Former Activision Blizzard employee appeals $18 million harassment settlement

Igor Bonifacic
·Weekend Editor
Mon, May 23, 2022

Mike Blake / reuters

Former Activision Blizzard employee Jessica Gonzalez is appealing the publisher’s recent $18 million settlement with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). On Monday, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced Gonzalez is challenging the settlement on the grounds that it prevents workers who apply as claimants from suing Activision Blizzard in the future.

When the settlement was first approved by a federal judge in late March, many Activision Blizzard employees criticized it for not going nearly far enough to hold the company accountable. The fact the settlement prevents claimants from taking part in future litigation against Activision Blizzard was seen as particularly problematic as it would make those individuals ineligible to participate in California’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the publisher.

Employees have also argued $18 million is far too little to compensate everyone who could come forward with a claim against the company. The sum means there’s only enough money for the EEOC to award 60 employees with the maximum settlement allowed.

"Today’s appeal continues efforts by CWA and DFEH to interfere with and delay an $18 million settlement that benefits eligible employees. This is the tenth attempt," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said. "It is unfortunate that DFEH – both directly and through those working with it – continues the campaign of misinformation and inaccurate claims.”

“The court allowed Activision and the EEOC to keep the affected workers and others who had an interest in holding the company accountable out of the process. Eligible employees should not have to give up their right to pursue other legal remedies if they accept the settlement,” Gonzalez said.

There is a precedent for workers winning a better settlement in these types of situations. Following a 2018 class-action lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and discrimination at the studio, Riot Games was ordered to pay $10 million to eligible employees. California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing later blocked that settlement, and the amount was eventually increased to $100 million.

Update 5:09PM ET: Added comment from Activision Blizzard.

'Call of Duty' workers at Activision Blizzard vote to form union

By Doyinsola Oladipo

Mon, May 23, 2022, 

(Reuters) -A small group of Activision Blizzard workers voted for unionizing at a studio that works on the popular "Call of Duty" franchise, the second victory in a push to organize the video gaming industry.

Employees in the quality assurance department at Raven Software in Middleton, Wisconsin, voted 19-3 for joining the Communications Workers of America (CWA), according to a tally by U.S. National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) officials on Monday.

The union must still bargain and reach a deal on a contract with Activision. The vote will not have to be re-certified if Microsoft succeeds in its plan to acquire Activision, according to the CWA.

“We respect and believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not to support or vote for a union. We believe that an important decision that will impact the entire Raven Software studio of roughly 350 people should not be made by 19 Raven employees,” Activision said in a statement following the vote.

Wisconsin is a right-to-work state, meaning any worker can choose not to be a union member.

Employees are speaking up at Activision following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct. They have walked out in protest of the company response to the allegations and layoffs of quality assurance testers. Employees have circulated a petition calling for the removal of Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick.

In the broader market, workers are also becoming more vocal and active about better pay and working conditions.

"Employees in this sector tend to be overworked and underpaid and treated as disposable, which probably goes against the public image that people have of tech workers," said John Logan, a professor of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University adding that many feel the only way to gain respect is by unionizing.

In December, Vodeo became the first video game studio in North America with workers to secure union representation.

Employees at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, recently voted to unionize and workers at an Apple store in Atlanta filed a petition for a union election.

Workers at more than 58 U.S. Starbucks cafes have elected to join Workers United, while at least four stores voted against the union, out of more than roughly 262 that have sought to hold elections since last August.

"There's certainly a huge amount of energy and optimism, particularly amongst young workers at the moment," Logan said.

In Wisconsin, the organizers called for a healthier work environment with realistic development timelines, appropriate compensation and career development opportunities in an industry where quality assurance is undervalued, according to the organizers official Twitter account.

The number of ballots received was 24 of 28 eligible voters. There were two challenged ballots, which is not enough to change the outcome of the vote.

"Other workers in the video game industry will be excited and inspired by the success of the Raven Software workers in forming their union. We urge Activision to respect their decision and commit to bargaining a fair contract," said CWA Communications Director Beth Allen said in a statement before the vote.

U.S. labor board judge orders union vote at Activision studioANALYSIS-Microsoft faces challenge cleaning up Activision Blizzard’s culture

(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Additional reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

A group of Activision Blizzard workers vote to unionize

Amanda Silberling
Mon, May 23, 2022


After months of organizing, the quality assurance testers at Raven Software, a division of gaming giant Activision Blizzard, have voted to unionize. This marks the first union at a major gaming company in the U.S.

Administered through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the vote passed 19-3 and two ballots were challenged, so a total of 24 out of 28 eligible workers voted.

These workers announced their intent to unionize in December, just days after Microsoft announced its plans to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, which would be one of the largest tech acquisitions in history. But as the news of the pending acquisition went public, these quality assurance (QA) testers -- who mostly work on Call of Duty -- had been on strike for about five weeks, protesting the layoffs of 12 contractors.

“On December 3, about a third of my department was informed that their contracts were going to be terminated early. And this was coming off of a five-week stretch of overtime, consistent work,” Raven Software QA tester Onah Rongstad told TechCrunch at the time, explaining the intent to organize. “We realized in that moment that our day-to-day work and our crucial role in the games industry as QA was not being taken into consideration."

This five-week stretch of overtime work that Rongstad describes is referred to as "crunch" in the gaming industry, which has been often cited as a huge cause of burnout and stress for gaming workers. The union, which goes by the name Game Workers Alliance and is represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), can now attempt to bargain with their employer to instate rules that circumvent "crunch" or unexpected layoffs.

But the problems run deeper at Activision Blizzard, which employs around 10,000 people. Following a two-year investigation, the state of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard in July, alleging that the company fostered a “‘frat boy’ workplace culture,” calling it “a breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” Plus, CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly knew for years about sexual misconduct and rape allegations at his company, but he did not act. Kotick has been rumored to step down amid ongoing SEC investigations and sexual harassment scandals in his company, but that may not happen until after the Microsoft acquisition closes in 2023, if at all.

When the Game Workers Alliance filed for a union election, Activision Blizzard tried to block the election by claiming that any union must include all 230 employees at Raven Software, which would have made it more difficult for the QA testers to win a vote. But the NLRB ruled that the QA department could vote to unionize on its own.

“Activision did everything it could, including breaking the law, to try to prevent the Raven QA workers from forming their union. It didn’t work, and we are thrilled to welcome them as CWA members,” said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens.

Activision Blizzard has made some effort to improve working conditions since then. In April, the company converted about 1,100 QA contractors to full-time staffers and increased the minimum wage to $20 per hour. But Activision Blizzard claimed that, due to laws under the National Labor Relations Act, the company wasn’t allowed to change the pay rate of its employees in the midst of a union effort. The CWA, however, said that this was a “disingenuous” attempt at union busting. Then, just yesterday, the NLRB found that among another group of workers, Activision Blizzard illegally threatened staff and upheld a social media policy that restricted workers' rights to collective action.

"Our biggest hope is that our union serves as inspiration for the growing movement of workers organizing at video game studios to create better games and build workplaces that reflect our values and empower all of us," the Game Workers Alliance said in a statement.

Last year, the 13-employee indie studio Vodeo Games became the first certified gaming union in North America. Now that a union has successfully formed at a major gaming studio, perhaps more pushes to unionize will follow.

“We respect and believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not to support or vote for a union. We believe that an important decision that will impact the entire Raven Software studio of roughly 350 people should not be made by 19 Raven employees," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said.

Within the next five business days, Activision Blizzard can file an objection. But since the NLRB has already ruled that the 28-person QA department had a right to organize independent of the rest of Raven Software, it's unlikely that the decision will be overturned on those grounds.

Activision Illegally Threatened Staff, Labor Officials Find

Josh Eidelson
Mon, May 23, 2022


(Bloomberg) -- US labor board prosecutors determined that Activision Blizzard Inc. illegally threatened staff and enforced a social media policy that conflicts with workers’ collective action rights, according to a government spokesperson. The finding is a setback for the company as it tries to fend off a unionization effort and finalize a $68.7 billion sale to Microsoft Corp.

Unless Activision settles, the Los Angeles-based regional director of the National Labor Relations Board will issue a complaint, the agency’s press secretary Kayla Blado said Monday. The NLRB enforces the National Labor Relations Act, the New Deal law establishing workers’ collective action and organizing rights.

Activision denied wrongdoing. “These allegations are false,” company spokesperson Jessica Taylor said in an emailed statement. “Employees may and do talk freely about these workplace issues without retaliation, and our social media policy expressly incorporates employees’ NLRA rights.”

The labor board is slated to count ballots on Monday from an election held among around 21 employees at Activision’s Raven studio in Wisconsin, which could establish a rare foothold for organized labor in the video game industry.

The allegations in the labor board case were brought to the agency last September by the Communications Workers of America, the same union organizing at Raven. CWA, which has increasingly focused in recent years on organizing non-union workers in the tech and video game industries, said in an emailed statement at the time that it was “very inspired by the bravery” of Activision employees and that it filed with the agency to ensure that violations by the company “will not go unanswered.” In an emailed statement Monday, CWA’s organizing director Tom Smith said the labor officials’ finding underscored the need for Activision’s CEO to change course: “In order to rebuild trust at Activision, Bobby Kotick needs to take the high road and start listening to workers instead of doing everything possible - including breaking the law - to silence them.”

Activision, the games-entertainment behemoth behind Call of Duty, has had a tumultuous year. It was hit last summer with an explosive complaint from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, accusing the company of fostering a “bro culture” of sexism. Activision’s chief compliance officer, who served as Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush, called those claims “factually incorrect, old and out of context.” Workers there moved to unionize after news of job cuts in December 2021, which preceded weeks of strikes. In January, Activision agreed to the deal with Microsoft.

Complaints issued by labor board regional directors are considered by agency judges, whose rulings can be appealed to NLRB members in Washington, D.C., and from there to federal court. The agency can require remedies such as posting of notices and reversals of policies or punishments but has no authority to impose punitive damages. Jennifer Abruzzo, the labor board’s general counsel appointed by President Joe Biden, takes a much broader view of workers’ legal rights than her Trump-appointed predecessor. She has signaled she’ll seek to establish new precedents on numerous issues, including how much companies can restrict employees’ social media posts.

UPDATE 2-Videogame publisher Activision illegally threatened staff, U.S. agency says


Mon, May 23, 2022, 
By Kanishka Singh and Daniel Wiessner

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard Inc enforced a social media policy that conflicted with workers’ rights and illegally threatened staff in the policy's enforcement, a U.S. government agency said on Monday.

Unless Activision settles, the Los Angeles-based regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will issue a complaint, a spokesperson of the NLRB said in a statement.

The NLRB had been looking into allegations brought to the agency last September by labor union Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The announcement came on the same day that a small group of Activision employees at a Wisconsin studio that works on the popular "Call of Duty" franchise voted to join the CWA.

The union has increasingly focused in recent years on organizing non-union workers in the tech and video game industries.

The "Call of Duty" videogame maker said on Monday the allegations were false.

"These allegations are false. Employees may and do talk freely about these workplace issues without retaliation, and our social media policy expressly incorporates employees' NLRA rights," a company spokesperson said.

"Our social media policy explicitly says that it ‘does not restrict employees from engaging in the communication of information protected by law, including for example, rights of employees in the United States protected by the National Labor Relations Act,'" the spokesperson said.

In recent months, Activision Blizzard workers have banded together to try to influence the company's future, including staging a walkout and circulating a petition calling for the removal of Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick. Microsoft Corp announced plans to acquire Activision in January.

The company's labor issues come as it also faces claims from a California civil rights agency of widespread discrimination against female employees. Activision has denied wrongdoing and said the agency did not thoroughly investigate workers' discrimination complaints before suing.

Activision had faced similar claims from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which it settled in March for $18 million.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Daniel Wiessner in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

NLRB accuses Activision Blizzard of violating labor law by threatening employees

Kris Holt
·Contributing Reporter
Mon, May 23, 2022

Mike Blake / reuters


A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board has determined there's "merit to the allegations" that Activision Blizzard violated the National Labor Relations Act. It says there are indications the company and its subsidiaries Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Publishing maintained an "overbroad social media policy" and that Blizzard threatened employees who were exercising their right to organize. The findings were first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed to Engadget.

“These allegations are false. Employees may and do talk freely about these workplace issues without retaliation, and our social media policy expressly incorporates employees’ NLRA rights," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "Our social media policy explicitly says that it ‘does not restrict employees from engaging in the communication of information protected by law, including for example, rights of employees in the United States protected by the National Labor Relations Act.’”

If the company does not settle the case, the NLRB's Los Angeles office will file a complaint. That will lead to a hearing in front of an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (unless a settlement is reached in the meantime).

While the agency can't impose punitive measures against a defendant, it can require them to reverse punishments or policies; reinstate fired workers and provide backpay; or post notices containing promises not to break the law. An NLRB regional director can petition a district court for a temporary injunction if workers' rights have been violated. The agency can also file cases in federal court.

The allegations were made in September by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). It accused Activision Blizzard in an Unfair Labor Practice filing of telling employees they can't discuss wages, hours or working conditions; enforcing an "an overly broad social media policy" against workers who "engaged in protected concerted activity" (i.e. their right to organize or discuss unionization); and threatening or suveilling such employees.

The news comes on the same day that votes will be counted in a Raven Software union election. Quality assurance workers at the Activision Blizzard studio, who are organizing with the CWA as the Game Workers Alliance, got the go-ahead from the NLRB to hold a vote. If they're successful, the group of 21 or so workers will form the first union at a AAA game publisher in North America, despite the company's reported attempts to stymie their efforts.

Activision Blizzard's labor practices came under intense scrutiny last July when California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing accused it in a lawsuit of fostering a "frat boy" culture where sexual harassment and discrimination were present. Other suits have been filed against the company since, including a wrongful death case.

In the wake of the initial suit, Activision Blizzard workers formed an employee advocacy group called A Better ABK. They used social media to organize and share their concerns and demands publicly.

The company is the subject of a proposed $68.7 billion takeover by Microsoft. Its shareholders voted in favor of the deal last month, but regulatory approval is still required.

Update 5/23 3:10PM ET: Added Activision Blizzard's statement.

Former PlayStation employee files new gender discrimination lawsuit against company

Igor Bonifacic
·Weekend Editor
Mon, May 23, 2022, 3

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Former PlayStation employee Emma Majo has filed a new lawsuit against the company after her previous complaint was dismissed by a federal judge in April. According to Axios, Majo’s new filing includes many of the same gender discrimination allegations found in her original one, but the scope of the lawsuit is more limited.

Rather than seeking to represent all women employed by Sony’s PlayStation unit in the US as was previously her intent, the complaint instead seeks damages for those women who worked for the company in California. When judge Laurel Beeler dismissed the original case, she said Majo could file again with additional details. The new complaint incorporates allegations from the nine women who came forward to support the first suit.

“Sony tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees, including female employees and those who identify as female,” the complaint reads. We’ve reached out to Sony for comment. In the meantime, we'll note the company previously asserted Majo’s claims were based on “unactionable allegations.”

Proxy advisor urges Exxon shareholders to oust Woods as chairman


Sabrina Valle
Mon, May 23, 2022

FILE PHOTO - People walk near the booth of the Exxon Mobil Corp at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference in Rio de Janeiro

HOUSTON (Reuters) -British proxy adviser PIRC on Monday urged Exxon Mobil Corp shareholders to vote against the re-election of five directors, including Chairman Darren Woods, at an annual general meeting on Wednesday.

PIRC, or Pensions & Investment Research Consultants, is the latest proxy firm to urge investors to oppose proposals by the oil major's board. Other large oil companies have enjoyed an so far in 2022 when compared with last year's meetings.

PIRC said Woods, which also serves as chief executive officer, should be held accountable as chairman for assuring the company's strategy to meet Paris-aligned goals to reduce carbon emissions. It also said his serving in the chairman and CEO roles represents "a concentration of power" potentially detrimental to board balance.

The Wednesday meeting includes a vote only on Woods's role as chairman, not as CEO.

PIRC also suggested a no vote on re-electing Alexander Karsner, one of the directors put up by activist hedge fund Engine No. 1 last year, as well as Michael Angelakis, Susan Avery and Ursula Burns.

In addition, PIRC urged shareholders to vote against the company's executive compensation plan on Wednesday. In a report, PIRC said former top executives are granted benefits not extended to active workers such as reimbursement of personal expenses and travel arrangements after retirement.

Exxon said in a written response that its compensation and benefits programs are designed to support the company's core principles and business strategies and are market competitive for all employees.

Glass Lewis and ISS, firms that also make recommendations to shareholders, have recently backed a shareholder activist proposal on climate at Exxon's meeting. They ask for an audited report assessing the International Energy Agency's net-zero scenario by 2050 and its possible effects on Exxon's strategy.

Exxon, Chevron post big revenues, but Wall Street shrugs

(Reporting by Sabrina Valle; Editing by Marguerita Choy asnd Will Dunham)

DC Attorney General sues Mark Zuckerberg over the Cambridge Analytica scandal
                                                         
                                       
Kris Holt
·Contributing Reporter
Mon, May 23, 2022,          

Erin Scott / Reuters

Meta's Cambridge Analytica woes are far from over. Karl Racine, the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, has sued Mark Zuckerberg. He accused the Meta CEO of having a direct hand in making the decisions that led to the major data breach.

Racine claims that Zuckerberg "contributed to Facebook’s lax oversight of user data and implementation of misleading privacy agreements." That, according to the suit, allowed consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to acquire personal data on more than 70 million Americans, including more than 340,000 DC residents. The company allegedly used the data to help sway voters in the 2016 presidential election through political ad targeting.

The AG previously sued Meta (then known as Facebook) over the scandal in 2018. That case is still ongoing. This time, Racine is targeting Zuckerberg directly. Under the jurisdiction's Consumer Protection Procedures Act, which bans unfair and deceptive trade practices, individuals are liable for a company's actions that they were aware of, controlled or failed to stop.

Racine is seeking a jury trial against Zuckerberg. He wants Meta's CEO to refrain from future CPPA violations and to pay damages and civil penalties. Engadget has contacted Meta for comment.

“Since filing our landmark lawsuit against Facebook, my office has fought tooth and nail against the company's characteristic efforts to resist producing documents and otherwise thwart our suit. We continue to persist and have followed the evidence right to Mr. Zuckerberg," Racine said in a statement. “This unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans’ personal information, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s policies enabled a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook's wrongful conduct. This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary, and sends a message that corporate leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions.

DC attorney general sues Mark Zuckerberg, claims CEO was 'personally involved' in privacy failures

Daniel Howley and Alexis Keenan

Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:51 PM·

The attorney general for Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit against Meta (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, accusing him of being personally responsible for the massive Cambridge Analytica data breach.

In the suit, Attorney General Karl Racine alleges that Zuckerberg's failure to oversee consumers' data privacy led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a political consulting firm used millions of Facebook users' data, without their knowledge, in an attempt to sway the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump.

"The evidence shows Mr. Zuckerberg was personally involved in Facebook’s failure to protect the privacy and data of its users leading directly to the Cambridge Analytica incident," Racine said in a statement.

The civil suit, filed in Superior Court of the District of Columbia, claims Zuckerberg violated the Consumer Protection Procedures Act, the District's general consumer protection law.

Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott

"This unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans’ personal information, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s policies enabled a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook's wrongful conduct. This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary, and sends a message that corporate leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions,” Racine said.

Meta has been at the center of a maelstrom of controversy since news of Cambridge Analytica first broke. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Facebook to pay a $5 billion fine related to the scandal. Governments and regulators across the globe, including the FTC, are also cracking down on the social media giant via antitrust suits and legislation.

According to Racine, the latest suit against Zuckerberg comes as a result of an existing investigation and lawsuit his office filed against Facebook in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018.

Racine claims that because Zuckerberg holds the largest number of shares of Meta and has final say over everything that happens at the company, he is ultimately responsible for Facebook's day-to-day operations. As a result, Racine claims, Zuckerberg is also responsible for the events that led to the scandal.

According to University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor, Peter Oh, it's unclear how strong the case against Zuckerberg may be.

“One clear possibility here is that this may be a lawsuit that could be politically motivated by the attorney general. On the other hand, there’s potentially a very legitimate reason why the attorney general may be deciding to do this,” Oh told Yahoo Finance.

If Racine’s complaint survives, Oh explained, it has the potential to be a wake-up call for the Meta CEO, as he could be personally liable.

And there’s real risk that the case will move forward, Oh said, given that Zuckerberg has a history of vouching for the actions of the company.

“Zuckerberg has publicly stated, effectively, that the buck stops with him — that he runs the company, he owns the company, and therefore, he should be held accountable for what the company does. I think what you can say is that with this particular lawsuit the attorney general is calling his bluff,” Oh said.

A spokesperson for Meta told Yahoo Finance that the company had no comment.

This isn't the first time Racine has gone after Zuckerberg personally. He previously attempted to name the CEO personally responsible for the user data leak in a 2018 suit related to Cambridge Analytica. The judge in that case, however, dismissed the move, saying that Racine waited too long to name Zuckerberg in the case.

Since the 2018 suit filed by Racine, Facebook has changed its name. In October 2021, Facebook rebranded as Meta with the goal of focusing the company on the metaverse, though some commentators suspect the name change was a means for Facebook to distance itself from its ongoing legal troubles.

Coinbase’s $51 Billion Nosedive Isn’t Only About Crypto Winter


Olga Kharif and Yueqi Yang
Mon, May 23, 2022,




(Bloomberg) -- Coinbase Global Inc. has gone from one of the stock market’s most hotly anticipated debuts to one of its most spectacular crashes in a little more than a year, leaving some analysts and investors bewildered by poor execution at the largest US cryptocurrency exchange.

The firm’s market value has shrunk by about $51 billion since the end of its first day of trading last April. Coinbase shares fell to an all-time low earlier in May, and even after recovering somewhat are still down about 80% from their debut. That’s a steeper drop than Bitcoin’s 53% slump in the same period.

The recent bear market and regulatory pressure in crypto have played a big role. Last year, a promising yield-account product called Lend drew ire from the Securities and Exchange Commission, leading the company to scrap it and prompting a public rant by Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong. And as crypto prices crashed in the past six months, trading volumes dropped across most exchanges.

But poor execution played a part as well. Coinbase’s new nonfungible-token marketplace took months to launch -- then fizzled. The company missed analysts’ revenue projections in the first three months of the year and guided for sequentially declining trading volume this quarter -- in part because it has lost ground to rivals. Coinbase’s market share slipped to 4.8% of monthly crypto trading volume currently from 7.1% in November, as some users went to rivals such as DigiFinex and FTX US, according to researcher CryptoCompare.

Coinbase is expected to lose about $1.4 billion this year, according to analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Financial performance at some rivals has held up better, and competition from other exchanges is heating up.

“FTX’s revenues have not declined,” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of the exchange, said in an email. “Partially this is because of longstanding market-share growth, partially FTX has been more conservative on expenses, and will remain strongly net profitable this year.”

Some analysts believe Coinbase’s costs are too high. The company recently said it will slow down its hiring, and it could perhaps pause its expansion of sales and support staffs, John Todaro, an analyst at Needham & Co., said in an interview. Coinbase has ballooned to 4,948 full-time employees, from about 1,700 just a year ago. Hiring helped drive the company’s total operating costs to $1.7 billion in the first quarter, up 9% from the previous three months.

“They’ve grown expenses quite a bit,” Todaro said. “And I think the market was giving a little bit of an unfavorable reaction. If we are in a crypto winter, you don’t want to be going into that doubling, tripling the headcount. I think Coinbase management understood that.”

‘Slowing Down’

While Coinbase “may be slowing down our hiring, we have no intention of slowing our pace of product development,” a spokesperson said in an email.

In a memo to employees on May 17, Coinbase’s chief product officer, Surojit Chatterjee, said the company will be increasing its focus “on critical revenue-generating products” -- a possible indication it’s backpedaling from its strategy of diversifying away from trading fees. Coinbase will double down on core products while seeking improvements in developer productivity, he said.

“This does not mean we plan to stop investing in strategic and venture projects,” Chatterjee said in a tweet about the memo. “We believe the down market is a great time to build for the longer term.” Coinbase is continuing to support at least one part of its diversification strategy, staking, which lets people earn yields on their digital coins.

The company’s new NFT marketplace -- which was supposed to fuel growth through a new revenue stream -- hasn’t gained traction. After attracting $75,000 in trading volume when it opened to all users on May 4, activity has since dropped, with volume of just $17,000 on May 19, according to tracker Dune. (All major NFT marketplaces have seen a decline in trading volume, however.) Coinbase’s marketplace has about 2,900 active unique users, according to Dune.

“Very little” of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace activity can be captured by tools like Dune, a company executive said during its latest earnings call.

Nick Tomaino, an early Coinbase employee who is now founder of venture fund 1confirmation, said on Twitter this month that he would consider selling his Coinbase shares if the company doesn’t make a strong move in NFTs in the coming year.

In a recent filing, the company said that customers could be treated as “general unsecured creditors” in the event of a bankruptcy, prompting concern from investors that the topic was even raised. CEO Armstrong said on Twitter that his company included the language in response to new regulatory requirements, and that “we have no risk of bankruptcy.”

Coinbase, in trying to come back from its stock slump, has two big strikes against it, said Chris Brendler, an analyst at D.A. Davidson Cos. “It has the dual problem of being not profitable on a consistent basis, and it’s also in crypto, which is also an area the market doesn’t like today,” he said.

Still, the company may be able to bounce back -- as long as the rest of the market does as well.

“If it’s just a mild crypto winter, they could probably weather the storm,” said Mizuho Securities analyst Dan Dolev. “It really depends on how low crypto and Bitcoin goes.”

First Canadian rare earth mine starts shipping concentrate from N.W.T.

Yesterday The Canadian Press


Canada has begun supplying the world with minerals critical to a greener economy with the country's first rare earth mine delivering concentrated ore.

"Canada and its allies are gaining independence from the rare earth supply chain from China," said David Connelly of Cheetah Resources, which owns the Nechalacho Mine southwest of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.

Rare earths are a series of exotically named elements such as ytterbium, lanthanum and gadolinium. They are crucial to computers, LED displays, wind turbines, electric cars and many other products essential to a low-carbon world.

Some industry analysts predict the rare earth market will grow from $6.8 billion in 2021 to more than $12 billion by 2026.

Almost 60 per cent of the world's supply of these vital materials is produced in China and much of the rest is owned by Chinese companies. Until now.

"(Nechalacho) is the only rare earths mine in North America that doesn't supply China," Connelly said.

The deposit, which holds 15 different rare earth elements, was discovered in 1983. A proposal to develop the mine went before regulators more than a decade ago.

That project involved extensive water use and would have generated large tailings ponds. The N.W.T.'s environmental regulator approved the plan, but noted it would have created significant impacts requiring mitigation.

The new mine uses no water. Instead, raw ore is crushed to gravel-sized pieces and run past a sensor.

"It's a big X-ray machine on a conveyor belt and it separates the white quartz from the much heavier and denser rare earth ore," Connelly said.

That concentrate is then barged down Great Slave Lake to Hay River, N.W.T. From there, rail links take it to Saskatoon, where Vital Metals, the company that owns Cheetah, has built a facility to refine the concentrate for market.It's also where the provincial government is developing a rare earth refining and research hub. The first shipments are on their way and expected in June.

Nechalacho's refined product is going to a customer in Norway, where the individual minerals will be separated from each other and processed into metallic bars.

By 2025, Nechalacho hopes to be producing 25,000 tonnes of concentrate a year. There's enough ore there for decades to come, Connelly said.

"It's multiple generations."

At full production, Connelly said the mine is to employ about 150 people in the N.W.T. and another 40 in Saskatoon. Those aren't huge numbers in mining, but Connelly said they will make a big difference to the northern economy because most of the workers will be based there.

More than 40 of the mine's current 50 employees live in the North, said Connelly. About 70 per cent are Indigenous and Cheetah has contracted with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to conduct the actual mining on the site.

Eventually, said Connelly, Cheetah hopes to work out an equity share for Indigenous groups in the area.

But Nechalacho isn't just important to the N.W.T., Connelly said.

A domestic source for minerals vital to electric motors would help preserve the country's auto sector, he said. It would make it easier for Canada to achieve its climate goals and increase national security by providing a secure source of crucial materials, he added.

Canada has 13 active rare earth projects, the federal government says. Most are in Saskatchewan and Quebec, where the only other mine near production — the Kipawa project, owned by the same Australian company that owns Cheetah — is located.

"Canada has some of the largest known reserves and resources (measured and indicated) of rare earths in the world," says a document from Natural Resources Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2022.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

WHITE PRIVILEGE PROTESTS

'Freedom' protesters return to Calgary's Beltline

After weeks of relative weekend afternoon peace for residents and businesses, so-called freedom protesters again marched through Calgary’s Beltline area on Saturday.

Michael Rodriguez - Yesterday 

Calgary Herald

© Provided by Calgary HeraldFILE PHOTO: Anti-mandate protesters wait at a light while walking to Calgary City Hall on Saturday, March 19, 2022. The protesters met in Central Memorial Park and then walked on the sidewalks to City Hall.

The protests — held to publicly oppose COVID-19 public health orders and the governments that made them — had largely ceased in the Beltline area over the last two months, stymied by a city injunction issued in March that bolstered police enforcement. A handful of demonstrators had continued gathering after the injunction was issued and after it was rescinded in April, though they moved to city hall with diminished numbers compared to the boisterous Beltline rallies through the first few months of the year.


But in a video posted to Twitter by I Love You Coffee Shop, located at the corner of 4th Street and 14th Avenue S.W., dozens of people brandishing signs and Canadian flags appeared to have returned Saturday, marching their typical path toward 17th Avenue S.W. from Central Memorial Park.

“Am I in a time machine?” the cafe remarked in a tweet .

Peter Oliver, president of the Beltline Neighbourhoods Association, said despite the break, the protests remain unwelcome by the community, and he’s calling on the police to do more if it becomes a regular occurrence again.

“It shows great disrespect from those people who participated, who I think have some very disturbing views and hope that police and bylaw do everything within their powers to bring this nonsense to an end again,” he said.

“I think it would be good to see the police show a little bit more leadership this time around and use the tools that they have available to them with respect to noise and disruption that these people are causing. That they can do whether there’s an injunction or not.”

A “World Wide Rally for Freedom” also occurred at Courthouse Park on 6th Avenue S.W. in downtown Calgary on Saturday afternoon. In a video of that rally posted to Facebook, an organizer encouraged the crowd to meet up with the group at Central Memorial Park and “walk the freedom mile one last time, for now.”

Calgary police confirmed to Postmedia they were aware protesters marched through the Beltline on Saturday but did not comment on whether any enforcement action was necessary.

The Calgary Flames’ playoff run continues, and with that comes raucous Red Mile celebrations in the same area. Oliver said there’s a difference between excited fans enjoying themselves and what he called the “hate marches” that strangled Beltline businesses and disrupted the lives of residents for several months.

“There are bars and restaurants and cafes and sports fans, and I mean, that’s part of what makes this neighbourhood great,” he said.

“But weekly hate marches is a whole other story, and there’s no patience left for that.”

mrodriguez@postmedia.com
Twitter: @michaelrdrguez

Trader Joe’s workers push to unionize amid wave of organizing efforts

Michael Sainato - 
The Guardian


Organizers have begun a unionization campaign at the upscale supermarket chain Trader Joe’s after workers at a branch in Hadley, Massachusetts, announced they were forming a union and intend to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election.

It would be the first unionized Trader Joe’s store out of more than 530 locations in the US. Workers are organizing independently, citing the similar framework of the Amazon Labor Union, which is not affiliated with traditional, established labor unions.

“We organized ourselves. With the same instinctive teamwork we use every day to break pallets, work the load, bag groceries, and care for our customers, we joined together to look out for each other and improve our workplace together,” workers wrote in an announcement letter to Trader Joe’s CEO, Dan Bane.

The union organizing announcement is the latest among a wave of union campaigns at corporations that have previously staved off unionization, including at Starbucks, Amazon, REI, and union elections filed at Target and Apple.

Trader Joe’s was one of several employers that pushed back on organizing efforts and complaints from workers about its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and calls for hazard pay.

Early in the pandemic, Bane sent a company-wide memo to all employees expressing opposition for unionization within the company. In their announcement, workers cited the company-wide letter, arguing that the company has slashed wages and benefits for workers since then, and they see unionizing as the only way to protect themselves from further cuts.

“We’re organizing because it feels more and more like we don’t have a say in decisions that the company makes, decisions that directly impact our day-to-day lives, and the health and wellbeing of us and our families,” said Tony Falco, a worker at the Trader Joe’s store in Hadley, Massachusetts.

Jamie Edwards, a crew member at the Trader Joe’s in Hadley, explained they became interested in organizing a union in the beginning of the pandemic, when workers were not allowed to wear protective equipment initially because of concerns from management that it would scare customers, and other safety concerns expressed by workers were dismissed. Edwards said when CDC guidelines changed, mask policies and caps on the number of customers permitted in the store were not enforced.

Edwards, who is non-binary, also noted they had to show legal paperwork to change their nametags from their dead name.

“I want customers to know this is an effort to give the crew members a say in the way the store is run and to make this company live up to the image that attracts them to the store in the first place,” said Edwards.

Maeg Yosef, an employee at the Trader Joe’s Hadley location for 18 years, said when she first started then, she didn’t think workers at the store needed a union, but that has changed overtime as benefits have been chipped away, pay has stagnated, and safety issues have gone unaddressed.

“I’ve watched so many crew deal with work related injuries and chronic pain, and have been hurt myself. I’ve seen crew members lose their health insurance during cancer treatment,” said Yosef. “Over time it became clear to me that the company was not taking care of us in the same way it once had, and it was time to do something about it. That something is a union.”

She argued that Trader Joe’s reputation as an amazing place to work no longer reflects reality. Yosef noted that Trader Joe’s corporate has yet to respond to the union organizing announcement, but their store manager has promised not to delay the election process in any way.

Trader Joe’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.