Tag: RSBI:LITIGATION

Strike at Canada’s Pacific ports ends with tentative, 4-year deal

[1/5]Union members with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) remove strike signs from a picket line outside the despatch hall in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada July 13, 2023. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 13 (Reuters) – Dock workers at ports along Canada’s Pacific coast and their employers accepted a tentative wage deal on Thursday, ending a 13-day strike that disrupted trade at the country’s busiest ports and risked worsening inflation.

“The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada are pleased to advise that the parties have reached a tentative agreement on a new 4-year deal,” the BCMEA said in a statement.

The ILWU also said there was an agreement, which must now be ratified by both sides. The union had made demands including wage increases and expansion of their jurisdiction to regular maintenance work on terminals.

Some 7,500 dock workers represented by the ILWU walked off the job on July 1 after failing to reach a new work contract with the BCMEA representing the companies involved.

The strike upended operations at two of Canada’s three busiest ports, the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert – key gateways for exporting the country’s natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials.

Economists have warned that the strike could trigger more supply-chain disruptions and fuel inflation while the Bank of Canada tries to cool the economy.

“The scale of the disruption has been significant,” Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a joint statement.

“We do not want to be back here again. Deals like this, made between parties at the collective bargaining table, are the best way to prevent that.”

On Tuesday, O’Regan said the differences between the parties were not sufficient to justify a continued work stoppage.

He offered terms drafted by a federal mediator and gave the union and employers 24 hours to decide if they were satisfied. The deal was reached at 10:20 am PT (1720 GMT), 10 minutes before the deadline, the ILWU said.

The parties, with help from federal mediators, had been negotiating a new contract since late April.

More than half of Canadian small business owners in a survey released on Tuesday said the strike at the Port of Vancouver will affect their operations, according to preliminary results from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The strike is estimated to have disrupted C$6.5 billion of cargo movement at the ports, based on the industry body Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters’ calculation of about C$500 million in disrupted trade each day.

Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa, editing by Deepa Babington, Alexandra Hudson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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July 13, 2023
UPS strike could be costliest in US in a century, study says

July 13 (Reuters) – A threatened U.S. strike at United Parcel Service (UPS.N) could be “one of the costliest in at least a century,” topping $7 billion for a 10-day work stoppage, a think tank specializing in the economic impact of labor actions said on Thursday.

That estimate from Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG) includes UPS customer losses of $4 billion and lost direct wages of more than $1 billion. A 15-day UPS strike in 1997 disrupted the supply of goods, cost the world’s biggest parcel delivery firm $850 million and sent some customers to rivals like FedEx (FDX.N).

Roughly 340,000 union-represented UPS workers handle about a quarter of U.S. parcel deliveries and serve virtually every city and town in the nation. A strike could delay millions of daily deliveries, including Amazon.com (AMZN.O) orders, electronic components and lifesaving prescription drugs, shipping experts warned. They added this also could reignite supply-chain snarls that stoke inflation.

A strike by roughly 340,000 U.S. workers at the world’s biggest package delivery firm threatens to delay millions of shipments, snarl supply chains and send shipping costs higher.

Talks are deadlocked between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.

The Teamsters have vowed to strike if a deal is not ratified before the current contract expires at midnight on July 31.

“Consumers are going to feel this within days,” AEG CEO Patrick Anderson said of a potential strike, adding his analysis does not include the human cost of disruption to shipments of critical and perishable medicines to treat cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

A sticking point in negotiations is pay increases for part-time workers who account for roughly half the UPS workforce. Tenured part-timers are particularly frustrated because they make just slightly more than new hires whose wages have jumped in a tight labor market.

Anderson said a UPS employee walkout would be a bigger risk to the U.S. economy than a work stoppage by UAW workers at the “Detroit Three” automakers, who started contract talks on Thursday.

He noted that the automaker talks cover fewer workers and have a limited geographic impact. In fiscal 2019, GM’s (GM.N) fourth-quarter profit took a $3.6 billion hit from a 40-day UAW strike that shut down its profitable U.S. operations.

UPS is urging Teamster negotiators to return to the bargaining table, but union officials say UPS needs to sweeten its offer for workers who risked their lives during the pandemic to help the company generate outsized profits.

UPS faces two unappealing choices, Stifel analyst Bruce Chan said in a recent note: Risk a strike and resulting customer losses or acquiesce to Teamster demands that could worsen the company’s labor cost disadvantage versus nonunion rivals in an inflationary environment.

“Both situations would create pain for UPS, so it could just be a question of when and how the company wants to take its medicine,” Chan said.

Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, additional reporting by Priyamvada C in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Lisa Baertlein covers the movement of goods around the world, with emphasis on ocean transport and last-mile delivery. In her free time, you’ll find her sailing, painting or exploring state and national parks.

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July 13, 2023
In victory for labor unions, Michigan governor repeals ‘right-to-work’ law

March 24 (Reuters) – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Friday signed a package of bills repealing the state’s so-called “right to work” law that allowed workers to opt out of unions, a long-sought victory for labor organizers facing an era of diminished power.

Whitmer became the first governor since the 1960s to roll back right-to-work legislation. Twenty-six other U.S. states and the territory of Guam still have right-to-work laws on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“Michigan workers are the most talented and hard-working in the world and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Whitmer, a two-term Democrat, said in a statement.

Michigan House Bills 4004 and 4007 and Senate Bill 34 passed the Democratic-controlled state legislature earlier this month. House Bill 4007 requires that contractors hired by the state pay a so-called prevailing wage, the amount used when hiring union workers.

The Michigan state legislature, controlled at the time by Republicans, in 2012 passed a right-to-work law over the objections of union activists. It was signed into law by then-Governor Rick Snyder, also a Republican.

Republicans opposed repealing that law this year, arguing that it would hurt businesses and make the state less attractive to companies.

Union membership has declined sharply in the United States since its peak in the 1950s, when more than a third of workers belonged to a union.

Membership dropped to an all-time low of 10.1% in 2022 despite a surge in organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released in January by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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March 25, 2023
Southwest Airlines is sued for not providing refunds after meltdown

NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) has been sued by a passenger who said it failed to provide refunds to passengers left stranded when an operational meltdown led the carrier to cancel more than 15,000 flights late last month.

In a proposed class action filed on Dec. 30 in New Orleans federal court, Eric Capdeville accused Southwest of breach of contract after a fierce winter storm that swept across the United States shortly before Christmas upended the carrier’s schedule.

Though Southwest has promised to reimburse passengers for expenses, Capdeville said it offered only a credit to him and his daughter after scrapping their Dec. 27 flight to Portland, Oregon from New Orleans and being unable to book alternative travel.

Affected passengers “cannot use their airline tickets through no fault of their own and they are not getting the benefit of their bargain with defendant,” the complaint said.

Capdeville, a Marrero, Louisiana resident, is seeking damages for passengers on Southwest flights canceled since Dec. 24, and who did not receive refunds or expense reimbursements.

In a statement on Tuesday, Southwest had no comment on the lawsuit, but said it had “several high priority efforts underway to do right by our customers, including processing refunds from canceled flights, and reimbursing customers for expenses incurred as a result of the irregular operations.”

Capdeville’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.

The meltdown at Dallas-based Southwest has been blamed on staffing shortages and outdated flight scheduling software.

Southwest has said it would reimburse affected passengers for reasonable expenses such as last-minute hotel, rental car and dining costs, but it might take several weeks.

The carrier largely restored normal operations on Dec. 30, several days after other airlines had recovered from the storm.

In a Dec. 29 letter to Southwest Chief Executive Bob Jordan, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the disruptions “unacceptable” and said the law requires refunds when carriers cancel flights unless passengers accept rebooking.

The case is Capdeville v Southwest Airlines Co, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 22-05590.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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January 3, 2023
Twitter lays off staff, Musk blames activists for ad revenue drop
Musk axes around half of Twitter’s workforce

Employees file class action against Twitter

Staff lose access to systems

Major advertisers pull ads
Nov 4 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.

Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.

The move caps a week of chaos and uncertainty about the company’s future under new owner Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who tweeted on Friday that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue” from the advertiser retreat.

Musk blamed the losses on a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing Twitter’s top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation – concerns heightened ahead of potential pivotal congressional elections on Tuesday.

After the layoffs, the groups said they were escalating their pressure and demanding brands pull their Twitter ads globally.

“Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted of the layoffs, adding that everyone affected was offered three months of severance pay.

The company was silent about the depth of the cuts until late in the day, when head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted confirmation of internal plans, seen by Reuters earlier in the week, projecting the layoffs would affect about 3,700 people, or 50% of the staff.

Among those let go were 784 employees from the company’s San Francisco headquarters and 199 in San Jose and Los Angeles, according to filings to California’s employment authority.

Roth said the reductions hit about 15% of his team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, and that the company’s “core moderation capabilities” remained in place.

Musk endorsed the safety executive last week, citing his “high integrity” after Roth was called out over tweets critical of former President Donald Trump years earlier.

Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.”

President Joe Biden said on Friday that Musk had purchased a social media platform in Twitter that spews lies across the world.

“And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world… There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”

Major advertisers have expressed apprehension about Musk’s takeover for months.

Brands including General Motors Co (GM.N) and General Mills Inc (GIS.N) have said they stopped advertising on Twitter while awaiting information about the new direction of the platform.

Musk tweeted that his team had made no changes to content moderation and done “everything we could” to appease the groups. Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk called the activist pressure “an attack on the First Amendment.”

[1/9] Owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc. Elon Musk arrives at the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

ACCESS TO SYSTEMS CUT

The email notifying staff about layoffs was the first communication Twitter workers received from the company’s leadership after Musk took over last week. It was signed only by “Twitter,” without naming Musk or any other executives.

Dozens of staffers tweeted they had lost access to work email and Slack channels overnight before receiving an official layoff notice on Friday morning, prompting an outpouring of laments by current and former employees on the platform they had built.

They shared blue hearts and salute emojis expressing support for one another, using the hashtags #OneTeam and #LoveWhereYouWorked, a past-tense version of a slogan employees had used for years to celebrate the company’s work culture.

Twitter’s curation team, which was responsible for “highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter,” had been axed, employees wrote.

Shannon Raj Singh, an attorney who was Twitter’s acting head of human rights, tweeted that the entire human rights team at the company had been sacked.

Another team that focused on research into how Twitter employed machine learning and algorithms, an issue that was a priority for Musk, was also eliminated, according to a tweet from a former senior manager at Twitter.

Senior executives including vice president of engineering Arnaud Weber said their goodbyes on Twitter on Friday: “Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but I’m proud of what we accomplished.”

Employees of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription service that Musk is bolstering, were also let go. An employee with the handle “SillyRobin” who had indicated they were laid off, quote-tweeted a previous Musk tweet saying Twitter Blue would include “paywall bypass” for certain publishers.

“Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this,” the employee said.

DOORS LOCKED

Twitter said in its email to staffers that offices would be temporarily closed and badge access suspended “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.”

Offices in London and Dublin appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight. At the London office, any evidence Twitter had once occupied the building was erased.

A receptionist at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters said a few people had trickled in and were working in the floors above despite the notice to stay away.

A class action was filed on Thursday against Twitter by several employees, who argued the company was conducting mass layoffs without providing the required 60-day advance notice, in violation of federal and California law.

The lawsuit asked the San Francisco federal court to issue an order to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees being laid off to sign documents without informing them of the pendency of the case.

Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas, Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, and Paresh Dave in Oakland, California; Additional reporting by Fanny Potkin, Rusharti Mukherjee, Aditya Kalra, Martin Coulter, Hyunjoo Jin, Supantha Mukherjee and Arriana McLymore; Writing by Matt Scuffham and Katie Paul; Editing by Kenneth Li, Jason Neely, Matthew Lewis and William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Paresh Dave

Thomson Reuters

San Francisco Bay Area-based tech reporter covering Google and the rest of Alphabet Inc. Joined Reuters in 2017 after four years at the Los Angeles Times focused on the local tech industry.
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November 4, 2022