Boeing has faced intense scrutiny and pressure since a panel blew off a 737 Max 9 shortly after the plane, an Alaska Airlines flight, took off on Jan. 5. The episode raised fresh questions about the quality of the planes the company produces several years after two Max 8 planes crashed, killing nearly 350 people. […]
Read MoreTag: Labor and Jobs
California $20 Fast-Food Minimum Wage Is Coming April 1
A decade ago, Jamie Bynum poured his life savings into a barbecue restaurant now tucked between a Thai eatery and a nutrition store in a Southern California strip mall. As a franchise owner of a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Mr. Bynum is pridefully particular about the details of his establishment — the size of the hickory […]
Read MoreHow Boeing Favored Speed Over Quality for the 737 Max
In February last year, a new Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane was on one of its first flights when an automated stabilizing system appeared to malfunction, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing soon after they took off. Less than two months later, an Alaska Airlines 737 Max plane with eight hours of […]
Read MoreKremlin Treads Carefully After Moscow Attack Over Fears of Ethnic Strife
At a memorial service this week outside the concert hall where Islamist extremists are suspected of carrying out a deadly terrorist attack, one of Russia’s most popular pro-Kremlin rappers warned “right-wing and far-right groups” that they must not “incite ethnic hatred.” At a televised meeting about the attack, Russia’s top prosecutor, Igor Krasnov, pledged that […]
Read MoreHow Elon Musk Became ‘Kind of Pro-China’
When Elon Musk first set up Tesla’s factory in China, he appeared to have the upper hand. He gained access to top leaders and secured policy changes that benefited Tesla. He also got workers accustomed to long hours and fewer protections, after clashing with U.S. regulators over labor conditions at his California plant. The Shanghai […]
Read MoreRetirees’ Pensions Were Restored. Debate About It Hasn’t Died.
Cathy Green has never paid much attention to what goes on in Congress. But when she learned that a federal law would allow her pension to be cut by as much as 30 percent, she became alarmed. Ms. Green, of Lake Stevens, Wash., had claimed her benefit in 2015 after people in the plan were […]
Read MoreSherrod Brown Embarks on the Race of His Life
Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, has always had the luxury of running for election in remarkably good years for his party. He won his seat in 2006, during the backlash to the Iraq War, won re-election in 2012, the last time a Democrat carried the state, and did so again in 2018, amid a […]
Read More‘Strike Madness’ Hits Germany While Its Economy Stumbles
For those striking at the gates of the SRW scrap metal plant, just outside Germany’s eastern city of Leipzig, time can be counted not just in days — 136 so far — but in the thousands of card games played, the liters of coffee imbibed and the armfuls of firewood burned. Or it can be […]
Read MorePortugal Had Little Appetite for the Far Right, Until Chega
The sun-soaked Algarve region on Portugal’s Southern coast is a place where guitar-strumming backpackers gather by fragrant orange trees and digital nomads hunt for laid-back vibes. It is not exactly what comes to mind when one envisions a stronghold of far-right political sentiment. But it is in the Algarve region where the anti-establishment Chega party […]
Read MoreMass Tech Layoffs? Just Another Day in the Corporate Blender.
Silicon Valley, home of so many technological and workplace innovations, is rolling out another one: the unnecessary layoff. After shedding over 260,000 jobs last year, the greatest carnage since the dot-com meltdown more than two decades ago, the major tech companies show little sign of letting up in 2024 despite being mostly profitable, in some […]
Read MoreHow Waymo Driverless Cars Could Change Los Angeles
Los Angeles, to drivers, has never been for the faint of heart. A land where most cannot fathom life without wheels, it offers a daily parade of frustration: congestion, accidents, construction, road rage, tedium. Every transplant has a story about learning to adapt. “You get in the rhythm of matching everyone else’s energy,” said Tamara […]
Read MoreAre Immigrants the Secret to America’s Economic Success?
When we accuse a politician of dehumanizing some ethnic group, we’re usually being metaphorical. The other day, however, Donald Trump said it straight out: Some migrants are “not people, in my opinion.” Well, in my opinion, they are people. I’d still say that even if the migrant crime wave Trump and his allies harp on […]
Read MoreJapan’s Labor Market Has a Lesson for the Fed: Women Can Surprise You
Japan’s economy has rocketed into the headlines this year as inflation returns for the first time in decades, workers win wage gains and the Bank of Japan raises interest rates for the first time in 17 years. But there’s another, longer-running trend happening in the Japanese economy that could prove interesting for American policymakers: Female […]
Read MoreJapan Raises Interest Rates for First Time in 17 Years
Japan’s central bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2007 on Tuesday, pushing them above zero to close a chapter in its aggressive effort to stimulate an economy that has long struggled to grow. In 2016, the Bank of Japan took the unorthodox step of bringing borrowing costs below zero, a bid to […]
Read MoreVW Workers in Chattanooga Seek Vote to Join Union
Volkswagen employees in Tennessee who are hoping to join the United Automobile Workers asked a federal agency on Monday to hold an election, a key step toward the union’s longtime goal of organizing nonunion factories across the South. With the union’s backing, Volkswagen workers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for […]
Read MoreMike Pence Rues the Day
Gail Collins: Bret, I feel obligated to start out by asking you — TikTok? Potential foreign agent? Bret Stephens: I think of TikTok in two ways. First, as a gigantic vacuum cleaner of personal data — possibly including your location — that goes directly from the unsuspecting eyes, thumbs and minds of its 170 million […]
Read MoreWe’re Not Burdens on Society. We’re Engines of Economic Progress.
History is being made on the Rio Grande. Hundreds of thousands of migrants braved the journey across it last year, setting records and contributing to an urgent border crisis. As spectacle, it has been transfixing. Yet misconceptions abound. It’s as if the sight of a migrant scaling a wall or wading ashore is now a […]
Read MoreHow Is a College Football Team Different From Its Marching Band?
Robert McRae III has seen a lot. His grandmother, a civil rights activist in Los Angeles, often brought him along to rallies she organized and picket lines she walked — even to a gay pride parade with giant anatomical balloons that, he recalls with a smile, might not have been age appropriate. As a Dartmouth […]
Read MoreChicago Begins Evicting Migrants From Shelters, Citing Strain on Resources
Chicago officials on Sunday began evicting some migrants from shelters, joining other cities that have made similar moves to ease pressure on overstretched resources. The process is starting gradually. Out of the nearly 11,000 migrants living in 23 homeless shelters in Chicago, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, a fraction — 34 […]
Read MoreBernie Sanders Proposes Reducing Americans’ Workweek to 32 Hours
Senator Bernie Sanders this week unveiled legislation to reduce the standard workweek in the United States from 40 hours to 32, without a reduction in pay, saying Americans are working longer hours for less pay despite advances in technology and productivity. The law, if passed, would pare down the workweek over a four-year period, lowering […]
Read MoreStudy finds workers misjudge wage markets
Many employees believe their counterparts at other firms make less in salary than is actually the case — an assumption that costs them money, according to a study co-authored by MIT scholars. “Workers wrongly anchor their beliefs about outside options on their current wage,” says MIT economist Simon Jäger, co-author of a newly published paper […]
Read MoreHow Biden Can Out-Populist the Populist
As Democrats puzzle over how President Biden can be so unpopular, it’s worth looking at the global context — because he’s actually doing better than most Western leaders. In the Morning Consult approval ratings for global leaders, Biden polls better than leaders in Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, France […]
Read MoreMalaysia Rises as Crucial Link in Chip Supply Chain
Construction cranes still surround the brand-spanking new plant in Kulim’s industrial park in Malaysia. But inside, legions of workers hired by the Austrian tech giant AT&S are already gearing up to produce at full capacity by year’s end. Outfitted in head-to-toe coveralls, with oversized safety glasses and hard hats, they’re reminiscent of the worker bees […]
Read MoreWalmart Wants to Teach Store Managers Compassion
On a stormy afternoon in Bentonville, Ark., a Walmart regional manager recounted a story about a moment when his humanity came up short. He was 24-year-old store manager anxiously trying to get his workers to set up Halloween merchandise displays. Instead, the workers were gathered around the televisions in the electronics department. It was the […]
Read MoreU.S. Employers Add 275,000 Jobs in Another Strong Month
If the economy is slowing down, nobody told the labor market. Employers added 275,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday, in another month that exceeded expectations even as the unemployment rate rose. It was the third straight month of gains above 200,000, and the 38th consecutive month of growth — fresh evidence that […]
Read MoreDon’t Be Fooled by a Big Jobs Gain
March 5, 2024, 1:29 p.m. ET March 5, 2024, 1:29 p.m. ET “I was a little disappointed that Katie Porter chose to run,” Karl Rubin, an emeritus professor of math, told me on the patio of a community center on the campus of the University of California, Irvine, on Monday morning. He said that Porter, […]
Read MoreHome Care Aides Fight to End 24-Hour Shifts in NYC City Council
For eight years, Lai Yee Chen worked 24-hour shifts, up to five days a week, as a home care aide for bed-bound seniors in New York City. She cooked, cleaned, changed diapers and turned her patients at least every two hours to prevent bedsores. Ms. Chen, 69, has since retired, but she still jolts awake […]
Read MoreFed Chair Powell Still Expects to Cut Rates This Year, but Not Yet
Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said on Wednesday that he thinks the central bank will begin to lower borrowing costs in 2024 but that policymakers still needed to gain “greater confidence” that inflation was conquered before making a move. “We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for […]
Read MoreHow Minimum Wage Changes Affect Tipped Workers and Diners
The last few years have fundamentally changed Americans’ relationship with restaurants. As the pandemic made diners more aware of the long hours and low pay built into the business, many began tipping more, donating to employee funds and lobbying elected officials for worker protections. Now that awareness has translated into legislation that could reshape restaurants […]
Read MoreAdelle Waldman’s Journey From Brooklyn Literati to a Big Box Store
A good friend of mine, when talking about the New York dating landscape that led her to choose single motherhood, often refers to Adelle Waldman’s 2013 novel, “The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.” An unromantic comedy, the book is a note-perfect depiction of Obama-era literary Brooklyn and the Ivy-educated cads who think of themselves as […]
Read More