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    Amazon Could Be Forced to Treat Drivers as Employees

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    Amazon’s delivery system depends on third-party companies. But labor regulators have challenged that model, possibly opening the way for unionization.Vans marked with Amazon’s arrow logo have become ubiquitous on residential streets, a symbol of the nearly instantaneous delivery that has transformed online shopping.But behind the wheel, that image of high-tech efficiency is being overshadowed by drivers’ complaints about working conditions. Recent federal labor rulings could pave the way for unionization in the company’s last-mile delivery network and change how it does business.Hundreds of thousands of drivers who deliver Amazon packages don’t work directly for the e-commerce giant; instead, they’re employed by third-party logistics companies, called delivery service partners. Last year, Amazon ended a contract with a delivery company in Palmdale, Calif., after drivers started organizing with the Teamsters union.A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles issued the first formal complaint last week targeting the company’s delivery model, arguing in the Palmdale case that Amazon is a joint employer of the drivers and, as such, must bargain with the union.Last month, another N.L.R.B. regional director issued a preliminary finding that Amazon is a joint employer of drivers in Atlanta seeking to unionize with the Teamsters, and that it must be held liable for unlawfully discouraging unionization.Amazon contracts over 3,000 delivery service partners, which determine pay, schedules and work conditions for drivers, the company said.By Christopher Smith For The New York TimesWe 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

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    Boeing and Workers Dig In for a Long Fight, Despite Strike’s Cost

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    Nearly a month into a union walkout, the aerospace giant withdrew its latest contract offer, and the two sides exchanged blame over the breakdown.Boeing and its largest union appear to be digging in for a long fight — even as some striking workers start to look for temporary jobs and the company risks having its credit rating downgraded to junk status.Nearly a month into the strike, negotiations between Boeing and the union resumed this week under federal mediation after a long break. But they collapsed on Tuesday with the company withdrawing its latest offer. The two sides traded blame for the breakdown.In a message to employees, Stephanie Pope, the chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, said the union had made “demands far in excess of what can be accepted if we are to remain competitive as a business.”The union accused Boeing of being “hellbent” on sticking to the offer that labor leaders had previously rejected for being insufficient to garner the support of most of its more than 33,000 members.A long strike is the last thing Boeing needs. The company, which hasn’t reported a full-year profit since 2018, is now losing tens of millions of dollars more every day that striking workers are not building planes. Boeing is also trying to persuade regulators to let it produce more 737 Max jets, its best-selling plane. And on Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings said it was considering lowering the company’s credit rating, which sits just above junk status, depending on the strike’s length.The walkout, which began on Sept. 13, is also difficult for workers, many of whom are living off savings and have had to find health coverage after Boeing dropped them from its plan this month.Do you work with Boeing?We want to hear from people who have experience working at or with Boeing to better understand what we should be covering. We may use your contact information to follow up with you. We will not publish any part of your submission without your permission. If you have information that you want to share with The New York Times using tools that can help protect your anonymity, visit: https://www.nytimes.com/tips.

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    Ports Rush to Reopen After Dockworker Strike Is Suspended

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    Days after tens of thousands of longshoreman along the East and Gulf Coasts walked out, their union and their bosses reached a tentative agreement on wages.Hours after a longshoremen’s union on the East and Gulf Coasts agreed to suspend its strike, major ports rushed to reopen on Friday and get cargo to businesses that have spent the last few days racked with fear over lost sales.The strike, which began on Tuesday and shut down many of the nation’s largest shipping hubs, threatened to weaken the economy weeks ahead of a national election. The Biden administration spent the last few days pressing the United States Maritime Alliance, the group representing port employers, and the union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, to find a way to end the strike.The two sides announced late Thursday that they had reached a tentative agreement on wages — a 62 percent increase over six years — and said they were extending the current contract until mid-January to negotiate other issues. The biggest remaining one is the use of automated machinery at the ports, which the I.L.A. considers a job killer. It was the first full-scale stoppage at East and Gulf Coast ports since 1977.Labor experts say the I.L.A. has more leverage in contract negotiations than unions in most other industries, because a walkout can shut down shipping facilities for which there are no practical alternatives. Labor experts said the wage increase was a big victory for the I.L.A. and its combative president, Harold J. Daggett, a 78-year-old, third-generation dockworker.“The I.L.A. seized the moment,” said William Brucher, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. “Things really aligned in their favor.”Analysts said the strike was unlikely to lead to higher prices for consumers. Many businesses, anticipating the walkout, sped up their shipments so they could receive them before this week, softening the blow for many.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

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    Port Strike’s End Is an Economic Relief to Savannah, Ga.

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    Viewed through a narrow lens, Savannah is a popular tourist destination with a seemingly aesthetic profile, accentuated by its Revolutionary War history, historic Black churches and colorful Victorian homes surrounded by Spanish moss.For big companies, the city’s primary attraction has been a grittier side that has fueled an economic transformation over the decades: Savannah is the No. 2 ocean cargo complex on the East Coast, home to thriving container terminals that handle millions of tons of freight each year.That economic motor for the city and the region sputtered to a stop this week after thousands of dockworkers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association, or I.L.A., went on strike from Maine to Texas.Instead of a stream of trucks moving big boxes in and out of the port, a group of around 100 dockworkers stood outside the main gates on Tuesday, intermittently chanting, “No contract, no work,” with traffic reduced to vehicles that drove by honking in solidarity with the striking workers.But after three days, the group representing port operators made a new pay offer, and the union suspended the walkout.On Friday, the Port of Savannah was humming again.Trucks started lining up in front of the gates of the Garden City Terminal before sunrise, and by midmorning, large container ships made their way down the Savannah River, in clear view of the city’s downtown.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

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    U.S. Employers Add 254,000 Jobs in September as Economic Growth Remains Solid

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    U.S. employers added 254,000 jobs in September, a sign that economic growth remained solid. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent.Many have doubted it. Even the optimists have worried about it. But despite the hand-wringing, the American economy appears to be in remarkably good shape.Businesses added 254,000 jobs in September, the government reported on Friday, far surpassing forecasts. It was a sign that the economy, rather than stumbling into a slowdown, still has a spring in its step.The unemployment rate declined to 4.1 percent, from 4.2 percent. Reported pay gains for workers were also better than expected, at 4 percent over the previous 12 months, an uptick from the August reading. With inflation continuing to ease substantially, that is welcome news for households trying to gain financial traction.A Slight DropUnemployment rate More

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    Jobs Report Gives Kamala Harris Another Boost

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    Vice President Kamala Harris probably could not have hoped for a better run of pre-election economic data than what the United States has enjoyed over the last month.In recent weeks, key inflation indicators have fallen close to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target rate, after years of running hot under Ms. Harris and President Biden. Federal Reserve officials cut interest rates by a half percentage point, immediately bringing mortgage rates to their lowest level in two years. The Commerce Department confirmed that the economy has grown at a robust 3 percent clip over the last year, after adjusting for rising prices. The Census Bureau reported that the typical household’s inflation-adjusted income jumped in 2023.Those numbers had encouraged Democrats, including policymakers in the White House and close to Ms. Harris’s campaign team. Recent polls have shown Ms. Harris closing the gap, or pulling even, with former President Donald J. Trump on the question of who can best handle the economy and inflation.But it was Friday’s employment report — 254,000 jobs gained, with wages growing faster than prices — that appeared to give Harris boosters a particularly large dose of confidence. The report came less than a day after striking dockworkers agreed to return to work through the end of the year, avoiding what could have been a major economic disruption with a month to go before the election.“The combination of this great job market and easing inflation is generating solid real wage and income gains,” said Jared Bernstein, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “While those continue to power this expansion forward, we’re also seeing record investment in key sectors, an entrepreneurial boom and gains in worker bargaining power to help ensure that workers get their fair share of all this growth.”Even Mr. Biden, who has attempted to strike a balance between cheering the economy’s performance and acknowledging the struggles created by years of fast-rising prices, sounded more upbeat than normal on Friday. He made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to celebrate the jobs report and the end of the port strike, which the president and his aides helped broker.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

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    A Strong Jobs Report Suggests the Economy Is More Resilient Than We Thought

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    For months, the economy has been like a jigsaw with one mismatched piece: Consumer spending has been holding up and overall growth has been solid, but the job market has looked treacherously wobbly.As of Friday, the last piece of that puzzle is finally clicking into place.Fresh employment data for September showed that hiring picked up strongly, the unemployment rate dipped and wage growth came in strong — adding to a string of recent data pointing to economic resilience.And the incoming evidence points to a clear conclusion: The economy is robust.Data revisions released last week showed that growth has been stronger and incomes have been more solid than previously understood. Retail sales data are holding up. And now, employers appear to be meeting resilient consumer demand by continuing to expand their work forces.In fact, the report reinforced that by many measures, the job market is as healthy as it has ever been.The fresh data is good news for the Federal Reserve, for the White House and for Kamala Harris’s campaign as the vice president and Democratic nominee tries to make an economic case to voters ahead of the presidential election in November.It supports the idea that the economy either is headed for or has possibly already achieved a soft landing, in which inflation comes down without spurring economic pain in the process.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

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    The Pandemic Small Business Boom Is Still Helping to Fuel the Economy

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    Hector Xu was on track for a career in academia when the pandemic upended his plans.Tired of endless Zoom meetings and feeling cooped up in his Boston apartment, Mr. Xu decamped for New Hampshire, where he began taking lessons to fly helicopters. That led to a business idea, converting traditional helicopters into remotely piloted drones.Mr. Xu’s company, Rotor Technologies, now has nearly 40 employees — including his former flying instructor — and about $1 million in revenue this year, a figure it expects to increase twentyfold next year. Gov. Chris Sununu was present for the first test flight of one of its drones.“Covid hit, and it really changed my perspective,” Mr. Xu said. “You ended up spending most of your time in front of your computer rather than in the lab, rather than interacting with people, going to conferences. And I think it made me really yearn to do something that was more impactful in the real world.”Mr. Xu, 30, is part of what may be one of the pandemic’s most unexpected economic legacies: an entrepreneurial boom. Stuck at home with time — and, in many cases, cash — to burn, Americans started businesses at the fastest rate in decades.Piloting a test flight of a Rotor drone.Ian MacLellan for The New York TimesThe company now has nearly 40 employees.Ian MacLellan for The New York TimesWhat happened next might be even less expected: Those businesses thrived, overcoming supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, rapid inflation and the highest interest rates in decades.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