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North American Edition
12th May 2021
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THE HOT STORY
Unions file first labor complaint against Mexico under free trade pact
Unions in the U.S. and Mexico have filed the first labor complaint against Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade accord, known as the USMCA. The complaint claims that Mexico has not made good on its pledge under the terms of the pact to guarantee workers the right to freely organize and join the union of their choice. The Tridonex auto parts assembly plant in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, where workers have been organizing to join a new union, is the focus of the complaint. Susana Prieto, a lawyer who is the outside organizer of that union, said about 600 union supporters have been fired from the plant in retaliation for their bid to oust on old-guard union. “We are fighting so that no one ever is afraid of freely electing the union they wish to represent them and to make history, ending several generations of modern slavery,” said Prieto.
LEGAL
Landmark law in Spain will protect delivery workers
Spain has approved pioneering legislation that gives delivery platforms a mid-August deadline to hire workers who are currently working for them on a contractor basis and which requires transparency of artificial intelligence used to manage workforces. App-based food delivery businesses say the law jeopardizes the €700m ($851m) sector in Spain. Some delivery workers protested on Tuesday because they say self-employed status benefits them. Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz nevertheless said Spain was “at the vanguard” in law-making that defines the relationship between delivery platforms and their workforce. “The world is looking at us,” Díaz said, adding that the government’s stance is indicative of the “new winds” around the world to deliver welfare to citizens. APS, which groups on-demand service providers Deliveroo, Stuart, Glovo and Uber Eats, condemned the government's move. “While Spain claims to be a start-up nation, this is the first law in Europe that forces a technological company to disclose its algorithms,” said APS. The law requires all businesses to hand over to workers’ legal representatives information about how algorithms and artificial intelligence systems are used in assigning jobs and assessing performance, among other aspects. “Workers cannot lose their soul on the keyboard of our laptops or on electronic gadgets,” Díaz said.
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WORKFORCE
U.S. job openings rise as pace of hiring slows
The number of available jobs grew in April as the pace of hiring slowed, pointing to a widening gap between employers’ unfilled positions and available workers. Job postings at the end of April were 24% higher than February 2020’s pre-pandemic level, according to job search site Indeed.com. Openings at the end of March were 16% above pre-pandemic levels, Indeed added. Openings in loading and stocking jobs, which include those at e-commerce warehouses, were up more than 60% in late April, compared with February 2020, according to Indeed. Construction jobs were up a similar amount, reflecting strong demand for new-home construction. Manufacturing jobs were up 65%, reflecting strong demand for goods such as vehicles and appliances. “Employers are looking to hire, but temporary factors are making people a little hesitant to take jobs,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed. The growing number of available jobs “shows how difficult it is to turn openings into hires,” he added.
Berry supplier needs to judge production right
Berry supplier Driscoll’s is forced to set production far in advance, and misjudged in 2020, reports the Wall Street Journal, which looks at how the California-based seller of fresh strawberries and other berries is trying to get the decision right this year amid a halting reopening from the pandemic. The post-pandemic era is proving particularly difficult  for food businesses that have to navigate consumer appetites and supply chain disruptions. The Wall Street Journal observes that the list of unknowns is long, ranging from how many restaurants will reopen, and at what pace, to how long many Americans will remain working from home. Labor shortages are also complicating plans.
STRATEGY
Chinese appliances giant eyes U.S.
Midea Group, China’s largest home appliances company, is expanding overseas production with new plants featuring enhanced automation as part of its ambition to corner around 10% of the global market within five years. The company is in the process of choosing one or two locations for setting up new manufacturing facilities with a high level of automation in North America, which is expected to be finalised before the end of the first half of this year, said Wang Jianguo, president of Midea International, a unit of Midea Group responsible for overseas operations. Midea, which owns the Colmo, Toshiba, Comfee, Little Swan and Eureka home appliances brands, is aiming for home appliance sales outside China of $40bn by 2025. In strategically important markets like the U.S., it is aiming for over 20% market share.
TECHNOLOGY
Emotion recognition: can AI detect human feelings from a face?
The FT reports on new algorithms that can recognize human emotion and state of mind, such as anxiety, through the analysis of facial expression, micro-gestures, eye tracking and voice tones.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Should overwork be a marker of success?
In a report for the BBC, Bryan Lufkin considers the origins of the culture of overwork, from 16th century Protestantism through to the 1980s and Wall Street icons such as Gordon Gekko and on to the tech entrepreneurs of the 2000s. Although the motivations for the hard work ethic may have been different they still resulted in overwork and burnout – the latter being recognized by the World Health Organization as an 'occupational phenomenon' in 2019. Anat Lechner, clinical associate professor of management at New York University, says the culture of burnout is worse now than ever with nearly every element of our lives being 24/7. Although the pandemic has highlighted modern workplace stresses as people were forced to experience the possibility of a new work-life balance, it will be up to workers to resolve the compulsion to overwork going forward, and “up to the companies to stop making the workers feel like they should.”
REMUNERATION
Chipotle to raise average hourly wage to $15
Chipotle Mexican Grill is raising its average wage to $15 an hour as it moves to hire 20,000 workers across the U.S., joining a growing number of companies reconsidering worker pay amid widespread labor shortages. The company said it will hold a virtual career fair on messaging app Discord this week as it looks to fill positions at the roughly 200 restaurants it expects to open in the U.S. in 2021. The company will also add referral bonuses for new hires. Labor was a major concern for the industry even before the pandemic, with restaurants struggling to attract workers even at higher pay. Now the health crisis has given a boost to delivery services and fast-food chains at the expense of their sit-down counterparts.
INTERNATIONAL
First-ever whistleblower reward in Continental Europe
A public health official in Slovakia is the first person in Continental Europe to receive a monetary reward for whistleblowing, reports Romania's Business Review. Dr. Rastislav Šaling reportedly received the €3,000 reward from Slovakia’s Justice Department. Dr. Šaling, an employee at the Regional Public Health Office in Poprad, revealed that health records were being falsified for new businesses. “I would not change anything I did and how I did it. I consider this to be such a landmark – not only for myself, but also for society and for people who have similar mindsets and principles. I believe that the [anti-corruption] process will be kick-started. Igniting others for such a cause is necessary,” Dr. Šaling told the newspaper Noviny. Slovakia’s whistleblower protection law was passed in 2014 and further strengthened in 2019.
Israeli employers make videos to hire skilled recruits
Employers in Israel who are experiencing a shortage of skilled programmers and engineers are using videos on TikTok and other social media networks in their hunt for talent. Herzliya and Haifa-based marketing analytics company AppsFlyer is just one of the companies that knew it had to do something different to attract new hires, reports The Jerusalem Post.  "All the companies are competing for the same talent," observes Daniel Cohen, the company's talent marketing specialist. "Our pay is as good as everywhere, so we wanted to advertise the culture of the company and make videos of our developers and recruiters. We love using TikTok because it is a great platform for a funny, cool 15-second video that looks natural, not produced. We produce a lot of videos just showing the day-to-day vibe in the office."
French court rejects claim for 'Agent Orange' damage in Vietnam war
A court in France has dismissed a lawsuit by a French-Vietnamese woman against multinational companies that produced and sold the toxic defoliant known as "Agent Orange", which was used by U.S. troops during the war in Vietnam. Seventy-nine year old Tran To Nga filed suit against 14 chemical firms, including U.S. companies Dow Chemical and Monsanto, now owned by Germany's Bayer. She has said she was suffering from effects including type 2 diabetes and a rare insulin allergy. The multinationals had argued they could not be held responsible for the use that the U.S. military made of their product. The court ruled it did not have jurisdiction to judge a case involving the U.S. government's wartime actions.
OTHER
A fleet of on-demand food trucks is a Wonder
Serial entrepreneur Marc Lore,  who departed Walmart at the end of January, has joined his brother, Chad, to invest in Wonder, a business that CNBC describes as “part food truck, part ghost kitchen.” Walmart paid $3bn to acquire Marc’s Jet.com, and he stayed on for four years, helping the retail giant by overseeing its e-commerce division. Wonder pitches itself as a “new home dining experience with a kitchen that comes to you,” and has launched in the affluent town of Westfield, New Jersey. Wonder vans are outfitted with mobile kitchens, and a trained chef travels on each truck to finish off meals once the vehicle arrives at a customer’s  house. A dinner for four might be upwards of $100.

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