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(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson says he has a plan to keep the government open, at least for now. But if the rest of Washington doesn’t agree, a sizable portion of the federal government will grind to a halt come Saturday morning at 12:01 am EST — just in time for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

While there is plenty of reason to think a shutdown might not happen — at least not until January — here’s what would happen next if Johnson’s plan falls apart:

National parks and federal museums could close during one of the busiest times of the year

The most immediate impact of a government shutdown ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday would be the eventual closure of federally run museums and parks during one of the most popular times for tourists to visit.

The National Park Service oversees some 425 areas across the country, including parks like Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as historic monuments and other sites. It’s not immediately clear when each site would run out of money with it being possible that some locations can use leftover money to carry them through a few days.

According to the agency’s shutdown plan, open-air sites will mostly remain accessible to the public if the government runs out of money. But it’s likely that in other places visitors could find locked gates, closed visitor centers and shuttered restrooms as thousands of park rangers are sent home without pay.

The only work done by NPS will be to preserve and protect land, such as responding to fires or criminal activity.

A closure would be particularly problematic for tourists in Washington, D.C., where a network of federally run museums and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are supposed to remain free and open to the public every day of the year except Dec. 25.

Thanksgiving and that holiday weekend is among the busiest times for the museums.

A closure can hurt local economies, too, where food vendors and shops depend upon holiday foot traffic. In Utah and Arizona, the governors have promised to use state money to keep their parks open in the event of a shutdown to spare local businesses from losing customers.

A shutdown could snarl airline travel, particularly if it lasts into December

If the government shuts down, 3.5 million federal workers will have to go without pay. Many of them, including some 50,000 airport security officers and 13,000 air traffic controllers, will be required to come to work anyway because their jobs are considered crucial to the nation’s security.

Federal contract jobs will dry up, too, forcing lower-income workers like janitors, security guards and food servers to be laid off by their private employers until the government reopens. Lawmakers will continue to get paid, although their staff won’t.

Criminal proceedings will continue in court, reliant on federal workers willing to show up without pay, although civil proceedings will be delayed.

In the last shutdown that stretched into 35 days under President Donald Trump, trash piled up around Washington and federal workers began calling in sick, including at airports resulting in long lines for travelers nationwide. Union officials say that without pay, many of these workers couldn’t afford to pay for child care or to fill their gas tanks to get to work.

If there is a silver lining to the timing of this latest shutdown threat, it’s that many federal workers aren’t scheduled to miss their first paycheck until after Thanksgiving, around late November or early December. And because federal workers qualify for back pay, it’s possible Congress can resolve any last-minute hiccups before federal workers — including airline employees — feel the crunch.

On the other hand, contractors don’t qualify for back pay and could immediately feel the impact of lost pay. In the last shutdown, food banks saw a surge in needy families because of lost pay.

And, if a shutdown drags into December, it’s possible that airline and other essential federal workers will begin calling in sick a soon as they miss their first paycheck, either out of protest or financial necessity.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments will continue but services could be slow

While government shutdowns are a big deal impacting every thing from border security to military pay, they actually only affect 27% of total federal spending that is up for debate every year in Congress.

These annually funded programs, known as the government’s “discretionary spending,” include disaster-relief money that might help a community rebuild after a tornado and food aid for moms and their infants. The nation’s military and space programs also are paid for through this pot of money.

But the biggest portion of federal spending is considered “mandatory” and will actually remain untouched, including payments by Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

While government officials say these payments generally won’t be affected, some related services could become slow such as receiving replacement cards and benefit verification services.

The U.S. Postal Service, which uses its own revenue stream, is not affected by a lapse in government funding.

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(NEW YORK) — The holidays are fast approaching and as people prepare to pick out the perfect pine to decorate for Christmas, some growers are warning the holiday staple could be in short supply.

Some Christmas tree farms that have been holiday fixtures for decades said they won’t be open this season.

Shamrock Christmas Tree Farm owner Joe Shipman told ABC News’ Good Morning America that a major shipment of the most popular Fraser Christmas trees was canceled for his Long Island business due to the shortages.

“Our first trailer load of trees would come in — these bins would be full with trees, various sizes, and you can see there are no trees here,” he said while showing off the empty bins.

For the first time in 30 years, Shipman said they’ll have to take this holiday season off.

“We didn’t want to open just partial and have people come in and be disappointed,” Shipman said. “We felt the right decision was to close the farm this year, let the field get a little bit bigger, give us time to source some trees for next year.”

Another Christmas tree farm, Christmas Town in Louisiana, told GMA they will be closed for the 2023 season as well because the farm “suffered extensive damage due to drought and heat.”

Experts say several factors could be contributing, including drought and the Canadian wildfires, but also believe there will still be plenty of options.

Marsha Gray, executive director of The Real Christmas Tree Board, told GMA that “there’s nothing more frustrating to a farm or retail location than [when] they don’t have the inventory that they want or need for a season.”

“It really is not the story nationwide and we have a really good supply of trees,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Economists expect fresh data on Tuesday to show that inflation cooled last month, in large part due to a decline in gasoline prices.

The data, set to be released by the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, would cheer policymakers and households bedeviled by inflation that stands well above the Federal Reserve’s target rate.

The consumer price index will have increased 3.3% over the year ending in October, forecasters predicted. The results would mark a nearly half-percentage-point decline from the annual increase shown the previous month.

While inflation has fallen significantly from a peak of about 9% last summer, progress in the fight against rapid price increases has stalled in recent months.

Economists attribute the anticipated decline in inflation last month largely to a fall in gas prices as the busy summer travel season gave way to an autumn slowdown.

Over a four-week period beginning at the start of October, gas prices fell nearly 8%, according to AAA data reviewed by ABC News.

Progress shown in the price-hike data, however, is expected to lag for a separate key metric: core inflation, which omits volatile food and energy prices.

Core inflation is expected to have risen 4.1% in October compared to a year ago, matching the rate demonstrated over the previous month.

The latest data is set to arrive roughly two weeks after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. The central bank left open the possibility of an additional rate hike this year but opted to first assess the economy as previous rate increases take greater hold.

“Inflation has been coming down but it’s still running well above our 2% target,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a Nov. 1 press conference in Washington, D.C. “Given how far we have come, along with the uncertainties and risks we face, the committee is proceeding carefully.”

Once bemoaned as a source of recession worries, the U.S. economy has become a wellspring of good news, with blistering growth, robust hiring and consumers more readily opening their wallets for everything from concert tickets to bar tabs.

The strong performance, however, complicates the fight to dial back inflation, posing a quandary for the Fed.

Since last year, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate at the fastest pace in more than two decades, seeking to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and reducing consumer demand. In theory, the economy should eventually falter as it becomes more expensive for businesses and consumers to borrow. But the economy has so far resisted a cooldown.

Gross domestic product data released late last month showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a 4.9% annualized rate over three months ending in September. That breakneck pace more than doubled growth over the previous quarter and reinforced other recent indicators of sturdy performance.

The U.S. economy’s resilience, and consumer spending over the past year amid a decline of inflation, suggest that rapid price increases had resulted from the insufficient supply of goods and the disruption of the Russia-Ukraine war, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said Sunday on X.

“As these supply shocks fade, so does inflation, without a recession,” Zandi said.

However, a rapid rise in U.S. government bond yields over recent weeks has elevated long-term borrowing costs for consumers seeking mortgage loans, and for corporations pursuing funds to expand their businesses.

Those added borrowing expenses could slow the economy, Powell said at the press conference earlier this month.

“Higher treasury yields are showing through to higher borrowing costs for households and businesses, and those higher costs are going to weigh on economic activity,” Powell said.

Meanwhile, credit card debt climbed to a record high in the third quarter of 2023, surging nearly 5% from the previous quarter and suggesting that some of the economic growth may have been driven by consumer debt, economists previously told ABC News.

The mixed economic picture creates significant uncertainty but the status of the Fed’s inflation fight remains clear, Powell said, noting that the task will require a further slowdown in price increases.

“The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go,” Powell said. “We remain strongly committed.”

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Production workers across two Ford plants in Louisville, Kentucky, voted against a tentative agreement that ended a weekslong strike, a local chapter of the United Auto Workers said on Facebook late Sunday night.

By contrast, skilled trade workers at the two plants voted in favor of the agreement, leaving the members of UAW Local 862 split on the deal depending on their respective jobs.

Neither UAW Local 862 nor Ford immediately responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Production workers who belong to the chapter voted down the agreement by a margin of 55% to 45%, while skilled trade workers voted in favor of the deal by a share of 69% to 31%.

Members of the chapter work at the Louisville Assembly Plant and the Kentucky Truck Plant, a major Ford factory that employs 8,700 workers who went out on strike nearly four weeks before the two sides reached an agreement. In all, some 12,000 workers belong to UAW Local 862.

The Louisville-area chapter accounts for roughly 20% of the 57,000 members of the UAW who are set to vote on the tentative agreement with Ford. A majority of the members must vote in favor of the agreement in order for it to be ratified. If members vote the agreement down, the strike will resume.

A targeted strike against the Big 3 U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which owns Jeep and Chrysler — ended earlier this month after each of the companies reached similar agreements with the union. The tentative deals included a roughly 25% raise over four years, as well as significant improvements on pensions and the right to protest the closure of plants.

Since reaching the agreements, UAW President Shawn Fain has touted them as a major victory for the union and the broader labor movement.

“The workers run the economy,” Fain said in an address to members of the UAW at a car plant in Illinois on Thursday. “And we the workers have the power to shut this economy down if it doesn’t work for the working class.”

President Joe Biden, who spoke at the event wearing a red T-shirt emblazoned with the UAW logo, described the tentative deal as a model that he hoped would fuel a wave of unionization across the auto industry.

“I’m a little selfish,” Biden said. “I want this type of agreement for all auto workers.”

However, the tentative agreement falls short of some ambitious demands made by Fain at the outset of the strike in September. Initially, the union called for 40% wage increases over the 4-year duration of the contract as well as a four-day workweek at full-time pay.

Ultimately, the union agreed to a 25% accumulated wage increase and set aside its demand for a four-day workweek.

Still, labor experts who previously spoke to ABC News said that Ford workers would likely approve the deal, since the initial demands were understood to be a strategic overreach meant to ensure that a compromise left the workers in a strong position.

“There’s probably a small risk of the deal being rejected,” Robert Bruno, director of the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Illinois University, told ABC News. “I think the membership probably understands that this was a fantastic effort.”

“There’s a lot of strategy involved in setting those initial targets,” Bruno added. “And there’s an understanding that at some point they’ll probably find some compromise position.”

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(NEW YORK) — It’s a phenomenon that’s taking over electric vehicles: “Screen fatigue.”

Drivers now traverse layers of screens to switch radio channels or turn on the heated seat. Digital dashboards seemingly extend for miles. Buttons and knobs are scarce — even obsolete.

“A lot of EVs have gone the way of screens or capacitive switches,” Ed Kim, a veteran automotive analyst at AutoPacific, told ABC News. “Buttons cost money and cost is a major issue because batteries are so expensive.”

He added, “There is growing evidence by some consumers of ‘screen fatigue.'”

According to a recent J.D. Power study, built-in infotainment systems are making motorists unhappy. These systems “are a prime example of a technology not resonating with today’s buyers,” the study said.

Less than half of owners prefer to use their vehicle’s built-in system for common functions like phone calls, voice recognition and navigation, J.D. Power found. Moreover, only 56% of owners prefer to use their vehicle’s built-in system to play audio, down from 70% in 2020, the study said.

“Tesla has gone toward the minimalist direction and many legacy automakers have followed suit with fewer buttons and knobs,” Jared Rosenholtz, editor at large at the blog CarBuzz, told ABC News.

The minimalism trend may be over. Several automakers are building electric models that mimic the luxuries (and buttons) found in their gas-powered equivalents. A #savethebuttons campaign has even started to gain followers on social media.

Andre Ravinowich, Genesis’ senior manager of product planning, said it would be difficult to tell apart the Electrified GV70 from the internal combustion engine facsimile. The sport utility vehicle “doesn’t scream at you that it’s an EV,” he said, adding that the only clues are the grille, charge port and unique stitch pattern in the SUV’s leather.

Ravinowich said the company chose buttons and knobs that assisted the driver — not distracted them — and designed interiors that amplified the brand’s “beauty of white space” ethos.

“An EV is still a luxury vehicle and needs to be refined and elegant,” he said. “It’s not a good experience to dig through two layers to change the heat inside the car.”

Kim praised Genesis for its “fantastic interiors,” adding that Audi’s Q8 e-tron SUV and the Porsche Taycan deserve credit too for their premium materials. These brands have not sacrificed interior quality to offset expensive powertrains, he noted.

Rosenholtz called out the BMW i7 electric sedan for its long list of sublime amenities.

“The BMW i7 is easily my favorite EV interior right now,” he told ABC News. “You can get it with cashmere seats. It’s available with a 31-inch theater screen in the back where you can watch Netflix and recline with a built-in footrest. Unless you hit the start button, there would be no way to tell from the driver seat if you were in a BMW 7 Series or an electric i7.”

Alex Dabrowski, the i7’s product manager, said many customers are choosing the pricey rear executive lounge seating package that includes massage and ventilated seats that recline.

“We went all out with interior design and upholstery choices and fit and finish,” he told ABC News. “The i7 at its core is a premium luxury sedan. At the end of the day, the i7 is still a 7 Series, the flagship of the BMW portfolio. The i7 just happens to be electric.”

Moreover, the i7 comes with automatic door technology that opens and closes the front and rear doors with the push of a button.

“The i7 provides a sense of calm for the driver,” Dabrowski said.

Porsche is already reversing course, adding back switches in its latest Cayenne model. Porsche’s director of user experience, Ivo van Hulten, conceded earlier this year that the German company may have pushed the no-button tide too far with the Taycan.

“Maybe [the Taycan interior] was so digital that for this generation we learned that we want to add a little bit more analog flavor again,” he told The Drive.

The lack of buttons and premium interiors may not matter to all drivers, though. Kim noted that price and range continue to impact sales of EVs, which have been waning in recent months. Ford, Hyundai, Lucid and Tesla have been cutting prices or offering rebates to attract buyers.

“Price is absolutely an enormous issue. It’s the No. 1 reason why people do not get an EV,” Kim said.

He argued that recent headlines on the falling consumer demand for EVs are misleading.

“We are seeing some hints of incentives on EVs, but growing inventories are happening across the board, even with ICE vehicles,” he said. “EV sales are where we’ve been forecasting and still growing very rapidly.”

Drop-down theater systems, extra-plush headrests, gorgeous ambient lighting and a return of buttons may still not be enough to close the gap between Tesla, the No. 1 seller of EVs, and the competition, Rosenholtz said.

“There are several EVs that are less expensive and have superior interior quality than a Tesla but they do not go as far on a charge,” he explained.

Kim said automakers now have proof that EVs can be high tech, glamorous and come with all the gadgets that drivers depend on daily.

“Consumers are tired of having to do everything via the screen,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — As Thanksgiving approaches, millions of Americans are gearing up to hit the highway or head to the airport — and some airlines are expecting their busiest Thanksgiving ever.

Here’s what you need to know:

Thanksgiving travel by air

AAA projects 4.7 million travelers will fly over Thanksgiving — a 6.6% increase from last year. This would mark the highest number of people flying for Thanksgiving since 2005.

The busiest and most expensive days to fly before Thanksgiving will be Tuesday, Nov. 21, and Wednesday, Nov. 22, according to AAA.

The best day to go to the airport for Thanksgiving is Monday, Nov. 20, when flights will be 12% cheaper than on Nov. 22, according to Expedia.

The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen 30 million passengers during its Thanksgiving travel period, which runs from Nov. 17 to Nov. 28.

“We expect this holiday season to be our busiest ever. In 2023, we have already seen seven of the top 10 busiest travel days in TSA’s history,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “We are ready for the anticipated volumes and are working closely with our airline and airport partners to make sure we are prepared for this busy holiday travel season. We will also do our best to maintain wait time standards of under 10 minutes for TSA PreCheck® lanes and under 30 minutes for standard screening lanes.”

The most popular domestic destinations for Thanksgiving this year are New York City, Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida, according to Hopper. Internationally, the most popular cities are London, Tokyo and Paris.

The cheapest days to return home will be Friday, Nov. 24, or Monday, Nov. 27, according to Hopper.

United Airlines said it expects to have its busiest Thanksgiving ever, with over 5.9 million passengers — a 13% increase from last year.

United anticipates that Sunday, Nov. 26, will be one of its busiest days since before the pandemic, with more than 517,000 people expected to fly.

Due to remote work, United said its holiday travel period has extended. United said the demand for flying the Monday before Thanksgiving is up nearly 10% from 2019, while demand for flying the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is only up 3%.

American Airlines said it predicts a record 7.8 million passengers over Thanksgiving.

American said Sunday, Nov. 26, and Monday, Nov. 27, will be its busiest days.

Thanksgiving travel by road

AAA projects that 55.4 million people will drive 50 miles or farther from home for Thanksgiving — a 2.3% increase from last year. This marks the third-highest Thanksgiving forecast since AAA began tracking holiday travel in 2000.

The busiest day on the roads is expected to be Wednesday, Nov. 22, according to transportation analytics company INRIX. Drivers should leave home in the morning or after 6 p.m. to avoid the heaviest traffic, INRIX said.

On Sunday, Nov. 26, the worst traffic is forecast to be between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The best time to hit the road will be before noon, according to INRIX.

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(NEW YORK) — When Tori Mccun found out that her father had suddenly died in June, grief and stress sapped her resolve to write a eulogy, she said. Despite the misgivings of her three sisters, Mccun turned to ChatGPT.

Mccun, 31, a data management specialist at Bloomberg, prompted the textbot to ask questions about her dad, eliciting memories from her and her siblings which she fed back into ChatGPT for a draft speech, she said. After some fine-tuning, Mccun delivered the eulogy and received a glowing response.

Her sisters are still uneasy about the decision to use ChatGPT, Mccun said.

“Engaging something so non-human in such a human moment is hard for people to comprehend,” said Mccun, who lives in New York City.

The disagreement between Mccun and her siblings exemplifies a wider cultural moment. ChatGPT has exploded over the past year, and using the technology has tested norms and raised questions around the importance of authenticity for some of life’s emotional moments, such as wedding vows, apologies and eulogies, according to experts in technology and ethics who spoke with ABC News.

In the coming years, AI could reshape conventions around emotionally charged messages, the experts said.

Generative AI, a category of digital tools that create written or other content, has surged in use since the release of ChatGPT to the public a year ago. The chatbot now boasts more than 100 million weekly users, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on Monday.

To be sure, generative AI tools are open to the internet with few guardrails and users who input content into them, including details about loved ones, potentially open themselves up to false information and identity theft.

ChatGPT scans billions of pieces of digital text and uses an algorithm to string words together in response to a human prompt. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

The use of ChatGPT for sensitive messages has occasionally stoked controversy. In February, Vanderbilt University apologized for the use of ChatGPT to compose an email to students about a mass shooting at another university.

When venture capitalist Vinod Khosla told 600,000 followers on X last month that he had used ChatGPT to write a rap song for his daughter’s wedding, the post drew both praise and derision.

The phrase “ChatGPT apology” has become social media shorthand in reference to apparently inauthentic expressions of public remorse.

The individuals ABC News spoke to for this story, who said they used ChatGPT for these types of emotional messages, said the technology allowed them to overcome the anxiety induced by a blank page and the expectation of eloquence in high-pressure moments. Startups have launched customized AI tools that help compose intimate notes such as wedding vows.

Melissa Buckley, the owner of a cosmetics business in Reading, Pennsylvania, said she used ChatGPT last month for help writing the script of a 3-minute video congratulating her stepson on his marriage.

“I was really busy at the time because we were moving offices,” Buckley told ABC News. “I just didn’t have the mental capacity to sit down and think about what I wanted to say.”

After providing ChatGPT with details about the task and her stepson, Buckley said the tool produced an AI-written speech from which she pulled out key points and recited them in her own words, she said. The video, she noted, was well received.

“There’s a little bit of stigma that I shortcutted it but it really wasn’t a shortcut,” Buckley said. “ChatGPT is only going to give you what you put into it. If you give it more specifics, that means you personally took the time to put the thought into it.”

Andrea Lynch, who sells eulogy-writing kits with advice for the use of generative AI, said she considers the technology an aid rather than a replacement. She advises clients to adapt the AI-written draft with their own speech patterns.

“I’ve realized that it’s not a substitute for a human being,” Lynch told ABC News. “I think if somebody is really searching for a way to communicate a sentiment and struggling to find the right words, particularly in times of high emotion, they sometimes could use some help.”

But one study suggests that the use of AI in personal messages draws skepticism from recipients. Researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that the use of AI for help writing apologies is perceived as less authentic and reduces the likelihood that the author will be forgiven.

The researchers presented participants with a scenario in which a colleague who speaks a different first language uses AI tools, such as translation or sentence completion, to help compose an apology. When given identical apologies, participants who were told that the writer had used the AI tools were less likely to believe that it conveyed genuine emotion.

Omri Asscher, a co-author of the study, said he suspects that the same perception of phoniness would apply to other messages like eulogies and wedding vows.

“The machines are perceived as less capable of doing that emotional work,” Asscher said. “They’re perceived to be faulty in terms of their moral authenticity.”

Differing opinions about the use of ChatGPT for intimate messages touches on a tension between two competing objectives fulfilled by them, Alice MacLachlan, a philosophy professor at Toronto-based York University who specializes in the ethics of apology, told ABC News.

Such communications are expected to be heartfelt expressions of direct emotion but also carefully crafted pieces of writing replete with rhetorical flourish, MacLachlan said.

“On the one hand, if I’m asking AI to write an apology for me, it’s not from my heart — it’s from the mixed-up word salad of a generative language collector,” MacLachlan said. “On the other hand, there’s a sense that an apology is something we craft. We want to do a good job of it.”

Ultimately, generative AI could reshape the way we view intimate communications, just as it has made college professors rethink what they glean from student essays, MacLachlan said.

While using these tools for heartfelt speeches may cause rifts between loved ones, it could also allow less-adept writers to better articulate their deepest feelings, she added.

“It’s unclear anymore how much we can use authored text as a measure of something, whether it’s a learning objective, a change of heart or a declaration of love,” MacLachlan said. “But I like the idea that language has power and that power might be shared more equitably.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden called for unionization across the auto industry and embraced the broader labor movement in an address to members of the United Auto Workers at a car plant in Illinois on Thursday.

Biden, who wore a red T-shirt emblazoned with the UAW logo, hailed the union workers for carrying out a 46-day strike against the automakers that ended with tentative deals last month.

“These deals are game-changers not only for UAW workers but for all workers in America,” said Biden, who in September became the first U.S. president to join workers on a picket line when he visited a UAW protest in Michigan.

“I want to thank you for your commitment to solidarity,” he told the workers on Thursday. “You’re changing the face of the country economically.”

The tentative deals, which must be ratified by union members at each of the respective carmakers, resolved an at-times contentious work stoppage that thrust UAW President Shawn Fain into the national spotlight and drew overwhelming support in public polls.

Tentative agreements struck with Ford, Stellantis and GM each called for a roughly 25% raise over four years, as well as significant improvements on pensions and the right to protest the closure of plants.

The event arrives roughly a year before the 2024 presidential election, which polls suggest is likely to be a repeat of the 2020 contest between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The economy and inflation are top issues for Americans, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday.

Republicans are more likely to be trusted to do a better job on these two issues, according to the poll: Americans trust Republicans to do a better job handling the economy over Democrats (35%-25%). On inflation, they trust Republicans to do a better job (35%-21%).

As part of its tentative contract ending the strike, Stellantis agreed to reopen the assembly plant in Belvidere, where Biden spoke on Thursday.

Roughly 1,300 workers at the plant lost their jobs when the factory idled in February. Ultimately, the deal to reopen the plant could create 3,000 jobs in Belvidere.

During contract negotiations, Biden said he called Stellantis officials to emphasize the importance of the Belvidere facility. “I got on the phone and let them know personally,” the president said.

Biden commended Fain for his leadership throughout the six-week strike. “Shawn, you’ve done one hell of a job, pal,” Biden said.

“When I called Shawn to congratulate him on this historic deal with the Big 3 automakers, he told me the credit goes to the workers,” Biden added. “It doesn’t hurt to have a leader with a backbone like a ramrod.”

Speaking on Thursday before Biden’s remarks, Fain shared his embrace. He praised Biden for the role his administration played in negotiations between the union and the carmakers. Fain and Biden met privately before speaking at the rally.

“I’m honored to be here today with the president of the United States,” Fain said on Thursday. “I’m grateful for the work shown by the White House throughout this fight.”

“This is a team effort,” Fain added. “They went to work with us and the companies.”

Biden sought to focus on the economy with the friendly crowd at the auto plant but faced a protester at the outset of the remarks who called on the White House to back a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

In recent days, Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impose a three-day humanitarian pause but has declined to back a cease-fire. Israel agreed to daily four-hour pauses in the fighting, the White House said on Thursday.

“President Biden, you need to call for a cease-fire in Gaza,” a crowd member yelled.

A chorus of boos rose up from the audience in response to the protest, but Biden called on the crowd to remain calm. “Let her go,” he said. “It’s OK.”

Chants from the crowd then drowned out the protest. “We love Joe,” they said. “We love Joe.”

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(NEW YORK) — WeWork, the office-sharing company that experienced a dazzling rise and sudden decline that came to symbolize the excesses of business startup culture, filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

In 2019, the company was valued at $47 billion. By last week, that figure had plummeted to $45 million, with shares of WeWork’s stock falling more than 98% since the beginning of the year.

Creditors holding 92% of the company’s secured debt agreed on a restructuring plan that would include cutting back its portfolio of office leases, WeWork said in a statement on Monday.

“Now is the time for us to pull the future forward by aggressively addressing our legacy leases and dramatically improving our balance sheet,” WeWork CEO David Tolley said in the statement.

Popularized by a charismatic co-founder and fueled by an era of cheap borrowing, WeWork expanded the old-fashioned business of commercial real estate into a vision of transforming the way people work, replete with chic offices offering free beer on tap.

The company met its undoing, however, when a debt-fueled spending spree on leasing office space ran up against insufficient demand from businesses and freelancers, experts told ABC News. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many office employees worldwide to work from home, only made things worse.

Here’s what caused the WeWork bankruptcy, and what its implications could be.

What is WeWork’s business model?

WeWork’s business model rested on the proposition that the company could lease and refurbish office space, and then rent the properties to companies and freelancers at marked-up rates, Samuel Rosen, a professor of finance at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, told ABC News.

“WeWork is kind of a middleman,” Rosen said. “They take out a giant portfolio of real estate leases, rent it out and make a profit.”

The company currently offers office space at 660 currently open or soon-to-come locations in 119 cities worldwide, according to its website.

As part of its appeal to tenants, WeWork gained a reputation for lavish spending on stylishly designed spaces with worker amenities such as free kombucha and beer, hammocks, and rock-climbing walls.

What’s behind WeWork’s collapse?

WeWork took on tens of billions of dollars in debt to amass its large portfolio of leased office space. As of 2021, Japanese venture firm SoftBank had invested $17 billion in the company, Bloomberg reported.

However, demand for shared office space never reached the level necessary to match the large acquisition WeWork made. That lack of tenants in turn meant WeWork couldn’t offset those losses or make their sizable rent payments on the office space they’d leased, Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who has studied WeWork, told ABC News.

“They mistakenly thought that signing leases gave them tons of assets,” Gordon said. “There’s tons of empty office space, so having nailed down office space made no sense.”

Since WeWork had taken on debt to fund its lease portfolio, the underperformance gradually pushed the company into bankruptcy.

“It’s the combination of a business model that wasn’t as profitable as originally projected, and a lot of debt,” Rosen said.

What are the implications of WeWork’s bankruptcy?

The bankruptcy of WeWork offers a cautionary tale regarding a period of low interest rates in the 2000s and 2010s that spurred a flood of investment into startups as investors sought novel ventures that could deliver high returns, Gordon said.

When borrowing expenses are low, he added, investors bring less scrutiny to where they put their money.

“It’s a testament to how damaging near-zero interest rates are to the market mechanisms that allocate capital,” Gordon said. “Near-zero interest rates make capital get allocated stupidly.”

Since last year, however, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates at the fastest pace in more than two decades, making borrowing more expensive for businesses and consumers alike.

Christopher Kayes, a professor of management at the George Washington University School of Business, said in a statement: “The fall of WeWork signals that the excesses of the last decades are being put to rest.”

“The cheap money that enabled the financing of companies like WeWork to thrive was the match in the powder keg,” Kayes added.

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(NEW YORK) — Starbucks will raise the hourly pay of U.S. retail employees by 3% at the outset of next year, the company announced on Monday.

The Seattle-based coffee chain operates roughly 17,000 stores in the U.S., providing employees between $15 to $24 per hour in wages and a full benefits package that reaches as much as $27 an hour, Starbucks said.

Starting on Jan. 1, hourly retail employees will receive a raise of at least 3%. Further, workers with two to five years of employment at the company will gain a 4% raise and those with more than five years of experience will earn at least a 5% raise, the company said.

“Investing in our partners is what drives our success,” Sara Trilling, executive vice president and president of Starbucks North America, said in a statement on Monday. “It’s what makes us all partners. And an important way we do this is by investing in our partners’ journey, to bridge to a better future at Starbucks and beyond.”

In addition to the pay increase, Starbucks will reduce the minimum number of days an employee must work in order to qualify for paid vacation benefits, the company said.

The minimum pay raise of 3% falls short of the annual pace of inflation, which stands at 3.7%.

The announcement arrives amid an ongoing union campaign at Starbucks stores nationwide. Since 2021, a union called Starbucks Workers United has organized more than 350 stores employing roughly 9,000 workers.

Alex Yeager, a worker at a Starbucks store in Albany, New York, who belongs to the union, said in a statement to ABC News that he expects the company to provide the raise only at non-unionized stores.

“Once again, Starbucks is responding to our bargaining demands, but they’re implementing them in nonunion stores and denying these new benefits to workers in stores that are unionizing or already voted to join the union,” Yeager said, noting that the union has filed charges with the federal government over previous instances of such conduct by the company.

“This is against the law, and there are already several consolidated charges from the National Labor Relations Board for benefit packages Starbucks has denied union workers — such as credit card tipping — since we started our campaign,” Yeager added.

A labor board judge ruled in September that Starbucks had illegally provided previous pay increases and benefits to non-union employees without offering them to unionized workers. Bloomberg first reported on the ruling.

Starbucks did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the union’s allegation that the pay increase would only be provided to workers at non-union stores.

In its announcement on Monday, Starbucks said: “The company recognizes changes to wages, benefits, and/or terms and conditions may not be unilaterally implemented for partners in stores with organizing underway and may be subject to collective bargaining in good faith for partners in stores with certified union representation.”

In recent months, Starbucks and the union have publicly clashed over a host of issues, including the Israel-Hamas war.

The company sued Starbucks Workers United last month after the labor organization posted a since-deleted message on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing solidarity with Palestinians. The message from the union triggered calls to boycott Starbucks, when some appeared to mistake the union’s position for that of the company.

Weeks later, the union posted an additional statement on X standing with Palestinians while condemning the deaths of innocent civilians.

“We are opposed to violence, and each death occurring as the result of violence is a tragedy,” the statement said. “We absolutely condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia.”

The union also filed a countersuit against Starbucks, calling its lawsuit an attempt to damage the union and undermine its organizing efforts.

“We strongly disagree with the views expressed by Workers United, including its local affiliates, union organizers and those who identify as members of ‘Starbucks Workers United’ — none of these groups speak for Starbucks Coffee Company and do not represent our company’s views, positions, or beliefs,” Sara Kelly, executive vice president and chief partner officer at Starbucks, said in the statement.

 

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