Top News  Shutterstock The first major unionization drive at an Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) warehouse in the U.S. looks set to fail as results continue to be tallied at a fulfillment center located in Bessemer, Alabama. With about half the 3,215 ballots counted so far by the National Labor Relations Board, about 70% of Amazon employees at BHM1 have sided against unionization, which is well ahead of estimates that forecast somewhat of a close race. Officials will resume counting today, when a final outcome could become clear.
Bigger picture: Over the past few weeks, Amazon has pulled out all the stops to try and convince the workers at BHM1 that unionization would not be in their favor. It seems like the efforts paid off, which included aggressive advertising, mandatory anti-union meetings and sending workers multiple texts per day. Not only did the firm attract new workers to vote against the effort, but it also appears to have changed the mindset of workers who were planning to back the union, based on the early signs of support needed to trigger the vote in the first place.
Once the results have been formally certified by the National Labor Relations Board, there will likely be an appeal from The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The RWDSU is already saying that some of Amazon's tactics against the union were illegal. For example, a drop box that was placed in the parking lot of the facility could have intimidated workers into thinking that Amazon was monitoring the vote and was a direct effort to influence the ballot. Others have pointed to Amazon's push to have the county change the timing of a traffic light leaving the warehouse parking lot, which the company says was meant to alleviate congestion, though union organizers say it deprived them of a venue for canvassing workers.
What's next? Some labor experts think the union has a pretty strong case, with local regulators having the power to overturn the vote entirely and grant the union a victory. If that were to happen, the case could go to Washington, where Amazon could appeal on a national level to the NLRB. Don't expect an easy outcome. The entire process could take another few months. (26 comments)
   | | Top News Shutterstock The first major unionization drive at an Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) warehouse in the U.S. looks set to fail as results continue to be tallied at a fulfillment center located in Bessemer, Alabama. With about half the 3,215 ballots counted so far by the National Labor Relations Board, about 70% of Amazon employees at BHM1 have sided against unionization, which is well ahead of estimates that forecast somewhat of a close race. Officials will resume counting today, when a final outcome could become clear.
Bigger picture: Over the past few weeks, Amazon has pulled out all the stops to try and convince the workers at BHM1 that unionization would not be in their favor. It seems like the efforts paid off, which included aggressive advertising, mandatory anti-union meetings and sending workers multiple texts per day. Not only did the firm attract new workers to vote against the effort, but it also appears to have changed the mindset of workers who were planning to back the union, based on the early signs of support needed to trigger the vote in the first place.
Once the results have been formally certified by the National Labor Relations Board, there will likely be an appeal from The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The RWDSU is already saying that some of Amazon's tactics against the union were illegal. For example, a drop box that was placed in the parking lot of the facility could have intimidated workers into thinking that Amazon was monitoring the vote and was a direct effort to influence the ballot. Others have pointed to Amazon's push to have the county change the timing of a traffic light leaving the warehouse parking lot, which the company says was meant to alleviate congestion, though union organizers say it deprived them of a venue for canvassing workers.
What's next? Some labor experts think the union has a pretty strong case, with local regulators having the power to overturn the vote entirely and grant the union a victory. If that were to happen, the case could go to Washington, where Amazon could appeal on a national level to the NLRB. Don't expect an easy outcome. The entire process could take another few months. (26 comments)
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| Stocks Stocks closed higher on Thursday as inflation fears continued to fade, as lower bond yields lifted gains for Big Tech companies. While the 10-year Treasury rate surged to 1.776% at the end of March following a string of strong U.S. economic data (stoking expectations the Fed could be forced to raise interest rates sooner than anticipated), Jay Powell appears to be getting his message across to the population. Yesterday, the Fed Chair repeated his view that any upward pressure on prices is "transitory," while price increases resulting from supply chain bottlenecks should "eventually resolve themselves."
Bigger picture: In remarks to the International Monetary Fund, Powell stated a number of factors were putting the nation "on track to allow a full reopening of the economy fairly soon." He also expressed concern over long-term "labor market scarring" and assured continued support for those out of work due to the pandemic. An unexpected rise in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits kept a lid on the Wall Street buying enthusiasm on Thursday, but also led investors to trust Powell's statements of continuous support and calmed inflation jitters.
Money is also rotating between sectors at high speed, returning to tech yesterday as cash flowed out of energy and financials. "The pandemic accelerated changes in business," Powell declared at the IMF meeting. "It's important to remember we're not going back to the same economy. This will be a different economy. Businesses are adopting more efficient technologies and that may lead to hiring perhaps fewer people." Overnight, cyclicals were meanwhile inching ahead of their growth rivals, with contracts linked to the Dow Jones up 0.2%, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.2%, and the S&P 500 looked set to notch another record high.
More inflation data: Traders will be watching the latest report from the Labor Department this morning, which will disclose producer prices for March. The headline Producer Price Index is expected to rise 0.5% month-over-month, matching the gain seen in February.
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| Sponsored by Masterworks Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are literally everywhere. There was even a Saturday Night Live skit about it. But after taking the art world by storm, prices of NFTs have plunged about 70% from their high point in February.
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Why does this matter? For starters, the contemporary art market has outperformed the S&P by 172% from 2000–2020 according to public data they've compiled. Beyond steadily rising prices, Citi reports that multimillion-dollar works share virtually no correlation (0.01 correlation factor) to public equities, allowing for diversification against volatility.
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