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Dom’s Kitchen & Market and Foxtrot, two grocery store chains, merged into one company, Outfox Hospitality, in recent months. All Dom’s and Foxtrot locations abruptly announced that the stores would permanently close. An announcement was made on the Dom’s website stating that every store would be shutting down operations. Stores were located in Chicago, Austin, Dallas, and Washington D.C. Various workers stated that they were not provided with any notice and the closure of stores. When employees arrived for work this week, they found out from posted signs that they were no longer employed. Other workers clocked in for their shifts and were abruptly told by management that the store would be shutting down and all employees needed to leave.

Teaching assistants and support staff at various schools in Birmingham, England, voted in favor of strike action after the Birmingham City Council allegedly failed to pay equal pay claims. Workers at thirty-five schools in the Birmingham area are set to take strike action, but a date has not been announced yet. Workers are represented by the GMB union, and the union stated that the city council was supposed to pay female employees wages to make up for the wage disparity between females and males. The union claims that not a single worker has been paid these wages, but the Birmingham City Council is asking the union to work with them to resolve this issue. The union countered that discussion about equal pay issues began in 2021, and workers were no longer going to wait to receive the wages they rightfully deserve.

Spotify, a major music streaming platform, made various changes and conducted layoffs in the past year to reduce the company’s operational costs. Spotify laid off around seventeen percent of its workforce in the past months. These adjustments have allowed Spotify to earn record-high profits in the first quarter of 2024, and the company significantly improved its profit margins. The first quarter earnings were higher than projected, and the company’s shares increased by over ten percent. However, Spotify did not add as many new users as projected, and the first quarter resulted in 3 million fewer new users than expected. Spotify states that this is likely due to slower market growth and moderate economic conditions, and the company is looking to add 16 million new users in the second quarter of 2024. Spotify is also seeking to further increase gross profit margins in the next quarter.

The European Union is beginning to impose various regulations on farmers to reduce farming actions that have negative environmental consequences. The EU’s fight against climate change has disrupted farmers in various countries, and many farmers are unhappy with the European Union’s decisions. Farmers have faced increased competition in recent years because of cheap imports from other countries, and the imports have also decreased the price levels that farmers can competitively sell their produce at. Farmers have formed various groups, such as the Farmers Defense Force, to strategize and plan how to deal with the regulations. Farmers who are a part of these groups will be voting in European Union parliamentary elections, and farmers seem to be favoring candidates on the far right. Many European farmers have more traditional values and tend to be more religious and conservative than urban populations. The far right has gained the support of farmers due to these values and their growing discontent with EU farming regulations.

Hundreds of pharmacists who work at various Chicago-area Walgreens are planning protests in front of store locations throughout the month. The pharmacists are represented by the National Pharmacist’s Association, and the association and Walgreens have not had a contract for the past nine months. Nine hundred pharmacists in the Chicago area are represented by the National Pharmacist’s Association, and workers are planning to protest outside a few stores every day until early May. Although workers will be demonstrating and protesting outside of stores, they will not be taking strike action. Workers have dealt with inconsistent scheduling and worker shortages and they have also received minimal wage increases in recent years. Walgreens stated that it has implemented new technologies and centralized various services to reduce the heavy workload that pharmacists face.

Workers who are responsible for refueling planes at Heathrow Airport in London, England are planning to take strike action in early May. The employees work for Aviation Fuel Services and are represented by the Unite union. It is estimated that around fifty workers are planning to strike, but London Heathrow stated that a contingency plan is in place if the strike action occurs. The workers are responsible for refueling planes from thirty-five airlines, including Delta, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, and Emirates. The workers are taking strike action to protest changes that were made to the terms and conditions of employment. Various refueling firms work at London Heathrow, and certain airlines will not be affected by an AFS worker strike. The planned strike action will last for three days, and it will begin on May 4th.

The UAW secured a major union election win at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A majority of the workers voted in favor of union representation, and the Volkswagen plant is the first automobile company outside of the non Big Three Automakers to unionize in the United States. The Volkswagen plant employs over four thousand employees, and seventy-three percent of employees who cast votes voted in favor of union representation. The results of the union election need to be certified by the National Labor Relations Board, and after the results are certified, Volkswagen management will be required to collectively bargain with the UAW. The UAW will likely use the union election win as momentum to strengthen union drives at other plants owned by various automobile companies in the South.

Rivian, a major electric vehicle and automotive technology company, has announced layoffs. The layoffs will reduce the company’s workforce by one percent, but the company did not specify the number of workers who would be affected. The company in 2023 employed around seventeen thousand workers, and workers were employed in the United States and various European countries. Rivian stated that job cuts will allow the company to be better aligned with its priorities, and would allow the company to have a positive gross margin at the end of 2024. Last month, the company also stated that its new factory in Georgia will be opening later than expected, and the company will use its factory in Illinois for upcoming projects. These changes can be attributed to a decreasing demand for electric vehicles, and other EV companies such as Tesla have also laid off workers.

The British Columbia province in Canada has been experiencing worker shortages in the construction sector in recent years. The B.C. Construction Association represents hundreds of construction companies in British Columbia, and the association states that the worker shortage has caused wages in the industry to rise. The average wage in the construction industry in British Columbia is $75,000 annually. Wages have increased by over twenty percent over the last five years, and the salary increases have attracted workers to the construction industry. However, the number of workers in the industry is still decreasing, and construction companies have downsized in recent years. Construction companies also deal with uncertainty regarding payments for projects and sometimes have to wait months to receive compensation for their work. The association is pushing for legislation that would require prompt payment for construction projects.

The contract between the Chicago school district and the Chicago Teachers Union will end in late June, and the union announced its demands for a new contract this week. The Chicago Teachers Union represents over thirty thousand employees. Negotiations between the two parties will begin soon, and the parties will be negotiating a new four-year contract. Earlier this week, union leaders and various teachers rode around the city in a trolley to meet with state officials and community leaders and discuss the upcoming contract negotiations. The demands include wage increases for teachers and an increase in the minimum wage in the school district, which would benefit teacher assistants and paraprofessionals who earn the lowest. The union is also seeking greater funding for various school programs, such as the programs for fine arts, restorative justice, languages, and athletics. Federal funding that came from emergency COVID-19 relief funds will expire later this year, so the school district will have to diligently allocate funds to meet the demands of the union.