The workforce at Amazon’s Alabama warehouse is predominantly black, and had the usual gripes about Amazon’s working conditions: Punishing workers for bathroom breaks and other time away from the floor, high production quotas, and the pay of $15 an hour, which is the minimum wage in many stat[...]
Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
Brace for a ketchup shortage
We’re still in a pandemic, and supply chain disruptions continue. Restaurants may reopen soon, but diners may be eating ketchup-less french fries. “After enduring a year of closures, employee safety fears and start-stop openings, many American restaurants are now facing a nationwide ket[...]
March 25th, 2021 - 7:10 pm § in Business
A weird business model, explained
“Owners of a New Jersey [gym] are offering free memberships to people who don’t get the COVID-19 vaccine,” The Hill reported on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Read story here. The way I see it, this will reduce their sales to zero, because anti-vaxxers won’t pay, and people worrie[...]
Oligopolies
From an ABC News article published on Friday, March 19, 2021: “The four biggest airlines control about 65% of U.S. passenger traffic, five giant healthcare insurers control an estimated 45% of the market, pharmaceuticals are dominated by three major companies, the top four banks control about [...]
Is climate denial on its last legs?
Not really. Republicans and their brainwashed followers will be around for a long time. But the industry coalition that has funded and supported climate denial for decades appears to be cracking apart, according to this article in The Atlantic. Here’s an excerpt: “If you read a lot of cl[...]
House passes pro-union bill
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed “labor groups’ top legislative priority, a bill aimed at strengthening workers’ rights to unionize,” setting the stage for a Senate battle over labor rights. Labor unions arguably created America’s middle class by raising wage[...]
Bezos’ ex marries her kids’ teacher
Doug Jewett, 50, who teaches at Seattle’s private Lakeside School, which Bill Gates and Paul Allen attended back in the day, has married one of the parents (photo, left). I suppose that happens more often than we hear about. This one made news because the parent in question is Jeff Bezos’[...]
Biden signals support for unions
During the fall campaign, President Biden promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” Those weren’t empty words. He immediately fired the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel and deputy general counsel, both Trump appointees. On Sunday, February 28, [...]
Why a wealth tax may be a bad idea
“A slew of Democrats on Capitol Hill” including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have “proposed a 3% total annual tax on wealth exceeding $1 billion” and 2% on $50 million to $1 billion, The Hill reported on Monday, March 1, 2021. Read story here. The aim of the[...]
Burned out nurses are quitting in droves
It isn’t just the endless hours, separation from their families, stress, and heartbreak from watching patients die. What’s really breaking their spirit is how they’re treated by the profit-obsessed managers running our for-profit health care system. They’re exploited: “[...]