(NEW YORK) — Southwest flight attendants are “outraged” after the airline announced on Thursday that it is planning to resume on-board alcohol sales in two weeks.
The airline had postponed the return of alcohol sales in late May citing the uptick in unruly passenger incidents.
The decision to pause alcohol sales came less than a week after a Southwest flight attendant got her two front teeth knocked out by an unruly passenger on a flight from Sacramento to San Diego.
“It tops the chart of the most egregious things I’ve ever heard of,” Lyn Montgomery, a spokesperson for the union that represents Southwest flight attendants, told ABC News at the time. “It’s unbelievable and really hard to understand the level of aggression that has been exhibited towards our flight crews.”
Montgomery said that many flight attendants felt “leery about beginning to sell alcohol onboard the aircraft again because alcohol always intensifies an event.”
The uinion says it still feels it is too soon to begin serving alcohol again eight months later.
“TWU Local 556 is outraged at Southwest Airlines’ resumption of alcohol sales, a move we consider to be both unsafe and irresponsible,” Montgomery said in a statement. “We have adamantly and unequivocally informed management that resuming sales of alcohol while the mask mandate is in place has the great potential to increase customer non-compliance and misconduct issues.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has seen a record spike in unruly behavior on board since the start of 2021. The agency’s investigations into the surge in aggressive behavior on-board has shown that alcohol is often a contributing factor.
In July, the FAA urged airport bars and restaurants to stop serving alcoholic drinks to go.
American Airlines is now the only major U.S. airline that is still holding out on resuming alcohol sales.
“We haven’t established a specific date for the return of onboard alcohol in the main cabin of our aircrafts,” an American spokesperson told ABC News. “We will continue to evaluate the situation and work closely with the union that represents our flight attendants, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, and medical experts on this process to determine when we will return to full service in the main cabin.”
In an effort to prevent more unruly passenger incidents, the FAA has established an information-sharing protocol with the Department of Justice.
A FAA spokesperson confirmed to ABC News in November that the agency had referred 37 of the “most egregious cases” to the FBI out of the 227 unruly passenger cases it had initiated enforcement action on.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian wants the U.S. government to go a step further and place convicted unruly passengers on a no-fly list that would bar them from flying on other airlines.
Bastian wrote a letter yesterday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for his support.
“This action will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft,” he wrote.
(NEW YORK) — It was dubbed a watershed moment for the withering organized labor movement when the first-ever union election at an Amazon warehouse took place last spring in Alabama.
Workers seeking collective bargaining rights at a fulfillment outpost of the e-commerce giant in Bessemer — a rural, predominantly Black suburb of Birmingham — garnered international headlines and even backing from the White House ahead of last year’s landmark vote.
Despite the high-profile support, hopes of forming Amazon’s first labor union were ultimately crushed last year when less than 16% of some 5,000 eligible workers voted in favor it, per the National Labor Relations Board’s tally.
The saga in the South, however, did not end there for the nation’s second-largest employer.
After objections alleging union-busting conduct from Amazon filed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which sought to represent the workers, the NLRB ordered a do-over of the entire election.
Now, approximately a year since the first showdown, the NLRB is set to mail ballots out Friday for a second union vote at the same Bessemer Amazon facility. The rerun comes amid the backdrop of an American labor market still scarred by pandemic shocks, giving new leverage to workers, and in the wake of a tidal wave of workplace activism marked by strikes and collective actions at major companies from John Deere to Starbucks.
With all eyes back on Bessemer, here is what some economists and workers say the failed first unionizing attempt reveals about the climate of labor in the U.S., and the implications this could carry for the second vote.
“Our employees have always had the choice of whether or not to join a union, and they overwhelmingly chose not to join the RWDSU last year,” Amazon spokeswoman Barbara Agrait told ABC News in a statement. “We look forward to our team in BHM1 having their voices heard again.”
First vote ‘revealed the David versus Goliath nature of our labor laws’
Economists and labor researchers say the tossed-out results of the first union election at Amazon in Alabama is indicative of the uphill battle workers face in trying to form a union under current labor laws, despite the vocal support from lawmakers, and the power employers have in potentially influencing the vote.
“The first election in Bessemer was very revealing of how the odds are stacked up against workers trying to organize in this country, and particularly in a place like Amazon,” Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution whose research focuses on the present and future of work, especially for low-wage workers, told ABC News. She referenced how the NLRB ultimately found Amazon’s actions during the first vote may have influenced the results and thus ordered the do-over.
“The big sort of takeaway from that first experience in Bessemer was, yes, there was a lot of attention and excitement and this thought that if this worked, it would be this massive victory for labor, and ultimately it wasn’t successful,” Kinder said. “I think it opened up a lot of people’s eyes to just how imbalanced our labor laws are in this country.”
“It sort of revealed the David versus Goliath nature of our labor laws,” Kinder added. “We don’t have an even playing field in this country for workers who are trying to organize.”
Data similarly indicates a gulf between the growing number of Americans who support labor unions and dwindling rates of membership.
A majority of Americans approve of labor unions (68%), according to Gallup data released last September, marking the highest support levels for unions in nearly 60 years. Union membership, meanwhile, has fallen sharply over the past few decades. Just 10.3% of workers belonged to a union in 2021, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data, approximately half the 20.1% figure seen the first year data was collected in 1983.
“A major reason why you have this huge gap between support for unions and actual participation in unions is that the United States makes it extremely hard for workers to form a union,” Kinder said. “That interest in unions or desire for a union often dissipates because the obstacles to actually form one are just so great, and the playing field is so tipped in favor of the employer versus the worker when it comes to forming a union.”
Alex Colvin, dean of Cornell’s Industrial and Labor Relations School, told ABC News that this divide between workers wanting unions yet not joining them is referred to as “the representation gap.”
“The reality is we do not see workers who want representation being able to get it, and it’s really striking,” Colvin said. “There’s nowhere where you see such a big difference as you do in the United States in those numbers.”
“What I think it says is that our current labor law system isn’t functioning effectively,” Colvin added.
Rather than lending support via Twitter or hosting rallies, Colvin said the best thing lawmakers can do to support workers seeking to unionize is changing the laws so that it isn’t so difficult for them to create a union — such as putting in more protections for workers trying to organize and stiffer penalties for employers that attempt to influence the vote.
“The most important thing would be if there was passage of labor law reform,” Colvin said. “That would be the thing that would have the biggest impact.”
Brooking’s Kinder added that sputtering labor law reform has emerged as the major stumbling block impeding the post-pandemic labor movement from translating into long-term change for workers.
“We’ve heard a lot in the news about stories like the Starbucks workers in Buffalo, or workers going on strike, or workers quitting, and so there’s been a lot of sorts of unrest and quitting and workers dissatisfied, but it hasn’t necessarily been harnessed into longer-term change through more union membership,” she added. “A lot of that is because of our labor laws.”
‘There’s a really important element of racial justice in here’: Spotlight back on Bessemer
As the central Alabama community found itself at the center of a national labor movement showdown, some activists say out-of-town politicians and union organizers may have lost touch with day-to-day realities faced by the workers they sought to support.
Some 72.4% of Bessemer’s 26,000 residents are Black, according to Census data, and more than 25% of Bessemer’s population lives in poverty. The decadeslong decline of the mining and steel industry that historically built Bessemer’s economy evaporated jobs for many local laborers and their children and grandchildren. When Amazon brought its first Alabama fulfillment center to Bessemer in 2018, it was touted by one local business leader as “a big win for the Birmingham region,” because of its promise to bring thousands of well-paying jobs with benefits starting on day one.
With the federal minimum wage — and Alabama’s — unchanged for decades at $7.25 per hour, Amazon’s starting pay of at least $15 an hour makes it a relatively lucrative option for many.
Labor activist Chris Smalls, a former Amazon worker who is spearheading efforts to unionize at a fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, told ABC News that he visited Bessemer to lend his support last year and witnessed how local labor market conditions apparently left workers feeling like they have little power in the jobs market.
“I’ve seen how decimated that city was down there; it was like a time warp back into the 1950s,” Smalls said of the economy in Bessemer. “There’s nothing down there but major corporations like Walmart, Amazon, like Dollar General, but other than that these workers have nowhere else to turn [for jobs].”
Smalls added that the state’s historically unfriendly attitude toward labor also meant many of the workers he spoke to in Alabama were unfamiliar with how a union works or could benefit them, especially in an area where good job opportunities felt sparse.
Smalls, who is Black, sees unionizing Amazon’s workers as a racial justice issue both in the South, where Black workers have historically been oppressed by anti-labor policies, and at Amazon facilities in predominantly Black and Brown communities across the country.
“Black and brown workers make up the majority of these facilities no matter where they’re at,” Smalls said. “Amazon sets up shop specifically in these neighborhoods, just to hire from these communities.”
One area where labor activists may have made a misstep last year, according to Smalls, is by losing sight of the needs and hopes of the workers on the ground in Bessemer. He thinks this may have contributed in part to the dismal local turnout and support during last year’s union election.
“It’s the workers that are the most important thing. If you lose sight of the workers and drown out the workers’ stories and their voices and politicize it, that doesn’t help at all,” Smalls told ABC News.
“Bringing politicians into it, I don’t care if it’s Bernie Sanders or the president, that’s not going to resonate with the workers,” he said of the national messages of support. “You’ve got to be there on the ground, you’ve got to connect with them. You’ve got to build your own relationship and trust with them.”
Research from Kinder and her colleagues at Brookings back up Smalls’ sentiments.
“Amazon’s workforce is disproportionately Black,” Kinder told ABC News. “The percentages of Amazon’s workforce that’s Black is about twice what you find in the economy overall, and in Bessemer, you know, upwards of 85% of Amazon employees are Black.”
“There’s a really important element of racial justice in here,” she said. “When you take a step back and you think about Amazon, I mean very few companies have had the kind of financial success and in a pandemic that Amazon has had.”
Pointing to their skyrocketing profits and stock prices, Kinder said the company has created billions of dollars in wealth for its shareholders, but most of this has gone not to the Black and brown workers who contributed to this financial success during a pandemic but to the often wealthier, whiter shareholders. Income inequality at Amazon was also put under a harsh spotlight last summer when founder Jeff Bezos, then the world’s wealthiest man, took a trip to the edge of space via his own private company Blue Origin — and then thanked Amazon workers for paying for it.
Cornell’s Colvin added that more so than national attention, local labor market conditions play a major factor in unionization efforts. While factors at the national level — including struggles of major companies to find staff and record-high levels of workers quitting their jobs — may have given workers an upper hand at negotiating with employees elsewhere, this momentum doesn’t mean much to those in Bessemer if local conditions are not improving.
“There’s certainly a strong national labor market, but it’s what your actual day-to-day local terms are that matters,” Colvin said.
“The local labor market condition and the relative attractiveness of the Amazon jobs is something that you have to take into account and that’s, to be honest, something that goes into location decisions,” he said. “There’s a reason that non-American auto companies locating plants in the United States tend to be located in areas like Bessemer, in places that are low unionization generally.”
‘A change, it’s coming’: Excitement builds for 2nd vote
Colvin told ABC News that there is some precedent for the NLRB ordering do-overs for union elections, but that historically second votes have not had as high success rates as first votes.
Kinder added that Amazon’s famously high turnover rate could have some impact on the second election, telling ABC News, “I think it could go either way.”
“There is an opportunity for some new people who might not have voted for the union in the last election that might now do it now,” she said. “But it also means that the work of organizers to try to organize support for the union is also challenged because turnover is so high. Frankly, I think it’s a little unpredictable.”
The voter list this time around is 6,143 workers, according to the RWDSU, which estimates more than half of the workers remain from the invalidated vote.
Kristina Bell, an Amazon worker at the Bessemer facility who is supporting the union drive, said during a press conference organized by the RWDSU that she feels the exuberance among workers is different this time around.
“A lot of people went through the first election and is still there and they understand that nothing has changed,” Bell said. “The loss was a blessing — that loss making us motivated to win even more.”
Bell added that a lot of younger employees didn’t vote the first time around, saying, “A lot of young people didn’t understand the importance of the union.”
“But after we lost that vote, you know how many people said, ‘I should have voted?'” she added. “It’s a lot of mind-changing, they went home and talked to their parents and their grandparents. … They come to me and I tell them, ‘Get educated, talk to your family.'”
“My community is excited and I’m from Bessemer, born and raised,” Bell said. “A change, it’s coming.”
(NEW YORK) — Starbucks will continue to raise prices in 2022 due to a combination of labor costs and supply chain disruptions.
The Seattle-based coffee giant announced Tuesday that between a rising cost of goods, employee pay amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, all paired with customer demand, the company has reevaluated its pricing strategy.
Starbucks executives said that more price increases are coming after it first raised them in October 2021 and again in January 2022.
“We have already taken pricing actions this fiscal year, one in October of 2021, and another in January of 2022, and we have additional pricing actions planned through the balance of this year, which play an important role to mitigate cost pressures, including inflation, as we position our business for the future,” CEO Kevin Johnson said on the company’s first quarter earnings call earlier this week.
“There are many factors that contribute to our thoughtful pricing strategy, including: The increasing US inflation rate currently running at 7% or perhaps greater, as well as wage, customer demand and other costs,” he explained.
Starbucks reported a 31% profit increase during the last three months of 2021 with a total of $816 million on the quarterly earnings report. The coffee chain’s revenue which has grown to $8.1 billion boasted an overall 19% increase compared to the same quarter the year prior.
“The rapid spread of Omicron through the US required us to quickly adapt store protocols,” Johnson continued. “Our COVID vaccination pay has supported thousands of partners in the broader efforts in helping get more people vaccinated. And with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, we had more partners leverage our COVID isolation benefits as they were either home sick or home isolating after being exposed to the virus, which led to significantly higher COVID-related benefits pay than expected.”
Hours after the earnings announcement, the New York Times reported that Starbucks shares “fell as much as 5% in after-hours trading.”
(DALLAS) — A monster winter storm is fueling the worst travel day of the year — with more than 4,000 flights canceled Thursday morning as of 10 a.m. per FlightAware. This is the most flight cancellations in a single day this year.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport was forced to suspend all departing and arriving flights on Thursday for at least a few hours due to ice and snow, according to the FAA.
“DFW confirms our runways are not operational while being treated for snow and ice,” the airport tweeted Thursday morning. “We anticipate reopening the first runway within the next hour.”
The airport currently holds the No. 1 spot for flight cancellations out of any airport in the world, with around 1,000 flights canceled Thursday.
Major U.S. airline hubs such as Chicago O’Hare International, Austin-Bergstrom International, and Dallas Love Field are also getting slammed by the arctic blast.
Austin-Bergstrom International and Dallas Love Field have already canceled more than 70% of their operations.
“Heavy snow and freezing rain is forecast today from Texas to New England,” the FAA warned. “Severe weather could impact parts of the South. Check with your airline for flight status.”
Southwest and American fliers are expected to see the most disruptions, with the airlines canceling almost 30% and 20% of their flights, respectively.
They have both issued winter weather waivers that allow passengers to change their flight with no penalty as the storm barrels across the nation.
Airports in the Northeast are bracing for flight disruptions Friday as the storm makes its way into the I-95 corridor.
This week’s storm is the latest travel nightmare in just a few weeks.
Last weekend thousands of fliers dealt with more than 5,000 flight cancellations as strong winds and heavy snow pummeled the East Coast.
At the start of the year, winter weather and the surge in omicron cases left many holiday-goers stranded for days.
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — The family that owns Purdue Pharma is “close” to an agreement that substantially increases its financial contribution to a nationwide opioids settlement, according to a new court filing.
The filing from Judge Shelley Chapman, who is mediating a dispute between Purdue Pharma and states that objected to its bankruptcy reorganization plan, asked for an extra week to reach a deal. Tuesday had been the original deadline.
Descendants of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler initially agreed to contribute $4 billion to resolve private and public claims against the bankrupt maker of OxyContin and fund opioid relief and education programs.
“The Mediation Parties are close to an agreement in principle that provides for substantial additional consideration incremental to the $4.325 billion provided for in the Plan – an incremental amount that would be used exclusively for abatement of the opioid crisis and related matters,” the filing said.
An agreement could end a legal challenge that has prevented Purdue Pharma from exiting bankruptcy and reconstituting itself as a public benefit corporation.
“The proposed settlement requires the agreement of all Mediation Parties. In order to conclude the negotiations and address a number of remaining issues, the Mediator respectfully requests an extension of the Termination Date to February 7, 2022,” the filing said.
The mediator’s filing described intense negotiating sessions, including scores of phone calls, “hundreds of emails and text messages” and two days of in-person mediation on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 that each ran more than 12 hours.
The initial reorganization plan had been hashed out over two years. Members of the Sackler families agreed to contribute $4 billion and give up ownership of Purdue, which would become a new company with profits used to fight the opioid crisis.
In exchange for the contributions, Sackler family members were given protections from lawsuits over opioids.
Approval of that plan was rescinded by a federal judge because it released the Sacklers from legal liability even though they’re not part of the bankruptcy.
Eight objecting states also argued the $4 billion is insufficient to hold the Sackler family members accountable. They have denied wrongdoing.
(NEW YORK) — After managing to avoid the same level of scrutiny as fellow tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook for years, streaming service Spotify has now found itself at the center of a scandal involving the platform it gives to those disseminating misinformation about COVID-19.
The saga stems from episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, which critics said peddled dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines to his millions of listeners. Spotify made headlines back in 2020 for reportedly licensing a $100 million deal to exclusively host Rogan’s often controversial namesake podcast.
Following immense backlash that included artist Neil Young yanking his music from the platform and a petition demanding action from Spotify signed by hundreds of doctors, scientists and public health professionals, Spotify responded late Sunday by saying it will add a “content advisory” label to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19 and directs listeners to its “COVID-19 Hub” for up-to-date information on the virus as shared by public health authorities.
The streaming service, however, stopped short of removing any podcast episodes that have been criticized for spreading misinformation about the virus. A contrite Rogan said he supports Spotify’s decision in a 10-minute video posted to Instagram on Sunday, and he promised to add more guests with “differing opinions.”
While experts say Spotify’s actions are a good starting point, many say they remain skeptical of how effective these advisory labels will ultimately be at undoing or curbing the real-world damage caused by virus misinformation online.
“What we know is that it’s not going to have a strong effect in terms of changing people’s minds,” Ellen Goodman, a professor at Rutgers Law School whose research focuses on information policy law, free speech and media policy, told ABC News of adding fact-checking labels to misinformation. Goodman stressed that most of the research on this topic, however, looks at traditional social media platforms versus streaming services like Spotify.
Goodman said that existing research on this topic has shown that it is unlikely people’s opinions are going to be changed by something like a fact-checking label, especially for content on “something as polarizing as vaccines.”
“The evidence shows that it probably doesn’t do a huge amount to dissuade people from their priors,” she added. “But, also, the evidence shows that if they’re not coming into it with a prior, like they’re not in one camp or the other — it’s hard to imagine that there are people like on the fence about this issue — but if there are such people, then disclaimers can be effective.”
In a company blog post on Sunday announcing the updates, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said, “Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly.”
“We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users,” Ek added. “In that role, it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”
Goodman, meanwhile, told ABC News that she thinks it’s “nonsense to say that they don’t want to censor.”
“It’s not censorship, it’s making choices,” she said. “They are exercising editorial control when they decide what to put on their platforms and whatnot, and what to promote, and obviously this was a huge business deal for Spotify.”
“They are making their choices; they have a right to make those choices,” Goodman added, saying that having decided to host Rogan’s podcast, the company likely knew the kind of content moderation challenges this could present, adding, “but those are the kinds of editorial decisions that media platforms make all the time.”
Another problem many platforms have had with the labeling approach to misinformation is that it can open a whole can of worms for companies then deciding what rises to the level of meriting a label and what doesn’t, Goodman added, saying navigating these tripwires has proven especially difficult for social media giants in recent years.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology similarly warned on a 2020 study that putting warning labels on fake news can carry a catch of making people more readily believe other false stories that aren’t tagged, and that there is no way fact-checkers can keep up with the stream of misinformation to combat this so-called “implied truth effect” caused by the addition of just some labeling.
Epidemiologist Dr. John Brownstein, the chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, was one of the signatories of the headline-grabbing petition from scientists and doctors slamming an episode of Rogan’s podcast that featured a doctor who has been banned from Twitter for COVID-19 misinformation.
“It’s a good starting point,” Brownstein said of Spotify’s response, but he expressed frustration at how rapidly a public health campaign can be “undermined by a very, very small minority.”
“We’ve seen this movie play out before, where you can undo massive amounts of public health advance through even the smallest amount of objection,” he added. “We saw this with the linkage between vaccination and autism, where even though that research in itself was debunked, that that false linkage still persists today.”
“Regardless of a warning, I think people will ultimately still listen,” Brownstein said of content advisory labels. “A warning won’t necessarily have a major impact necessarily on how people absorb the information.”
He said he believes tech platforms bear a “massive responsibility” in figuring out “how not to provide equal footing” to false information about science and in quelling its spread, especially during a public health crisis.
“They need to find ways to not perpetuate rumors or misinformation about vaccines that ultimately cost lives,” Brownstein said. “There’s a responsibility, because these are not just sort of online chats, this is information that translates to someone’s decision about getting a vaccine.”
(NEW YORK) — Veganuary is over, but that doesn’t mean your sustainable fashion journey has to be.
The Veganuary challenge was created by a UK nonprofit of the same name to educate people about veganism during the month of January. While in 2014 it started off as a sign-up program to help participants follow plant-based diets, it has since grown into a movement, with people in every field — particularly fashion and beauty — embracing it.
Over the past several years, the interest in vegan and sustainable fashion has risen rapidly, according to The Vegan Society, not only among young designers who are conscious about the health of the planet, but also among consumers who are learning about the benefits of leaving behind fast fashion.
Good Morning America spoke with a group of sustainable designers about how they developed their businesses, why they decided to take the vegan route and what can be done, by both creators and shoppers, to help make the fashion and beauty industries less wasteful — not only during January, but every day.
The wave of sustainable and vegan fashion designers
Monica Santos, a Puerto Rican designer based in New York, launched her brand, Santos by Monica, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to “challenge the traditions of the fashion industry” in a way that reflected her values and did not negatively impact the environment.
Before taking the leap with her label, the designer worked for numerous fast fashion (the business model of replicating trends and mass-producing them at a low cost) and luxury brands, and said she “gained visibility into supply chains and realized the effect the fashion industry has on the planet and garment workers and wanted to do something different.”
That’s when she said she decided to create a collection of handbags made entirely out of cactus leather — one of the various vegan leathers which sustainable brands have been loving.
Similarly, LØCI, the sneaker brand which has been endorsed by celebrities and dropped a collection with actress Nikki Reed, has made a name for itself due to its “animal free always” motto. Its 100% vegan shoes are made using recycled materials, including ocean plastic upper for the upper, foam and cork for the insoles, ethically sourced bamboo for the lining and rubber for the outsole.
LØCI co-founders Emmanuel Eribo and Philippe Homsy are not the only creatives using plastic waste to make products. While the material can be turned into vegan leather, it can also be made into smooth fabric — just ask La Gotta founder Valeria del Rey, whose stunning swimsuits are made out of recycled plastic bottles.
“La Gotta progressed organically toward becoming a sustainable brand based on my personal passion for second-hand and vintage pieces, as well as on my love for the environment, particularly our oceans and beaches,” del Rey said.
The love for the planet runs deep in the sustainable fashion industry. The team at SINBONO, a vegan handbag brand, said they decided to take the sustainability route after realizing that by adopting sustainable options, they could drop their carbon footprint by around 73% and help slow down global warming. “It is important to keep the planet’s health before our desires,” they said. “Our vegan leather is composed of a mixture of responsibly recycled plastic bottles and reclaimed fruit material. This produces a high-quality product that looks like animal skin, without harming animals or the environment.”
Casey Dworkin, the founder of vegan New York-based footwear brand Sylven, is an example of a designer embracing vegan design but not letting go of luxury. Her plant-based shoes are handcrafted in Italy by expert artisans, and have the look, the feel and the durability of high-end European leather shoes — but without the negative impacts that come with producing them. (According to PETA, turning animal skin into leather “requires massive amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals,” and raising animals for their skin to eventually be turned into leather “requires huge amounts of feed, pastureland, water, and fossil fuels.”)
“I was actually born on Earth Day. I started getting involved with environmental advocacy when I was around 14, and it has always been a big part of my life,” Dworkin said. “When I decided to launch my own brand, sustainable practices were a must for me from the get-go. I am incredibly passionate about new-age materials and components made from plants, so I focus a lot of my messaging on material use, but sustainability really is a holistic practice.”
Because of the recent popularity of vegan leathers, consumers now have many options to choose from when it comes to sustainable footwear and handbag brands, but for apparel, it’s often more difficult, as there is so much that goes into creating truly sustainable garments that are of high quality and last for generations.
French brand Parisienne et Alors is one of the brands designing sustainable ready-to-wear. Creative director Laury Thilleman said every piece is made locally in France and crafted from recycled and/or upcycled fabrics — most from natural fibers. “Fashion is one of the most polluting industries, but Parisienne et Alors is determined to make a change and to stand out as a positive example of how fashion can make a difference,” Thilleman told GMA.
Another European brand, Manola, creates chic activewear from environmentally-friendly materials, such as recycled nylon from ECONYL (which comes from discarded fishing nets, plastic and carpets) or organic cotton from PYRATEX, which generates 46% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional cotton.
Loungewear brand PANGAIA is also big on recycled fabrics, and uses plant fibers, bio-based fibers and leather alternatives. Their approach to creating fashion is very much science-based. “Our goal is to demystify science and become a bridge builder between science and fashion — to make sustainable innovations the new normal,” Chief Innovation Officer Amanda Parkes said.
More mainstream brands are also embracing veganism and sustainability. Patagonia, Levi’s, Fabletics and H&M are all implementing sustainable practices into their businesses, and expanding their clientele by doing so. “Fabletics understands the importance of protecting the environment, and we want to ensure we are doing our part. As such, while there’s much work to be done, we have made sustainability a core focus and are proud of the steps we’ve taken thus far,” the Fabletics team, which just released various vegan leather leggings and pants, said.
Vegan beauty
Natural beauty products have been in for some time now, but for many brands today, the challenge has become: How do you make your production and shipping methods sustainable and entice people with the history and roots behind your organic products?
Luca, a fragrance company established in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2013, works with sustainable, local suppliers, uses upcycled (products made by transforming other recycled products) materials and only puts out small drops. “One of our core oils is a fossilized amber extracted from a 35 million-year-old Himalayan fossilized tree resin. This oil comes from a process called ‘dry distillation,’ whereby the Amber resin is processed over high heat until an oily substance is obtained. Another stellar oil in our perfume is the cedar, which is obtained from the sawdust created when the wood is cut for lumber,” the Luca team said.
Another brand, Kumiko, also said it embraces nature and shows consumers the benefits of living a vegan lifestyle, through skincare. The company said its products are made with Japanese matcha tea, an antioxidant, and are non-toxic, gluten-, parabens- and cruelty-free.
“It is an undeniable reality that the vegan preference is on the rise worldwide, along with respect and care for the environment. Kumiko is aware of this, with a total commitment for sustainable products from the beginning of the production line to the end, always considering recyclable packaging,” the team said.
Sustainability is a lifestyle
Organic ingredients and vegan leathers — particularly cactus, apple, pineapple and corn — have become the new go-tos for sustainable designers looking to create eco-friendly luxury, but as people learn more and more about sustainability, it has become clear that there are many parts to it, both as a creator and a consumer.
Using organic, vegan materials is just one of the things brands are doing to make their businesses more sustainable; there is also packaging, production and ethics to think about. LØCI, for example, said it donates 10% of its profits to environmental causes, including ocean conservation charities and carbon offset projects. Santos said she has made her entire packaging either compostable or recyclable, and recently introduced biodegradable hang tags embedded with wildflowers, so that when you plant the paper in a pot of soil, the seeds in the paper germinate and grow into plants. Also, with every Santos by Monica bag sold, one tree is planted with One Tree Planted.
Santos by Monica, apart from being charitable, follows a made-to-order production strategy, which means the designer creates only enough product to fit the demand, and therefore avoids generating waste. La Gotta and Manola produce in the same way.
Araks Yeramyan, the designer of cotton lingerie brand Araks, said educated shoppers don’t just want eco-friendly materials, they want to know that the businesses they’re supporting are actively trying to reduce their carbon footprint, eliminate toxic waste and help their communities and their planet. This idea of getting rid of waste by using natural materials or extending the life of each garment is also the reason — apart from nostalgia — vintage and pre-owned clothing sales have spiked in the fast few years.
Thrilling, an online marketplace that sells vintage and second-hand items from small businesses across the U.S., said that orders have increased by 240% over the last year, and the amount of vintage inventory that stores uploaded to the site increased by nearly 500%.
How can creators and consumers help fashion become more sustainable?
If you’re looking to make the switch to shopping vegan and living sustainably, Santos said you need to do your research.
“Consumers could be more aware by taking into account where products they consume come from, what they are made of and what the ideals of the brands they support are,” she said. “Making an effort to learn more about the brand before consuming and asking themselves if the product is something they really need before making the purchase.”
Jordan Clark, the founder of vegan footwear brand Dooeys, said shoppers should ask how things are made and buy things that last. “If a brand gives vague material information on a product page, it’s probably because it’s not worth sharing,” she said. “Invest in pieces you love now and will continue to love over the coming years. I also find it helpful to follow influencers and bloggers that focus on sustainable fashion and shop sustainable marketplaces like Made Trade that do the vetting for you.”
Del Rey said it’s also the creators’ job to educate shoppers on the actual value of a vegan brand or item, rather than market the sustainability movement as just the latest hot trend.
“We feel as if awareness of veganism in the fashion industry can be promoted the same way a vegan diet and lifestyle was,” the SINBONO team said. “If you go back a couple of years, not many people were ready to make the shift, but now, many people choose vegan products. This was primarily done through the media and companies themselves.”
And, they said, if more big, popular companies make the shift toward vegan fashion, customers will inevitably be more interested in learning about the topic.
Dworkin, of Sylven, said the word “veganism” so often gets equated with diet, but it’s absolutely a lifestyle.
“It’s about consciously eliminating the use of animal products, and fashion plays a huge part in that equation,” Dworkin said. “I think a majority of people who first dabble in being vegan really hone in on food, but I think that fashion can and should play a much larger role in introducing new alternatives to the masses, especially for people who may not be ready to make a full lifestyle change, finding a pair of boots that are made from apples instead of cows, or a coat made from Tencel instead of down is a great way to reduce the number of animal products consumed.”
(NEW YORK) — Looking to buy a new Kia Telluride sport utility vehicle? Expect to pay $48,509 — more than $3,700 above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
Luxury SUVs like the Range Rover ($117,890) and Cadillac Escalade ESV ($102,584) are selling for $3,000 to $6,000 over MSRP, according to Edmunds, which compiled a list of the top 10 vehicles with the largest market adjustments in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Markups on sports cars are even more dramatic: dealers are asking (and getting) 5% over MSRP for the Corvette Stingray ($86,511) and 8% for Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 ($91,611).
“People are accepting these prices without complaining … they’re going with it and making the plunge,” Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights, told ABC News. “Dealer markups are happening all over the board. Manufacturers don’t really have control over it.”
The automotive industry has not been immune from the price hikes impacting nearly every industry. Desperate consumers are starting to surrender to the new reality: discounts, incentives and negotiating are so 2019.
In December, consumers paid on average $709 more than the suggested transaction price, Caldwell said, noting that the upward march in prices really took hold in August.
“We have not seen this happen before on an aggregate level,” she said.
And markups are impacting nearly 90% of car buyers, according to one estimate, forcing some automakers to threaten a dealer crackdown.
‘Out of control’ luxury markups
It’s the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the boxy, ultra-luxe ute driven by celebs and socialites, that may be the most extreme example of dealership markups. The base G-Class costs $174,650 though new owners are shelling out an additional $30,405 on average — if they’re lucky to get one at all. Caldwell said she knows of one woman who recently paid $50,000 above MSRP for a G-Class. Some Mercedes dealerships are even asking $337,000 for a 2021 AMG G 63 G-Class — more than $150,000 above the MSRP, according to Caldwell.
“This woman thought she got a good deal,” said Caldwell. “Consumers feel pressure to buy right away because inventory is so low.”
Some owners of the ultra-luxe G-Class have paid $150K above the six-figure sticker price.
And it’s not just the G-Class getting the markup treatment. The Mercedes GLS SUV and GLC Coupe SUV are also seeing massive price hikes. A Mercedes-Benz spokeswoman declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Marc Van Hengst, a brand ambassador at the Jack Daniels Porsche dealership in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, called the car market “out of control” and said he disapproves of the outrageous prices dealers are charging.
“I don’t like to do markups. It’s bad for business and will scare people away,” he told ABC News.
Van Hengst said he sees prospective customers coming into his dealership and pleading with management for a 2022 911 GT3 — the hottest Porsche on the market now among enthusiasts. The 502-horsepower GT3 sprints from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds and comes with a starting price tag of $161,100. A quick search on Cars.com pulls up listings for $307,740 — $339,000 — even $349,900.
“You get a lot of performance [in the GT3] which a lot of people will not use at all … but people want the performance,” Van Hengst said. “The internet makes it seem like it’s the most desirable Porsche of all.”
Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, said 87% of consumers are currently paying above MSRP, which is already at a record high. The average new vehicle price is now $45,283 versus $35,000 in December of 2019, according to J.D. Power. The global chip shortage and supply crunch have led to surging prices, Jominy said.
“There are some crazy markups and the higher price point you go the crazier they are,” he told ABC News. “Automakers have never seen anything like this. But some of them are telling dealers to cool it with markups. It’s not in their best interest long term.”
He added, “The higher markups are like a tax on rich people.”
Cracking down
Ford and General Motors are actively trying to stop dealerships from heavily marking up the price of new vehicles.
Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, addressed customer interest for the upcoming Corvette Z06, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV, GMC Sierra EV and Cadillac Lyriq in a letter sent to the automaker’s dealer network on Jan. 18, writing in part:
“Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that in connection with some of these announcements and launches, a small number of Dealers have engaged in practices that do not support a positive sales experience for our customers. This puts our collective interests at risk and generates negative press that reflect poorly on GM’s brands and your dealerships. Specifically, it has come to our attention that some dealerships have attempted to demand money above and beyond the reservation amounts set in GM’s program rules and/or have requested customers to pay sums far in excess of MSRP in order to purchase or lease a vehicle … GM will be forced to take action if it learns of any unethical sales practices or brokering activities that undermine the integrity that customers expect from the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac brands.”
A GM spokesperson confirmed the letter to ABC News, adding, “We want every customer to have a great experience. The majority of our dealers know this; however, we want everyone on the same page.”
In a tersely worded memo, Ford instructed dealers not to raise the price of its new F-150 Lightning electric truck nor demand that customers already on the reservation list make additional deposits or payments.
“It has come to our attention that a limited number of dealerships are interacting with customers in a manner that is negatively impacting customer satisfaction and damaging to the Ford Motor Company brand and Dealer Body reputation,” the memo stated.
A Ford spokesperson told ABC News in response to the memo: “The all-new F-150 Lightning represents a leap ahead in innovation for Ford trucks and is critical to the Ford brand and our dealerships as we move into a segment we’ve never competed. We are competing with others who have a direct model and we need to be very mindful of how customers perceive Ford and our dealer network. How our dealers treat customers has major implications not only on an individual dealer but the reputation of Ford and our dealers as a whole. We want to show customers how our Ford dealer network provides a better experience than anyone out there.”
Automakers displeased with excessive markups could penalize wayward dealers in the future with fewer allocations.
“Markups can sour the relationship with the customer,” Caldwell said.
Even the unloved compact car has seen its price skyrocket as consumers frantically snap up SUVs. Drivers who may have shunned sedans before are willing to buy any vehicle at this point, Jominy pointed out.
“We’re seeing very limited inventories and high prices in this market for the foreseeable future,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Facebook’s announcement in October that it was further embracing the metaverse and rebranding itself as Meta set off a firestorm. While experts say the metaverse is still many years away, the explosion of the term has many asking, what is the metaverse?
The metaverse aims to innovate the way people interact with each other on the internet, interacting in a way previously only thought possible in science fiction.
“The metaverse is essentially a massive, interconnected network of virtual spaces,” Rabindra Ratan, associate professor of media and information at Michigan State University. told ABC News Live. “In theory, we’ll be able to move from one virtual world to another in the metaverse, but we’ll be wearing virtual reality goggles or maybe augmented reality.”
Technologies like virtual reality, a computer-generated simulation of a 3D image or environment, and augmented reality, superimposing a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, will play a significant role in bringing the metaverse to life.
The metaverse could potentially use virtual reality, or augmented reality as we know it now, to immerse users in an alternate world. The technology is still being developed, but companies like Meta say they are building and improving these devices. Meta’s Oculus Quest, now in its second model, is one such device.
“When you’re in the metaverse, when you’re in a virtual reality headset, you will feel like you’re actually sitting in a room with someone else who can see you, who can see all of your nonverbal gestures, who you can respond to and mimic,” Ratan said.
Immersive worlds and creating online avatars is nothing new, as games like Grand Theft Auto Online, Minecraft and Roblox have already created virtual universes. Meta’s announcement last October aims to go beyond entertainment, and create virtual workspaces, homes and experiences for all ages.
“What’s happening now is the metaverse for social media without gaming,” Ratan said. “The new metaverse is designed to support any type of social interaction, whether that’s hanging out with your friends or having a business meeting.”
While the excitement around the concept of a metaverse is rapidly growing, Ratan said bringing that vision to reality is still many years away.
“People are building it in slow bits and pieces,” Ratan said. “We don’t know exactly how people are going to use the metaverse.”
Experts say companies are making sure they are prepared once the change takes place.
“I think no one really knows exactly what shape it’s going to take, but they need to make sure that they’re at the forefront of it,” Arun Maini, a tech YouTuber from England with over 9 million subscribers.
The possibilities of a virtual world, where everything is supported by lines of codes, could open new revenue streams for companies diving into this new venture. The opportunities are limitless, and based on how Americans have adopted an increasingly digital life, the change is already taking place. Walmart announced earlier this month it would step into the virtual world, providing currency and allowing customers to buy and sell NFTs.
“Over the next five years, you’re going to see Metaverse technology become real, concrete and sampleable,” said CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley. “I think it’s going to be impressive, but I think it’s going to have many flavors, not just one.”
A Pew Research study from March 2021 found that 31% of Americans were almost always online, while 79% were online several times a day. Maini said the recent patterns show how people are starting to shift away from physical to virtual goods based on the time spent on apps and games.
“In the metaverse, you will still have those stupidly expensive designer Gucci trainers to be able to show that, ‘Oh yeah, look, I’m doing well for myself,’ even if really it’s just a line of code,” Maini said.
The efforts required to make that world a reality, however, could be extensive. Many people in the U.S. still don’t have access to high-speed broadband connections, and the price of reliable VR hardware could be high. But for Maini, he said the hardware is becoming more affordable and accessible as new technologies are developed.
“Like every day, the promise of this virtual land is increasing. So like a person’s willingness to pay is going up and up and up. And if at the same time that hardware is getting cheaper, there probably will be a point where there’s like mass adoption,” Maini said.
With a high demand, the need for innovation is even higher. Meta announced on Jan. 24 it’s developing a new AI supercomputer, describing it as a building block toward bringing the vision of a metaverse into reality.
“The AI Research SuperCluster, or RSC, will help Meta’s AI researchers build better models that can learn from trillions of examples; work across hundreds of different languages; seamlessly analyze text, images and video together; develop new augmented reality tools and more,” Meta said in a statement.
“Ultimately, the work done with RSC will pave the way toward building technologies for the next major computing platform — the metaverse, where AI-driven applications and products will play an important role,” the statement continued.
Virtual interactions offers enticing financial opportunities for big businesses, but they also raise concerns over the impact on users and safety of its users.
Meta continues to face scrutiny for alleged harmful effects on young users and how it monitors hate speech across its apps, including Instagram. With millions of users able to join different platforms, Maini said moderation is important.
“If you’re trying to moderate something of that level of freedom, then you’re going to have to be moderating in a way that’s like incredibly invasive,” Maini said. “So we either end up in a situation where it’s complete chaos and everyone’s allowed to do everything and you know, there’s racism, sexism, abuse and all that kind of stuff, or there’s incredibly tight moderation and no one’s allowed to do anything.”
With the speed at which technologies are being developed and companies are implementing innovative ideas around immersive reality, it’s only a matter of time before the metaverse becomes a reality.
“The experience of the web will be different in many ways than it is now,” Ratan said.
(NEW YORK) — Prices have continued to climb from the grocery store to the gas station amid the pandemic. According to a new report, the prices of some foods and household staples are heading higher.
Kraft Heinz alerted customers that its prices will go up in March on dozens of popular products including certain SKUs of Velveeta cheese by 6.6%, hot dogs and cold cuts by 10% and Oscar Mayer turkey bacon by 30%.
Even coffee is affected — Kraft Heinz’s Maxwell House coffee price would go up by 5%, the company said.
Prices have risen steadily across the food industry, with unprecedented ingredient, labor and transportation shortages coupled with surging demand driving prices higher.
Kraft Heinz said the price increases are not a sweeping action across all its products and instead applies specifically to products experiencing the greatest cost pressures.
Officials at the Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled they are on the verge of addressing this issue of soaring prices by potentially hiking interest rates very “soon.”
“With inflation well above 2 percent and a strong labor market, the Committee expects it will soon be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate,” the Fed said in a statement Wednesday.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that “inflation remains well above our longer run goal of 2%,” which it notably has for some time now. He attributed this largely to supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic and the reopening of the economy.
ABC News’ Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
