Amazon said Wednesday it’s cutting hundreds of jobs in its cloud computing unit AWS as part of a strategic shift.
The company will trim “a few hundred roles” in the team that overlooks technology for physical stores, a move that comes just a day after Amazon said it was ditching Just Walk Out technology in its U.S. grocery stores.
In addition to the physical stores technology team, Amazon said it’s cutting “several hundred roles” in the AWS sales, marketing and global service organization. Most of those cuts are related to business changes in AWS training and certification programs as well as sales operations. The tech giant said it was also making cuts elsewhere so it can invest in other business priorities.
“These decisions are difficult but necessary as we continue to invest, hire, and optimize resources to deliver innovation for our customers,” Amazon spokesperson Duncan Neasham said in a statement.
The AWS layoffs follow other layoffs that happened at Amazon and its subsidiaries this year. In January, the company cut several hundred positions across its Prime Video and MGM Studios unit. That same month, Twitch, the popular social media platform owned by Amazon, laid off more than 500 jobs in a bid to save on costs. The online audiobook and podcast service Audible also laid off about 5% of its workforce.
Amazon says it will continue to hire in priority areas. The company currently has thousands of AWS job openings posted online. It says it will try to find internal opportunities for employees whose roles are impacted.
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Most fast food workers in California will be paid at least $20 an hour beginning Monday when a new law is scheduled to kick in giving more financial security to an historically low-paying profession while threatening to raise prices in a state already known for its high cost of living.
Democrats in the state Legislature passed the law last year in part as an acknowledgement that many of the more than 500,000 people who work in fast food restaurants are not teenagers earning some spending money, but adults working to support their families.
That includes immigrants like Ingrid Vilorio, who said she started working at a McDonald’s shortly after arriving in the United States in 2019. Fast food was her full-time job until last year. Now, she works about eight hours per week at a Jack in the Box while working other jobs.
“The $20 raise is great. I wish this would have come sooner,” Vilorio said through a translator. “Because I would not have been looking for so many other jobs in different places.”
The law was supported by the trade association representing fast food franchise owners. But since it passed, many franchise owners have bemoaned the impact the law is having on them, especially during California’s slowing economy.
Alex Johnson owns 10 Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Cinnabon restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. He said sales have slowed in 2024, prompting him to lay off his office staff and rely on his parents to help with payroll and human resources.
Increasing his employees’ wages will cost Johnson about $470,000 each year. He will have to raise prices anywhere from 5% to 15% at his stores, and is no longer hiring or seeking to open new locations in California, he said.
“I try to do right by my employees. I pay them as much as I can. But this law is really hitting our operations hard,” Johnson said.
“I have to consider selling and even closing my business,” he said. “The profit margin has become too slim when you factor in all the other expenses that are also going up.”
Over the past decade, California has doubled its minimum wage for most workers to $16 per hour. A big concern over that time was whether the increase would cause some workers to lose their jobs as employers’ expenses increased.
Instead, data showed wages went up and employment did not fall, said Michael Reich, a labor economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
“I was surprised at how little, or how difficult it was to find disemployment effects. If anything, we find positive employment effects,” Reich said.
Plus, Reich said while the statewide minimum wage is $16 per hour, many of the state’s larger cities have their own minimum wage laws setting the rate higher than that. For many fast food restaurants, this means the jump to $20 per hour will be smaller.
The law reflected a carefully crafted compromise between the fast food industry and labor unions, which had been fighting over wages, benefits and legal liabilities for close to two years. The law originated during private negotiations between unions and the industry, including the unusual step of signing confidentiality agreements.
The law applies to restaurants offering limited or no table service and which are part of a national chain with at least 60 establishments nationwide. Restaurants operating inside a grocery establishment are exempt, as are restaurants producing and selling bread as a stand-alone menu item.
At first, it appeared the bread exemption applied to Panera Bread restaurants. Bloomberg News reported the change would benefit Greg Flynn, a wealthy campaign donor to Newsom. But the Newsom administration said the wage increase law does apply to Panera Bread because the restaurant does not make dough on-site. Also, Flynn has announced he would pay his workers at least $20 per hour.
Gig work predates the internet. Besides traditional forms of self-employment, like plumbing, offers for ad-hoc services have long been found in the Yellow Pages and newspaper classified ads, and later Craigslist and Backpage which supplanted them. Low-cost broadband internet allowed for the proliferation of computer-based gig platforms like Mechanical Turk, Fiverr and Elance, which offered just about anyone some extra pocket change. But once smartphones took off, everywhere could be an office, and everything could be a gig — and thus the gig economy was born.
Maybe it was a confluence of technological advancement and broad financial anxiety from the 2008 recession, but prospects were bad, people needed money and many had no freedom to be picky about how. This was the same era in which the phrase “the sharing economy” proliferated — at once sold as an antidote to overconsumption, but that freedom from ownership belied the more worrying commoditization of any skill or asset. Of all the companies to take advantage of this climate, none went further or have held on harder than Uber.
Uber became infamous for railroading its way into new markets without getting approval from regulators. It cemented its reputation as a corporate ne’er-do-well through a byzantine scandal to avoid regulatory scrutiny, several smaller ones over user privacy and minimally-beneficial surcharges as well as, in its infancy, an internal reputation for sexual harassment and discrimination. Early on, the company used its deep reserves of venture capital to subsidize its own rides, eating away at the traditional cab industry in a given market, only to eventually increase prices and try to minimize driver pay once it reached a dominant position. Those same reserves were spent aggressively recruiting drivers with signup bonuses and convincing them they could be their own boss.
Self-employment has a whiff of something liberatory, but Uber effectively turned a traditionally employee-based industry into one that was contractor-based. This meant that one of the first casualties of the ride-sharing boom were taxi medallions. For decades, cab drivers in many locales effectively saw these licenses as retirement plans, as they’d be able to sell them on to newcomers when it was time to hang up their flat cap. But in large part due to the influx of ride-sharing services, the value of medallions has plummeted over the last decade or so — in New York, for instance, the value of a medallion dropped from around $1 million in 2014 to $100,000 in 2021. That’s in tandem with a drop in earnings, leaving many struggling to pay off enormous loans they took out to buy a medallion.
Some jurisdictions have sought to offset that collapse in medallion value. Quebec pledged $250 million CAD in 2018 to compensate cab drivers. Other regulators, particularly in Australia, applied a per-ride fee to ride-sharing services as part of efforts to replace taxi licenses and compensate medallion holders. In each of those cases, taxpayers and riders, not rideshare companies, bore the brunt of the impact on medallion holders.
At first it was just cab drivers that were hurting, but over the years, compensation for this new class of non-employee app drivers dried up too. In 2017, Uber paid $20 million to settle allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that it used false promises about potential earnings to entice drivers to join its platform. Late last year, Uber and Lyft agreed to pay $328 million to New York drivers after the state conducted a wage theft investigation. The settlement also guaranteed a minimum hourly rate for drivers outside of New York City, where drivers were already subject to minimum rates under Taxi & Limousine Commission rules.
Many rideshare drivers have also sought recognition as employees rather than contractors, so they can have a consistent hourly wage, overtime pay and benefits — efforts that the likes of Uber and rival Lyft have been fighting against. In January, the Department of Labor issued a final rule that aims to make it more difficult for gig economy companies to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The EU is also weighing a provisional deal to reclassify millions of app workers as employees.
Of course, the partial erosion of an entire industry’s labor market wasn’t always the end goal. At one point, Uber wanted to zero out labor costs by getting rid of drivers entirely. It planned to do so by rolling out a fleet of self-driving vehicles and flying taxis.
“The reason Uber could be expensive is because you’re not just paying for the car — you’re paying for the other dude in the car,” former CEO Travis Kalanick said in 2014, a day after Uber suggested drivers could make $90,000 per year on the platform. “When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle. So the magic there is, you basically bring the cost below the cost of ownership for everybody, and then car ownership goes away.”
Uber’s grand automation plans didn’t work out as intended, however. The company, under current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, sold its self-driving car and flying taxi units in late 2020.
Uber’s success had second-order effects too: despite a business model best described as “set money on fire until (fingers crossed!) a monopoly is established” a whole slew of startups were born, taking their cues from Uber or explicitly pitching themselves as “Uber for X.” Sure, you might find a place to stay on Airbnb or Vrbo that’s nicer and less expensive than a hotel room. But studies have shown that such companies have harmed the affordability and availability of housing in some markets, as many landlords and real-estate developers opt for more profitable short-term rentals instead of offering units for long-term rentals or sale. Airbnb has faced plenty of other issues over the years, from a string of lawsuits to a mass shooting at a rental home.
Increasingly, this is becoming the blueprint. Goods and services are exchanged by third parties, facilitated by a semi-automated platform rather than a human being. The platform’s algorithm creates the thinnest veneer between choice and control for the workers who perform identical labor to the industry that platform came to replace, but that veneer allows the platform to avoid traditionally pesky things like legal liability and labor laws. Meanwhile, customers with fewer alternative options find themselves held captive by these once-cheap platforms that are now coming to collect their dues. Dazzled by the promise of innovation, regulators rolled over or signed a deal with the devil. It’s everyone else who’s paying the cost.
To celebrate Engadget’s 20th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.
Six months after closing, workers from the Signature Room have won a $1.5 million lawsuit against their former employers as a federal judge ruled that Infusion Management Group broke Illinois law by failing to give workers proper notice of their decision to shutter, which happened on September 28.
Unite Local No. 1 represented 132 former workers at the restaurant that stood on the 95th floor of the Hancock Center. State law, under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, mandates employers to inform their employees with a 60-day notice of their decision to close. This applies to workplaces with 75 or more full-time employees. The $1.5 million is for back pay and benefits. That total comes out to about $11,363 per worker if it’s divided equally. The court ruling was made on March 14, according to the Sun-Times. The paper also reports workers celebrated with a cake decorated with the words “Justice is served.” Infusion wasn’t reached for comment.
Tortilla plant workers file NLRB complaint
Seven months after factory workers from El Milagro tortillas won an NLRB complaint against their employers, workers from another Chicago tortilla factory are claiming their employers aren’t treating them fairly. On Thursday, Authentico Foods workers filed a retaliation complaint with the NLRB as a news release from Arise Chicago says employees at Authentico’s Archer Heights factory have been threatened with layoffs. Arise, a faith-based worker’s rights group that’s done labor organizing in Chicago’s Spanish-speaking communities frames the threat as retaliation for worker protests that have dated back to 2022. Authentico is the maker of the popular supermarket brands El Ranchero and La Guadalupana. Inspired by their peers at El Milagro, workers at Authnetico’s three plants claim similar complaints — abusive managers, low pay, and insufficient breaks under state law.
One Off launches app
One Off Hospitality, the owners of Big Star, the Publican family of restaurants, Avec, and influential cocktail bar Violet Hour, have launched an app with a customer loyalty program. The 27-year-old group, founded in 1997 when Blackbird opened in West Loop, is one of the city’s most recognized groups thanks to partners Donnie Madia, executive chef Paul Kahan, Eduard Seitan, Peter Garfield, Terry Alexander, and the late Rick Diarmit.
The app offers discounts with a points system based on customer spending and allows One Off to better track customer preferences. In a news release, CEO Karen Browne says the project has been years in the making and that made sense “as a growing restaurant group.”
One Off joins Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises as Chicago-based restaurant groups with apps and programs.
Ever since the rollout of ChatGPT in November 2022, many people in science, business, and media have been obsessed with AI. A cursory look at my own published work during that period fingers me as among the guilty. My defense is that I share with those other obsessives a belief that large language models are the leading edge of an epochal transformation. Maybe I’m swimming in generative Kool-Aid, but I believe AI advances within our grasp will change not only the way we work, but the structure of businesses, and ultimately the course of humanity.
This week we got some data that won’t resolve the larger questions but provides a snapshot of how the US, if not the world, views the advent of AI and large language models. The Pew Research Center—which did similar probes during the rise of the internet, social media, and mobile devices—released a study of how ChatGPT was being used, regarded, and trusted. The sample was taken between February 7 and 11 of this year.
Some of the numbers at first seem to indicate that the LLM controversy might be a parochial disagreement that most people don’t care about. A third of Americans haven’t heard of ChatGPT. Just under a quarter have used it. Oh, and for all the panic about how AI is going to flood the public square with misinformation about the 2024 election? So far, only 2 percent of Americans have used ChatGPT to get information about the presidential election season already underway.
More broadly, though, data from the survey indicates that we’re seeing a powerful technology whose rise is just beginning. If you accept Pew’s sample as indicative of all Americans, millions of people are indeed familiar with ChatGPT. And one thing in particular stands out: While 17 percent of respondents said they have used it for entertainment and an identical number says they’ve tried it to learn something new, a full 20 percent of adults say that they have used ChatGPT for work. That’s up dramatically from the 12 percent who responded affirmatively when the same question was asked six months earlier—a rise of two-thirds.
When I spoke to Colleen McClain, a Pew research associate involved in the study, she agreed that it seems to track with other huge technological shifts. “If you look at our trend charts over time on internet access, smartphones, social media, certainly some of them show this uptick,” she says. For some technologies there had been a leveling off, she adds. But in the ones she mentioned, the plateau came only when so many people came on board that there weren’t many stragglers left.
What’s crazy about that sudden jump in ChatGPT business use from 12 percent to 20 percent is that we’re only at the beginning stages of humans collaborating with these models. And the tools to fully make use of ChatGPT are in a nascent status. That’s changing fast. OpenAI, ChatGPT’s creator, is going full tilt, and AI giants Microsoft and Google are still in the process of diverting their workforces to redesign every product line to integrate conversational AI. And startups like Sierra, which is building agents for corporate customers, are enabling bespoke usages that take advantage of multiple models. As this process continues, more people will use AI tools. And since the foundation models are getting exponentially better—am I hearing that GPT5 will show up this year?—that will make them even more compelling. This raises the possibility that the quality of virtually all work will reside in how well one can draw out the talents of a robot collaborator.
What past technology can help us understand the trajectory of the rocket ship we’re on? While the near limitless ceiling of AI makes it hard to find an analog, I suggest the uptake of spreadsheets. Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented them in 1978, and a year later the concept was embodied in VisiCalc, which at the time ran only on Apple computers. Spreadsheets had a phenomenal and disruptive effect on the business world. More than mere accounting tools, they triggered an era of business innovation and shook up the flow of information inside companies. Yet it took a few years before the business world widely adopted spreadsheets. The turning point came with a new and more powerful product called Lotus 1, 2, 3, which ran on the IBM PC. The current and near-future startups in the AI world, like Sierra, are all hoping to become the Lotuses of our era—but also to be much more consequential and lasting. Spreadsheets are largely limited to the business domain. LLMs can seemingly mess with anything.
DETROIT — Jeep maker Stellantis is laying off about 400 white-collar workers in the U.S. as it deals with the transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles.
The company formed in the 2021 merger between PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler said the workers are mainly in engineering, technology and software at the headquarters and technical center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, north of Detroit. Affected workers were being notified starting Friday morning.
“As the auto industry continues to face unprecedented uncertainties and heightened competitive pressures around the world, Stellantis continues to make the appropriate structural decisions across the enterprise to improve efficiency and optimize our cost structure,” the company said in a prepared statement Friday.
The cuts, effective March 31, amount to about 2% of Stellantis’ global workforce in engineering, technology and software, the statement said. Workers will get a separation package and transition help, the company said.
“While we understand this is difficult news, these actions will better align resources while preserving the critical skills needed to protect our competitive advantage as we remain laser focused on implementing our EV product offensive,” the statement said.
CEO Carlos Tavares repeatedly has said that electric vehicles cost 40% more to make than those that run on gasoline, and that the company will have to cut costs to make EVs affordable for the middle class. He has said the company is continually looking for ways to be more efficient.
U.S. electric vehicle sales grew 47% last year to a record 1.19 million as EV market share rose from 5.8% in 2022 to 7.6%. But sales growth slowed toward the end of the year. In December, they rose 34%.
Stellantis plans to launch 18 new electric vehicles this year, eight of those in North America, increasing its global EV offerings by 60%. But Tavares told reporters during earnings calls last month that “the job is not done” until prices on electric vehicles come down to the level of combustion engines — something that Chinese manufacturers are already able to achieve through lower labor costs.
“The Chinese offensive is possibly the biggest risk that companies like Tesla and ourselves are facing right now,’’ Tavares told reporters. “We have to work very, very hard to make sure that we bring out consumers better offerings than the Chinese.
Last year Stellantis offered buyout and early retirement packages to about 6,400 nonunion salaried workers, but it has not said how many took the offers.
In 2022 the company announced that it planned to close a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, and lay off 1,350 people in an effort to trim its manufacturing footprint. But during contentious contract talks last year with the United Auto Workers, Stellantis agreed to keep the plant open to make EVs, as well as add a battery factory in Belvidere.
The world’s third-largest carmaker reported net profit of 7.7 billion euros ($8.3 billion) in the second half of last year. That was down from 8.8 billion euros in the same period a year earlier.
The Stellantis workforce reductions come after crosstown rivals Ford and General Motors cut thousands of white-collar jobs, also due to the transition to electric vehicles.
In the summer of 2022, Ford let go of about 4,000 full-time and contract workers in an effort to cut expenses. CEO Jim Farley has said much of Ford’s workforce did not have the right skills as it makes the transition from internal combustion to battery-powered vehicles.
About 5,000 salaried GM workers, many in engineering, took early retirement and buyout offers last spring.
Organizers with the Farmworkers Association of Florida at the ‘March for Our Dreams & Freedom’ in downtown Orlando (May 1, 2023)
Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature muscled through an industry-backed bill last week that, if approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis, would block local governments from requiring their contractors to provide heat safety measures, such as water breaks and other cooling measures, for employees who work outdoors.
Approved on the final day of the state’s legislative session, the bill (HB 433) would also gut local “living wage” ordinances passed in some communities, beginning in the fall of 2026, and prevent local governments from enacting predictive scheduling laws, which essentially require employers to notify hourly workers of their work schedules in advance.
The predictive scheduling ban was a last-minute edit to the legislation, which previously would have prevented local governments from enacting any regulation of terms and conditions of employment.
The legislation, sponsored by first-term Republican Rep. Tiffany Esposito, was opposed by most Democrats (and a smattering of Republican legislators in swing districts), but backed by the deep-pocketed business lobby.
Records obtained by the investigative newsletter Seeking Rents show the legislation was at least in part drafted by lobbyists for the business-friendly Florida Chamber of Commerce, which has historically campaigned against minimum wage increases and has sought a ban on “living wage” ordinances for years.
Esposito herself is the president of a regional Chamber of Commerce in Bonita Springs, and sponsored similarly preemptive legislation targeting local communities’ tenant rights laws last year.
The ban on local living wage ordinances has been years in the making. These are essentially local laws passed by some city or county governments that require the employers they contract with to pay a minimum wage that’s higher than the state minimum wage of $12 an hour.
Florida’s minimum wage is already set to rise $1 each year until it reaches $15 an hour on Sept. 20, 2026, due to a constitutional amendment Florida voters approved in 2020 (despite an opposition campaign spearheaded in part by the Florida Chamber of Commerce).
Under the bill approved Friday, thousands of employees in communities with such ordinances in place could see their wages change, come October 2026. The bill would not affect direct employees of the city or county governments, however, which would maintain the right to regulate the wages of their own employees.
It’s unclear how many contracted workers would be affected (and Esposito couldn’t say for sure herself) but in Miami-Dade, it’s expected to affect more than 28,000 employees — from airport baggage handlers to custodians and healthcare professionals — according to the Miami Herald.
Esposito, who argued the bill would “protect” taxpayer dollars, refused to answer whether workers could see pay cuts if the bill is signed into law. “Could wages go down? Maybe,” she admitted, during the bill’s first hearing. “It’s up to the prerogative of the employer.”
The ban on workplace heat safety standards — which gained national attention after a summer of record-breaking heat — appears to be largely targeting a proposed ordinance in Miami-Dade County, where county commissioners last fall considered adopting landmark standards for heat exposure that would have been stronger than what’s already required under state and federal law (which isn’t much).
No other community in Florida has passed any local ordinance mandating such a thing. This bill would prevent local communities from trying.
Lobbyists for the agricultural industry, which employs a lot of the workers who would have been affected, managed to water down the proposed ordinance in Miami-Dade County before ultimately delaying a vote on it last fall.
County commissioners were scheduled to take up a vote on it on March 19.
The state legislation approved last week was strongly opposed by the organized labor movement — which has fought similar preemption attempts in the past — in addition to immigrant rights groups and other workers’ rights organizations.
“This is all about some really unscrupulous folks wanting to come in and not play by the rules,” Dr. Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy for the Florida AFL-CIO, told Orlando Weekly earlier this month. “And the Legislature is all too happy to oblige them.”
Democratic lawmakers filed amendments throughout session to either water down the proposal or otherwise strengthen statewide heat protection standards ahead of its passage, but as usual, all were rejected by the Republican majority.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which has published voluntary guidelines on heat safety in workplaces, has been called upon by the Biden administration to develop federal heat exposure standards, but has not yet done so.
Only three states — California, Oregon and Washington — required heat breaks for outdoor workers, as of last June. A couple other states, such as Colorado and Minnesota, have limited regulations. A set of bills in Florida this year (SB 762/HB 945) sponsored by Democrats sought to similarly adopt limited standards, but were ultimately ignored.
Currently, employers that fail to provide a heat-safe workplace in Florida can face a potential fine from OSHA under the agency’s “general duty” clause, but few ever do.
Florida Republicans, regardless, pointed to OSHA’s voluntary guidelines and the risk of being fined for failing to protect workers on the job as defense of the preemptive legislation, which remained divisive to the end.
The preemption on wage and scheduling policies in Florida’s bill, in particular, almost died in the Florida Senate, which didn’t get on board with that portion of the bill until the second-to-last day of session. That’s when Esposito (the House sponsor) agreed to delay the implementation date to Sept. 30, 2026.
The Senate version of the proposal (SB 1492), sponsored by GOP Sen. Jay Trumbull, only targeted workplace heat safety requirements, but the Senate ultimately agreed to take up its broader companion in the House.
House Bill 433 passed the state Senate on Friday in a 24-15 vote, with four Republicans joining Democrats in voting “no” on the bill. The Republican-dominated Florida House approved the bill in a 74-36 vote just an hour later, similarly with just a handful of Republican representatives joining Democrats in opposition.
A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new rule by the National Labor Relations Board that would have made it easier for millions of workers to form unions at big companies.
The rule, which was due to go into effect Monday, would have set new standards for determining when two companies should be considered “joint employers” in labor negotiations.
Under the current NLRB rule, which was passed by a Republican-dominated board in 2020, a company like McDonald’s isn’t considered a joint employer of most of its workers since they are directly employed by franchisees.
The new rule would have expanded that definition to say companies may be considered joint employers if they have the ability to control — directly or indirectly — at least one condition of employment. Conditions include wages and benefits, hours and scheduling, the assignment of duties, work rules and hiring.
The NLRB argued a change is necessary because the current rule makes it too easy for companies to avoid their legal responsibility to bargain with workers.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups — including the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Retail Federation — sued the NLRB in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas in November to block the rule. They argued that the new rule would upend years of precedent and could make companies liable for workers they don’t employ at workplaces they don’t own.
In his decision Friday granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a summary judgement, U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker concluded that the NLRB’s new rule would be “contrary to law” and that it was “arbitrary and capricious” in regard to how it would change the existing rule.
Barker found that by establishing an array of new conditions to be used to determine whether a company meets the standard of a joint employer, the NRLB’s new rule exceeds “the bounds of the common law.”
The NRLB is reviewing the court’s decision and considering its next steps in the case, the agency said in a statement Saturday.
“The District Court’s decision to vacate the Board’s rule is a disappointing setback, but is not the last word on our efforts to return our joint-employer standard to the common law principles that have been endorsed by other courts,” said Lauren McFerran, the NLRB’s chairman.
Less than one year after Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature approved sweeping reforms to the state’s public sector union policies, state lawmakers have again approved additional reforms that Democrats criticized as union-busting.
The legislation’s GOP sponsors, Rep. Dean Black and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, have described the legislation as a “follow-up” to last year’s Senate Bill 256. Others have referred to it as a “glitch bill,” since it deals with ambiguities, “loopholes” and unintended consequences of last year’s law, which prohibited public employees from having union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks, and established a minimum 60% membership threshold for most public sector unions.
This means, in order for a union to remain certified, at least 60% of employees need to be dues-paying members, or risk having their union dismantled.
Similar policies, touted as “paycheck protection,” have been pushed in states across the country over the last two decades by corporate interests organized through the Chamber of Commerce, American Legislative Exchange Council, and other anti-union special interest groups with the aim of undermining union power. While support for unions among Americans has gone up in recent years, union membership in recent decades has broadly declined.
The current situation in Florida is grim. Since the passage of Florida’s “paycheck protection” law last year, thousands of government employees — from blue-collar maintenance workers, to clerical staff at a number of public universities — have already lost their union representation. While many unions have been able to boost their membership, or otherwise petition the state to remain certified, a number of unions (and their contracts) could be on the chopping block next.
This year’s legislation, filed by the same GOP legislators as last year, largely aims to address issues experienced by unions representing sworn law enforcement officers, firefighters, and correctional and probation officers, which were supposed to be carved out of the legislation.
Critics have protested these carveouts as a targeted political attack against teachers’ unions, which frequently endorse Democrats for office and became a punching bag for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of his unsuccessful bid for U.S. President. The bill sponsors have described them as workers belonging to a “special risk” category who deserve special privileges (though apparently they don’t need that touted “protection” of their paychecks).
What became apparent through the rulemaking and implementation process of last year’s bill, however, is that the vague directives of last year’s bill language caused some crucial misinterpretation as to which unions were actually exempted.
The issue sowed confusion, and led police and firefighter unions to file a complaint against the state’s regulating agency, the Public Employees Relations Commission.
This year’s legislation, Senate Bill 1746, largely aims to address the complaints of the police and firefighter unions — which generally support Republican candidates for elected office — by adding additional carve-outs for unions representing paramedics, 911 telecommunication employees, and EMTs.
This is something Democrats tried to do last year, but Republicans rejected the idea.
The bill, which now heads to Gov. DeSantis for his signature, also:
Repeals an unpopular auditing requirement that even the cop and firefighter unions found difficult to comply with. Last year’s law required unions to submit annual financial statements audited by a certified public accountant, which GOP Sen. Joe Gruters (a CPA by trade) warned would cause issues for smaller unions with fewer resources. This year’s bill repeals that requirement and only requires the financial statement to be “prepared” but not “audited” by a CPA. (Yes, apparently this makes a difference.)
Requires public employees to fill out a new state-mandated membership form in order to become a union member. (Union leaders and even some Republicans have described this as unnecessary, since unions already have their own forms.)
Could make it harder for mass transit unions — which were similarly offered a partial carve-out last year — to get waivers allowing them to be exempted from last year’s regulations.
Adds new information that unions are now required to submit to PERC. Under the new law, unions will have to report more data on expenditures and how often they collect union dues. It also gives PERC — an agency led by three DeSantis appointees — broader discretion to request additional information.
Gives PERC authority to dissolve (“decertify,” in labor-speak) unions that “intentionally” misrepresent any of the information they submit to the state or refuse to allow PERC to “inspect” membership forms or revocations (i.e., employees wanting out of the union).
Sen. Ingoglia, sponsor of the legislation in the Senate, told Orlando Weekly he consulted various entities, including unions, in filing this year’s reform legislation.
Public records obtained by Orlando Weeklyshow that these reforms were shaped in part through lobbying efforts of the police and firefighter unions plus out-of-state special interest groups like the Mackinac Center, based in Michigan, and the Freedom Foundation, based in Washington.
Email communications also show exchanges between Sen. Ingoglia’s office and PERC, specifically concerning the CPA issue, plus a short exchange with a former lobbyist for the Florida chapter of the billionaire-funded group Americans for Prosperity.
Rep. Dean Black, the House bill sponsor of the union reform bill, has described the legislation as “pro-worker.”
On the House floor Wednesday, Black argued that the reforms are meant to promote transparency and protect workers from bad actors in union leadership.
“This is a worker protection bill,” said Black, after hearing pointed criticism from multiple Democratic colleagues. “I am mystified as to how we could oppose the requirement that unions provide financial statements to their union members,” he added.
He then proceeded to cite a New York Post article, published last year, bashing Florida’s largest teachers’ union, the Untied Teachers of Dade. The article claimed the union was “strong-arming” teachers, pressuring them to join the union (another word for that: recruitment, or organizing).
Public records show the very same article was texted to Black by a lobbyist for the Freedom Foundation last year.
Text message between Rep. Dean Black and a lobbyist for the Freedom Foundation, obtained through a public records request.
“Thank you, I’ll engage on this,” Black texted in response. “Sounds good,” lobbyist Christian Camara replied. “Let us know if you need any info on this. We got wind of this and helped the teachers file the complaints.”
“Good work!” Black replied enthusiastically.
Florida Democrats, on the other hand, and organized labor leaders, have levied harsh criticism on the glitch bill. Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy for the Florida AFL-CIO, said the legislation doesn’t go far enough to address other procedural issues that have significantly increased the workload for PERC and have made it difficult for unions to comply with new regulations.
“Right now the system is incredibly complicated,” Templin told a panel of state Senators last month.
“It’s going to be incredibly expensive. It’s going to require a doubling or a tripling of personnel from our estimations — and so we just have some really technocratic, bureaucratic fixes that we want to see be made to the bill and make it more efficient.”
Unions wanted lawmakers to axe the new membership form requirement, for instance, which they’ve argued is “duplicative.” Templin also suggested changing the date that unions are now required to annually submit registration renewal paperwork (which includes financial and membership information).
Currently, it’s tied to the date that unions were first certified. For many, this was literally decades ago, and it varies by union.
Templin told lawmakers it would make more sense — and reduce the likelihood of infringing upon workers’ collective bargaining rights under the Florida state constitution — to tie the date of registration renewal to the end of the union’s current contract.
Sen. Gruters, one of the only Republican lawmakers who voted against the bill, tried to file amendments to accomplish these aims last month, with no success. Both failed to garner majority support from the GOP-dominated chamber.
Ahead of its final vote Wednesday, Florida Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, criticized the bill’s targeted carve-outs, and described the bill as “union busting.”
“This is all about tearing down people who disagree with you and people you do not like,” said Bartleman.
Rep. Eskamani, D-Orlando, uplifted the importance of passing policies that support, not hinder the rights of employees in the workplace. “We’re hurting them with policies like this,” said Eskamani.
The bill nonetheless cleared the Florida House in a 77-36 vote Wednesday, with three Republicans — Reps. Susan Plasencia, Karen Gonzalez-Pittman, and Jim Mooney — joining Democrats in opposition. GOP Rep. Vicki Lopez originally voted ‘yea’ but changed her vote to ‘No’ after roll call.
The bill already passed the state Senate in a 21-14 vote last week, also with three Republicans in opposition: Sens. Gruters, Jennifer Bradley and Corey Simon.
The legislation now heads to Gov. DeSantis for final approval, as legislation aimed at boosting teacher salaries (HB 13), re-establishing a state agency to combat wage theft (HB 1199), and provide 12 weeks of paid parental leave for state employees (SB 128) is left in the dust.
This story has been updated to clarify that Rep. Vicki Lopez changed her vote on the legislation after roll-call.
Hall says when she has access to an interpreter, they are rotated throughout the week, forcing her to repeatedly explain some technical concepts. “Google is going the cheap route,” Hall claims, saying her interpreters in university were more literate in tech jargon.
Kathy Kaufman, director of coordinating services at DSPA, says it pays above market rates, dedicates a small pool to each company so the vocabulary becomes familiar, hires tech specialists, and trains those who are not. Kaufman also declined to confirm that Google is a client or comment on its policies.
Google’s Hawkins says that the company is trying to make improvements. Google’s accommodations team is currently seeking employees to join a new working group to smooth over policies and procedures related to disabilities.
Beside Hall’s concerns, Deaf workers over the past two years have complained about Google’s plans—shelved, for now—to switch away from DSPA without providing assurances that a new interpreter provider would be better, according to a former Google employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect their job prospects. Blind employees have had the human guides they rely on excluded from internal systems due to confidentiality concerns in recent years, and they have long complained that key internal tools, like a widely used assignment tracker, are incompatible with screen readers, according to a second former employee.
Advocates for disabled workers try to hold out hope but are discouraged. “The premise that everyone deserves a shot at every role rests on the company doing whatever it takes to provide accommodations,” says Stephanie Parker, a former senior strategist at YouTube who helped Hall navigate the Google bureaucracy. “From my experience with Google, there is a pretty glaring lack of commitment to accessibility.”
Not Recorded
Hall has been left to watch as colleagues hired alongside her as content moderators got promoted. More than three years after joining Google, she remains a level 2 employee on its internal ranking, defined as someone who receives significant oversight from a manager, making her ineligible for Google peer support and retention programs. Internal data shows that most L2 employees reach L3 within three years.
Last August, Hall started her own community, the Black Googler Network Deaf Alliance, teaching its members sign language and sharing videos and articles about the Black Deaf community. “This is still a hearing world, and the Deaf and hearing have to come together,” she says.
On the responsible AI team, Hall has been compiling research that would help people at Google working on AI services such as virtual assistants understand how to make them accessible to the Black Deaf community. She personally recruited 20 Black Deaf users to discuss their views on the future of technology for about 90 minutes in exchange for up to $100 each; Google, which reported nearly $74 billion in profit last year, would only pay for 13. The project was further derailed by an unexpected flaw in Google Meet, the company’s video chat service.
Hall’s first interview was with someone who is Deaf and Blind. The 90-minute call, which included two interpreters to help her and the subject converse, went well. But when Hall pulled up the recording to begin putting together her report, it was almost entirely blank. Only when Hall’s interpreter spoke did the video include any visuals. The signing between everyone on the call was missing, preventing her from fully transcribing the interview. It turned out that Google Meet doesn’t record video of people who aren’t vocalizing, even when their microphones are unmuted.
A bill that would ease restrictions on the kind of work 16- and 17-year-olds can do on construction sites is nearly on its way to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, after picking up bipartisan, bicameral support in the Republican-dominated Legislature.
The controversial legislation, written by lobbyists for home builders and construction contractors, passed the Florida Senate unanimously on Friday, and passed the House earlier this week in a 84-30 vote with some bipartisan support.
Not a single Democrat voted against the legislation (HB 917/SB 460) in the Senate (with Democratic Sen. Jones absent), while GOP Rep. Mike Beltran was the only Republican lawmaker in either chamber to cross party lines to vote it down.
Orlando-area state Rep. Johanna López, a Democrat, even co-sponsored the bill exactly nine minutes ahead of its passage in the House on Wednesday.
Supporters of the legislation, including a number of Democratic lawmakers, have argued that the intent of the bill has been taken out of context, and that the bill has been incorrectly labeled a “child labor bill.”
“People take a snapshot of a bill, a bill number, and then they can never be told something else along the process,” said Sen. Jason Pizzo (D-Hollywood) on Friday, “even [if] it goes through material or substantive changes.”
Pizzo, like his Democratic colleague Sen. Davis before him, all but begged Simon to give the public a reason not to lambaste him and other Democrats for voting up the bill.
“If you’d just walk through what it was and what it is today? Please, thank you,” he said, placing down his microphone in exasperation.
The legislation does in fact affect Florida’s child labor laws (not teen labor, but literally “child labor”) by narrowly targeting restrictions on hazardous work performed by minors. Under existing state law, minors are prohibited from working on “any scaffolding, roof, superstructure, residential or nonresidential building construction, or ladder above 6 feet.”
The legislation as originally filed would have gutted that restriction for minors aged 16 and older. However, following public pressure, the legislation was amended by the bill sponsors to largely maintain that prohibition.
The legislation has also been amended to clarify that minors are not legally permitted to work on commercial construction sites — only residential ones — and that employers are barred from forcing minors to perform any work that would conflict with federal child labor standards under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), or any other federal rule.
Bill opponents, however, argue that the bill could still conflict with federal law due to a federal prohibition against allowing minors to work on any roofing job, regardless of how far off the ground they are laboring.
Furthermore, because federal law specifically covers only organizations or enterprises that do more than $500,000 a year in business (with limited exceptions), the nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute estimates that thousands of construction contractors in the state of Florida would not be bound by the standards of the FLSA as referenced in the Florida legislation. The Florida Policy Institute has been a firm opponent of the legislation both as filed and as amended.
Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy for the Florida AFL-CIO — the state’s largest federation of labor unions — similarly believes this “loophole” (as the Florida Policy Institute has framed it) could unnecessarily put older teens at risk on potentially dangerous work sites.
He pointed out that under the bill, minors are required to obtain the most base-level OSHA certification (OSHA 10) to work in construction and must work under the supervision of an adult at least 21 years of age or older who has similarly completed the 10-hour training course required for that certification.
But workers in the trades have argued this isn’t good enough. And it won’t keep older teens safe on the job. “So we have inexperienced people with little to no training supervising 16- and 17-year-olds on some of the most dangerous work sites in the state,” Templin told Orlando Weekly over the phone after the final vote Friday.
Construction drives the highest number of unlicensed activity complaints in the state, and research has found that it is the deadliest industry for youth nationwide, behind agriculture.
Then there’s the federal prohibition on minors working “on or about a roof,” which Templin argues isn’t fully clear of conflict with the legislation as it is currently written.
“It doesn’t clarify that 16- and 17-year-olds can’t be on a roofing site,” said Templin, which he says “is problematic, at best.”
A state law enacted in Iowa last year, similarly targeting hazardous worksite protections for children in the workforce, was flagged by U.S. Department of Labor representatives for conflicting with federal law.
Because Florida has literally only seven state employees dedicated to the task of enforcing Florida’s child labor protections, as of December, the task of protecting children on the job largely falls on the federal Wage and Hour division and OSHA, which similarly have a limited enforcement capacity in Florida.
The problem of a potential conflict with federal law was brought to the attention of Florida lawmakers several times during the bills’ multiple committee stops, and Templin says they provided language to the bill sponsors to help close any potential loopholes that could get Florida employers in trouble with the feds.
Those proposed changes, he said, weren’t accepted.
“What they’re creating is a statute that contractors will use to say, we can use 16-year-olds to do manual labor on a roofing job, when in fact, that’s illegal by federal law,” he added.
Even critics of the legislation, however, have admitted the bill is not all bad. There’s literally just one small section of the 26-page bill, titled “Career and Technical Education,” that affects child labor protections.
The rest largely concerns career and technical education programs in schools, which are broadly supported, but not fully accessible in all of Florida’s school districts. This legislation, in part, aims to address that problem, according to its sponsors, and to help expand opportunities for Florida students to explore multiple career pathways, including construction.
“What we wanted to do through this bill is ensure that these young people had an opportunity, that were interested in in construction, to start to get their feet wet so that they can expand their knowledge base as they move forward and graduate from high school to see if this is actually an interest,” said GOP Sen. Corey Simon, a former professional football player and sponsor of the legislation in the Florida Senate.
“And so that’s all this bill does, is gives them an opportunity to really engage our construction trades,” he explained.
It’s a nice talking point that the authors of the legislation probably appreciate, too.
Public records originally obtained by Orlando Weekly show that a lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida, an industry trade group that’s historically lobbied against policies like minimum wage increases, fed Sen. Simon the legislation over email late last year.
The lobbyist, Carol Bowen, also named a lobbyist for the Florida Home Builders Association as a fellow point person.
Bowen has admitted during public testimony that she worked with the bill sponsors on the legislation, and that additional labor is needed in the construction industry due to a looming shortage with older workers retiring, and a current shortage of workers that critics say has been driven in part by a harsh immigration measure signed into law last year.
“More than 50% of the industry is 50 years of age or older and retiring and we are just uniformly working to expose students in school to career and technical education opportunities,” Bowen shared during the House bill’s first committee hearing in January.
The Home Builders Association of Iowa backed the state’s own child labor rollbacks last year, while the Michigan Home Builders Association explicitly opposed a bill in their state that would establish higher penalties for child labor violations.
Florida GOP Senate bill cosponsor Keith Perry, a roofing contractor whose own company has been found guilty of wage theft, has argued the bill is unlikely to affect the number of child labor violations that occur, if employers are already violating the law as it is.
“I started roofing when I was 16 years old. I started my business when I was 17 years old — which was illegal, is still illegal, and will be illegal under this bill,” Perry stated candidly during a committee hearing on the legislation last month. “People who break the law are not going to follow the law anyway, whether this bill is passed or not.”
Due to some last-minute edits to provisions of the bill (not affecting child labor standards), the bill is currently “in messages,” meaning it’s headed back to the House for another vote.
Meanwhile, another bill written by a billionaire-funded conservative think tank, similarly targeting Florida’s child labor standards, is also close to securing final passage.
If approved by Gov. DeSantis, both bills would go into effect July 1, 2024.
The Florida House on Wednesday voted in favor of a controversial bill that would allow teenagers 16 and older to work jobs on residential construction sites, at the behest of industry groups that wrote the legislation.
Members of the Republican-dominated Florida House voted 84-30 to approve the bill (HB 917), with most Democrats opposed. Democratic State Reps. David Silvers, Katherine Waldron and Lisa Dunkley crossed party lines to vote in favor of the bill, while GOP Rep. Mike Beltran was the only member of his party to vote the bill down.
Democratic State Rep. Johanna López, a former teacher and Orange County school board member elected to the House in 2022, not only voted in favor of the bill — which largely concerns Career and Technical Education programs in schools — but signed on to co-sponsor the legislation literally nine minutes before it passed.
López, who represents parts of Orange County, did not respond to our emailed request for comment on her vote or co-sponsorship of the bill, which has been criticized for rolling back child labor protections. Democratic Rep. Susan Valdes, who previously voted in favor of the legislation during committee stops, changed her vote on the House floor to “No.”
House Bill 917, filed by GOP Rep. John Snyder, has raised alarm bells for a short section of the bill that would ease restrictions on the types of work older teens are legally permitted to do in construction.
Most jobs in construction are considered “hazardous occupations” that are barred to minors under federal and state law, with limited exceptions for students of government-approved student learner programs or apprenticeships.
Snyder described the goal of his bill earlier this month as “opening a pathway” for older teens who don’t plan on going to college and wish to pursue work in the trades. Critics have blasted the proposal as just plain dangerous and unnecessary.
“I’m familiar with construction job sites, and job sites — even residential job sites — are dangerous,” Jim Junecko, a certified tower crane operator, said during public testimony on the bill earlier this month. “We don’t need a 16-year-old kid — that’s what they are, they’re kids at age 16 — on a job site.”
The construction industry drives the highest number of unlicensed activity complaints in the state, and is the deadliest industry for youth nationwide, behind agriculture. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, construction is also one of the most common industries in which child labor violations occur already, in addition to wage theft — which the state of Florida does not have a good track record on combating.
Supporters of the legislation have desperately attempted to downplay the provision of the bill affecting child labor standards — which admittedly makes up just a small section of the 26-page bill.
They’ve also defended the bill by pointing to proposed “safeguards” that are meant to help increase safety for teens on the job.
Under the proposal, teens aged 16 and older would need to obtain OSHA-10 certification (a 10-hour training course) to work in residential construction, and would have to work directly under the supervision of someone at least 21 years old who has received the same certification and has at least two years’ work experience.
The bill has been amended to remove the legalization of non-administrative work on commercial construction sites. Like its Senate companion, the bill also now clarifies that minors would not be permitted on any roofs, ladders, scaffolding, or superstructures more than six feet off the ground (so, nope, no more teen roofers).
Workers in the trades, however, have argued these “safeguards” to protect kids on the job are insufficient. “To see in this bill that you don’t even need someone to have a journeyman with you while you’re doing this job, and it’s just someone who has taken their OSHA 10, is very worrying,” said trades apprentice Kevin Lawhorn, 19, during a committee stop for the Senate bill last week.
“If I would have started maybe three years ago, and no journeyman …” the 19-year-old paused, then continued, “I don’t know how I would be today, if I would have been injured, if I would even be here. It’s a very dangerous job.”
There are also very few people involved with oversight to ensure construction companies and contractors are following the law as it exists now.
The agency in charge with regulating child labor in Florida told Orlando Weekly in December that they have just seven personnel dedicated to enforcing child labor standards, covering thousands of job-sites statewide.
Federal investigators, employed by an agency that’s been nearly flat-funded by Congress over the last decade, are also dealing with historically low staffing levels, as the Biden administration scrambles to implement a stronger action plan to combat child labor violations.
Industry groups, however, have been all in on the legislation. Email communications obtained by Orlando Weekly through a public records request show the Senate version of the bill was fed to its sponsor, Sen. Corey Simon, by a lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, an industry trade group that represents thousands of employers across the state.
Florida Senate
State Sen. Corey Simon (R-Tallahassee)
The same lobbyist, Carol Bowen, showed up in support of the legislation in both House and Senate committees. So has a lobbyist for the Florida Home Builders Association, which also contributed to drafting the bill language. “I told him [Snyder] we were going to give him an easy bill this session,” Bowen admitted during the bill’s first committee stop in January. “Clearly I lied, and I owe him a free year without us next year,” she joked.
Florida’s bill is one of several industry-backed bills recently introduced or enacted in state legislatures that seek to expand youth employment in hazardous occupations.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, many are backed by state affiliates of industry groups like the National Restaurant Association, the Associated Builders and Contractors, Chambers of Commerce, and special interest groups like the Naples-based Foundation for Government Accountability, which has been a driving force behind child labor rollbacks across the country.
Florida’s not missing out. Public records show the FGA drafted another child-labor related bill (HB 49) advancing through Florida’s state Legislature targeting youth work hours and mandatory breaks on the job.
That bill — and the teen construction legislation — has been watered down following significant pushback from the public. There were also concerns voiced that the legislation could conflict with federal law, as lawmakers in Iowa were made aware following the enactment of their own rollback to child labor law in 2023.
Florida’s House Bill 917, now that it’s passed the House, will head to a state Senate committee for their approval. Its Senate companion (SB 460) got its own vote of approval from the Senate last week. Both chambers need to OK legislation before it’s sent to the Governor’s Office for final approval.
NEW YORK — Macy’s will close 150 unproductive namesake stores over the next three years including 50 by year-end, the department store operator said Tuesday after posting a fourth-quarter loss and declining sales.
As part of the strategy, Macy’s aims to upgrade its remaining 350 stores, with plans to add more salespeople to fitting areas and shoe departments, while adding more visual displays like mannequins. At the same time, the company signaled a pivot to luxury, which has fared better overall. It said it would open 15 of its higher end Bloomingdale’s stores and 30 of its luxury Blue Mercury cosmetics locations.
The Macy’s stores set to close account for less than 10% of its sales, the company said.
While adjusted net income and revenue topped Wall Street expectations, Macy’s offered a muted outlook for the year.
“We are making the necessary moves to reinvigorate relationships with our customers through improved shopping experiences, relevant assortments and compelling value,” said Macy’s CEO Tony Spring, former CEO of Bloomingdale’s who succeeded Jeff Gennette earlier this month.
Shares of Macy’s rallied more than 4% in afternoon trading.
The plans come as the department store chain faces a proxy fight from Arkhouse Management which nominated a slate of nine director for election to Macy’s board last week. Last month, Macy’s rejected a $5.8 billion takeover offer from the hedge fund and Brigade Capital Management, an investment manager.
Activist investors and pressure to increase sales are just two critical issues facing the new CEO.
Even before the pandemic, department stores were facing intense competition from online rivals. Neiman Marcus and JCPenney filed for bankruptcy protection, emerging as smaller entities.
Consumers have proven resilient and willing to shop even after a bout of inflation, though behaviors have shifted, with some Americans trading down to lower priced goods.
Spring told analysts that while inflation has slowed, so has labor and wage growth.
“As such, we expect our consumer to remain under pressure,” said Spring, noting the company has to fight for market share in a tough environment. Even “aspirational” luxury shoppers have pulled back, he said.
Macy’s is maneuvering to shore up sales by accelerating the expansion of small-format stores that can provide more convenience to its customers. It announced plans in October to add up to 30 small-format locations through the fall of 2025, bringing the total number to roughly 42. The next round of expansion starts in the fall.
Yet Macy’s is still cutting jobs to lower costs. In January, Macy’s said it would trim about 3.5% of its total workforce, roughly 2,350 employees, and close five locations. Spring told The Associated Press during a phone interview that he didn’t have an estimated number of workers impacted since the closures will happen over a three-year period.
Arkhouse and Brigade offered $21 for each of the remaining shares in Macy’s they don’t already own. Macy’s said it had had concerns about the financing plan and the value of the offer.
Last week, Macy said that it was seeking additional financing information from Arkhouse and Brigade to potentially advance talks with its board. Rather than providing that additional information, Macy’s said Arkhouse sought to extend its director nomination window by 10 days.
Spring told analysts the retailer still believes in its physical footprint.
“We believe in stores,” he said. “We have to focus on making sure that we have the best stores, not the largest number of stores.”
The strategy comes after Macy’s surveyed 60,000 customers about what they liked and disliked about the shopping experience. What they found was that customers wanted less cluttered stores and more service. Macy’s also is overhauling its private brands, which help stores stand out and also have better profit margins. The company is focusing on upgrading the first group of 50 Macy’s namesake stores, which will act as “incubators,” Spring told The AP.
Macy’s had a quarterly loss of $71 million, or 26 cents per share. Adjusted for impairment and restructuring charges, Macy’s earned $2.45 per share, topping Wall Street projections for $1.98, according to FactSet.
That compares with a profit of $508 million last year in the same period.
Sales fell nearly 2% to $8.12 billion but still better than the $8.09 billion that industry analysts had expected.
Online sales decreased 4% while sales at stores were roughly flat.
Overall, comparable sales, which included sales at stores and its digital channels opened at least a year, slipped 5.4%.
At its namesake stores, sales at stores opened at least a year fell 6% including its licensed business during the latest quarter, while the metric at Bloomingdale’s was down 1.5%.
The company expects profit for the current fiscal year in the range of $2.45 to $2.85 per share, while sales should range from $22.2 billion to $22.9 billion.
Analysts were expecting an annual profit of $2.77 per share on sales of $22.81 billion.
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This story has been updated to correct that analysts are expecting Macy’s to post sales of $22.81 billion in its current fiscal year. Not $22.81.
Bank workers at a Wells Fargo branch in Apopka have officially gone public with their desire to join Wells Fargo United, a union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). This makes them the second Wells Fargo branch in Florida to seek unionization, and one of just a few nationwide.
“We continually face inadequate staffing that not only strains our ability to perform our duties effectively but undermines the quality of service we can offer to our customers,” said Noell Calas, an associate personal banker at the Apopka branch, in a prepared statement.
“Many of us have been serving Wells Fargo and its customers for over a decade with little to show for it,” Calas continued. “We are certain that through a union, we can establish a dialogue that is both respected and acted upon, ensuring that our voices are not just heard, but part of the decision-making process that affects our day-to-day life.”
Bank workers at the Apopka branch, located northwest of Orlando at 2222 E. Semoran Blvd., filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board last Wednesday — a move that triggers the process of scheduling a union election.
In an open letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, the Apopka team told Scharf that their branch — like others similarly pushing for unionization — has suffered from short-staffing, an issue they haven’t been able to resolve through existing channels for communication. They also say their current compensation levels leave them feeling “underpaid and undervalued.”
“Our aim is not to disrupt, but to enhance our working environment to benefit everyone,” reads the letter, posted online by the Committee for Better Banks, a coalition of groups fighting to organize for better wages, working conditions, and a voice on the job in the banking industry.
“Our aim is not to disrupt, but to enhance our working environment to benefit everyone”
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According to the Orlando Business Journal, Wells Fargo is the third-largest bank in the Orlando metro area, with $14.48 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2023. It’s also largely nonunion, although it’s possible that could change.
Nick Weiner, a lead organizer with the CWA, told Orlando Weekly that organizing efforts at Wells Fargo branches have been “spreading like wildfire” in recent months, with branches all across the country reaching out to the union for more information.
“They never thought that they could organize a union,” said Weiner, who has communicated with workers over platforms like Zoom. “They didn’t know that other people felt the same way.”
Just 1.7% of finance employees in the United States have union representation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wells Fargo, primarily a domestic bank, is the only major bank in the U.S. with unionized branches — and even that is only a very recent development.
A Wells Fargo branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, became the first unionized Wells Fargo branch in the country after branch employees voted to join the CWA in December 2023. Workers at a Wells Fargo branch in Daytona Beach next voted to unionize in January, after going public with their union drive the month prior.
The Daytona Beach branch, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is the first and only unionized Wells Fargo branch in Florida, and one of just four nationwide.
Two other branches (in Wilmington, Delaware, and Virginia Beach) have similarly voted to unionize, all with bargaining units of just five to eight employees each. Another branch in Alaska withdrew their petition to unionize late last year, according to NLRB records, and one branch in Atwater, California, narrowly voted against unionization in a 3–1 vote last month.
Wells Fargo, evidently scared by the idea of a union drive spreading across their branches, has been playing hardball. The union has accused Wells Fargo of deploying a number of union-busting tactics over the course of the national organizing drive, from illegally disciplining and threatening workers involved in organizing to flying in labor consultants from out of state to convince workers they don’t need a union.
Corinne Jefferson, a bank worker at the recently unionized branch in Daytona Beach, told Orlando Weekly in December that a “business executive consultant” from New York, employed by Wells Fargo, had been handing out anti-union flyers around her branch with ominous warnings about unionization.
“They’re not really giving true information,” Jefferson said of the flyers. “It’s kind of just trying to discourage the employees to back down.”
Weiner, who’s based in Washington, D.C., told Orlando Weekly that this has been a regular schtick since the launch of the national union drive: Wells Fargo will direct high-level HR people or district managers who have rarely actually visited the branches before to essentially camp out in those that have gone public with their intentions to unionize. Their goal, said Weiner, “is to sow seeds of doubt in the workers.”
Wells Fargo has, so far, refused to bend the knee to Wells Fargo branches that have requested voluntary union recognition from their employer, which would allow employees the chance to avoid an election process.
The other option, in lieu of voluntary recognition, is to file for a union election with the NLRB, which requires gathering signatures from at least 30% of employees in support of unionization. A simple majority of workers must then vote in favor of unionization for the union to be victorious.
Wells Fargo told Orlando Weekly in a statement: “We respect our employees’ rights to vote for union representation. At the same time, we continue to believe our employees are best served by working directly with the Company and its leadership.”
New organizing in a state like Florida — which has multiple anti-union policies on the books that render organizing a challenge — is a rarity, particularly in the private sector. Less than 4% of Florida’s private sector is unionized, compared to 26% of the public sector.
Even so, Central Florida is its own rare bastion of private sector union power, compared to the rest of the state. The region is home to tens of thousands of unionized Disney World employees (represented by a coalition of labor unions) and one of Florida’s only unionized Starbucks locations. There’s also a union presence at Orlando International Airport (Unite Here, 32BJ SEIU, plus the pilot and flight attendant unions), the United Parcel Service (Teamsters), the Orange County Convention Center (Unite Here), carmaker Stellantis’ Orlando auto parts depot (United Auto Workers) and elsewhere.
Weiner said that organizing campaigns at places like Starbucks — as well as banking labor unions in other parts of the world — have inspired Wells Fargo employees to organize for better working conditions, to support jobs they don’t want to leave and to have a voice on the job themselves.
The union election at the Apopka Wells Fargo branch is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19.
Yet another notable game studio is laying off a significant chunk of its workforce. Supermassive Games, the developer behind interactive horror titles and , is cutting around 90 jobs, according to . That’s nearly a third of the studio’s more than 300 employees.
Supermassive confirmed that the studio will reorganize. “As a result, we are entering into a period of consultation, which we anticipate will result in the loss of some of our colleagues,” it said. “This is not a decision that’s been taken lightly, with many efforts made to avoid this outcome.”
Supermassive notes that it’s not safe from the “significant challenges” facing the games industry. More than 6,000 workers in the industry have lost their jobs and we’re not even into March yet.
Meanwhile, indie studio Die Gute Fabrik has amid funding difficulties. The developer of Saltsea Chronicles and will use its remaining funds to give staff a month of paid time “to catch their breaths” while they look for new jobs. The studio is still seeking backers to help it resume production and hopes to bring back current team members in the future. However, it notes that “the publishing and investment scene is so tough for companies and projects of our scale right now it’s made it extremely difficult to secure funding for our next project without a gap in income.”
We’re sad to share that we’re halting production at @gutefabrik due to the challenging funding & investment scene in games right now. We downed tools earlier this month & have been doing our best to support the team who’ll be looking for work from mid-March.
As some states seek to strengthen protections for minors in the workforce, Florida lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would weaken child labor law by allowing teenagers 16 and older to work non-clerical jobs on residential construction sites.
The bill (SB 460) cleared its final Republican-dominated committee stop Thursday in a 13–4 vote. The bill will now head to the Senate floor, for a vote by the full Chamber.
The child labor provision, which has drawn opposition from social advocacy and labor organizations, is tucked within a larger bill about career and technical education programs in schools, which can include supervised courses in the construction trades.
Under federal law, minors under 18 are barred from most jobs on construction sites — save for office or sales work — with limited exceptions for minors who are employed as part of a government-approved student learner program or apprenticeship.
Email communications obtained by Orlando Weekly through a public records request show the bill was written by lobbyists for the Florida Home Builders Association and Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida — both of which have also lobbied against efforts to raise Florida’s minimum wage and have lobbied in favor of other anti-worker policies.
Carol Bowen, chief lobbyist for the ABC of Florida, emailed the draft legislation to Sen. Simon’s legislative office in October, describing herself and a lobbyist with the FHBA as “point people” for the bill.
Screenshot of email sent by ABC lobbyist to a legislative aide for Florida Sen. Simon.
The bill has drawn criticism as a “child labor rollback” proposal, coming at a time when child labor violations in the U.S. and in Florida have been on the rise. According to the Department of Labor, the number of U.S. minors found employed in violation of the law (nearly 6,000) has increased 88% since 2019.
It also fits within a broader trend of child labor law rollbacks that have been introduced and passed in state legislatures across the country in recent years, with the backing of deep-pocketed special interest groups that routinely lobby for anti-worker policies.
Sen. Simon’s office declined to comment on his collaboration with industry groups on the legislation, when reached by Orlando Weekly in January. Simon has publicly defended the bill by arguing that the goal is to increase gainful opportunities for youth.
Critics, including the Florida Parent Teachers Association and union workers in the trades, have warned of potential safety risks. The private construction industry accounts for the highest number of workplace fatalities in the state, and is the deadliest industry for youth nationwide, behind agriculture.
Construction is also one of the most common industries in which child labor violations occur, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. During a previous hearing on the legislation, co-sponsor Sen. Keith Perry argued that, if employers are breaking the law already — by allowing kids to work hazardous jobs — this bill by and large would not change that.
“I started roofing when I was 16 years old. I started my business when I was 17 years old — which was illegal, is still illegal, and will be illegal under this bill,” said Perry, who owns a roofing company that has been cited by the federal government in the past for wage theft. “People who break the law are not going to follow the law anyway, whether this bill is passed or not.”
The legislation has garnered support not just from Republican lawmakers — who generally vote in step with one another — but also several Democrats, who feel confident with changes made through the amendment process that have watered down the proposed rollback to child labor protections.
The original version of the legislation, for instance, would have allowed teens 16 and older to work on commercial construction sites, in addition to residential. It also would have allowed teens 16 and older to work on roofs, scaffolding, and superstructures — with no limit on how high those constructions could be.
As amended — following pressure from the public — the bill would instead only allow those older teens to work in residential construction and would maintain a prohibition on allowing minors to work on roofs, scaffolding or superstructures more than six feet off the ground.
The bill does have certain safeguards. The bill prohibits any work by minors that would violate federal child labor or OSHA rules. Older teens would need to first obtain OSHA-10 certification, and would need to work under the supervision of an adult 21 or older who has at least two years’ experience in the industry.
Bill opponents, however, point to the fact that available supervision on construction sites in Florida is already lacking, according to employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the OSHA-10 license offers insufficient training.
“To see in this bill that you don’t even need someone to have a journeyman with you while you’re doing this job, and it’s just someone who has taken their OSHA 10 is very worrying,” said Kevin Lawhorn, a 19-year-old apprentice in the trades who testified in front of senators Thursday.
“If I would have started maybe three years ago, and no journeyman …” Lawhorn paused, then continued, “I don’t know how I would be today, if I would have been injured, if I would even be here. It’s a very dangerous job.”
There are also few personnel to actually ensure construction companies and contractors are following the law, as it is.
A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which enforces Florida’s child labor law, told Orlando Weekly in December that they have just seven personnel dedicated to the task of enforcing the law across thousands of job sites statewide.
The federal government also has enforcement personnel in the state, plus investigators from OSHA, but experts say — due to flat-funding from Congress and consequent understaffing — that federal enforcement is also lacking in the states.
Unlike cases of minimum wage or overtime violations, there is also no right to private action for child labor violations under state or federal law.
This means victims and their parents can’t sue employers for child labor violations on their own; the only way to enforce child labor law is through the government. Colorado recently enacted its own law to, at the very least, allow minors who are injured on the job to sue for damages.
Minors 14 and older can work a number of jobs legally in the state — in grocery stores, convenience shops, movie theaters and more.
But supporters of the bill say that construction jobs can pay better. They also point to a labor shortage in the industry that is expected to worsen as workers age and retire.
The bill also garnered additional criticism from workers in the trades Thursday for language in the bill that, according to their interpretation, could undermine the journeyman licensing process in the state. “It really eliminates the ability of cities and counties to issue [journeyman] licenses, and to make sure qualified people are on these jobs,” said electrician James Ingle, president of an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) local in Gainesville.
For this reason, Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones, who voted in favor of the bill during a previous committee hearing, said he was a ‘No’ vote for the time being.
Sen. Simon, the bill sponsor, said he’s “always open to learn” from various stakeholders about how to improve the bill and to give kids the ability to do work in the trades “as safely as possible.”
“Nobody up here in this room wants to put our kids in harm’s way unnecessarily,” Simon said in closing. “And we’ll continue to strengthen this bill as we move forward.”
If passed by the full Senate, the legislation would still need to be approved by the Florida House, where a similar companion bill has also been advancing. If approved by both chambers, the legislation would then head to the Governor’s Office for DeSantis’ final approval.
Meanwhile, another child labor-related bill (HB 49), gutting restrictions on the number of hours that minors 16 and older can work during the school year, already passed the Florida House earlier this month. It would also explicitly allow home-schooled children to work during school hours, which is currently prohibited. The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Rules committee Monday afternoon.
For the past several months, Tesla has been locked in a battle of wills with the labor unions of Sweden. The company’s refusal to ratify a collective bargaining agreement with a small number of workers associated with the Swedish union IF Metall has led to boycotts by other regional unions, turning what should have been a quickly resolved dispute into an ongoing disaster for the electric car company.
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This week, yet another humiliation was visited upon the firm: An additional labor union has decided to take action against the car manufacturer, and this time the end result could be the stifling of Tesla charging stations throughout the country. The Swedish Union for Service and Communications Employees, or Seko, published a statement Wednesday, announcing it would be initiating a “sympathy” action against Tesla over its anti-union policies:
“IF Metall’s fight is also our fight. By refusing to comply with the rules of the game here in Sweden, Tesla is trying to gain a competitive advantage by giving the workers worse wages and conditions than they would have with a collective agreement. It is of course completely unacceptable. The fight that IF Metall is now taking is important for the entire Swedish collective agreement model. That is why we have chosen to issue another sympathy notice and increase the pressure on Tesla.”
The impact here could be bad for Tesla, as Seko, which does important electrical work throughout the country, has promised to halt all “planning, preparation, new connections, network expansion, service, maintenance and repairs regarding all of the car brand Tesla’s charging stations in Sweden.” Elektrek has noted that the move could stop the launch of all new Tesla Superchargers within the country.
Over the past several months, unions throughout Sweden and other parts of Europe have banded together to protect Scandinavia’s labor model from Tesla’s attempted disruption. So-called “sympathy” actions or strikes are a method by which unions not directly connected to a particular conflict can express their support and put pressure on an offending company. As a result, Tesla’s headquarters in Sweden have been subjected to a number of actions. Dock workers, electricians, postal workers, and even garbage collectors have all abandoned the company’s offices, causing serious issues for the company.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has made it clear that he doesn’t like unions—which doesn’t make him particularly unique, as far as the billionaire-class goes. That said, Musk’s anti-union stance is particularly pronounced, even among his peers. He has repeatedly expressed his disdain for collective bargaining and, during one particularly inspired bout of rhetorical bullshit, said of organized labor: “I just don’t like anything which creates kind of a lords and peasants sort of thing”—which is an amazing statement coming from a guy whose cumulative wealth rivals that of any feudal lord in history.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., February 20, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– The first study of K–12 school food staff shortages in California revealed the rate of unfilled positions in the state’s school food programs is three times higher than unfilled positions for U.S. public school teachers. High vacancy rates negatively impact schools’ ability to provide access to and serve students healthy, appetizing meals. The study was conducted by California School Nutrition Association and Chef Ann Foundation in partnership with Food Insight Group.
In 2022, California became the first state to implement a universal meals program, which offers free breakfast and lunch to all K–12 students. Expanding access to school meals has required more school food staff to meet increased demand while maintaining or improving the quality of meals.
“California is leading the nation in school food reform — it has worthwhile and ambitious goals for supporting the lifelong health and success of kids,” said Josh Rogers, California School Nutrition Association’s co-chair for the Public Policy and Legislation Committee. “The next step is to address the barriers to realizing the state’s commendable vision, which includes developing long-term solutions to school food staff shortages that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and remain pervasive.”
Food service directors within California’s School Food Authorities submitted data to the study during the 2022-23 school year. The results revealed that School Food Authorities had a combined vacancy rate of 12% and turnover rate of 13%, considerably higher than the nationwide food accommodation and service industry, state and local education industry, and California statewide industry rates.
Food service directors who participated in the study noted a perceived gap between the knowledge and skill required for positions compared to the wages they offered, and difficulty competing with fast food or retail jobs. “The work we do is physically demanding and takes training and skill. It’s not the stereotype of the ‘lunch lady,’” one California food service director said.
The research also illustrated how high vacancy and turnover rates can negatively impact the quality of school meals. “Without a larger, more robust school food workforce, our collective vision of providing fresh, healthy, scratch-made school meals remains out of reach,” Chef Ann Foundation CEO Mara Fleishman said. “It’s imperative we address this challenge to fulfill our aspirations for healthier kids and a more sustainable planet.”
Chef Ann Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to ensure school food professionals have the support they need to prepare fresh, scratch-cooked meals that support the health of children and the planet.
California School Nutrition Associationstrives to educate and empower its members to provide healthy school meals to foster environments where children achieve overall wellness and lifelong success.
Food Insight Group is a food systems research and policy firm that partners with institutions, philanthropic foundations, and community-based organizations to develop innovative solutions to food system challenges.
Thousands of ride-hailing and delivery workers in the U.S. and the U.K. went on strike on Valentineâs Day, calling for higher pay and other changes to their working conditions.
In the U.S., Uber and Lyft drivers planned daylong strikes in Chicago; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Miami; Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Hartford, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; Austin, Texas; and Providence, Rhode Island. Drivers were also holding midday demonstrations at airports in those cities, according to Justice for App Workers, the group organizing the effort.
Meanwhile, U.K. delivery drivers for Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Stuart said they would turn off their apps and refuse deliveries between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. The group Delivery Job U.K., which called for the walkout, said on Instagram that the strike was âa crucial opportunity to be seen and heard by society.â
Of eight delivery drivers who spoke with The Associated Press on the streets of London on Wednesday, all but one said they planned to halt work at 5 p.m. Several, however, questioned whether the strike was long enough to make enough of a financial dent in the businesses.
âOne day is not effective,â said Evadur Rahman. âIf we strike more than one day â two, three, four days â theyâre gonna be affected.â
Rahman, a Deliveroo driver who planned to participate in the strike, said his daily pay dropped in recent months from about 140 pounds ($175) for eight hours of work to around 100 pounds ($126). He said he wanted the company to raise the minimum rate it pays per order from 2.90 pounds ($3.64) to closer to 5 pounds ($6.28).
âThey must improve the minimum pay,â Rahman said. âItâs not enough for survival in this country.â
Justice for App Workers estimated that thousands of drivers stopped working Wednesday, and said that workers in 12 or more cities beyond the original 10 had held impromptu demonstrations. Delivery Job U.K. had expected 3,000 people to strike.
Jocilyn Floyd, who has been driving for Uber for nearly a decade, joined the picket line Wednesday at OâHare International Airport in Chicago.
âUber has proven time and time again that theyâre putting profits over people. In shareholder meetings they discuss profits; thereâs no question about safety, protection from deactivation or compensation,â Floyd said.
Uber said Wednesday that the strike wasnât hurting driver availability or customer demand.
âDespite the headlines, weâve seen no impact to our operations or reliability for riders. In fact, in most markets there are more drivers on the road today than there were during the same period last week,â an Uber spokesperson said.
Uber and other companies that rely on self-employed gig workers say those workers appreciate the flexibility of the job. But many gig workers are pushing to unionize, saying that would give them the ability to bargain over compensation, safety measures and other benefits.
In November, that unionization effort saw a setback in the U.K., when Britainâs top court ruled that Deliveroo couriers donât have collective bargaining rights because they arenât considered employees.
Deliveroo said Wednesday that it has a voluntary partnership with a union that includes annual discussions on pay and it also provides couriers with free insurance and sick pay.
âRider retention rates are high and the overwhelming majority of riders tell us that they are satisfied working with us,â the company said in a statement.
Rachel Gumpert, the spokesperson for Justice for App Workers, described ride-hailing as a âmobile sweatshop,â with some workers routinely putting in 60 to 80 hours per week. Justice for App Workers, which says it represents 130,000 ride-hailing and delivery workers, is seeking higher wages, access to health care and an appeals process so companies canât deactivate drivers without warning.
But ride-hailing companies say they already pay a fair wage and have an appeals process in place for deactivations.
Earlier this month, Lyft said it began guaranteeing that drivers will make at least 70% of their fares each week, and it lays out its fees more clearly for drivers in a new earnings statement. Lyft also unveiled a new in-app button that lets drivers appeal deactivation decisions.
âWe are constantly working to improve the driver experience,â Lyft said in a statement. Its U.S. drivers make an average of $30.68 per hour, or $23.46 per hour after expenses, Lyft said.
Uber said its U.S. drivers make an average of $33 per hour. The company also said it allows drivers to dispute deactivations.
Aya Pastry was a rare pandemic success story. While Chicagoans anxiously navigated the early days of COVID, the desire for comfort foods increased, and baker Aya Fukai — who rose through Chicago’s culinary ranks using her imagination and creativity as pastry chef at highly profitable Gold Coast hot spot Maple & Ash — was there with her baked goods: Fukai took inspiration from a variety of sources, including Girl Scout Cookies, which pushed her to create a supercharged doughnut, a decadent treat that looks like a Samoa cookie. Coffeehouses around town turned to Aya to supply pastries, and the bakery’s wholesale operation boomed, counting more than 50 clients including large grocery stores like Dom’s Kitchen & Market and independent coffee shops like Gaslight Coffee Roasters.
But behind the scenes, Fukai wasn’t exactly enjoying her tremendous success. She quietly left the bakery in October. Fukai’s exit came just 10 months after her backers at What If Syndicate dissolved the company. What If co-founder David Pisor brought Aya Pastry under his newly formed entity, Etta Collective.
Few knew about Fukai’s exit, as her name remained on the signs. She says that her deal to sell her 51 percent stake in the bakery for $700,000 closed on October 3. Meanwhile, Pisor told Eater on January 17 that she was still with the bakery.
Aya Pastry is just one of the dominoes to fall in Pisor’s restaurant empire, an empire that at one point consisted of five restaurants in three states. In the past month, Pisor closed the River North location of Etta and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers for Etta Collective and Etta River North. On the same day, Thursday, February 1, his attorney made two more bankruptcy filings — one for Etta Bucktown and another for Aya Pastry. The Aya filing revealed Pisor owed $500,000 to Fukai (she received $200,000 upon closing, it went mostly to attorneys fees, she says). A fifth filing had been made on January 18 involving Etta in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are also reports of a $2.5 million loan defaulting and eviction orders, according to Crain’s. The Chapter 11 filings would allow the businesses to continue, and although messaging directed to customers indicate that things are business as usual, questions remain about Etta’s future. Also, plans for a suburban Etta location in Evanston are on hold, Pisor confirms.
Workers said they only received two hours’ notice before Etta River North closed.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
“Our aim is to best position the Etta brand for future success,” a statement provided to Eater from Pisor and his reps reads. “By filing for protection under Chapter 11, we will be able to restructure our financial position while continuing our daily operations and keeping our locations open. As has already happened in our Scottsdale location, we predict that we will emerge stronger both operationally and financially.”
Former workers have been calling out Etta Collective for months, alleging that the company left them without health care. Their final paychecks also arrived two days late. Fukai, along with 11 former Etta employees — servers, bartenders, and operations staff — from River North and Bucktown provide an inside look into the seeming slow-rolling collapse of a national restaurant group. Etta’s Chicago workers saw warning signs of the downfall in August when Etta Collective narrowly dodged eviction at its Culver City location and laid off 10 workers including a handful at the corporate level. The cost-cutting continued as nine Etta River North workers claimed that they saw lapses in their health care coverage despite having premiums deducted from their paychecks. They accuse Pisor and management of allegedly misleading customers about the distribution of a 3.5 percent staff benefits fee added to customer checks. Most have requested their names be kept out of the story for fear of being labeled as outspoken as they search for new hospitality jobs. Some say they are worried about becoming a target of what they describe as Pisor’s litigious temperament.
After the settlement, Pisor quickly touted the arrivals of three forthcoming restaurants in an afternoon interview with Eater on January 22 — Etta Evanston, Etta Dallas, and a yet-to-be-announced Downtown Chicago steakhouse. Yet the bankruptcy filings include a list of unpaid vendors across sectors — restaurant, health care, and construction — that may put the three projects in jeopardy. Familiar names like Slagel Family Farm, Sysco, Kilgus Farmstead, and Supreme Lobster are owed thousands of dollars, according to these filings.
“He’s got open tabs all around the city,” alleges a source who works in construction and design.
In a written response about money owed to vendors, Pisor writes that Etta filed for Chapter 11 in part to ensure day-to-day operations to restructure and “work to resolve those payments.”
Etta Collective’s decline comes in the aftermath of a split between Pisor and former business partner Jim Lasky following a legal battle that started in March 2022. The two opened Maple & Ash, in 2015 in Chicago’s Gold Coast. They went on to form What If Syndicate and opened a Maple & Ash in Scottsdale. However, along the way, Lasky and Pisor’s relationship became strained, according to court documents. In January 2023, the pair agreed to split What If into two companies. Pisor formed Etta Collective, taking Etta restaurants in River North and Bucktown, Aya Pastry, and Cafe Sophie in Gold Coast. Lasky formed Maple Hospitality Group, taking Maple & Ash, one of the highest-grossing restaurants in the country, according to Restaurant Business Online.
Pisor’s employees in this new company, Etta Collective, say the split was an unwelcome change. Fukai alleges it was made without her knowledge or input, despite her being the majority owner of Aya Pastry. Though she’s come to terms with leaving the business that bears her name, she is considering pursuing legal action against Pisor after seeing the bankruptcy filing.
Many other former employees believe they would still be employed under different leadership.
“Pisor was the only thing wrong with that company,” former Etta River North server Drew Riebhoff alleges of Etta Collective.
Pisor earned a reputation as a developer with big ideas. As a restaurateur, he relished creating lavish dining rooms. Before Maple & Ash, he served as the chief executive officer of Elysian Hotels and was a prolific real estate developer. In 2015, Lasky and Pisor founded Maple & Ash. Building on the success of that first steakhouse, the partners, along with executive chef and Elysian alum Danny Grant, opened a second location four years later in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Maple & Ash brought a brasher attitude compared to traditional steakhouses. It had to, as it takes guts to open a steakhouse on the perimeter of what Chicagoans have nicknamed “the Viagra Triangle,” with Morton’s and Gibsons already surrounding Mariano Park. Pisor and Lasky debuted a new brand centered on one of the trends of the moment: kitchens with wood-fired hearths.
An approach that mixed fine dining with approachable irreverence earned Maple & Ash national attention; then-Eater critic Bill Addison hailed the team for its embrace of “the steakhouse motif with unfettered playfulness.” Addison continued, “[Grant] oversees a 12-foot hearth that breathes fire over rows of steaks, as well as a coal-burning oven that produces the kitchen’s greatest stroke of genius: a seafood tower of roasted shrimp, oysters, lobster, Alaskan King Crab legs, and other oceanic treasures, kissing the shellfish with smoke and concentrating their flavors.”
When Etta Bucktown, a more casual restaurant than Maple & Ash, opened in 2018, customers soon made it one of the hottest tables in town, too. A prototypical neighborhood restaurant and easily scaled, a second Etta soon opened in River North with a third following in Culver City, California.
But the partnership reached a breaking point during the pandemic. Maple & Ash became caught up in a scandal over vaccinations earmarked for a safety net hospital on Chicago’s West Side. A Maple & Ash regular, the former chief operating officer of Loretto Hospital, broke protocol and secured a supply of COVID vaccines for the steakhouse’s staff. While all of this was going on, restaurants across the country fought for every dollar and applied for PPP funds, and staff donned masks to keep safe. Pisor and Lasky’s relationship continued to erode.
David Pisor came up with much of the design for Maple & Ash, the steakhouse he and Jim Lasky opened before the two split in January 2023.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
A lawsuit filed by Pisor in April 2022 alleged that Lasky and Grant were freezing him out of the company. A counter-lawsuit accused Pisor of allegedly showing up to a female employee’s house late at night unannounced. Rumors began to circulate on both sides, but before the powder keg could explode, Pisor and Lasky agreed to a settlement in January 2023, splitting the company and keeping any other stories away from the public eye.
Today, Pisor’s empire appears in shambles, and his former business partner at Maple & Ash, Lasky, is defending allegations of PPP fraud levied by restaurant investors. The claims of PPP abuse were used as punchlines during the 2024 Jean Banchet Awards, which recognizes local chefs and restaurants. On stage in January, host Michael Muser, a co-owner of two-Michelin-starred Ever, joked about the alleged purchase of a private jet using taxpayer funds that were supposed to benefit employees. But Maple & Ash’s reputation and brand, at least in the eyes of customers, remains strong. The steakhouse continues to attract crowds in Gold Coast and Scottsdale.
Maple & Ash’s owners declined to comment for this story.
Pisor had big plans in 2023 after breaking away from Lasky. In March, he hired a pair of big names with Michelin-star resumes. Alinea Group alum Dan Perretta served as a partner and executive chef. He brought over Micah Melton, the former beverage director of the Aviary — the upscale cocktail lounge operated by Alinea. Buoyed by a fresh start and new personnel, Pisor teased expansion through a series of media announcements in the spring and early summer. But by August, Melton was laid off and Perretta had quit, allegedly in protest of the layoffs.
For service staff, Etta looked like a great place to work from the outside. The company’s promise to pay 70 percent of medical expenses for employees was particularly attractive. But after those August layoffs — which included firing managers who handled payroll — Etta workers allege that they received mixed messages from management regarding their paychecks and benefits. One ex-employee claims he was told by a manager that Etta had underpaid him in August and that he would receive the missing amount in the next week’s paycheck. When the following payday arrived, he claims he was told he owed money to the restaurant because he was overpaid. Complicating matters, according to workers, was an alleged lapse in dental and vision coverage between July 31 and December 5. Eater reviewed emails from insurance provider Guardian and Etta that backed the claim.
“It was just becoming this big, big process of confusion and lies,” a former River North worker alleges.
In an interview from January and a written statement, Pisor denies any lapses, claiming Etta provided “same-day reimbursement checks” and payments before appointments.
Eater has reviewed worker pay stubs from January 2024 showing the deductions (around $15.56 bimonthly for dental and $67.14 for health insurance for employees without dependents). Another worker tells Eater that their dentist told them their “insurance was no longer active.” They claim management never bothered to tell workers.
“I got a call from my dentist for like $500 because they said that they canceled our insurance in August, but we had still been paying premiums since then,” that same worker says. “And that has been taken out of our checks.”
Similarly, Etta server Riebhoff received a letter dated December 12 from Guardian stating dental coverage had been terminated on July 31 before coverage was reinstated. Workers pushed back during a December pre-shift meeting and benefits were restored retroactively to August. Management allegedly told workers they would be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket health care expenses incurred during the lapse in coverage.
“All employees who attended their appointments and submitted a claim to us received a manual check reimbursement from us directly out of pocket, as we did not want any employee to have to fund their own vision and dental appointments while the billing dispute was still being resolved,” Pisor responded.
In January, Pisor told Eater that the health care concerns were not as widespread as alleged by employees, attributing the claim to just one outspoken worker complaining. However, Eater spoke with eight other employees who shared similar concerns about dental and vision coverage. Pisor added that Etta was in a dispute with Guardian, saying the insurance company overcharged Etta following its August layoffs.
Guardian does not appear on the restaurant’s bankruptcy filing as one of the vendors to whom Etta River North owes money. In a statement, Pisor writes that Etta and Guardian agreed to a payment plan in mid-December after receiving a notice on December 7 from Guardian, giving Etta its 30-day notice that it would discontinue coverage due to nonpayment. However, a $10,042.39 debt to United Healthcare appears on the Etta Collective filing.
Aya Fukai says she left Aya Pastry in October 2023.Aya Pastry
Workers want to know what their deductions were spent on. They also received notice of open enrollment going from December 20 to December 29, 2023. An email sent to workers dated December 29, 2023, announced that the dispute with Guardian had been settled. A representative from Etta’s dental and vision provider, Guardian, declined most questions but did say that Etta is no longer a client.
Etta also tacked on a 3.5 percent fee for customers, presenting it as a payment for “staff benefits.” Workers claim that’s not the case and allege the money goes toward credit card processing fees.
“We were required through management to tell people that that was to go toward our health care,” a former Etta worker alleges.
Pisor’s statement denies this claim, saying the charge is meant to cover health care: “We do not offer discounts for cash, nor do we communicate with customers in that manner.”
Multiple former workers, including Riebhoff, allege that they were told by managers that “if [customers are] paying with cash, we take that service charge off.”
Riebhoff continues, “Yep, I guess if you pay cash, you don’t have to help people with insurance.”
Former Etta workers claim pettiness played a role in the company’s fall, citing numerous instances of Pisor’s hubris. A former employee says they believe “it would be thriving” and alleges that Pisor “completely gutted the restaurant of all of its heart and soul.”
The menu changed so much that regular customers couldn’t recognize the restaurant they once enjoyed; management removed popular items like oysters, ricotta pillows, and fire pie. “They just didn’t want anything that Danny [Grant] created on our menu,” Riebhoff says.
A manager allegedly told Riebhoff that the decision to remove specific dishes was a reaction to the loss of chef Grant after What If’s split. Pisor dismissed that conclusion as untrue speculation, saying while dishes change due to seasonality, the classics remain. In addition, three workers and a source familiar with operations say that to underscore that feeling, someone had defaced a photo of Grant at Etta Bucktown, drawing a penis on the picture.
“That’s how petty that they were about the Danny Grant situation,” a former worker says. “And that’s up at the restaurant for employees to see and walk past every day.”
Cafe Sophie next found footing in Gold Coast.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
Pisor writes, “to the best of my knowledge, there’s no photo of Danny Grant in the restaurant with graffiti on it” and that “if I had been aware of any such photo, I would have had it removed and made sure we addressed that issue with staff immediately.”
Grant declined a request for comment.
A source familiar with Etta’s operations says they were stunned by how quickly the chain’s financials soured right after the split with Lasky in January 2023. That source claims Pisor didn’t realize that restaurants in Chicago slow down in the winter months and make the majority of money after March. Part of the reason, the source alleges, was that Pisor didn’t make any adjustments to his lifestyle, thinking he could live his life as if he was still a co-owner of Maple & Ash, which reported $32 million in sales in 2023. He wanted badly to see Etta succeed on the national level but Etta wasn’t ready to expand that quickly at that scale, the source says.
Pride also seems to have fueled Pisor’s desire to open another steakhouse — showing Grant and Lasky that he could exceed the success of Maple & Ash without them. Pisor had an opportunity to partner on a new restaurant at One Illinois Center. Maple & Ash’s reputation impressed the project’s owner who sought to replicate that success. But in the wake of the bankruptcy filings and eviction notes, the project owner confirms they have severed ties with Pisor. They declined further comment, stating they didn’t want their name in the story and didn’t want anything to do with Pisor. Two other sources allege that the owner was continually embarrassed by Pisor’s recent headlines.
Engineers, architects, and management companies haven’t been paid for a $5 million project that includes a new Etta in Evanston. Construction was supposed to start there in mid-February, but parties are pulling out of the project: “As far as right now, that project is dead,” a construction source says.
Pisor described Evanston as “on hold” and that Etta Collective’s focus is on restructuring.
Pisor’s attitude toward flipping the page in teasing new projects without facing accountability irked his former employees. The day he closed Etta River North, Pisor told Eater Chicago he had worked out a deal with his landlord to open a new restaurant in the space.
“When he said he was going to open a new restaurant in that space, that was a bit infuriating for me,” a former worker says. “Because if that is the case, why were we not informed about this and given the option to maybe pursue a future with the company?”
As the bankruptcies get sorted, there are parties interested in buying Etta from Pisor. Court documents identified John Leahy, who owns Lulu’s in Waikiki, Hawai’i, as a stalking horse investor. “He is a long-time colleague who is interested in helping us restructure and emerge stronger from this bankruptcy,” according to Pisor. “Each entity is being restructured so that we can emerge stronger from the filing. We’re excited to start growing again once we come out the other side of this.”
While Pisor talks expansion, grassroots campaigns from restaurant workers, including the activists at the CHAAD Project, have mounted with a goal of alerting members of the hospitality industry of Pisor and Etta Collective’s reputation.
Pisor writes that he’s unaware of such campaigns and feels Etta treats workers well: “We take very good care of them, and we have employees who have been with us for five years. We’re very proud of the team we’ve built.”
That’s contrary to Riebhoff’s frustrations which have built for months.
“In the court documents for the Scottsdale bankruptcy, there is a quote from him saying, ‘I want to keep this place open so I don’t negatively impact my employees there,’” Riebhoff says. “Meanwhile, he closes Etta River North two hours before our shift with no communication whatsoever. I fucking worked for Lettuce [Entertain You Enterprises] during COVID, and R.J. Melman called us to tell us about it — everyone. So for him to just like not acknowledge it at all, to have zero sympathy or empathy, is fucking disgusting.”
Etta River North remains closed even though lights are turned on and tables set as though the restaurant is ready to serve customers. On the morning of Wednesday, February 7, Rieboff was greeted by the sound of 30 or so text messages. He wasn’t surprised with what he read. He and his former coworkers were supposed to receive their last paycheck from Etta, but the payments didn’t come through. So he and four former workers gathered that afternoon outside Etta Bucktown with signs to protest.
“A lot of industry people live check by check, where’s their money?” they yelled. “They have new concepts even though they’re broke!”
Former Etta River North server Drew Riebhoff holds up a sign at a protest in front of Etta’s Bucktown location.Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago
A former Etta worker holds up two signs outside the Bucktown location.Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago
Eater reviewed a text from Rieboff to Etta Bucktown manager Max Ostrowski asking about the status of the paychecks. Ostrowski replied that payment should pop up in 24 to 48 hours, “but if Bucktown gets shut down [because] of protest, then the courts could shut us down and we can’t pay anyone and it would be tied up in courts for months.”
That night, Pisor sent out an email to those former workers, writing that “this payment delay was not expected, the court has approved payment, and we anticipate that the funding process will only take a few days.”
On the afternoon of Friday, February 9, Rieboff told Eater that he received his payment and that he was shocked that no insurance premiums were deducted from his paycheck.
As news spread about Aya Pastry’s bankruptcy on Tuesday, February 13, Pisor’s teams sent out an email newsletter to the bakery’s customers: “Aya continues to operate and add new clients to our roster. What does this mean for you, our valued patrons? Operations as usual. We remain dedicated to producing great breads, cakes and pastries that you’ve come to expect, and our day-to-day operations will continue without interruption.”
A similar email was also sent to Etta Bucktown’s customers, a message that addressed the protest earlier in the week, reassuring potential diners that payments were “sent less than 36 hours after they were due” and that management was “filled with optimism about the future.”
Neither message included any mention of Fukai’s departure. When reached, Fukai, who had already seen the Aya Pastry email, said she felt the message “seemed misleading.” Pisor, in a statement, writes that Etta Collective promoted a worker who had been with the bakery for four and a half years to lead Aya Pastry.
Fukai, who already received $200,000 of Aya’s $700,000 sale price from Pisor, wonders if she’ll see the remainder after five years of building the bakery. She empathizes with Rieboff and Etta’s other workers. Though she’s had since October to extricate herself from the bakery, she needs a reset.
“I’ve been working so hard, and I had so many responsibilities, so I’m taking a little break,” Fukai says.
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