Economy

The Amazon Labor Union has been divided over strategy and governance issues after winning a representation vote at a Staten Island warehouse in 2022.A dissident group has won control of the Amazon Labor Union, the only union in the country that formally represents Amazon warehouse workers, election results on Tuesday showed.The union won a representation vote at a Staten Island warehouse in 2022 but has yet to negotiate a contract as Amazon contests the outcome. The group has been divided over governance and strategy, as well as personality conflicts, after falling short in efforts to organize other Amazon facilities.A leader of the dissident group, Connor Spence, will take over, succeeding the founding president, Christian Smalls, who chose not to run for re-election. Mr. Spence defeated the union’s current recording secretary and a third candidate in an election that attracted roughly 250 votes, out of thousands of workers at the warehouse.The result was announced by Mr. Spence’s group and confirmed by Mr. Smalls.Mr. Spence’s group brought a lawsuit last year to force leadership elections within the union. The two sides announced a settlement in January that set the stage for this month’s election, which was overseen by a court-approved monitor.The dissident group, the A.L.U. Democratic Reform Caucus, argued that Mr. Smalls and other union leaders had too much power and were unaccountable to rank-and-file members, a charge that Mr. Smalls rejected.The caucus also claimed victory for the union’s three other officer positions. It said in a statement that after a long fight to reform the union, “we are relieved to finally be able to turn our full attention toward bringing Amazon to the table.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Actors and writers won strict limits on artificial intelligence in last year’s contract negotiations, but editors and artists face a growing challenge.For most of his four-plus decades in Hollywood, Thomas R. Moore has worked as a picture editor on network television shows.During a typical year, his work followed a pattern: He would spend about a week and a half distilling hours of footage into the first cut of an episode, then two to three weeks incorporating feedback from the director, producers and the network. When the episode was done, he would receive another episode’s worth of footage, and so on, until he and two other editors worked through the TV season.This model, which typically pays picture editors $125,000 to $200,000 a year, has mostly survived the shorter seasons of the streaming era, because editors can work on more than one show in a year. But with the advent of artificial intelligence, Mr. Moore fears that the job will soon be hollowed out.“If A.I. could put together a credible version of the show for a first cut, it could eliminate one-third of our workdays,” he said, citing technology like the video-making software Sora as evidence that the shift is imminent. “We’ll become electronic gig workers.”Mr. Moore is not alone. In a dozen interviews with editors and other Hollywood craftspeople, almost all worried that A.I. had either begun displacing them or could soon do so.As it happens, these workers belong to a labor union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which can negotiate A.I. protections on their behalf, as actors’ and writers’ unions did during last year’s strikes. Yet their union recently approved a contract, by a large margin, that clears the way for studios to require employees to use the technology, just as Mr. Moore and his colleagues have feared.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris would adhere to President Joe Biden’s vow against raising taxes on middle-income Americans and helped formulate Biden-Harris administration proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday.But Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a contender to be Harris’ running mate in the November presidential election, touted his record of cutting taxes for businesses in the state.At an Internal Revenue Service event in Philadelphia, Yellen said that Harris, if elected, would likely pursue a number of Biden’s economic priorities, including support for child care, family leave and an expanded Child Tax Credit.Asked whether Harris would adopt Biden’s tax proposals, Yellen said: “Vice President Harris has indicated her support for avoiding tax increases for middle-income families. So I believe that’s a principle that she would adhere to.”Yellen, however, declined to speculate on how Harris would approach negotiations in Congress in 2025, the year that Trump-era tax cuts expire.Shapiro said that Pennsylvania cut taxes for businesses because it needed to have a more competitive environment to grow jobs and attract businesses. State corporate taxes are slated to decline to 4.99% by 2031 from 8.99% in 2023.”We also understood that we need to have a more advantageous tax environment for our businesses, and it was one component of an overall strategy in order to grow jobs and create more economic opportunity in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “That’s why I’ve been so aggressively working to cut business taxes and make sure that we have an environment here that works for business owners.”Yellen and Shapiro earlier announced that Pennsylvania will join the Internal Revenue Service’s free direct filing system for simple tax returns next year, providing the option to as many as 1.5 million taxpayers in the state.The move follows a successful pilot program during the 2024 tax filing season in 12 states after which the IRS announced that it would offer a permanent free filing system, funded in part by $60 billion in new modernization funding for the IRS over a decade – funding that Republicans have vowed to rescind.Yellen said the pilot program attracted filings from 140,000 taxpayers – exceeding the 100,000 goal – who claimed more than $90 million in refunds and saved an estimated $5.6 million in fees that would have been charged by private tax preparers.Shapiro survived the first cut of Harris’ shortlist, as North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer dropped out of that selection process.The Pennsylvania governor and former state attorney general is competing against Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.In the past year, Yellen has held events with Beshear, Kelly, Cooper and Whitmer touting Biden-Harris economic policies, from clean energy tax credits to investments in semiconductors. More

Li Ming, chief of the enforcement bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), will replace vice chairman Fang Xinghai, the CSRC said in a statement, citing a decision by China’s State Council, or cabinet.The announcement confirmed an earlier report by Reuters. Fang, born in 1964, is retiring, according to sources with direct knowledge of the personnel change. President Xi Jinping is seeking to foster a capital market able to channel resources into strategic sectors such as chip-making and high-end manufacturing amid increasing economic rivalry between China, Europe and the United States.The CSRC has pledged to regulate the market with “teeth and thorns” under chairman Wu Qing.Prior to the promotion, Li headed the enforcement bureau, which is responsible for probing illegal securities activities, handing criminal cases to the relevant authorities and facilitating cross-border investigations.During a media conference in February, Li vowed to crack down on insider trading and market manipulation as well as stamp out securities fraud in an effort to protect investors. “Punishment will be more and more severe, and the cost of breaking the law will only be higher and higher,” Li said.A CSRC veteran, Li began working in its Listing Department, which oversees share sales, and in 2016 was put in charge of the National Equities Exchange, a bourse for trading over-the-counter shares, according to business media group Caixin. Li returned to the Listing Department as director-general in 2020 and was appointed to lead the enforcement bureau in 2022, the Chinese media group added.China’s regulators have been scrutinising old business deals and the personal bank accounts of senior executives as they ramp up inspections of IPO hopefuls, a process that has forced firms to drop listing plans and investment banks to cut jobs and pay.The stock market scrutiny coincides with a “common prosperity” drive aimed at addressing social and income inequality as economic growth slows.China will “tighten regulation to promote the sound and stable development of the capital market”, according to a resolution issued after a key Communist Party meeting held earlier this month.Li’s predecessor Fang is seen as the most market-oriented senior official at the CSRC. Stanford-educated Fang has been a strong advocate of market reforms.Fang became CSRC vice chairman following a 2015 market crash and under his watch, China opened its stock and bond markets wider to foreign investors and introduced a slew of derivative products.Over the past year, however, the CSRC has restricted short-selling and cracked down on computer-driven quant funds – both seen as contributing to market volatility.($1 = 7.2502 Chinese yuan renminbi) More

Demand for land leases has surged as telecom carriers continue to expand their 5G and mobile network infrastructure to meet mounting customer needs.AFFO, a key measure of cash flow, rose more than 13% for American Tower to $2.79 per share in the second quarter, helped by strong growth in its U.S. and Canada segment as well as in India.Analysts had estimated an AFFO of $2.53, per LSEG data. Shares of the Boston, Massachusetts-based company rose about 2.3% in premarket trading. American Tower, which counts top telecoms such as T-Mobile, AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) among its customers, reported total revenue of $2.90 billion, above LSEG expectations of $2.82 billion.Its property revenue rose 4.6% to $2.85 billion. American Tower raised its full-year AFFO forecast to a range of $10.48 to $10.72 per share from its prior view of $10.30 to $10.53.It also lifted its net income forecast to $3.20 billion to $3.29 billion from $3.07 billion to $3.16 billion previously. More

Prabowo’s team has assured the market that it will commit to the legal deficit ceiling of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) and maintain the status quo on the debt-to-GDP ratio, after media reports speculated that the president-elect plans to revise the legal budget ceiling and may allow the debt-to-GDP ratio to rise.”Despite these assurances, policy uncertainty is likely to remain until the next government unveils its plan in detail,” the rating agency said in a press release. S&P expects the annual budget deficit of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy in the next three years to be higher than 2022-2024 period at 2.9% of gross domestic product (GDP), due to bigger spending plans under Prabowo. “The incoming government has indicated that it does not intend to make legal changes to allow for higher deficits. However, given its spending plans, it would likely aim for budget shortfalls close to the legal limit of 3% of GDP,” the agency added. Prabowo’s key campaign pledges include a 450 trillion rupiah ($27.62 billion) programme, equivalent to about 2% of GDP, to give free nutritious meals to more than 80 million recipients, including pregnant women, toddlers and students.Other pledges include providing more housing and increasing food production. Through those plans, the president-elect aims to reach 8% GDP growth annually, from around 5% currently. S&P, however, said Indonesia’s economic growth was expected to slow slightly to 4.9% in 2026 and 2027. Indonesia’s GDP growth was at 5.05% in 2023.Indonesia’s revenue-to-GDP ratio in the next few years was also seen falling slightly to 14.8% of GDP from 15% in 2023, amid moderating commodity prices, such as nickel, S&P forecast. With expectation that Prabowo’s government will be committed to the legal limits on budget deficits, S&P expects Indonesia’s debt-to-GDP ratio in the next few years to be around 39%, well below the 60% legal ceiling.Prabowo and vice president elect, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of outgoing President Joko Widodo, will be sworn in this October after winning the election in February. ($1 = 16,295.0000 rupiah) More

The investment bank explained that in tomorrow’s press conference, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will address a market that is currently pricing in about 65 basis points of rate cuts for this year, despite the median Fed “dot” indicating just a 25 basis point cut in June.Citi analysts wrote, “Risks skew dovish as Powell is unlikely to push back against the potential for cuts at every upcoming meeting.”The bank’s perspective comes amid a backdrop of softer inflation readings, partly driven by a persistent slowdown in owners’ equivalent rent, which has led the market to anticipate over 2.5 rate cuts.The median “dot” at the June FOMC suggested only a single 25 basis point cut this year, defying expectations.However, Citi does not expect Powell to challenge the dovish market pricing. They state that if Powell wanted to signal a more hawkish stance, he could imply that the pace of rate cuts might be “gradual,” which the market could interpret as a move towards quarterly rate cuts.However, given the current economic indicators—slower inflation, rising unemployment, and recent equity market volatility—Citi sees little reason for Powell to oppose the market’s expectations.Instead, they believe Powell is likely to suggest that the market’s pricing is in line with the data, just as the Fed’s policy decisions are. “He might even go so far as to offer that neither a 50bp cut or cuts at consecutive meetings are off the table,” Citi analysts state.The bank believes that not pushing back against the priced-in cuts could lead the market to more fully price the 75 basis points of cuts that Citi expects this year. More

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden will speak on Tuesday in a phone call that Brazilian sources said will focus on the contested Venezuelan presidential election.The call will be held at 2:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT), according to both the White House and the Brazilian government, which did not provide the topics to be discussed.According to the Brazilian sources, the call was scheduled at the request of the U.S. government as it seeks Brazil’s assessment of the election results in neighboring Venezuela.Venezuela’s national electoral authority proclaimed incumbent President Nicolas Maduro winner of the weekend vote, giving him a third term in office, but the opposition has also claimed victory.Independent pollsters called Maduro’s win implausible, as opposition leaders and foreign observers urged vote tallies to be released.Brazil’s government on Monday hailed what it called a “peaceful” election day in Venezuela and said it was closely monitoring the vote count, waiting for electoral authorities to release vote tallies to ensure the legitimacy of results.The Biden administration, meanwhile, said that electoral manipulation had stripped Maduro’s claim of reelection victory of “any credibility,” and Washington left the door open to fresh sanctions on the OPEC nation. More