Category: Business

(NEW YORK) — Homebuyers eager to forget this year’s housing market may ring in 2025 with an extra dash of zeal.

A rapid rise in home prices has coincided with stubbornly high mortgage rates, shutting out potential buyers with daunting costs.

A burst of supply could have eased prices, but no such relief was forthcoming. Instead, homeowners have balked at swapping out their current mortgage rates for higher ones, and construction has failed to make up for a long-standing shortage in new homes.

Unfortunately, next year’s housing market will likely bring more of the same, experts told ABC News.

Home prices may rise at a slower pace, offering a glimmer of hope as high mortgage rates fall slightly but continue to weigh on consumer activity, they said.

Still, the market appears locked into a fundamental mismatch of supply and demand set to frustrate buyers, the experts added.

“I don’t see much sunshine in the forecast,” Ken Johnson, chief of real estate at the University of Mississippi, told ABC News. “It’s going to be gloomy and overcast, but it’s not going to be stormy.”

An unusual trend has beguiled buyers: Home prices are soaring, despite a prolonged stretch of high mortgage rates that, in theory, should crimp demand and push down prices.

Market observers who spoke to ABC News said they expect both price increases and mortgage rates to ease in 2025 — but only a smidge.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage stands at 6.85%, FreddieMac data last week showed. That figure has ticked up slightly since the start of the year, despite a series of interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve in recent months.

Earlier this month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said rate cuts may slow over the course of 2025. Such a policy would leave mortgage rates higher for longer, experts said.

Redfin, a Seattle, Washington-based real estate giant, forecasts average 30-year fixed mortgage rates will remain in the high 6% range over the duration of 2025. Online real estate marketplace Zillow says mortgage rates will fall, but only moderately.

Alongside persistently high mortgage rates, experts predicted a continued, albeit slower, rise in home prices.

In September, Goldman Sachs predicted a 4.4% rise in home prices in 2025, which would mark a slight decline from the 4.5% rise in 2024.

The persistence of high mortgage rates will put some downward pressure on prices, since demand will soften as many consumers forego expensive loans, experts said, but the high rates will also exacerbate a lack of supply that has kept prices soaring.

Current homeowners will want to remain locked into relatively low mortgage rates. Homebuilding will deliver much-needed supply of new homes, but it will fall well short of the amount required to meet demand, experts said.

“I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn’t feel like prices are going to moderate that much,” Marc Norman, associate dean at the New York University School of Professional Studies and Schack Institute of Real Estate, told ABC News. “If you don’t have a lot on the market, that’s going to put pressure on prices.”

Experts who spoke to ABC News acknowledged that economic forces could defy expectations, leaving the housing market in better or worse shape than anticipated.

Faster-than-expected progress in bringing inflation down to the Fed’s target level could free up the central bank to slash interest rates, which in turn would lower mortgage rates, some experts said. An economic downturn would damage household finances and ease demand, likely leading to a drop in home prices, they added.

If inflation proves more stubborn than expected, however, interest rates may stay high for even longer, experts said, which could put the housing market into an even deeper freeze.

For now, the outlook for 2025 appears clear, Christopher Mayer, a real estate professor at the Columbia University Business School, told ABC News.

“My best guess is that next year is a lot like this year,” Mayer said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Nearly half of U.S. states are set to raise their minimum wage at the outset of 2025, boosting pay for millions of workers stretching from California to Maine.

In all, 21 states will raise their wage floors on Jan. 1 in keeping with inflation-adjusted increases or as part of scheduled hikes that take effect at the beginning of each calendar year.

The pay increases will affect about 9.2 million workers, who will gain a combined $5.7 billion over the course of 2025, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, or EPI.

After the wave of wage hikes, Washington will become the state with the highest minimum wage, offering workers $16.66 per hour. Workers in California and New York will enjoy the second-highest wage floor, as both states implement a minimum hourly wage of $16.50.

Pay increases set to take hold in the new year will bring the wage floor to $15 an hour or higher in Washington, D.C., as well as 10 states, among them Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island. Those areas play host to one of every three U.S. workers, EPI found.

Overall, the states set to raise their minimum wage on Wednesday include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

The nation’s highest wage floors will take effect in some of the nearly 50 cities and other localities that will impose minimum pay hikes.

Twenty-nine cities in California will see pay hikes, including a $17-an-hour wage floor that will take effect in Oakland. Seven localities in Washington will increase their minimum wage, among them the country’s highest wage floor: $21.10 an hour in Tukwila.

The latest round of pay increases, however, will not affect more than a dozen states concentrated in the South that lack a minimum wage or offer a minimum wage that does not exceed the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

The last federal minimum wage hike took place in 2009, when Congress raised the pay floor to its current level. When adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage stands at its lowest level since February 1956, nearly 70 years ago, EPI found.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The fund disbursing money to the victims of Bernie Madoff’s legendary Ponzi scheme began its 10th and final distribution on Monday, putting another $131 million in the pockets of swindled investors.

Twenty-three thousand victims worldwide are receiving payments, bringing their total recoveries to 94% of their losses. Most of these victims were small investors who lost less than $500,000 in the fraud, according to federal prosecutors.

Since the collapse of Madoff’s investment house and his 2009 guilty plea, the Madoff Victim Fund has paid more than $4 billion to nearly 41,000 victims in 127 countries.

“This office has never stopped pursuing justice for victims of history’s largest Ponzi scheme,” acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said.

For decades, Madoff used the investment advisory business he founded in 1960 to steal billions from his clients, turning his wealth management firm into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme to benefit himself, his family and select members of his inner circle.

He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021.

“The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission process shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Wible said in a statement on Monday.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Shares of Boeing fell in early trading on Monday, one day after a Boeing model 737-800 was involved in the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea that killed scores of passengers.

The stock price dropped more than 4% at the open of trading on Monday morning. The slide came hours after South Korea’s transportation ministry announced it would investigate the crash and conduct a full inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in use in South Korea.

All but two of the 181 people on board died Sunday in what authorities said was the deadliest plane crash in South Korea in decades.

The only survivors, a man and a woman, were among the six crew members onboard the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 when it skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames on Sunday morning, officials said.

In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Boeing said the company had established communication with Jeju Air about the incident.

“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them,” Boeing said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”

Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Jeju Air said it would not suspend operations of its 737-800 aircraft.

“There are no plans to suspend operations, but they will examine those parts once more and check them thoroughly during the inspection process,” said Song Kyung-hoon, head of Jeju Air’s Management Support Division.

As the aircraft approached South Korea’s Muan International Airport at 8:54 a.m. local time, the control tower gave it permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.

Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.

An official cause of the crash is under investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.

The fatal crash and ensuing stock slide mark the latest setback for Boeing, which sought to put a series of scandals behind it last month when it struck a deal with a union representing thousands of West Coast factory workers, who had undertaken a seven-week strike.

The labor action began days after Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without its crew due to mechanical issues, and months after a door plug blew out of the company’s 737 Max 9 aircraft mid-flight, which itself happened five years after Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft were first grounded worldwide following a pair of tragic crashes.

The losses for Boeing on Monday coincided with a broader decline in the stock market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 700 points in early trading, dropping the index about 1.5%.

The S&P 500 slid 1.5% in early trading on Monday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq also declined 1.5%.

ABC News’ Joohee Cho and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Two weeks before the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over TikTok’s future, President-elect Donald Trump has asked the justices to delay a Jan. 19 deadline for the app to be sold to a new owner or face a ban in the U.S.

An amicus brief filed by Trump’s nominee to be solicitor general, John Sauer, is asking the court to grant a stay delaying the deadline so that the incoming president can work out a “negotiated resolution” that would save the app.

The filing casts Trump as someone who “alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government.”

Trump’s brief says he “opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture,” but does not express the view that the law requiring the sale violates the First Amendment, saying he takes no position on the merits of the case.

Instead, the filing from Sauer asks the court to put the deadline on pause to allow Trump’s incoming administration “to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns.”

TikTok, which has over 170 million U.S. users, has sued over the law requiring it to be sold by its current Chinese-based owner ByteDance by Jan. 19 or be banned in the U.S.

A federal appeals court earlier this month rejected the company’s request for an emergency pause in the deadline.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 10.

President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was part of a massive, $95 billion foreign aid package passed by Congress, on April 24.

Biden and some congressional leaders argued that the ultimatum against TikTok was necessary because of security concerns about ByteDance and its connections to the Chinese government.

Trump originally tried to ban TikTok in his first term, but has since reversed course, vowing during the 2024 presidential campaign to “save” the app.

In Trump’s amicus brief, Sauer raised the idea of social media censorship, invoking Brazil’s recent month-long ban of social media platform X, the treatment of the Hunter Biden laptop story and government efforts to stamp out COVID-19 misinformation as incidents that should give the justices pause.

“This Court should be deeply concerned about setting a precedent that could create a slippery slope toward global government censorship of social media speech,” Sauer wrote in the filing. “The power of a Western government to ban an entire social-media platform with more than 100 million users, at the very least, should be considered and exercised with the most extreme care—not reviewed on a ‘highly expedited basis.’”

While Sauer acknowledged that TikTok may pose national security risks while it remains under ByteDance’s control, he also urges the justices to be skeptical of national security officials, whom, he said, “have repeatedly procured social-media censorship of disfavored content and viewpoints through a combination of pressure, coercion, and deception.”

“There is a jarring parallel between the D.C. Circuit’s near-plenary deference to national security officials calling for social-media censorship, and the recent, well-documented history of federal officials’ extensive involvement in social-media censorship efforts directed at the speech of tens of millions Americans,” Sauer wrote.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The stock market climbed to record highs in 2024, extending banner gains achieved the previous year.

The S&P 500 — the index that most people’s 401(k)’s track — climbed nearly 28% this year, as of Monday.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq leapt a staggering 34% over that period; while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 16%.

Consecutive years of strong stock market performance have posed a quandary for forecasters: Will high stock prices scare off would-be investors in 2025, or will momentum push shares even higher?

Experts have attributed the rise of share prices this year to a set of favorable trends: Solid economic growth, enthusiasm about artificial intelligence and the long-awaited start of interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve.

Those tail winds are expected to keep pushing stocks skyward in 2025, experts said, but they cautioned about more-than-usual uncertainty that could prevent further gains or even amplify them. The biggest unknown for stocks in 2025, they said: President-elect Donald Trump.

“As we close the books on 2024 and peer into 2025, perhaps the uncertainties this time are of a magnitude beyond the norm,” Kevin Gordon and Liz Ann Sonders, a pair of investment strategists at Charles Schwab, said last week. “Good luck figuring this one out.”

Good news abounded for the stock market this year, in part because the economy defied doomsayers.

The economy continued to grow at a solid clip in 2024, while inflation fell. That performance kept the U.S. on track for a “soft landing,” in which the economy averts a recession while inflation returns to normal.

Gross domestic product grew at a robust 2.8% annualized rate over three months ending in September, the most recent period for which data is available.

“U.S. strength remains undiminished,” Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, told ABC News in a statement.

Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of more than 9% in June 2022. A months-long stretch of progress earlier this year helped nudge the Federal Reserve toward its first interest rate cuts in four years.

In recent months, the Fed has cut its benchmark rate three-quarters of a percentage point, dialing back its fight against inflation and delivering some relief for borrowers saddled with high costs.

Over time, rate cuts ease the burden on borrowers for everything from home mortgages to credit cards to cars, making it cheaper to get a loan or refinance one. The cuts also boost company valuations, potentially helping fuel returns for stockholders.

The Fed is expected to continue cutting interest rates next year, though a recent bout of stubborn inflation could slow, or even pause, the lowering of rates, experts previously told ABC News.

“Markets expect gradual rate cuts next year, which would imply inflation stays under control, the job market hums along at an acceptable pace, stocks rise, and everybody is happy,” Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in a statement to ABC News.

“Reality isn’t that cut and dry, though,” Cox added.

Some analysts pointed to Trump’s policies as a major source of uncertainty for the nation’s economic performance and, in turn, the stock market.

Trump has vowed to cut taxes for individuals and corporations, which could spur economic growth and raise stock prices, some experts said. However, they added, Trump’s proposed tariffs could hurt some U.S. producers and retailers that depend on imported raw materials, and may cause a resurgence of inflation. As a result, some stocks could suffer.

“The most significant wild card on the table for 2025 will be the potential implementation of tariffs,” David Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist for Morningstar, said earlier this month.

Since 1990, there have been 12 years in which the S&P 500 has gained 20% or more, Cox said. The stock market crossed that threshold last year, and is almost certain to do so when 2024 comes to an end. It will be difficult for the stock market to achieve that feat for a third consecutive year, Cox added.

“If you’re expecting a repeat of 2024, you’re asking a lot of the market gods,” Cox said.

Still, the enticing possibility of another rally will draw investor interest as observers watch for any early signs of sputtering.

“The opportunities for investors are plenty, but so are the obstacles,” Shah said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Holiday spending surged in 2024, blowing past expectations and outpacing customer purchases over the gift-buying season last year, according to data released on Thursday by Mastercard SpendingPulse, which gauges in-store and online retail sales.

The end-of-year flex of consumer strength marks the latest indication of resilient U.S. buying power, which has kept the economy humming despite a prolonged stretch of high interest rates.

Retail sales climbed 3.8% from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 compared with the same period last year, Mastercard SpendingPulse data showed. The boost in spending exceeded a Mastercard SpendingPulse estimate of 3.2%, while outperforming last year’s growth of 3.1%. The retail sales data excludes automotive purchases.

“Solid spending during this holiday season underscores the strength we observed from the consumer all year,” Michelle Meyer, chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute, told ABC News in a statement.

Jewelry sales grew more than any other product category, climbing 4% compared to last year, the data showed. Spending on apparel and electronics also climbed at a solid pace.

The shopping surge was most pronounced online, where spending grew 6.7% compared to the same period last year, the data showed.

While the overall spending reflects the health of U.S. consumers, the pattern of purchases indicates a search for discounts, Meyer said.

“The holiday shopping season revealed a consumer who is willing and able to spend but driven by a search for value as can be seen by concentrated e-commerce spending during the biggest promotional periods,” Meyer added.

The holiday sales growth suggests the U.S. economy has remained robust, even amid high borrowing costs.

Gross domestic product grew at a solid 2.8% annualized rate over three months ending in September, the most recent quarter for which data is available.

The labor market has slowed but proven sturdy. The unemployment rate stands at 4.2%, a historically low figure.

Consumer spending accounts for nearly three-quarters of U.S. economic activity.

The increase in holiday spending coincided with an initial bout of relief for borrowers, as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a total of one percentage point over the final few months of the year. However, interest rates still stand at a historically high level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.

Lower interest rates typically stimulate economic activity by making it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow, which in turn fuels investment and spending. However, interest rate cuts usually influence the economy after a lag of several months, meaning the recent lowering of rates likely had little impact on holiday spending.

Earlier this month, the central bank predicted fewer rate cuts next year than it had previously indicated, suggesting concern that inflation may prove more difficult to bring under control than policymakers thought just a few months ago.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Federal Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the willingness to keep interest rates high stemmed in part from the health of the U.S. economy and the shoppers propelling it.

“We think the economy is in a really good place,” Powell said, later adding: “Growth of consumer spending has remained resilient.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(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.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Amazon delivery drivers and third-party workers for the nation’s predominant shopping platform have walked off the job in the past week, seeking what they consider a fair labor agreement — and triggering widespread concern among consumers about a potential disruption of deliveries amid a surge of last-minute shopping just before Christmas.

But experts who spoke to ABC News — all of whom study the e-commerce giant’s vast distribution network — said there is little indication that the nationwide demonstrations have imposed significant delays of package delivery, let alone cancellations.

“I haven’t seen evidence that the strike has been effective because of the high level of complexity of the Amazon network,” Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a professor of maritime business administration at Texas A&M University-Galveston who studies Amazon’s freight distribution, told ABC News.

“You’re dealing with a hydra. You can try to chop off one of its heads, but there are other heads,” Rodrigue added.

However, the protests could delay deliveries by one or two days near major cities where efforts are focused.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement that thousands of its Amazon-affiliated members are striking in areas including New York City, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; San Bernardino, California; San Francisco, California; and Skokie, Illinois.

The union has focused its efforts on delivery centers that carry packages over the “last mile” to a customer’s home, Barry Eidlin, a professor of labor sociology at McGill University, told ABC News.

Demonstrations in recent days appear to have occasionally slowed trucks passing in and out of the delivery centers, which could delay local package deliveries in those areas by a few days, Eidlin added.

Speaking to “Good Morning America” on Friday, the second day of the protests, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said the union had heard some “success stories” in its effort to disrupt deliveries.

“We are slowing the packages down,” O’Brien said, later adding: “We’ve got to use our leverage. Unfortunately, it may come at the inconvenience of the consumer.”

In that case, he urged consumers to have patience — and to fault Amazon for any delivery delays.

“Amazon is the one that caused this issue, not the drivers, not the Teamsters union,” O’Brien said.

Teamsters began participating in what they are calling a strike at seven Amazon delivery centers across the country last week.

They were joined by unionized Amazon workers at a 5,500-person warehouse in Staten Island, New York, on Saturday, the Teamsters said. Some company workers at an air hub facility in San Bernardino also joined over the weekend, the Teamsters added.

However, Amazon doesn’t consider the situation a “strike,” since there hasn’t been a work stoppage, according to Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for the e-commerce titan.

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Nantel said the striking workers are not Amazon employees and that the demonstrations have had no impact on Amazon’s operations.

“What you’re seeing at these sites are almost entirely outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners — and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters,” Nantel said. “The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous.”

Amazon also said in a statement to ABC News that the federal government has not ordered the company to bargain with Teamsters-affiliated workers — and it said that none of its workers have paid dues to the Teamsters.

Overall, nearly 9,000 Amazon workers, across 20 bargaining units, have affiliated with the Teamsters, according to the union.

This means that the protesting workers represent less than 1% of the company’s 800,000 operations employees in the U.S.

And the picket lines involve a small fraction of the company’s roughly 585 delivery centers, making it unlikely that such demonstrations will meaningfully impact package delivery, even for nearby customers, said Marc Wulfraat, president and founder of logistics consulting firm MWPVL.

“For the Teamsters to have a meaningful impact, they would have to penetrate a significant number of those delivery stations in order to really cause Amazon heartburn,” Wulfraat said.

The headline-grabbing protests could also inspire some workers to organize unions at new facilities, posing a future threat to the company’s distribution network — but the protesters appear far from attaining the scale necessary for such impact, the experts said.

“We appreciate all our team’s great work to serve their customers and communities, and thanks to them, we’re not seeing any impact to customers’ orders,” Nantel said in her statement to ABC News.

Regardless of whether the protests meaningfully impact Amazon’s operations, the public attention could dissuade some customers from ordering out of fear of a possible delay, experts said.

“It’s possible a small percentage of customers might choose to buy elsewhere,” Rob Handfield, a professor of operations and supply-chain management at North Carolina State University, told ABC News.

Public awareness of the labor effort could also draw more employees to the Teamsters, building union momentum and posing a threat to the company’s distribution network in the coming months or years, experts observed.

“There certainly could be some kind of snowball effect. If I was an Amazon leader, that’s what I’d be most afraid about,” Rodrigue said.

But he also noted that the workers appear fairly far from threatening a major disruption, adding: “They still have a ways to go.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Starbucks baristas walked off the job in major cities in Massachusetts, Texas and Oregon on Monday, expanding the dayslong holiday strike to 12 cities nationwide, according to the union Starbucks Workers United.

Workers went out on strike in Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Portland, Oregon, joining baristas in cities spanning from Los Angeles to Philadelphia.

Striking baristas brought business to a halt in almost 50 stores nationwide on Sunday across multiple cities, Workers United said.

“The holiday season should be magical at Starbucks, but for too many of us, there’s a darker side to the peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes,”Arloa Fluhr, a longtime Starbucks employee in Illinois, said in a statement to ABC News.

Fluhr, a mother of three, struggles to support her family with the wages received from Starbucks, she said. “That’s why we’re steadfast in our demands for Starbucks to invest in baristas like me,” she added.

Workers United, a union representing 525 Starbucks stores in the U.S., said baristas nationwide launched a strike on Friday. The escalation on Monday is the latest expansion of a strike that has grown each day since it began, the union said.

The holiday season is one of the busiest periods of the year for the coffeehouse giant, the union added.

In February, Starbucks Workers United and Starbucks announced 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. “Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners.”

Starbucks did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

In response to ABC News’ previous request for comment, Starbucks spokesperson Phil Gee said the company has not experienced a significant impact from the strike.

“We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our U.S. stores remain open and serving customers as normal,” Gee said on Dec. 20.

Starbucks said it remains willing to resume negotiations with the union. “Workers United delegates prematurely ended our bargaining session this week. It is disappointing they didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date,” the company said. “We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements.”

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.

Some local elected officials joined workers on the picket lines on Sunday, including Democratic Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Democratic New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the union said.

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.

“We are focused on enhancing the partner (employee) experience, with over $3 billion invested in the last three years. Starbucks offers a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits,” Starbucks said in a statement to ABC News. “No other retailer offers this kind of comprehensive pay and benefits package.”

ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.