Catherwood LibraryILR School

Tata Steel, a multinational steel production company, recently announced that the company would be closing two steel production plants in the United Kingdom. The production plants affected are located in Port Talbot, Wales, and the company stated that the closure of the plants will allow the company to create new environmentally friendly furnace plants. The layoffs are estimated to affect 2,800 workers, and 1,500 of the affected workers are represented by the Unite trade Union. The Unite trade union announced that workers are set to take strike action to protest against the layoffs. The union held a vote to authorize strike action, and a majority of workers voted in favor. Workers voted in favor despite Tata Steel stating that redundancy packages for affected workers will be negatively affected if strike action is taken.

Red Lobster is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the company deals with significant debt due to labor costs and building leases. Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy would allow the seafood company to restructure its debt and be freed from several long-term leases. Bankruptcy will allow the company to continue operations while having a structured plan to pay off the debt. Red Lobster management has changed between various groups in recent years, and Thai Union Plc became a majority stakeholder in Red Lobster and took over management of the restaurant chain in 2021. Thai Union Plc wrote down its stake in Red Lobster this year and claimed that the amount of financial support Red Lobster needs is not a good fit for the company’s capital allocation anymore. Fortress Investment Group is also a major stakeholder in Red Lobster and has been a part of discussions regarding bankruptcy and the future management of Red Lobster.

Take-Two Interactive, a major video game company that has produced many popular games such as ‘Grand Theft Auto’, recently announced major job cuts. The company will cut around six hundred employees, and the cuts will reduce Take-Two Interactive’s workforce by five percent. Affected employees will be provided with severance packages. The company will also cut various projects and reduce office space, and these changes will reduce company costs. Take-Two Interactive is just one of many companies in the video game industry that have conducted layoffs recently, with other major companies such as Sony, EA, Microsoft Gaming, Riot Games, and Epic Games all laying off employees as well.

Workers at Lockheed Martin, a major arms and defense company, will conduct layoffs after the United States Army announced its decision to shut down the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Program. The cancellation of the program means that the United States Army will not build a new attack reconnaissance aircraft, and this has resulted in Lockheed Martin cutting workers in the Sikorsky division, located in Stratford, Connecticut. Plans to create a new attack reconnaissance aircraft began in 2018, and Lockeeed Martin and Bell-Textron were competing to be the manufacturer of the aircraft. Various political leaders in Connecticut have expressed opposition to the cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Program, claiming that the decision will hurt the country’s long-term military defense, as well as hurt many communities in the state. Lockheed Martin states that the layoffs will reduce its workforce by less than one percent, and the company is retaining as many workers in the division as possible.

Google announced that it would be making some major structural changes to the company, and the adjustments will cut various jobs in the United States. The company is planning on creating growth hubs in Ireland, India, and Mexico, and the company will be scaling back on its American finance division. The cuts are targeted at workers in the treasury, business operations, and revenue cash operations departments. Certain positions will also be moved to different US offices, while other positions will shift to international Google offices. Google stated that the structural changes will allow the company to be in the best position for future opportunities, and will increase efficiency and reduce redundancies. The layoffs will help Google to cut back on the layers and bureaucracy in the company. Google has already conducted layoffs in other divisions this year, including the advertising sales team, as well as the Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest teams.

Thousands of workers in Greece went on strike this past week, demanding for collective bargaining rights to be given to unions. Unions had collective bargaining rights before the financial crisis in Greece, but collective bargaining and other rights were temporary taken away during the recession in 2010-2018. In the European Union, collective bargaining and the right to strike are protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Workers are represented by the General Confederation of Greek Labor, and the strikes disrupted national rail services, stalled ferries, and caused worker shortages in hospitals around the country. Protestors gathered in Athens and Thessaloniki this week, and they rallied around the phrase “our rights are not utopia”.

Graduate students at Indiana University voted in approval of strike authorization this week. The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition represented over 1300 graduate employees, and out of the members who voted, over ninety percent of members voted in favor of strike action. The strike is set to occur starting on April 17 and will last for three days until April 19. Union members are seeking union recognition from the Indiana University administration. Graduate workers are also demanding a living wage, stating the current worker salaries are not enough to support graduate students. Indiana University administration has been facing various issues in recent weeks, with faculty members set to hold a no-confidence vote against the university’s President, Provost, and Vice Provost for faculty and student affairs. The no-confidence vote was brought forth by the Bloomington Faculty Council President, who stated that the vote would be held due to faculty disapproval of the university's actions regarding shared governance.

Oberweis Dairy has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be permanently shutting down operations at a plant in North Aurora, Illinois. The company filed an Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, and the notice states that 127 workers will be laid off due to the closure of the plant. The company voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to having over $4 million in debt to the company’s major creditors. Oberweis Dairy has not yet made an announcement about its ice cream locations, and whether or not these shops will close. During the summer when demand is highest for Oberweis Dairy products, the workforce is around 1500. Around four hundred employees are seasonal workers who focus on serving the company’s ice cream products.

L.L.Bean, a major outdoor goods company, has announced layoffs as well as changes to the company’s call center hours. The company will be shortening the available hours of the call center, and the new hours will be from 8 am to 8 pm. This new schedule will reduce call center availability by four hours, as it was previously open from 7 am to 11 pm. The change will adjust worker shifts, and the company stated that fewer workers will be needed at the call center, so some employees will be cut. L.L Bean stated that over ninety percent of calls come in from 8 am to 8 pm. The company also said that the growing trend of online shopping reduces the number of employees needed in physical L.L. Bean locations. The layoffs are a response to long-term customer trends, and the company is making adjustments to be better positioned for future success.

San Francisco local government and various unions representing public employees are close to reaching a tentative agreement after weeks of negotiations. San Francisco city employees are represented by the Service Employees International Union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Union, the Laborers Union, the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and Transport Workers Union. A new contract will cover over twenty thousand unionized city employees. A new contract will likely raise wages for employees despite the city of San Francisco facing a major budget deficit. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Union stated that it expects a new contract will increase wages by thirteen percent spread out over the next three years. The current union contracts will expire in late June, and negotiations for new contracts will start at the beginning of 2024.