Biden blocks US Steel takeover by Japan-based Nippon
CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday announced a decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan-based Nippon Steel, saying domestically produced steel is essential to U.S. national security.
“Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure,” Biden said in a statement.
The move marks the latest effort on the part of the Biden administration to protect U.S. markets from foreign-owned firms.
Biden has preserved many of the tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump, and he enacted a law that would ban China-based social media platform TikTok later this month if the company doesn’t find a new parent company. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this month in a legal challenge brought by TikTok.
The decision comes weeks after a federal committee declined to issue a recommendation on the merger, leaving Biden an opportunity to block the deal.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, tasked with the potential acquisition, shared concerns about the national security risks posed by the loss of the country’s second-largest steel producer.
In response to the committee’s decision, Nippon Steel alleged the White House had “impermissible undue influence” on the review. Nippon Steel has previously threatened to challenge the White House decision in court.
The fate of U.S. Steel – a storied 120-year-old firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – became a lightning rod during the 2024 election season.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Starbucks baristas are set to walk off the job on Tuesday, expanding the dayslong holiday strike to 300 stores in dozens of cities and towns nationwide, according to the union Starbucks Workers United.
In all, 5,000 Starbucks employees will go on strike in more than 25 states on Tuesday, spanning from Maryland to Montana to California, Workers United said.
Workers in Columbus, Ohio, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Buffalo, New York, and a host of other locations are set to join the strikes, the union said.
The work stoppages on Christmas Eve mark the final wave of a five-day strike meant to disrupt Starbucks during one of the busiest times of the year for the coffeehouse giant.
“These strikes are an initial show of strength, and we’re just getting started,” Lauren Hollingsworth, a Starbucks barista in Ashland, Oregon, told ABC News in a statement.
Starbucks Workers United and Starbucks announced earlier this year that they would work on a “foundational framework” to reach a collective bargaining agreement for stores, something the union says has not come to fruition.
“We were ready to bring the foundational framework home this year, but Starbucks wasn’t,” Lynne Fox, President of Workers United, told ABC News in a statement.
The strike began on Friday and has escalated each day since. On Monday, about 60 stores were forced to close as result of work stoppages, the union said.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Starbucks Spokesperson Jay Go Guasch said the strikes had impacted a fraction of its U.S. stores.
“Only around 170 Starbucks stores did not open as planned. With over 10,000 company operated stores, 98% of our stores and over 200,000 green apron partners continuing to operate and serve customers during the holidays,” Go-Guasch said.
Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief partner officer, downplayed the impact of the strikes in a public letter to employees late Monday.
“The overwhelming majority of Starbucks stores across the country have opened as planned and are busy with customers enjoying the holidays,” Kelly said, noting that the company operates 10,000 stores and employs 200,000 people nationwide.
Anticipating the expansion of the strike on Tuesday, Kelly said work stoppages in hundreds of stores would cause “very limited impact to our overall operations.”
“The union chose to walk away from bargaining last week,” Kelly said. “We are ready to continue negotiations when the union comes back to the bargaining table.”
The union and the company remain far apart on the key issue of potential wage increases, according to statements from both sides about the other’s proposal.
Workers United told ABC News in a statement that Starbucks had proposed no immediate wage increases for most baristas and a guarantee of only 1.5% wage increases in future years.
Meanwhile, Starbucks said in a statement that the union had proposed an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, as well as an overall 77% raise over the duration of a three-year contract. “This is not sustainable,” a Starbucks spokesperson told ABC News.
Starbucks United contests those figures as a disingenuous characterization of its proposal, the union told ABC News.
Baristas have unionized more than 100 Starbucks stores this year, expanding a union campaign that has spread to hundreds of stores across 45 states since an initial victory three years ago at a location in Buffalo, New York, the union said.
The union has filed hundreds of charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging illegal anti-union activities carried out by Starbucks, including alleged bad-faith negotiations over a potential union contract setting terms at the unionized locations.
Starbucks has denied wrongdoing and faulted the union for breaking off negotiations. The company offers better pay and benefits than its competitors, Starbucks said.
Amazon workers in New York striking Thursday morning. Image via WABC.
(NEW YORK) — Workers affiliated with the Teamsters began striking at Amazon facilities across the country Thursday morning — in what the union calls the largest strike in history against the online shopping giant less than a week before Christmas.
In a news release Thursday evening, the union said “thousands of Teamsters” were taking part in the strikes at facilities in New York City, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois, but did not provide specific numbers. Later, the union said Teamsters President Sean O’Brien would join striking members at a facility in the City of Industry, California, on Friday as the strike was set to enter its second day.
In addition, the Teamsters said local unions were also picketing “hundreds” of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide.
Amazon said the strike was not expected to impact operations and claimed the strikes were being attended by outside organizers.
“What you see here are almost entirely outsiders—not Amazon employees or partners—and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a emailed statement a few hours after the strikes began Thursday morning. “The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to come and harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous. We appreciate all our team’s great work to serve their customers and communities, and are continuing to focus on getting customers their holiday orders.”
Overall, nearly 9,000 Amazon workers, across 20 bargaining units, have affiliated with the powerful International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union said. The striking workers represent less than 1% of the company’s 1.5 million employees worldwide, including 800,000 in the United States.
The Teamsters, announcing the move earlier this week, billed it as the “largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history” and said it came after Amazon refused to bargain with workers organized with the Teamsters.
The union said workers are picketing for higher wages, improved benefits and safer work conditions.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” O’Brien said in a statement Thursday announcing the strike. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
In a statement to ABC News, an Amazon spokesperson said the Teamsters illegally coerced workers to join the union.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Thursday. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.”
The spokesperson said the company has increased the starting minimum wage for workers in fulfillment centers and transportation employees by 20% and in September increased average base wage to $22 per hour.
The announced strike by the Teamsters comes after workers at several Amazon facilities authorized the walkout.
The facility in New York City’s Staten Island was Amazon’s first-ever unionized warehouse. Workers there have said the company has refused to recognize the union and negotiate a contract after workers there voted to unionize in 2022.
The National Labor Relations Board officially certified the union representing workers at the facility, but Amazon has appealed that ruling.
(NEW YORK) — Shares of Netflix climbed about 9% in early trading on Friday after a strong earnings report propelled by hit shows like “Nobody Wants This” and “The Perfect Couple.”
The company added about 5 million subscribers over a three-month period ending in September, which marked a roughly 40% decline from the same period one year prior.
Even so, the subscriber gains contributed to revenue totaling nearly $10 billion, in part due to the growth in popularity a subscription tier that includes advertisements, the earnings report on Thursday said. That sales figure marked 15% jump when compared with the same period one year prior.
In all, Netflix boasts about 282 million subscribers worldwide, making it the most popular streaming service by a wide margin. By comparison, Warner Bros. Discovery counts roughly 103 million subscribers across its services HBO, HBO Max and Discovery +, an earnings report in August showed.
“We’re feeling really good about the business,” Ted Sarandos, the company’s co-CEO, said on a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
Notable programs from the most recent quarter included the latest season of “Emily in Paris,” as well as movies like “Monster High 2” and “Rebel Ridge.” The company also expanded its live broadcasts, featuring a face-off between hot dog-eating rivals Takeru Kobayashi and Choey Chestnut in September.
On the earnings call, Netflix touted viewership of about two hours per user each day, which the company said indicated an increase so far this year when compared to last year.
The company expects continued growth next year due to a slate of programming that includes new seasons of top shows like “Wednesday” and “Squid Game,” as well as an additional installment in the “Knives Out” film series, Netflix said.
Netflix forecasted as much as $44 billion in revenue next year, which would amount to about a 13% increase over current performance.
Even after expanding its audience, Netflix still captures less than 10% of television viewership in the countries where the platform is most popular, Netflix said.
“There’s a huge opportunity to grow,” Gregory Peters, a co-CEO at Netflix, said on Thursday.
