Raphael Stevens

The UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen, the union said.
The union alleges management at facilities for the companies have participated in illegal “union-busting as workers organize to join the UAW.”
The charges come roughly two weeks after the UAW said it was launching an unprecedented campaign to organize 13 nonunion automakers in the U.S.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during an online broadcast updating union members on negotiations with the Detroit automakers on Oct. 6, 2023.
Screenshot

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Honda Motor, Hyundai Motor and Volkswagen, accusing the automakers of unlawfully interfering with worker organizing, the union said Monday.
UAW alleges management at three facilities — for Honda in Greensburg, Indiana; Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama; and Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee — have participated in illegal “union-busting as workers organize to join the UAW.”

Hyundai and Honda refuted the allegations. Volkswagen said it takes such “claims like this very seriously and will investigate accordingly.”
The union alleges the activities range from surveillance of workers at Honda to confiscating, destroying, and prohibiting “pro-union materials in non-work areas during non-work times” at Hyundai.
At VW, the UAW alleges management has “harassed and threatened workers for talking about the union; confiscated and destroyed pro-union materials in the break room; attempted to intimidate and illegally silence pro-union workers; and has attempted to illegally prohibit workers from distributing union literature and discussing union issues in non-work areas on non-work time.”
“These companies are breaking the law in an attempt to get autoworkers to sit down and shut up instead of fighting for their fair share,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “But these workers are showing management that they won’t be intimidated out of their right to speak up and organize for a better life.”

Spokespeople for Honda and Hyundai disputed the union’s claims, while citing it’s up to workers on whether to join a union.

“The union’s characterization of events in its press statement do not present an accurate picture, and we look forward to having a fair opportunity to present the facts through our participation in the legal process,” Hyundai said in a statement.
“Honda encourages our associates to engage and get information on this issue.  We have not and would not interfere with our associates’ right to engage in activity supporting or opposing the UAW,” a company spokesman said in an email.
The filings were not immediately available on the NLRB’s website, but the union provided them to CNBC.
The actions that prompted the allegations against the employers occurred during the last six months, according to the filings, which were signed by UAW outside counsel Benjamin Dictor, an attorney with New York-based Eisner Dictor & Lamadrid.
The charges come roughly two weeks after the UAW said it was launching an unprecedented campaign to organize 13 nonunion automakers in the U.S. after it secured record contracts with the three Detroit automakers — General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis.
During an online broadcast Monday night, Fain detailed additional measures of the organizing campaigns, including a “30-50-70 strategy,” referring to voting percentages in support or union organizing.
Fain said when organizing committees can get 30% of plant workers to sign UAW cards in support of representation, then they are ready to go public with their campaign; at 50%, Fain will visit the location for a rally; and, at 70%, the UAW will demand the company recognize the union or take it to a vote.
UAW membership has been nearly cut in half since 2001, from about 700,000 that year to 383,000 at the beginning of 2023. It peaked at 1.5 million in 1979.
Fain has vowed to move beyond the “Big Three” and expand to the “Big Five or Big Six” by the time its four-and-a-half-year contracts with the Detroit automakers expire in April 2028.
Like with the union’s negotiations with the Detroit automakers and the union’s “Stand Up Strike,” Fain said no single company is the target for the UAW.
“They’re all the target,” he said. More

A federal judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit challenging the ownership of a dress worn by Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.
The suit had delayed The Catholic University of America’s planned auction of the dress for more than a year.
The niece of the priest who had owned the dress has 10 days to present an argument against lifting the injunction that has blocked the auction.

A blue and white checked gingham dress, worn by Judy Garland in the “Wizard of Oz,” hangs on display, Monday, April 25, 2022, at Bonhams in New York.
Katie Vasquez | AP

This “Wizard of Oz” dress could be off to see the auction house very soon.
A federal judge in New York on Monday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the ownership of a dress worn by Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” which for more than a year had held up a planned auction of the storied garment by The Catholic University of America.

Judge Paul Gardephe gave the plaintiff, Barbara Hartke, 10 days to present an argument as to why he should not lift an injunction that has blocked the auction since mid-2022.
In his ruling, Gardephe wrote that Barbara Hartke had failed to establish that she had legal standing to assert an ownership right in the “Oz” dress, which previously was owned by the Wisconsin woman’s uncle, the late Rev. Gilbert Hartke, a longtime professor at Catholic University. The school, located in Washington, D.C., says it is the owner of the dress.
Anthony Scordo III, Barbara Hartke’s lawyer, told CNBC on Monday that he hopes to soon have her appointed as an executor of her uncle’s estate, which could allow her to renew her legal claim to the dress’s ownership.
“We’re not out of the box yet,” said Scordo.
He also plans to argue to the judge that it would be “premature to lift the injunction” blocking the auction while Barbara still might have grounds to contest the ownership.

In a statement, Catholic University said that it “is very encouraged and pleased that the motion to dismiss was granted and looks forward to reaching finality in this case in the coming weeks.”
Gilbert Hartke, who had served as chairman of the university’s drama department, received the blue and white dress from the Oscar-winning actress Mercedes McCambridge, who was a friend of Garland’s. The dress is believed to be one of six worn by Garland in the 1939 film. Garland died in 1969; McCambridge in 2004.
After Father Hartke died in 1986, the dress was missing for decades, but then was found in 2021 in a trash bag above faculty mail slots during a renovation of the Hartke Theater at the university.
Catholic University contracted with the Bonhams auction house in March 2022 to sell the dress in New York. The dress was expected to fetch between $800,000 to $1.2 million at auction.
But that sale was put on hold when Barbara Hartke sued both the university and Bonhams in Manhattan federal court last year.
Gardephe’s ruling Monday dismissing her claim noted that Father Hartke had taken a vow of poverty when he became a priest of the Dominican order in 1933. In that vow, Hartke renounced his ownership of “temporal goods,” and agreed to turn over his salary to the College of the Immaculate Conception.
The judge wrote that Barbara Hartke’s lawsuit, which asserts that the dress belongs to her uncle’s estate, failed to plead facts demonstrating that she is a “real part of interest.”
The ruling also notes that there is nothing in the court record to show that she has been appointed a personal representative of her uncle’s estate despite her having petitioned the D.C. Probate Court for that role.
As a result, “she lacks standing to bring this action,” Gardephe wrote.
The judge left the door open for Barbara Hartke to amend her lawsuit to make another argument for legal standing. But Gardephe noted that “it appears doubtful” that such a claim would succeed.
Barbara Hartke’s lawyer Scordo told CNBC that received the case files for her uncle’s estate from Probate Court only in October, long after they were requested, and that there has been no ruling yet on her application to be appointed personal representative for the estate. More

Hasbro said it would cut 1,100 jobs as it struggles with slumping toy sales, a company memo said.
The company, which makes Transformers and My Little Pony toys, had already cut about 800 jobs earlier this year.

Game maker Hasbro
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Hasbro is laying off about 1,100 employees as the toy maker struggles with soft sales that have carried into the holiday shopping season, according to a company memo obtained by CNBC.
Hasbro had about 6,300 employees as of earlier this year, according to a company fact sheet.

Shares of the company fell more than 4% in extended trading Monday. Rival Mattel’s stock also slipped after hours.
“We anticipated the first three quarters to be challenging, particularly in Toys, where the market is coming off historic, pandemic-driven highs,” CEO Chris Cocks said in the memo. “While we have made some important progress across our organization, the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into Holiday and are likely to persist into 2024.
Hasbro, which already laid off hundreds of employees earlier this year, had warned in October that trouble was on the horizon. In the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report, Hasbro slashed its already-soft full-year outlook, projecting a 13% to 15% revenue decline for the year.
Popular toy brand sales had dropped significantly, Hasbro also said in the October quarterly report. Popular brands like My Little Pony, Nerf and Transformer had fallen 18% at the time, due to “softer category trends.”
Hasbro’s stock was down nearly 20% through Monday’s close.

Hasbro competitor Mattel had also warned of soft sales. Yet Mattel’s stock is up about 6% through Monday, powered a great deal by the box office success of the film “Barbie.” That’s still behind the 17% gain posted by the S&P 500 so far this year, though.
Retailers overall could be in for a tepid holiday season, and toys saw lower discounts for consumers when compared to discounts a year ago.
Read the full memo from CEO Chris Cocks:
Team,   
A year ago, we laid out our strategy to focus on building fewer, bigger, better brands and began the process of transforming Hasbro. Since then, we’ve had some important wins, like retooling our supply chain, improving our inventory position, lowering costs, and reinvesting over $200M back into the business while growing share across many of our categories. But the market headwinds we anticipated have proven to be stronger and more persistent than planned. While we’re confident in the future of Hasbro, the current environment demands that we do more, even if these choices are some of the hardest we have to make.   
Today we’re announcing additional headcount reductions as part of our previously communicated strategic transformation, affecting approximately 1,100 colleagues globally in addition to the roughly 800 reductions already taken.  
Our leadership team came to this difficult decision after much deliberation. We recognize this is heavy news that affects the livelihoods of our friends and colleagues. Our focus is communicating with each of you transparently and supporting you through this period of change. I want to start by addressing why we are doing this now, and what’s next. 
Why now? 
We entered 2023 expecting a year of change including significant updates to our leadership team, structure, and scope of operations. We anticipated the first three quarters to be challenging, particularly in Toys, where the market is coming off historic, pandemic-driven highs. While we have made some important progress across our organization, the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into Holiday and are likely to persist into 2024.  
To position Hasbro for growth, we must first make sure our foundation is solid and profitable. To do that, we need to modernize our organization and get even leaner. While we see workforce reductions as a last resort, given the state of our business, it’s a lever we must pull to keep Hasbro healthy. 
What happens next? 
While we’re making changes across the entire organization, some functional areas will be affected more than others. Many of those whose roles are affected have been or will be informed in the next 24 hours, although the timings will vary by country, in line with local rules and subject to employee consultations where required. This includes team members who have raised their hands to step down from their roles at the end of the year as part of our Voluntary Early Retirement Program (VRP) in the U.S. We’re immensely grateful to these colleagues for their many years of dedication, and we wish them all the best.   
The majority of the notifications will happen over the next six months, with the balance occurring over the next year as we tackle the remaining work on our organizational model. This includes standardizing processes within Finance, HR, IT and Consumer Care as part of our Global Business Enablement project, but it also means doing more work across the entire business to minimize management layers and create a nimbler organization. 
What else are we doing? 
I know this news is especially difficult during the holiday season. We value each of our team members – they aren’t just employees, they’re friends and colleagues. We decided to communicate now so people have time to plan and process the changes. For those employees affected we are offering comprehensive packages including job placement support to assist in their transition.  
We’ve also done what we can to minimize the scale of impact, like launching the VRP and exploring options to reduce our global real estate footprint. On that note, our Providence, Rhode Island office is currently not being used to its full capacity and we’ve decided to exit the space at the end of the lease term in January 2025. Over the next year, we’ll welcome teams from our Providence office to our headquarters down the road in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It’s an opportunity to reshape how we work and ensure our workspace is vibrant and productive, while reflecting our more flexible in-person cadence since the pandemic.   
Looking ahead 
As Gina often says, cost-cutting is not a strategy. We know this, and that’s why we’ll continue to grow and invest in several areas in 2024.  
As we uncover more cost savings, we’ll invest in new systems, insights and analytics, product development and digital – all while strengthening our leading franchises and ensuring our brands have the essential marketing they need to thrive well into the future.  
We’ll also tap into unlocked potential across our business, like our new supply chain efficiency, our direct-to-consumer capabilities, and key partnerships to maximize licensing opportunities, scale entertainment, and free up our own content dollars to drive new brand development. 
I know there is no sugar-coating how hard this is, particularly for the employees directly affected. We’re grateful to them for their contributions, and we wish them all the best. In the coming weeks, let’s support each other, and lean in to drive through these necessary changes, so we can return our business to growth and carry out Hasbro’s mission.  
Thanks,    
Chris  
CNBC’s Claudia Johnson contributed to this report. More

Ford Motor will cut planned production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup roughly in half next year.
It marks a major reversal after the automaker significantly increased plant capacity for the EV in 2023.
EV demand has been slower than many expected, as prices and interest rates remain high. But sales of the F-150 Lightning have steadily increased this year.

Ford workers produce the electric F-150 Lightning pickup at the automaker’s Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on Dec. 13, 2022.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

DETROIT — Ford Motor will cut planned production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup roughly in half next year, marking a major reversal after the automaker significantly increased plant capacity for the electric vehicle in 2023.
The new production plans call for average volume of around 1,600 F-150 Lightnings a week at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, starting in January, according to a source familiar with the decision. The automaker most recently planned to produce roughly 3,200 of the vehicles on average per week.

“We’ll continue to match production with customer demand,” a Ford spokeswoman said Monday.
Ford executives have recently said the automaker will match production to demand, as the company cancels or postpones $12 billion in upcoming EV investments.
The production cuts for the F-150 Lightning were first detailed in a planning memo to suppliers obtained by Automotive News. The memo cited “changing market demand” for the cuts, according to the publication.
EV demand has been slower than many expected, as prices and interest rates remain high. Automakers are working to cut costs of producing all-electric vehicles, while rethinking production and product plans for the years ahead.
Ford spent six weeks earlier this year to increase capacity of the F-150 Lightning at the Michigan plant, which was expected to be capable of producing 150,000 of the all-electric trucks, three times its initial planned output.

Sales of the F-150 Lightning have steadily increased in 2023, notching a monthly record of roughly 4,400 sold in November. The company has only sold 20,365 of the trucks this year through November, up 54% from a year earlier.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More