(NEW YORK) — The number of people who quit their jobs rose to a record high in September, the Department of Labor said Friday.
Some 4.4 million workers, or 3% of the total workforce, quit their jobs in September, the DOL said, marking the highest number since the government started tracking the data. Moreover, the number of job openings in September was 10.4 million — tying August for the second-highest figure ever recorded and down only slightly from the record 10.9 million job openings seen in July.
The layoffs and discharge rate, meanwhile, was unchanged at 0.9% in September.
The fresh data reflect an ongoing trend among U.S. workers who are reevaluating their work situation and life following the shock of the pandemic.
Job quitting increased in several industries in September, according to the data, with the largest increases seen in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector and in the state and local government education industry.
The record-high levels of people quitting their jobs, combined with soaring job openings, have left many major companies reeling to find staff. Workers now have an upper hand in the labor market that has been linked to a spate of strikes and new employee activism.
Thousands of workers at John Deere remain on strike and new unionization efforts have emerged at major companies including Amazon and Starbucks.
The crunch for workers as the economy reopens has also been linked to rising wages, especially in the service industry where wages were largely stagnant for years before the pandemic.
Preliminary data from the Labor Department indicates that the average hourly earnings of all employees in food and drinking establishments soared to a record high of $17.58 in September, a figure that has slowly climbed each month in 2021.
The overall unemployment rate still remains elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate last month was 4.6%, still above the 3.5% seen in February 2020 before the pandemic upended the labor market.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday that Innovative Solutions, Inc., is recalling approximately 97,887 pounds of raw ground chicken patty products, some of which was sold at Trader Joe’s locations.
The chicken patty products, which were produced on various dates from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of bone, according to the press release.
The products subject to recall include Chile Lime Chicken Burgers sold at Trader Joe’s, as well as Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders, which were sold at other grocery stores. Both were shipped nationwide.
The items have an establishment number of EST. P-8276.
There have been no confirmed reports of injury or illness, but the FSIS urges consumers to throw away or return the products.
(NEW YORK) — Starbucks workers in upstate New York are seeking to form the coffee chain’s first union in the U.S., as the labor movement gains steam in the wake of COVID-19-related shocks to the economy.
The efforts to unionize at Starbucks come as unique conditions have given many employees an upper-hand in the labor market. Workers are quitting their jobs at some of the highest rates on record, according to Bureau of Labor statistics data, and job openings also have been hitting record highs in recent months. Meanwhile, an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs in the service industry has given employees new leverage as major companies struggle to find staff.
“We’ve been called essential workers, yet a lot of my co-workers are barely able to afford rent and putting groceries in the fridge in same week,” Casey Moore, 25, a Starbucks worker in the Buffalo area and member of the union organizing committee, told ABC News on Thursday. “I think the pandemic definitely highlighted the need for change, because it’s not sustainable.”
The unionization bid also comes after Starbucks reported earning record fourth-quarter consolidated net revenues of $8.1 billion. Shares of Starbucks, which closed at $111.44 on Thursday, are up more than 19% over the last year and have nearly doubled over the last five years.
Ballots for a union election were mailed out to Starbucks employees at three locations in the Buffalo area on Wednesday evening despite a last-minute effort on behalf of Starbucks to delay sending out the ballots as the company sought to included all Buffalo-area stores in the vote.
Kayla Blado, the press secretary for the National Labor Relations Board, confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that the union election ballots had been mailed out on Wednesday at 5 p.m. local time after the board did not respond to the Starbucks’ motion for a stay of election by that time. The ballots are going to be impounded, Blado said, meaning they won’t be counted until the board decides whether or not they’re going to review Starbucks’ request.
If the board denies the request for a review, the ballots will be counted Dec. 9, according to Blado. If the board grants the request, then a new date will be chosen to count the ballots.
“I love my job and I love what I do, and that just made it even more incredibly frustrating to see their response,” Moore told ABC News of Starbucks’ apparent reaction to the unionization bid. “One of the reasons I first started working at Starbucks was because of the progressive values that they profess to have as a company, and it’s honestly been shocking living through the this whole thing.”
The workers are seeking to be represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
The Starbucks Workers United group confirmed on Twitter Wednesday evening that ballots are in the mail and heading to Starbucks partners voting to organize the first unionized stores out of the over 8,000 corporate locations in the U.S.
“Despite Starbucks’ repeated attempt to stop partners from voting, the NLRB has once again upheld our legal right to vote to join a union here in Buffalo,” the Starbucks Workers United said in a statement. “Starbucks’ PR teams say they want partners to vote, yet they continue to use every delay tactic in the book to try and stop an actual vote.”
“Hopefully, the whole country can look at what partners are doing in Buffalo against the odds and realize how outdated our labor laws are when companies are allowed to interfere in the process so dramatically,” the statement added. “When partners filed for a union, we should have been allowed to vote. A company as large as Starbucks shouldn’t be able to use its wealth to intimidate us.”
Moore said working along the service industry’s front lines during the pandemic has been incredibly stressful, and just today a customer she served via the drive-thru openly told her that he’d tested positive for COVID-19.
Union membership has dwindled in recent decades, falling to 10.8% in 2020 among salaried and wage-earning workers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1983, the first year the BLS collected this data, that figure was 20.1%.
Despite the slumping figures, approval for labor unions in the U.S. is at its highest levels since 1965, according to Gallup data. Some 68% of Americans approve of labor unions in 2021, the highest recorded by Gallup since a 71% mark in 1965.
Many labor economists have attributed this gap between support for unions and union membership rates to increased employer resistance to unionization and outdated labor laws that make it difficult to form unions. Advocates are seeking to reform this through proposed legislation known as the PRO Act, which seeks to expand workplace protections for union-seeking employees.
Moore told ABC News that she joined the union organizing committee a few months after she began working at Starbucks this past summer.
“I always had positive thoughts about unions — my dad is in a teacher’s union and stuff — so I knew that they were good things, but at first I was like, ‘I don’t know — I’ve never heard of unions in the service industry,'” Moore said.
She said she was inspired to get involved, however, after “meeting with people from Workers United and, like, hearing my co-workers talk about why they wanted to form a union, which is really like to have a seat at the table and to actually have a say in our workplaces.”
“I’ve learned so much about labor law, but I never anticipated just … the sheer craziness of like this whole process,” Moore added.
Starbucks’ leaders have said that unionizing would change employees’ direct relationship with the company, and they want to preserve that relationship.
“We have also asked the National Labor Relations Board to allow all partners in Buffalo stores to vote, instead of just three stores,” Rossann Williams, executive vice president of Starbucks North America, said in a letter to employees last month that was shared with ABC News. “As you know, Starbucks stores in a city or market are deeply interconnected — partners like to routinely work shifts in other stores, we transfer and promote partners between stores, we share inventory across the market, we operate under the same policies, and we share the same set of leaders.”
“We believe rather than restricting the vote to three stores, all Buffalo store partners should vote because every partner’s voice matters, especially in an important decision that may affect them all,” Williams added. She said they are hosting meetings with employees in Buffalo so they can “know the facts and have a space to hear from us directly so they can make their own informed decision.”
“I want to be clear that our actions in Buffalo are not about whether we are pro-union or anti-union,” Williams added. “It’s quite simply that we are pro-Starbucks partners. As you know, our heritage and culture are built on the belief that by working directly together as partners, we can build a different kind of company.”
In the same letter, Williams also made clear that “we are asking partners to vote ‘no’ to a union — not because we’re opposed to unions but because we believe we will best enhance our partnership and advance the operational changes together in a direct relationship.”
In late October, as unionization efforts were in full swing, Starbucks announced it was raising employees’ wages and making other changes to improve working conditions. By summer 2022, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings statement, all hourly employees will make an average of $17, ranging from $15 to $23 across the U.S.
Moore said there is “no doubt” in her mind that Starbucks’ instituting a new seniority pay system this was in response to their efforts.
“They had 15 years to implement that policy, and they just did that before, like, I think it was a week before we, the first three stores, started voting,” she said. “So, it’s things like that, where you can see what power we have standing together with just the threat of unionizing.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday that Innovative Solutions, Inc., is recalling approximately 97,887 pounds of raw ground chicken patty products sold at Trader Joe’s locations.
The chicken patty products, which were produced on various dates from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of bone, according to the press release.
The products subject to recall include Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Chicken Burgers and Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders, which were shipped nationwide.
There have been no confirmed reports of injury or illness, but the FSIS urges consumers to throw away or return the products.
(NEW YORK) — With supply chain issues hitting the fresh food industry, due to delays and struggles to get products from farms to store shelves, certain Thanksgiving staples like cranberries will have a steeper cost and potentially less stock.
Ocean Spray president and CEO Tom Hayes joined Good Morning America on Thursday to address the upcoming run on Thanksgiving items and how his company’s signature fruit has had to stay afloat amid supply chain woes.
“Ocean Spray has had supply chain challenges, the whole industry has. We will continue to do our best to keep supplies going and supplies on shelves, but we’ve had to be resilient this year,” Hayes said. “We’re owned by 700 family farms and they continue to do everything they have for 90 years to keep the supply flowing, but it has been a challenge. Whether it’s steel cans and making supply chain adjustments, we have had to do it, and this year has been difficult of course.”
When it comes to price forecasting, Hayes explained that his company “unfortunately” has to pass on the rising production costs to consumers.
“That’s just a reality. We have a lot of costs going up — all ingredients, transportation. It is something that is continuing to affect us as a company and we do have to pass those on,” he said. “Remember, they’re family farms, so we have to make sure they have a livelihood too and we’re balancing that. We haven’t taken pricing in 10 years at Ocean Spray. We’re doing our best to keep costs down, but we have taken pricing and are looking forward to still having a great season.”
By the end of October, there were already some shortages on other crucial Thanksgiving items.
Turkeys were 60% out of stock, which was a little more than half of stock compared to the same time last year. Yams and sweet potatoes were 25% out of stock, while stock on refrigerated pies were down 5% and cranberries were 20% out of stock.
If consumers shop early, those products should be available, but — with price increases at the highest in 30 years — they will cost more.
To save some money on the total bill, experts recommend shopping now for non-perishable items and considering a potluck style Thanksgiving to spread the cost around.
“This is our super bowl at Ocean Spray,” Hayes said. “We are working day in and day out, all night in a lot of cases, to deliver products to the market.”
“My advice is to be absolutely flexible. Whether it’s jellied, whole or fresh cranberries,” he added. “Plan early and make sure you get to the grocery store. It will be a happy Thanksgiving, but you have to demonstrate more flexibility than you have in the past.”
(BALTIMORE) — President Joe Biden visited Baltimore on Wednesday to tout his infrastructure bill and highlight his administration’s work to ease port delays as the country approaches the holiday season with rising inflation and delivery slowdowns on the horizon.
Biden’s visit came five days after Congress passed his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that, among myriad investments in the nations’ physical infrastructure, will provide $17 billion to revitalize coastal, inland and land ports, as well as strengthen them against the effects of climate change.
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced short- and long-term steps to strengthen U.S. ports as part of an effort to tackle supply chain issues, including using money from the infrastructure bill, which the president plans to sign into law on Monday during a bipartisan White House ceremony.
“I’m not waiting to sign a bill to start improving the flow of goods from shifts to shelves,” Biden said during remarks at the Baltimore port. “Yesterday, I announced the port — a port plan of action. It lays out concrete steps for my administration to take over the next three months to invest in our ports and to relieve bottlenecks.”
As the U.S. continues to slowly emerge from the pandemic, Biden has been grappling with a crisis up and down the supply chain defined by worker shortages and delivery delays.
At the same time, the prices Americans are paying for everyday goods are soaring as the country approaches the holiday season — a potential political liability for the president. In Baltimore, he acknowledged the economic hardship people are facing.
“COVID-19 has stretched global supply chains like never before, and suddenly when you go to order a pair of sneakers or a bicycle or Christmas presents for the family, you’re met with higher prices and long delays — or they said they just don’t have any at all,” Biden said.
Demand for many goods has shot up just as global supply chains reel from disruptions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a recipe for delays and for higher prices, and people are feeling — they’re feeling it,” Biden said.
Biden will continue to hit the road to tout his infrastructure bill — and pitch his larger “Build Back Better” social bill he is trying to push through Congress — in the weeks ahead, according to the White House.
On Wednesday, he drew a clear line between the infrastructure bill and the real impact he said American families should see.
“This bipartisan infrastructure bill is a major step forward,” he said. “It represents the biggest investment in ports in American history. And for American families, it means products moving faster and less expensively, from factory floor through the supply chain to your home.
“The bottom line is this,” he continued. “With the bill we passed last week, and the steps we’re taking to reduce bottlenecks at home and abroad, we’re set to make significant progress.”
On Tuesday, the president spoke with the CEOs of four major retailers and shipping companies, Walmart, UPS, FedEx and Target. He said that the executives “assured me that the shelves will be stocked in stores this holiday.”
Even though the president does not plan to sign the infrastructure bill until next week — he has said he wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together to the White House for a ceremony marking the bipartisan bill’s passage — a senior administration official said Tuesday that work was already underway to get port-related programs started.
“Outdated infrastructure has a real cost for families, as we all know, for our economy and for competitiveness,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “We’re seeing that right now, even as we move record goods through our ports, with supply chain bottlenecks forming that lead to higher prices and lower deliveries for American families.”
To provide immediate relief, the administration will now allow port authorities to redirect project cost savings toward immediate projects to address supply chain challenges, senior administration officials said Tuesday. One official said doing so was a way to “creatively” redirect grant money.
For example, the officials told reporters, the nation’s third-busiest port, in Savannah, Georgia, came under budget on a previous grant and could now use the leftover dollars to build a pop-up yard to store shipping containers; port authorities believe the site could be operational in 30 to 45 days, the officials said.
“It’s a great way to add capacity and efficiency at the port,” an official said. “We expect that that kind of flexibility will help other projects as well.”
The administration also plans to launch a $240 million grant program within the next 45 days to invest in port infrastructure — using money from the infrastructure bill.
Within the next two months, it will identify projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction work at coastal ports, inland waterways and other facilities, officials said.
In the next three months, they said, the administration will begin competition for the first round of port infrastructure grants funded by the infrastructure bill. The federal government will also identify ports of entry at the nation’s southern and northern borders that need modernization and expansion.
In Baltimore, Biden explained how his administration was helping fund the expansion of a 126-year-old tunnel near the port to accommodate trains carrying containers stacked on top of each other.
A senior administration official emphasized that the port was a public-private partnership and noted the port was making major investments in adding container cranes and a second deep, 50-foot berth.
“It’s an example of the kind of investments that are needed from both the private and public sector side,” the official told reporters Tuesday. “It’s also an illustration that the co-funding in the bipartisan infrastructure plan incentivizes the private sector to make these kinds of long-term investments as well.”
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices continued to climb at an alarmingly rapid pace last month, according to data from the Labor Department on Wednesday, as inflation woes have cast a shadow over the post-pandemic economic recovery.
The Consumer Price Index, often used as an inflation barometer as it measures the prices consumers pay for everyday goods and services, jumped by a higher-than-expected 0.9% last month. It surged 6.2% since last October, the largest 12-month increase since November 1990, the government said.
The so-called “core index,” or measure for all items except the more volatile food and energy indices, rose 4.6% over the last 12 months. This represents the largest one-year increase since August 1991, the Labor Department said. In October alone, the core index climbed 0.6% after a 0.2% increase in September.
The energy index climbed by some 4.8% last month alone and the gasoline index gained 6.1%. This marks the fifth consecutive monthly increase in gasoline prices.
Increases in consumer prices were seen broadly across many of the indices, the DOL said, with sharp spikes in prices for energy, shelter, food, used cars and trucks. New vehicles were among the largest contributors to the overall price hikes.
The indices for airline fares and alcoholic beverages saw a decline last month, the DOL said.
The price increases have been linked to rebounding consumer demand for goods and services as the pandemic wanes, economists have said. Meanwhile, lingering supply chain issues and an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs have exacerbated the mounting inflation fears among policymakers.
While some had hopes the inflation data seen in recent months reflected a temporary blip, the fresh data released Wednesday likely fuels further concerns about inflation’s grip on the economy going forward. Many are now looking at how the Federal Reserve will respond to the latest indicators as it plans to start rolling back on pandemic measures meant to buoy the economy during the health crisis.
President Joe Biden reacted to the new economic data in a statement Wednesday morning, saying that addressing inflation was a “top priority” for his administration and touting his Build Back Better plan as a way to ameliorate the economic pain it causes.
“Inflation hurts Americans pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” the president said, noting the largest share of the increase in prices in the report is due to rising energy costs. The president said he has directed his National Economic Council “to pursue means to try to further reduce these costs, and have asked the Federal Trade Commission to strike back at any market manipulation or price gouging in this sector.”
“Other price increases reflect the ongoing struggle to restore smooth operations in the economy in the restart: I am travelling to Baltimore today to highlight how my Infrastructure Bill will bring down these costs, reduce these bottlenecks, and make goods more available and less costly,” Biden added. “And I want to reemphasize my commitment to the independence of the federal reserve to monitor inflation, and take steps necessary to combat it.”
Biden said that more than a dozen Nobel Prize-winning economists “have said that my plan will ‘ease inflationary pressures,” adding that it does this “without raising taxes on those making less than $400,000 or adding to the federal debt, by requiring the wealthiest and big corporations to start to pay their fair share in taxes.”
“We are making progress on our recovery. Jobs are up, wages are up, home values are up, personal debt is down, and unemployment is down,” the president said. “We have more work to do, but there is no question that the economy continues to recover and is in much better shape today than it was a year ago.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden plans to visit Baltimore on Wednesday to tout his infrastructure bill and highlight his administration’s work to ease port delays as the United States approaches the holiday season with rising inflation and delivery slowdowns on the horizon.
Biden’s visit comes five days after Congress passed his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that, among myriad investments in the nations’ physical infrastructure, will provide $17 billion to revitalize coastal, inland and land ports, as well as strengthen them against the effects of climate change.
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced short- and long-term steps to strengthen U.S. ports as part of an effort to tackle supply chain issues, including using money from the infrastructure bill.
As the U.S. continues to slowly emerge from the pandemic, Biden has been grappling with a crisis up and down the supply chain defined by worker shortages and bottlenecks.
On Tuesday, the president spoke with the CEOs of four major retailers and shipping companies — Walmart, UPS, FedEx and Target — “to discuss steps that the administration and private sector can take to further strengthen our supply chains and build on steps we’ve already taken to speed up deliveries and lower prices,” a White House official said.
Even though the president does not plan to sign the infrastructure bill until next week — he has said he wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together to the White House for a ceremony marking the bipartisan bill’s passage — a senior administration official said Tuesday that work was already underway to get port-related programs started.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment Tuesday about why Biden chose Baltimore in particular — and not a larger port like Los Angeles or Long Beach in California — but indicated that Biden would have more to say Wednesday.
“Outdated infrastructure has a real cost for families, as we all know, for our economy and for competitiveness,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re seeing that right now, even as we move record goods through our ports, with supply chain bottlenecks forming that lead to higher prices and lower deliveries for American families.”
To provide immediate relief. the administration will now allow port authorities to redirect project cost savings toward immediate projects to address supply chain challenges, senior administration officials said Tuesday. One official said doing so was a way to “creatively” redirect grant money.
For example, the officials told reporters, the nation’s third-busiest port, in Savannah, Georgia, came under budget on a previous grant and could now use the leftover dollars to build a pop-up yard to store shipping containers; port authorities believe the site could be operational in 30 to 45 days, the officials said.
“It’s a great way to add capacity and efficiency at the port,” an official said. “We expect that that kind of flexibility will help other projects as well.”
The administration also plans to launch a $240 million grant program within the next 45 days to invest in port infrastructure — using money from the infrastructure bill.
Within the next two months, it will identify projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction work at coastal ports, inland waterways and other facilities, officials said.
In the next three months, they said, the administration will begin competition for the first round of port infrastructure grants funded by the infrastructure bill. The federal government will also identify ports of entry at the nation’s southern and northern borders that need modernization and expansion.
While the White House wouldn’t say why Biden had chosen to visit the port of Baltimore, an administration official emphasized that the port was a public-private partnership and noted the port was making major investments in adding container cranes and a second deep, 50-foot berth.
The official also highlighted how the administration is helping fund the expansion of a 126 year-old tunnel near the port to accommodate trains carrying containers stacked on top of each other.
“It’s an example of the kind of investments that are needed from both the private and public sector side,” the official said. “It’s also an illustration that the co-funding in the bipartisan infrastructure plan incentivizes the private sector to make these kinds of long-term investments as well.”
(NEW YORK) — Tongass National Forest stretches across nearly 17 million acres of land in southeast Alaska and is home to a lush vibrant ecosystem. It is now also at the center of a bitter battle between those trying to save the old growth forests and those who say access more of it is critical for the local economy.
Tongass covers more than 80% of southeast Alaska and, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is responsible for sequestering nearly 8% of all U.S. carbon emissions.
Global leaders have pledged for decades to end deforestation by 2030, but some Alaskan corporations are asking for the opposite and want more access to the forest to support the local economy.
“Where’s your Amazon boxes going to come from? American consumers still want this stuff. We’re producing it here. It’s a good job for us people, good jobs for Alaskans,” said Eric Nichols, the owner of Alcan Alaska Timber Corporation.
Southeast Alaska relies heavily on tourism, and took a major economic blow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nichols, who said he’s had to downsize his company by half because of logging restrictions, said the timber industry is a way to bring consistent jobs back to the area.
“How do you raise a family on $15 an hour for a five-month job?” said Nichols. “How do I do that? I can’t do that. My kids can’t do that.”
Wanda Culp, a Tlingit native, is also worried about the future of this land and her family, but said that the natural forest is critical to their lifestyle. Her tribe has deep ties to the land.
“We depend on this wilderness as Indigenous people,” said Culp.
She noted that her people have used the forest as a natural resource for generations, but that the commercial “clearcutting” method of deforestation is disrespectful and unsustainable.
“We don’t just cut it down and let it land; we create a spot for it to land so it doesn’t split. So it’s worthwhile. That isn’t what happens with clear cuts. It’s total disrespect,” said Culp, who flew to Washington, D.C., in 2019 to protest large-scale deforestation in southeast Alaska.
In the late 1900s, the timber industry and forest clearcutting was prominent in southeast Alaska with nearly a million acres of the Tongass forest chopped down.
Bryce Dahlstrom of Viking Lumber supports clearcutting trees and likened it to any type of farming done across the country.
“It’s a crop that grows back,” said Dahlstrom. “If you don’t want a farmer to cut his corn down, don’t eat corn.”
In January 2001, just days before leaving office, President Bill Clinton enacted the Roadless Rule, which aims to preserve roadless areas by preventing road construction, as well as timber harvesting, on more than 9 million acres in the Tongass National Forest.
Since then, presidential administrations have gone back and forth on whether to keep or dismiss the rule, citing a variety of political reasons. For now, the rule remains in place.
Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said between wood and minerals, there is untapped natural wealth in Alaska inhibited by the restriction.
“We’re the largest state in the country by far. This forest is larger than most states. There’s incredible opportunity to provide lumber and lumber products for the United States and possibly other parts of the world. This is an opportunity for us to do it here again and provide jobs, revenue and wealth,” said Dunleavy.
Many scientists say the health of the planet cannot be sacrificed for economic growth anymore, especially in places like Tongass, which are “carbon sinks” that help combat rising carbon emissions.
In 2020, 111 scientists from across the country wrote a letter to Biden asking him to permanently install protections in Tongass and create a strategic carbon reserve system.
Despite the restrictions from the Roadless Rule, Tongass is the last national forest that allows large-scale clearcut logging of ancient old-growth trees. Some argue it’s not an issue because trees can be replanted.
“[Trees] are a renewable resource. We cut trees down because there’s a demand for that product,” said Nichols.
But conservationist Meredith Trainor disagrees. She said the older the trees, the more effective they are at removing carbon dioxide and that an entire forest cannot be replaced so easily.
“There is no one tree scenario where we’re going to solve climate change, right? This is about managing a whole forest or a certain way,” said Trainor. “It’s the whole system that works together to sequester carbon and old growth is much more effective at doing that than young growth.”
The timber industry in southeast Alaska is only allowed to work in 2% of Tongass. Loggers like Nichols argue that’s not enough.
He wants to expand access even further, potentially giving loggers access to an additional half a million acres.
“I want enough to have an industry. We need about 5, maybe 6%, to continue to have a continuous industry up here,” said Nichols.
Scientists argue that the whole Alaskan ecosystem is connected. They believe that expanding the logging industry may have a negative effect on the region’s other largest employment sector: commercial fishing.
In Sitka, Alaska, an island town of about 8,000, they rely heavily on salmon fisheries. Fisherman Marsh Skeele said that the expansion of logging puts fishermen’s livelihoods at risk.
“[Logging] damages streams and lakes — freshwater ecosystems that salmon rely on, that fishermen rely on, that this community relies on,” said Skeele. “They’re kind of ignoring all the jobs that are tied to what exists already.”
Dunleavy said that it’s imperative to look at Alaska for all its potential and that doesn’t necessarily mean change is bad for the future of the state.
“There’s this narrative that’s trying to be pushed that if you touch Alaska, you will damage it permanently and ruin it. That’s not the case. It’s not the case at all,” said Dunleavy.
While some believe expanding access to Tongass National Forest could help more people than it could harm, a tug-of-war continues in southeast Alaska between the environment and the economy.
As for Culp, she said that the climate crisis is an issue that cannot be ignored any longer.
“We are in a serious, serious climate crisis. Why can’t we start repairing our habitat?” said Culp. “Why can’t we protect what we have? I want my great-granddaughter to be able to walk this land and breathe this fresh air, touch these trees, know who they are. It’s not much to ask.”
(NEW YORK) — After more than a year of working remotely through the COVID-19 pandemic, staffers at Hearst’s magazines are fighting back against a mandatory return to office.
Workers at the magazine-publishing division of Hearst — which runs outlets including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Men’s Health — have filed an unfair labor practices charge against their employer with the National Labor Relations Board via their union, the Writer’s Guild of America East.
The document filed with the NLRB and shared with ABC News by the union alleges unfair labor practices because the management failed to negotiate with workers in good faith over return-to-office protocols.
The labor action from the magazine journalists comes as a slew of companies across the country are now seeking to bring employees back into the office and face new resistance after some 20 months of remote work during the health crisis.
Record-high levels of people quitting their jobs as the pandemic wanes and other unique labor market conditions have also been linked to workers being emboldened to negotiate for what they want in the workplace recently, especially as major companies have reported struggling to find staff.
Over 300 employees (out of a bargaining unit of some 450 people) from Hearst’s magazines division also signed a petition that was delivered to management demanding workplace location flexibility.
“We, the undersigned, trust in our colleagues to perform all their work responsibilities from the location that is most suitable to their needs. We have seen our colleagues adapt to unprecedented changes in our work lives without a drop in productivity,” the petition, shared with ABC News by the union, states. “We do not believe that a return to office is the same as a return to work, because for all Hearst employees, we have never stopped working, regardless of our location.”
The petition adds that while some employees require access to the office to do their work, they are simply seeking a “continuation of the functional norm that we have reached as a result of our extraordinary circumstances, with employees and teams able to make decisions that are appropriate for their work needs.”
In a Twitter thread posted by the Hearst Magazines Media Union, the group says that they have been seeking to negotiate with management “for months” over return-to-office plans but still feel in the dark. The thread adds that it was only four business days before the scheduled return that some New York-based employees learned of the COVID exposure policy, and that many health and safety questions remain unanswered.
“It’s our position that by barreling ahead with these last-minute plans, management is making a unilateral change to our work circumstances without adequately bargaining over the change as required by federal law,” the union tweeted. “We are ready to cooperate with any investigation the NLRB deems necessary and are hopeful this process will reinforce to the company how serious we are about workplace safety.”
Some journalists working at Hearst have weighed in on the debate on Twitter, arguing flexible work arrangement offers more time to spend with family and more.
A Hearst magazine’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Tuesday.
“We recognize that returning to the office is a big step and that some people are apprehensive about it,” Debi Chirichella, Hearst’s president, said in an email to staff last month, according to the New York Times, which reported that Hearst is seeking employees to be in the office at least three days a week. Chirichella continued: “Adjusting to this new way of working will require the same flexibility, patience and collaboration that we all demonstrated when we began working from home.”
Data from the Department of Labor indicates that many companies are in the process of recalling workers back to their offices. The DOL said that 11.6% of employed person’s teleworked because of the pandemic last month, down from 13.2% in September.
