broadway through Saturday: Erik Griffin, who played Montez Walker on that Comedy Central sitcom. Griffin also portrayed a stand-up in “I’m Dying Up Here,” a dramedy about comedy in the 1970s on Showtime, where you can find two of Griffin’s comedy specials. At Carolines, he will perform one set at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and two sets at 7 and 9:30 on Saturday. Tickets start at $31.25.

On Sunday at 7 and 9:30, Carolines will welcome Rosebud Baker, who released her debut special, “Whiskey Fists,” in August on the Comedy Central Stand-Up YouTube channel. Tickets are $27.25 and up.

There will be a two-drink minimum at each show.
SEAN McCARTHY

KIDS

In New York, casual basketball games are about as common as strutting pigeons. But the contest scheduled on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Bronx should result in a lot of head-turning, not to mention wheel-turning.

That’s when the King Charles Unicycle Troupe will play — while riding its favorite vehicles — at the basketball court in Clinton Playground in Crotona Park. (Enter at Clinton Avenue and Crotona Park South.) A beloved local circus act, these guys can double-Dutch jump rope on one wheel, too.

Their show is a highlight of the 12th annual NYC Unicycle Festival, a free outdoor celebration presented by the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. The festivities also include long-distance group rides on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which proficient young unicyclists can join if they’re accompanied by an adult. (Details are on the festival’s website.) Experienced riders can participate in a post-performance pickup game with the King Charles players on Saturday, too, along with a free-throw basketball contest and a unicycle obstacle course.

Neophytes, however, can do more than watch. On Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., at Grant’s tomb in Morningside Heights, the festival’s conclusion will offer instruction and youth-size equipment for children who want to give unicycling a whirl.
LAUREL GRAEBER

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Business

U.S. Asks Mexico to Examine Labor Points at G.M. Facility

WASHINGTON – The Biden government on Wednesday asked Mexico to investigate whether there have been labor violations at a General Motors plant in the country. This is an important step in using a new labor enforcement tool in the revised North American trade agreement.

The Mexican government said later that day it would begin a review as requested.

The Biden administration moved to review the novel “rapid response” mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and came into force last summer. The mechanism allows penalties to be imposed on a specific factory for violating workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The government “received information indicative of serious labor rights violations” at the GM facility in Silao, central Guanajuato, in connection with a recent vote on its collective agreement, the United States sales representative’s office said.

The vote was canceled last month on allegations that the union at the facility had tampered with it, according to news reports. The Mexican Ministry of Labor said Tuesday that it had found “serious irregularities” in the vote and ordered the vote to take place again within 30 days.

The updated North American trade agreement called for Mexico to overhaul its labor system, and the country revised its labor laws in 2019. Bogus collective bargaining agreements, so-called protection agreements, that are made with employer-dominated unions and that have a shortage of workers are widespread Country. As part of a new legitimation process, the unions hold votes for workers to confirm existing agreements.

In a statement, Katherine Tai, the US trade representative, said the request for a review “shows the Biden Harris government’s serious commitment to workers and worker-centered trade policies.”

In business today

Updated

May 12, 2021, 4:56 p.m. ET

“Using USMCA to protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in Mexico is helping workers both at home and in Mexico by stopping a race to the bottom,” she said, using the initials for the trade deal. “It also supports Mexico’s efforts to implement recent labor law reforms.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday: “If there is abuse of workers in a company that exports to the US, if there are no fair wages, if there is no democracy, we need to intervene and a dialogue from government to government. “

GM said in a statement that it believed it had no role in the alleged labor violations and that it had asked a third party company to look into the matter. The company, which makes Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Cheyenne and GMC Sierra pickups at its Silao plant, said it will work with the Mexican Department of Labor and the US government.

“General Motors supports the USMCA’s labor regulations, including the rapid response process,” the statement said. “As a company, we respect and support the right of our employees to make a personal decision about union representation and collective bargaining on their behalf. GM condemns labor law violations and measures to restrict collective bargaining. “

By announcing its request for a Mexican review, the Biden government avoided finding a controversial tone with the Mexican government.

Ms. Tai commended the government for “stepping in to suspend the vote when it became aware of voting irregularities,” adding: “Today’s action will complement Mexico’s efforts to ensure these workers get theirs.” Unrestricted exercise of collective bargaining rights. “

On Monday, the AFL-CIO and other groups filed a Rapid Reaction Mechanism complaint alleging alleged labor violations at Tridonex auto parts plants in the Mexican city of Matamoros across the border with Brownsville, Texas.

The Biden administration will look into the complaint, said an official in the agent’s office. It could then ask Mexico to conduct a review of the matter similar to the one it is seeking for the GM facility.

Oscar Lopez contributed to coverage from Mexico City.

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Business

Mexican Factories Accused of Labor Abuses, Testing U.S.M.C.A.

WASHINGTON – The AFL-CIO and other groups on Monday filed a complaint with the Biden government over alleged labor law violations at a group of auto parts factories in Mexico. This will be an early test of the new North American trade agreement and its deals with OSH.

The complaint is focused on the Tridonex auto parts factories in the town of Matamoros, just across the border with Brownsville, Texas. The AFL-CIO said workers there had been harassed and fired for their efforts to organize with an independent union, SNITIS, instead of a company-controlled union. Susana Prieto Terrazas, a Mexican labor lawyer and SNITIS leader, was arrested and jailed last year in an episode that received a lot of attention.

The trade deal, the deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada, was negotiated by the Trump administration to replace the North American free trade agreement and went into effect last summer. While negotiated by a Republican government, the deal had significant input from Congressional Democrats, who controlled the House and insisted on stricter labor and environmental standards to vote for the pact, which required Congressional approval.

The trade pact called on Mexico to make profound changes to its work system, where bogus collective bargaining agreements, so-called protection agreements, concluded with no worker involvement and with low wages, were prevalent.

The complaint is placed under the trade agreement under a novel “rapid response” mechanism that enables complaints of labor violations to be filed against an individual factory and penalties to be imposed on that factory. The complaint was made by the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, SNITIS, and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

“USMCA is asking Mexico to end the protection union government and its corrupt dealings with employers,” said Richard L. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, in a statement using the acronym for the trade deal. “The ongoing harassment of Susana Prieto and SNITIS members is a textbook violation of the labor laws that Mexico is committed to complying with.”

The trade deal aims to improve working conditions and pay workers in Mexico, which proponents say would benefit American workers by discouraging factory owners from moving operations from the US to Mexico in search of cheaper labor. Enforcing the pact is one of the greatest trade challenges facing the Biden government.

Tridonex is a Philadelphia-based subsidiary of Cardone Industries and controlled by Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, the AFL-CIO said. In 2016, Cardone announced plans to move its brakes division to Mexico and lay off more than 1,300 workers in Philadelphia. This is evident from news and public records.

The complaint contains several allegations of labor violations, including that workers were unable to elect their union leaders or ratify their collective agreement, and that more than 600 workers were dismissed by their employer for retaliation. She also accuses Tamaulipas State of denying workers the right to vote for the union they represent.

“There couldn’t be a clearer case,” said Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents Cardone employees in Philadelphia.

In a statement, Cardone said it was “obliged to conduct labor practices, cultivate constructive relationships with workers and fully respect the universal principle of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining”.

In business today

Updated

May 10, 2021, 1:30 p.m. ET

“We are committed to fully complying with all applicable labor laws and regulations regarding our Tridonex facilities in Matamoros, Mexico,” the statement said. “Should an investigation be initiated to discuss this further, we would appreciate it and be fully transparent and responsive in handling all government information requests.”

The quick response mechanism in the trade agreement enables the United States to take action against a single factory in Mexico if workers there are denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. It was one of the provisions that the Democrats highlighted as an improvement on the final deal over the original version of the Trump administration’s trade deal.

If the United States decides there is enough evidence that workers’ rights are being denied, it would urge Mexico to conduct a review of the allegations. After this step, a panel could be set up to investigate the matter. As part of the quick response process, the factory could face fines and repeat offenders could even prevent their goods from entering the US.

Mexico approved a revision of its labor laws in 2019, but it will be rolled out gradually over several years, and implementation of the changes remains a major question mark.

A report released in December by an independent committee set up by the United States to monitor job changes said Mexico has made progress but significant obstacles remain. The report found that the protection contract system was still in place and that most unionized workers were still unable to democratically elect their leaders.

United Steelworkers’ director of international affairs and chairman of the board, Ben Davis, said the complaint filed Monday had “all elements of the structural problem we are facing over labor rights in Mexico.” The quick response mechanism is a way to hold companies accountable.

‘This is the first time we have had something like this in a trade agreement,’ he said, ‘and so we think it’s pretty important that it’s used, used effectively and hopefully something that we can apply. ” in other places. “

Democrats in Congress welcomed the complaint. “We expect and urge the Biden administration to use all available resources to take aggressive enforcement action in this case,” said Richard E. Neal from Massachusetts, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Earl Blumenauer from Oregon , Chairman of the panel’s trade subcommittee, said in a statement.

It remains to be seen how the Biden administration will react to the complaint. One administration official said the administration would “carefully examine” complaints about quick response mechanisms.

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai was previously the chief trade adviser to the powerful Ways and Means Committee. In this post, she played a key role in the negotiations between the House Democrats and the Trump administration over the revision of the trade deal.

Ms. Tai has said enforcement of the agreement is a priority and the first meeting of the commission overseeing the pact – made up of Ms. Tai and her colleagues from Canada and Mexico – is due to take place next week for the Mexican embassy in Washington, according to a spokeswoman .

At a Senate hearing last month, Ms. Tai said there were “a number of concerns about Mexico’s compliance with USMCA commitments,” without giving details.

“We have done our best to use the most effective enforcement tools we know,” she said at another point in the hearing. “And they might not be perfect, but we won’t know how effective they’ll be if we don’t use them.”

Categories
Business

China journey bookings soar throughout Could Labor Day vacation as Covid eases

Visitors stroll along the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China in Beijing, China on Tuesday May 4, 2021.

Yan Cong | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING – Millions of Chinese rushed to travel over the five-day Labor Day holiday, another sign of a gradual recovery in domestic consumption.

May 1-5 was the “hottest” holiday travel holiday since the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese travel booking site Trip.com said in a statement translated by CNBC on Wednesday. The reappearance of Covid-19 on the outskirts of Beijing earlier this year prompted local authorities to restrict travel during the Spring Festival in February.

Labor Day vacation bookings for hotels, rental cars, and other trips have more than tripled from the same period last year and are up more than 30% since 2019, Trip.com said without disclosing the dollar amounts. According to Trip.com, the Shanghai Disney Resort was one of the top 10 travel destinations, even for 21 year olds and youngsters.

Chinese consumers spent 1.67 billion yuan ($ 260 million) on movies during the holidays, mostly domestic movies, according to Maoyan ticketing website.

In total, 230 million trips were made within the country during this period, an increase of almost 18% from 2019, according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

However, the total spending of 113.23 billion yuan ($ 17.48 billion) was about 4 billion yuan lower than the 2019 spending, the data showed.

At that level, per capita spending during the holidays was around 75% of 2019’s spending, said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. “Overall, the economic trend continues to improve, but part of the service sector is not yet at the pre-Covid level.”

Individual consumer spending lagged behind the recovery in the Chinese economy as Covid-19 forced more than half of the country to temporarily shut down in early 2020. Retail sales declined last year despite overall GDP growth before rising in the first quarter of 2021.

International travelers turn to Hainan

The rush to travel domestically comes with quarantine requirements, and travel bans keep most Chinese people from venturing overseas.

Chinese international travel is down 87% over the past year and is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until the second quarter of 2023, consulting firm Oliver Wyman said in a report last week.

That means billions of dollars not spent overseas could potentially be spent at home or saved for future purchases, the report said. Chinese consumers spent $ 245 billion overseas in 2019.

The analysis found that nearly 60% of these travelers migrate to the southern tropical island province of Hainan, which has expanded its duty-free shopping centers in recent years.

For high-end luxury brands, Hainan will be much more appealing to them if they can open their own stores in the future rather than through a duty-free operator.

Imke Wouters

Partner at Oliver Wyman

According to state media, duty-free sales in Hainan from May 1st to May 4th were over 700 million yuan, citing the latest available figures from the local customs authority. For comparison, an eight-day vacation in October saw duty-free sales of 1.04 billion yuan in Hainan.

“May is the first (moment when) you can really see the true potential of Hainan without travel restrictions,” said Oliver Wyman partner Imke Wouters in a telephone interview on Thursday.

However, she pointed out that brands are currently required to partner with duty free centers in Hainan. As a result, profitability could be up to 50% less than in-house branches on the mainland.

“For high-end luxury brands, Hainan will be much more appealing to them if they can open their own stores in the future rather than through a duty-free operator,” said Wouters.

Categories
Politics

Biden Types Job Power to Discover Methods to Assist Labor

President Biden signed an executive order on Monday creating a White House Task Force to Promote Work Organization to harness the power of the federal government to reverse a decade-long decline in union membership.

The task force, led by Vice President Kamala Harris and populated by cabinet officials and senior White House advisers, will make recommendations on how the government can use the powers it has to help workers join and bargain collectively. New guidelines for achieving these goals are also recommended.

The administration noted that the National Labor Relations Act, the federal labor rights law of 1935, was specifically designed to encourage collective bargaining, but that the law had never been fully implemented in that regard. “No previous administration has taken a comprehensive approach to determining how the executive can advance the organization and collective bargaining of workers,” a White House statement said.

Unions have campaigned for the right to organize or PRO Act to be passed, prohibiting employers from holding compulsory anti-union meetings and fines for violating workers’ rights. (Workers can currently only receive so-called make-whole funds, such as back payments.) The House passed the measure in March and Mr Biden supports the legislation but faces great opportunities in the Senate.

The task force will focus, among other things, on helping the federal government encourage its own workers to join unions and bargain collectively, and find ways to make it easier for workers, especially women and people of color, to organize themselves in part and negotiate the country and in anti-union industries.

President Donald J. Trump signed a handful of executive orders designed to restrict union protection and bargaining rights for federal employees. The unions challenged the orders in court and Mr Biden revoked them shortly after he took office.

It is not entirely clear what kind of support the federal government could provide to workers who want to organize without changing the law, although some labor experts have argued that Mr Biden and his appointees could take administrative measures to allow workers to do so to negotiate industry base, known as sector negotiations. That would make it less necessary to win union elections from site to job, as is often the case today.

The Biden Task Force could also look at ways the government can use its procurement powers to promote union membership.

As a rule, the federal government is unlikely to refuse contracts to companies just because they are anti-union, said Anastasia Christman, an expert on government contracts with the National Employment Law Project, an employee advocacy group. However, in certain narrow cases, the government can use its leverage as a contractor to encourage companies to take a neutral stance on the organization.

For example, if a federal agency purchases medical gloves from an aggressively anti-union company, it could tell the company that “your vehement anti-labor practices have shown a higher risk of work disruption,” Ms. Christman said. She added that the agency may conclude, “We can’t have $ 15 million worth of purple gloves in a warehouse somewhere. We need to find a more reliable way to get this stuff. “

In business today

Updated

April 26, 2021, 2:10 p.m. ET

Even before the task force was announced, many union leaders viewed Mr Biden as the most union-friendly president in generations. They cited his quick overthrow of Trump officials, whom they viewed as anti-labor, the tens of billions of dollars in support of union pension plans included in his pandemic relief law, and a video message during a recent union campaign at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama , warning employers not to coerce or threaten workers who choose to trade unions.

Many union officials have compared him positively to his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, who complained that he refused to loudly support the unions.

The task force comes at a particularly frustrating time for organized work. According to a 2020 Gallup poll, around two-thirds of Americans are in favor of unions, but a little over 6 percent of private sector workers belong to them.

Union leaders say the current labor law, which allows employers to satiate workers with anti-union messages and little punishment for employers who threaten or fire workers who want to join, makes union formation very difficult.

Many union officials have cited Amazon’s loss of the election, the results of which were announced earlier this month, as an example of the need to reform labor law and develop new organizational strategies.

Amazon said its employees chose not to join a union, and management lawyers say many employers have been more responsive to workers’ concerns over the years, making unions less necessary.

Mr. Biden’s task force will seek the views of union leaders, academics and workers and make their recommendations within 180 days.

Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh will serve as vice-chair of the group, which includes Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, White House Economic Advisers Cecilia Rouse and Brian Deese, and White House Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy.

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Business

Eating places see diners return, however really feel a labor crunch

Daniel Halpern is looking for 800 employees, and that wasn’t easy.

Halpern is CEO of Jackmont Hospitality, an Atlanta-based food service company that sells approximately 45 restaurants nationwide, including TGI Fridays.

Diners are returning. However, Halpern hopes that its locations will be properly staffed in the coming weeks to ensure that the customers he has been waiting for have the experience they expected.

Jackmont currently employs around 1,200 people. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, the company employed 2,700 people, more than twice as many.

“For those of us in the service industry, human resources are of the utmost importance to success. When we come out of the crisis, we want to be able to provide our guests with a quality experience,” said Halpern. “We are constantly trying to keep people occupied – this is the main problem in our discussions with our directors.”

Two people drink outside of Baja Sharkeez in Huntington Beach, California on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.

Paul Bersebach | MediaNews Group | Orange County Register via Getty Images

The average wage in his restaurants is $ 13 an hour before tipping. He also offers perks, but wants to incentivize servers by paying them tips for cards on a daily basis and discussing additional perks like sign-up bonuses.

An added incentive for both direct payments to individuals and higher unemployment benefits is a potential double-edged sword for restaurants. Consumers have more cash to spend and are returning to eat out. However, some operators, such as Halpern, feel that this is an incentive for workers to stay at home. Additionally, large retailers like Amazon have hired hundreds of thousands of workers over the course of the pandemic, which is likely to impact the service sector workforce.

In the Tropical Smoothie Cafe, the labor crisis is taking place at its almost 1,000 company-owned and franchise locations, which usually employ 16 to 22-year-olds. CEO Charles Watson said the hiring was the company’s biggest headwind right now.

“There is a shortage of workers in the restaurant business and in the service business like we have never seen before. … In many of the markets where we have coffee shops, there are simply no workers – simply put, people would prefer to be home stay and get paid than go to work, “he said. “This creates big problems for us in relation to our most important thing, which is customer service.”

A sign that reads “Hiring Now” is displayed outside a Taco Bell restaurant on February 5, 2021 in Novato, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

In March, the number of non-farm workers rose by 916,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate fell to 6%. This was the highest increase in total employment since August 2020, a sign that the economy is recovering.

The National Federation of Independent Business said the challenge of finding skilled workers weighs on small business owners. While overall sentiment rose in March, 51% of owners said they had few or no “qualified” applicants. In addition, 42% of all owners said they had vacancies they couldn’t fill – a record high and 20 points above the group’s historical average of 22% over the past 48 years.

“Main Street is doing better as state and local restrictions are relaxed. However, finding skilled workers is a critical issue for small businesses across the country,” NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement. “”Small business owners are competing with the pandemic and the increased unemployment benefits that are keeping some workers out of the workforce. However, the owners remain committed to recruiting and growing their business. “

Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino, also confirmed the tight labor market on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” Monday. The company hired tens of thousands of workers, including delivery workers, during the pandemic.

“It’s a very competitive market. So we see ourselves as competitors for customers and also as drivers for drivers and team members – we have to be great in both areas,” he said.

Large restaurant companies recently announced hiring events for tens of thousands of jobs. By Thursday, McDonald’s will host an event to fill 25,000 jobs in the state of Texas alone, Reuters reported. The fast food giant hired 260,000 people last year when the restaurants reopened to diners.

IHOP, owned by parent company Dine Brands, announced it will hire 10,000 people to fill part-time and full-time positions in 1,600 locations across the United States

And Yum Brands’ Taco Bell is renewing its hiring parties across the country in nearly 2,000 locations on April 21. The company plans to hire 5,000 people and convert parking spaces and patios into job fairs to protect applicants from the ongoing pandemic.

“It’s no secret that the job market is tight, which is why we’re excited to host our fourth round of hiring parties in partnership with our franchisees,” said Kelly McCulloch, Taco Bell’s chief people officer, in a statement.

Categories
Business

State Jobless Claims Climb, Exhibiting Continued Stress on Labor Market: Stay Updates

Folgendes müssen Sie wissen:

Anerkennung…Hannah Beier für die New York Times

Der Arbeitsmarkt bleibt herausfordernd. Die Regierung berichtet am Donnerstag, dass die ersten Ansprüche auf staatliche Arbeitslosenunterstützung letzte Woche gestiegen sind.

Insgesamt 741.000 Arbeitnehmer haben letzte Woche erstmals Anträge auf staatliche Arbeitslosenunterstützung gestellt, was einer Zunahme von 18.000 entspricht, teilte das Arbeitsministerium mit. Es war der zweite wöchentliche Anstieg in Folge, nachdem neue Ansprüche ein Pandemietief erreicht hatten.

Gleichzeitig wurden 152.000 neue Anträge auf Pandemic Unemployment Assistance gestellt, ein Bundesprogramm für Freiberufler, Teilzeitbeschäftigte und andere Personen, die nicht routinemäßig Anspruch auf staatliche Leistungen haben. Das war ein Rückgang von 85.000.

Keine der Zahlen ist saisonbereinigt.

Die Ansprüche stiegen zu Beginn des Jahres auf über eine Million, haben es aber getan seitdem gesunken, unterstützt durch die Verbreitung von Impfungen, die Lockerung der Beschränkungen für Unternehmen in vielen Staaten und die Ankunft von Konjunkturfonds.

Die meisten Personen erhielten in den letzten Wochen Zahlungen in Höhe von 1.400 US-Dollar als Teil des Hilfspakets der Biden-Regierung in Höhe von 1,9 Billionen US-Dollar, und die Mittel sollten die Verbraucherausgaben in den kommenden Monaten stützen.

Am Freitag berichtete die Regierung, dass die Arbeitgeber im März 916.000 Arbeitsplätze geschaffen haben, doppelt so viel wie im Februar und am meisten seit August. Die Arbeitslosenquote sank auf 6 Prozent, den niedrigsten Stand seit Beginn der Pandemie. Fast 350.000 Menschen sind wieder erwerbstätig.

Trotzdem gibt es viel zu tun.

Selbst nach dem Beschäftigungszuwachs im März sind in der Wirtschaft 8,4 Millionen Arbeitsplätze weniger als im Februar 2020. Ganze Sektoren wie Reisen und Freizeit sowie Restaurants und Bars erholen sich erst allmählich von den Millionen von Arbeitsplatzverlusten, die sich daraus ergaben Ankunft der Pandemie.

Die Stimmzettel in der Gewerkschaftsfahrt in einem Amazonas-Lagerhaus in Bessemer, Alabama, werden voraussichtlich ab Donnerstagnachmittag oder Freitagmorgen von Hand gezählt.Anerkennung…Charity Rachelle für die New York Times

Die Gewerkschaft, die Arbeiter in einem Amazonas-Lagerhaus in Alabama vertreten will, gab am späten Mittwoch bekannt, dass 3.215 Stimmzettel abgegeben wurden – oder etwa 55 Prozent der rund 5.800 wahlberechtigten Arbeiter.

Die Stimmzettel werden nach Angaben der Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union voraussichtlich ab Donnerstagnachmittag oder Freitagmorgen im Büro des National Labour Relations Board in Birmingham von Hand gezählt. Hunderte von Stimmzetteln werden angefochten, hauptsächlich von Amazon, sagte die Gewerkschaft.

Die Stimmenzählung wird in einem Videokonferenzaufruf an eine kleine Anzahl von Außenstehenden, einschließlich Journalisten, sowie an Vertreter der Gewerkschaft und des Unternehmens gezeigt.

Gewerkschaftswahlen werden in der Regel persönlich abgehalten, aber die Arbeitsbehörde entschied, dass die Wahlen per Post durchgeführt werden sollten, um die Risiken während der Pandemie zu minimieren. Die Stimmzettel wurden Anfang Februar an die Arbeitnehmer verschickt und waren vor dem 30. März bei der Agentur fällig. Seitdem hatten Amazon und die Gewerkschaft die Möglichkeit, zu prüfen, ob bestimmte Arbeitnehmer wahlberechtigt waren.

Wenn die öffentliche Zählung abgeschlossen ist, wird die Agentur die formellen Ergebnisse bekannt geben, wenn die Gewinnspanne für eine Seite größer ist als die Anzahl der umstrittenen Stimmzettel.

Wenn der Spielraum enger ist, kann es zwei bis drei Wochen dauern, bis die NLRB eine Anhörung abhält, um die angefochtenen Stimmzettel zu sortieren und von beiden Seiten Beweise dafür zu erhalten, ob sie gezählt werden sollten.

Der zweite Stausee von Baoshan.  Während der Regenzeit im letzten Jahr landete kein einziger Taifun.Anerkennung…Ein Rong Xu für die New York Times

Beamte nennen Taiwans Dürre die schlimmste seit mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert. Und es stellt die enormen Herausforderungen dar, die mit dem Hosting der Halbleiterindustrie der Insel verbunden sind, die ein zunehmend unverzichtbarer Knotenpunkt in den globalen Lieferketten für Smartphones, Autos und andere Grundpfeiler des modernen Lebens ist.

Chiphersteller verwenden viel Wasser, um ihre Fabriken und Wafer zu reinigen, die dünnen Siliziumscheiben, aus denen die Chips bestehen. Raymond Zhong und Amy Chang Chien berichten für die New York Times. Im Jahr 2019 verbrauchten die Anlagen der Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Hsinchu nach Angaben des Unternehmens 63.000 Tonnen Wasser pro Tag oder mehr als 10 Prozent der Versorgung aus zwei lokalen Lagerstätten.

In den letzten Monaten hat die Regierung:

Die umfassendste Maßnahme war jedoch die Einstellung der Bewässerung, die 183.000 Morgen Ackerland betrifft, rund ein Fünftel von Taiwans bewässertem Land.

Die taiwanesische Öffentlichkeit scheint entschieden zu haben, dass der Reisanbau sowohl für die Insel als auch für die Welt weniger wichtig ist als Halbleiter. Die Regierung subventioniert die Erzeuger für die Einkommensverluste. Der 55-jährige Chuang Cheng-deng befürchtet jedoch, dass die vereitelte Ernte die Kunden dazu bringen wird, andere Lieferanten zu suchen, was Jahre mit schwachen Erträgen bedeuten könnte.

Das Ikea-Geschäft in Franconville, Frankreich, in dem die Mitarbeiter überwacht wurden, zeigten Dokumente.Anerkennung…Elliott-Werte für die New York Times

Die Staatsanwaltschaft beschuldigt den französischen Arm von Ikea, dem schwedischen Einrichtungsgiganten, und einigen seiner ehemaligen Führungskräfte, in einem Strafverfahren, das die Aufmerksamkeit der Öffentlichkeit in Frankreich erregt hat, von 2009 bis 2012 ein „Spionagesystem“ entwickelt zu haben.

Das angebliche Schnüffeln wurde verwendet, um Mitarbeiter und Gewerkschaftsorganisatoren zu untersuchen, die im Urlaub befindlichen Arbeitnehmer zu untersuchen und Kunden einzuschätzen, die Rückerstattungen für verpfuschte Bestellungen beantragen, berichtet Liz Alderman für die New York Times. Ein ehemaliger Militäragent wurde angeheuert, um einige der geheimeren Operationen durchzuführen.

Insgesamt werden 15 Personen belastet. Ein Urteil einer Jury ist für den 15. Juni geplant.

Der Fall erregte 2012 Empörung, nachdem die E-Mails an die französischen Nachrichtenmedien durchgesickert waren und Ikea sofort mehrere Führungskräfte in seiner französischen Einheit entlassen hatte, darunter auch seinen Geschäftsführer. Es gibt keine Hinweise darauf, dass in einem der anderen 52 Länder, in denen der globale Einzelhändler ein frisches Bild von stilvoller Sparsamkeit mit schwedischen Fleischbällchen serviert, eine ähnliche Überwachung stattgefunden hat.

Die Anwälte der Opfer beschrieben eine methodische Operation, die auf zwei Wegen verlief: eine, die Hintergrund- und Strafkontrollen von Bewerbern und Arbeitnehmern ohne deren Wissen beinhaltete, und eine andere, die sich an Gewerkschaftsführer und -mitglieder richtete.

Der Anwalt von Ikea, Emmanuel Daoud, bestritt, dass in den französischen Geschäften von Ikea eine systemweite Überwachung durchgeführt worden sei. Er argumentierte, dass jegliche Verletzung der Privatsphäre die Arbeit einer einzelnen Person gewesen sei, Jean-François Paris, dem Leiter des Risikomanagements der französischen Einheit.

E-Mails und Quittungen zeigten, dass Herr Paris einen Großteil der Arbeit an Jean-Pierre Fourès übergab, der Hunderte von Bewerbern überwachte und Informationen aus sozialen Medien und anderen Quellen sammelte, um die Überprüfung und Einstellung zu beschleunigen. Er führte auch Hintergrundprüfungen bei ahnungslosen Kunden durch, die sich wegen großer Rückerstattungen mit Ikea verhedderten. Er bestand darauf, dass er beim Sammeln von Hintergrundmaterial nie gegen das Gesetz verstoßen hatte.

Die Überwachung umfasste Berufstätige. In einem Fall wurde Herr Fourès beauftragt, zu untersuchen, ob der stellvertretende Direktor für Kommunikation und Merchandising von Ikea France, der sich ein Jahr lang krank hatte und sich von Hepatitis C erholt hatte, die Schwere ihrer Krankheit vorgetäuscht hatte, als Manager erfuhren, dass sie nach Marokko gereist war.

Ein Karnevalskreuzfahrtschiff legte letztes Jahr in Long Beach, Kalifornien, an. Die Kreuzfahrtlinie hat gedroht, ihre Schiffe außerhalb der US-Häfen zu bewegen.Anerkennung…Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

  • Carnival Cruise Line, der größte Kreuzfahrtanbieter in den USA, ist optimistisch, dass mehrere seiner in den USA ansässigen Linien bis Juli in Betrieb sein werden, teilte das Unternehmen am Mittwoch mit, als es seine Finanzdaten für das erste Quartal meldete. Das Buchungsvolumen für zukünftige Karnevalskreuzfahrten war im ersten Quartal 2021 um etwa 90 Prozent höher als im Vorquartal, was „sowohl die erhebliche aufgestaute Nachfrage als auch das langfristige Potenzial für Kreuzfahrten widerspiegelt“, so Arnold Donald, Geschäftsführer der Carnival Corporation , sagte die Muttergesellschaft der Kreuzfahrtgesellschaft in einer Erklärung am Mittwoch. Das Unternehmen meldete für das erste Quartal 2021 einen Nettoverlust von 2 Milliarden US-Dollar.

  • Gewerkschaften, die Mitarbeiter von zwei bekannten Podcasting-Unternehmen von Spotify, dem Audiostreaming-Riesen, vertreten, gaben am Mittwoch bekannt, dass sie ihre ersten Arbeitsverträge ratifiziert haben. Die größere der beiden Gewerkschaften mit 65 Mitarbeitern befindet sich bei The Ringer, einer Website für Sport- und Popkultur mit einem Podcasting-Netzwerk. Die zweite Gewerkschaft der Podcast-Produktionsfirma Gimlet Media beschäftigt knapp 50 Mitarbeiter. Die beiden Gruppen gehörten zu den ersten in der Podcasting-Branche, die sich gewerkschaftlich organisiert haben, und beide werden von der Writers Guild of America, East, vertreten.

Ein Anerkennung…Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press

  • Die S & P 500-Futures stiegen am Donnerstag und deuteten auf einen Anstieg zu Beginn des Wall Street-Handels hin, einen Tag nachdem der Referenzindex am Vortag einen weiteren Rekord aufgestellt hatte. Die Anleger warten auf den neuesten wöchentlichen Bericht über Arbeitslosenansprüche, der ein neues Maß für eine sich stärkende Wirtschaft darstellen könnte.

  • Die europäischen Märkte waren überwiegend höher und die asiatischen Aktien hatten einen überwiegend positiven Tag. Die Öl-Futures waren niedriger und die Renditen für Staatsanleihen gaben nach.

  • Die Anleger am Mittwoch wurden von den Bemerkungen im Protokoll der Sitzung der Federal Reserve im vergangenen Monat beflügelt, wonach Richtlinien, die die Märkte und Unternehmen durch die Pandemie unterstützt haben, nicht entfernt werden sollten.

  • Die politischen Entscheidungsträger der Fed haben erklärt, dass sie “erhebliche weitere Fortschritte” bei der Erreichung ihrer Beschäftigungs- und Inflationsziele sehen wollen, bevor sie die akkommodierenden Maßnahmen zurückfahren.

  • Wöchentliche Zahlen zu Arbeitslosenansprüchen, die später am Donnerstag veröffentlicht werden sollen, stehen angesichts des wachsenden Vertrauens in Bezug auf Einstellungen in der US-Wirtschaft. Der Lohnbericht für März zeigte einen beeindruckenden Zuwachs von 916.000 Arbeitsplätzen. Aber trotz dieser Verbesserung sind in der Wirtschaft immer noch 8,4 Millionen Arbeitsplätze weniger als im Februar 2020.

  • Die Anleger gehen auch näher auf den Unternehmenssteuerplan von Präsident Biden ein, der darauf abzielt, in 15 Jahren bis zu 2,5 Billionen US-Dollar aufzubringen. Es beinhaltet eine strenge neue Mindeststeuer auf globale Gewinne und das Vorgehen gegen Unternehmen, die versuchen, Gewinne offshore zu verlagern.

  • In Europa war der Handel mit dem Stoxx Europe 600 um 0,4 höher, nachdem er am Mittwoch zum Handelsschluss ein Rekordhoch erreicht hatte. In Großbritannien war der FTSE 100 ebenfalls um 0,4 Prozent höher. In Asien beendete der Hang Seng in Hongkong den Tag um 1,2 Prozent höher.

  • In New York stiegen die S & P 500-Futures um 0,3 Prozent, nachdem der Index am Mittwoch um 0,2 Prozent gestiegen war.

  • Die Öl-Futures rutschten ab, da steigende Coronavirus-Infektionen die Prognosen der Ölnachfrage belasten. Brent-Rohöl, die globale Benchmark, fiel um 0,2 Prozent auf 63 USD pro Barrel, und die US-Benchmark West Texas Intermediate fiel um 0,5 Prozent auf 59,47 USD pro Barrel.

  • Die Renditen 10-jähriger Schatzanweisungen gingen um mehr als 2 Basispunkte auf 1,64 Prozent zurück.

Categories
Business

Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Staff, Labor Board Finds

SEATTLE – Amazon illegally battled two of its most prominent internal critics when it fired them last year, the National Labor Relations Board found.

Employees Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa had publicly urged the company to reduce its impact on climate change and address concerns about warehouse workers.

The agency told Ms. Cunningham and Ms. Costa that they would accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices if the company did not resolve the case. This emerges from correspondence Ms. Cunningham shared with the New York Times.

“It is a moral victory and it really shows that we are on the right side of history and the right side of the law,” said Ms. Cunningham.

The two women were among dozens of Amazon workers who told the Labor Department of the company’s retaliation last year, but in most of the other cases the workers had complained about the safety of pandemics.

“We support the right of every employee to criticize the working conditions of their employer, but that does not imply blanket immunity from our internal guidelines, which are all lawful,” said Jaci Anderson, a spokeswoman for Amazon. “We fired these employees because they did not speak publicly about working conditions, safety or sustainability, but because they repeatedly violated internal guidelines.”

Allegations of unfair labor practices at Amazon were common enough for the employment agency to convert them into a national investigation, the agency told NBC News. The agency usually conducts the investigation in its regional offices.

While Amazon’s starting wage of $ 15 an hour is twice the federal minimum, its labor practices in Washington and elsewhere are under scrutiny. The focus has increased over the past year as online orders soared during the pandemic and Amazon expanded its US workforce to nearly a million people. Amazon’s warehouse workers are considered key employees and have not been able to work from home.

This week, the National Labor Board is counting thousands of ballots determining whether nearly 6,000 workers will unionize at an Amazon warehouse outside of Birmingham, Alabama. This is the largest and most viable work threat in the company’s history. The union has stated that workers are under excessive production pressures and are closely monitored by the company to ensure quotas are respected.

The results could change the shape of the labor movement and one of America’s largest private employers.

Ms. Costa and Ms. Cunningham, who worked as designers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, began publicly criticizing the company in 2018. You were among a small group of employees who wanted the company to do more to manage the climate impact. The group, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, has more than 8,700 colleagues to support their efforts.

Over time, Ms. Cunningham and Ms. Costa have expanded their protests. After Amazon told them that they had violated its external communications guidelines by speaking publicly about the company, their group organized 400 people to speak up and deliberately violated the guidelines to make a point .

At the start of the pandemic, they also raised concerns about the safety of Amazon’s warehouses. Amazon fired Ms. Costa and Ms. Cunningham last April, not long after their group announced an internal event where warehouse workers would speak to technical staff about their working conditions.

After the women were released, several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, wrote to Amazon of concerns about possible retaliation. And Tim Bray, an internet pioneer and former vice president of the Amazon Cloud Computing Group, stepped down in protest.

Mr Bray said he was delighted to hear the employment office’s findings and hoped Amazon had settled the case. “The policy so far has been ‘don’t admit anything, don’t admit anything’,” he said. “This is your chance to think it over a little.”

Ms. Cunningham said that despite the company’s rejection, she and Ms. Costa felt that they and Ms. Costa were primary targets for Amazon as they were the most visible members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

The Labor Authority also upheld a complaint involving Jonathan Bailey, co-founder of Amazonians United, a workforce advocacy group. The agency filed a complaint against Amazon based on Mr Bailey’s allegations that the company was breaking the law when it interrogated him after a strike last year at the Queens warehouse where he works.

“They realized that Amazon violated our rights,” said Bailey. “I think the message that employees should hear and understand is, yes, we all experience it. But many of us struggle too. “

Amazon has resolved Mr Bailey’s case without admitting any wrongdoing and has agreed to post notices informing employees of their rights in the break room. Ms. Anderson, Amazon’s spokeswoman, said the company contradicts allegations in Mr. Bailey’s case. “We pride ourselves on providing an inclusive environment in which employees can perform excellently without fear of retaliation, intimidation or harassment,” she said.

Kate Conger contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Business

Amazon’s Clashes With Labor: Days of Battle and Management

In the past few weeks, there has been a heated discussion on Twitter about whether Amazon employees have to urinate in bottles because they don’t have time to go to the bathroom – a level of control few modern companies would dare to practice.

“Amazon is reorganizing the nature of retail work – something that is traditionally physically undemanding and has a large amount of downtime – into something that resembles a factory that never wears off,” said Spencer Cox, a former Amazon employee who writes his Ph .D. Thesis at the University of Minnesota on how the company is transforming work. “For Amazon, it’s not about money. This is about controlling the workers’ bodies and every possible moment of their time. “

Amazon had no comment on this story.

Signs that Amazon is putting more pressure on its control are mounting. In February, Lovenia Scott, a former warehouse worker for the Vacaville, Calif., Company accused Amazon in a lawsuit of “doing such an immense amount of work” that she and her colleagues were given no breaks. Ms. Scott is seeking class action status. Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment on the suit.

Last month, the California labor officer said 718 delivery drivers who worked for Green Messengers, a Southern California contractor for Amazon, owed $ 5 million in wages that never made it to their wallets. Drivers were paid for 10-hour days, the labor commissioner said, but the volume of parcels was so large that they often had to work 11 or more hours and through breaks.

Amazon said it no longer works with Green Messengers and would appeal the decision. Green messengers could not be reached for comment.

An Amazon warehouse in the Canadian province of Ontario showed a rapid spread of Covid-19 in March. “Our investigation found that a shutdown was needed to break the chain of transmission,” said Dr. Lawrence Loh, the regional medical officer. “We gave Amazon our recommendation.” The company, he said, “didn’t answer.” Health officials ordered workers to self-isolate and close the facility for two weeks. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the situation.

And five US senators wrote a letter to the company last month asking for more information on why it fitted its vans with surveillance cameras that constantly monitor the driver. The technology, the senators said, “raises important questions about privacy and worker surveillance that Amazon needs to answer.”

Categories
World News

Uber grants U.Ok. drivers employee standing after dropping main labor battle

A smartphone displaying the Uber app in London.

Oli Scarff | Getty Images

Shortly after losing a major labor dispute in the UK, Uber will classify all UK based drivers as workers.

Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers will receive some benefits, including minimum wage, vacation time and pension contributions, but will not receive full employee benefits.

Uber announced the change to an SEC filing, adding that UK ridesharing accounted for 6.4% of all gross bookings for mobility in the fourth quarter of 2020.

While the move will increase Uber’s costs in the UK, the company continues to aim for adjusted EBITDA profitability through the year-end.

Earlier this year, Uber lost a major legal battle in the UK over the issue. The country’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that a group of drivers were workers and not independent contractors. While the decision was made with a small group of drivers, thousands more have taken action against the company.

In a comment in The Evening Standard, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, wrote that following the Supreme Court ruling, “we could continue to challenge drivers’ rights to any of these protections in court. Instead, we decided to turn the page.” “”

Khosrowshahi admits, “I know many observers will not pat us on the back if we take this step, which comes after a five-year legal battle. They are right, although I hope the path we have chosen will change our willingness to change shows. “”

Meanwhile, Uber and the gig economy as a whole are facing regulatory challenges around the world. Uber has spent millions addressing these challenges in other regions.

In California, Uber pushed back against Assembly Bill 5, a gig economy bill passed by law in 2019 that tightened the rules for classifying workers as independent contractors.

After a widespread campaign that cost over $ 200 million – the most expensive election campaign in the state’s history – Uber and a handful of other gig economy companies used Uber to convince voters to support an election campaign called Proposition 22 and other gig economy platforms have been exempted from state labor law.

In return, gig workers received some benefits without full employment status. Some of the additional cost of providing benefits has been passed on to carpooling.