Canada's move to bulk up antitrust muscle may miss root of problem

By Divya Rajagopal - 

© Reuters/Mark BlinchFILE PHOTO: The moon rises behind the skyline and financial district in Toronto

TORONTO (Reuters) - Waves of industry consolidation over the decades have resulted in fewer choices for customers from telecoms to banking, with Canadians paying the world's most expensive mobile phone bills and forking out more for everyday banking, consumer advocates say.


© Reuters/Mark BlinchFILE PHOTO: A Royal Bank of Canada logo is seen on Bay Street in the heart of the financial district in Toronto

Now, the government says enough is enough. It wants to put some teeth in its antitrust regulations, much like the far-ranging powers wielded by authorities in the United States, the European Union and Australia.

The proposed changes to the Competition Act are coming after more than a decade. They would include giving the antitrust agency, the Competition Bureau Canada, the authority to seek remedial action in an overseas merger if that would impact competition in Canada.

But lobby groups, including the influential Canadian Bar Association (CBA), have challenged the new proposals.

"Whether and why there are monopolies in markets are factually, legally and economically complex questions," Omar Wakil, the CBA's chair and president, said in an interview.

"So I don't think one can simply state that there are monopolies and that is because of a problem with the competition laws," said Wakil, a partner at law firm Torys LLP.

Nearly a dozen consumer advocates, academicians and policy experts contacted by Reuters said the government's efforts to break monopolies in Canada were much needed, but they argue the proposed rule changes would fail to undo the damage to consumers from years of big mergers, as the new rules are unlikely to lead to the breakup of large corporations.

The CBA sent a letter to Canada's minister of innovation, science and industry, François-Philippe Champagne, on May 18. The letter, which was seen by Reuters, asked to defer the amendments until all stakeholders are consulted.

The government, for its part, says the antitrust rules need updating to fix the shortcomings of the Competition Act so that it is in line with international "best practices." This is just the beginning, a spokeswoman said.

"The government will undertake a thorough review (of the Act) ... to meet the reality of the market of the 21st century," said Laurie Bouchard, spokeswoman in the office of the minister of innovation, science and industry. "Stakeholders will be invited to share their views on a broad range of topics as part of that review."

MORE MUSCLE

In Canada, six big banks including Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank control 80% of the total assets in that industry, according to Reuters calculations. By contrast, the big five banks in the United States control around 40% of the assets.

The average monthly fee on a checking account is $11 in Canada, compared with $7 in the United States, according to a Reuters analysis. Those averages exclude student accounts.

In the Canadian telecom field, the top three companies - Rogers Communications Inc, BCE Inc and Telus Corp - account for almost 90% of the revenue. The top two grocers, Loblaw Co Ltd and Sobeys Inc, have a 50% market share as measured in number of stores. Sobeys is owned by Empire Company Ltd.

Consumer advocates have argued that the growth of big businesses in Canada is stifling new entrants.

Data from government agency Statistics Canada shows foreign companies combined owned 15% of total assets across all industry in Canada in 2019, down from 20% a decade ago.

As Canada embarks on digitizing its economy, new antitrust laws are needed to avoid the old economic model that created monopolies, according to Denise Hearn, a senior fellow at the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project.

"Canada's economy has become heavily concentrated in the last decade," said Hearn, who blames it on the country's weak competition laws and under-enforcement by the Competition Bureau.

Proposals to strengthen antitrust regulation, introduced in the government's federal budget in April, could be passed as early as this summer. The proposals include financial penalties and making it a criminal offense to break certain provisions of antitrust law.

The changes would give the Competition Bureau the muscle to go after companies that abuse their dominant market position, indulge in price-fixing or sign no-poach agreements that might hamper workers' ability to negotiate better terms of employment.

INFLATION

In the past, regulatory battles waged by the bureau have met with only limited success. Of the more than 1,500 mergers the bureau has reviewed since 2009, only eight were challenged. Of those eight cases, six were lost or settled, according to a Reuters analysis of official data. The two other cases are pending.

The Competition Bureau is in the spotlight after it last month blocked a high-profile deal involving Rogers' planned C$20 billion ($15.8 billion) takeover of Shaw Communications, saying it would deter competition.

Canadians paid the highest mobile bills in the world in 2021, according to a report by Rewheel, a Finnish telecom research firm. A 4G and 5G mobile plan for 100 gigabytes was 13 times more costly than it is in France, it said.

The proposed changes come as Canada, like rest of the world, battles inflation that has raced to a three-decade high. Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell, for one, says increased competition has to be part of the solution to address inflation. "Open, competitive markets are critical to keeping prices in check," he said in a speech at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in late May.

The changes to the Competition Act would also give the bureau powers to investigate cross-border mergers that could impact competition in Canada, and issue an order against a foreign party that has no Canadian operation, or companies that are selling into Canada.

Some lawyers, however, say these changes may lack legal grounds to survive.

"I think the bureau and maybe the Canadian Department of Justice think it's arguable that Canadian courts might have jurisdiction to issue and enforce these orders," said Neil Campbell, a partner at McMillan, a law firm specializing in competition and antitrust litigation.

"I don't think that enforcement is likely to be successful where a foreign company has no assets/affiliates/operations within Canada," he added.

($1 = 1.2656 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal in Toronto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Matthew Lewis)

As A Black Woman Who Lived In Sweden, #Swedengate Is All Too Familiar

June Findlay - Friday

Refinery29


Sweden used to evoke the usual stereotypes: blonde-haired blue-eyed people traipsing through green flowery fields, assemble-by-numbers furniture with simplistic yet functional design, perfect meatballs served with gravy and jam, or a strange yet powerful chokehold on the world’s production of pop music (go watch episode 3 of Netflix’s This is Pop).

I regret to inform you that while some of those things are true, many of the things we think we know about the country are not. When it comes to Sweden, the more you look into it, the more things get curiouser and curiouser. And in the theme of the last few years where everything is either cake or even more terrible than we thought, Sweden’s reputation is the latest casualty.

Enter #Swedengate. It all started with a great thread on Reddit (which has since been deleted) asking people to share about their experiences with strange social customs while visiting someone’s home. Then, someone tweeted their experience as a child playing at their Swedish friend’s house and being told to wait in their friend’s room while their host family ate dinner. Another shared their experience of being left out of breakfast after sleeping over at a friend’s house the night before. The post generated thousands of upvotes and a screenshot of the discussion was shared to Twitter, where even more thousands of people learned that Swedish people apparently have no hospitality skills and are very, very stingy when it comes to feeding guests.

I’m Muslim & every time I went to my Swedish friend's house to play as a kid, they were always eating pork. Of course I couldn’t eat it so I had to sit in the room and wait for them to finish. Today #Swedengate made me realize that was not a coincidence. These ppl are just stingy— 🦋 (@anonymamana) May 30, 2022

#Swedengate then turned into a full blown discussion on Twitter about a) how and why people from Sweden would do such a thing as to not share food with visitors to their homes, b) how funny/messed up/just plain weird Swedes are, and c) Swedes defending themselves/their culture and customs from outsiders —which is especially amusing if you know about the phrase and mindstate of “Jantelagen” in Sweden. It means that they never like to talk about themselves or anything they do unless absolutely necessary.

Black Twitter (and other ethnic groups around the world + their diasporas) brought out one of the more interesting discussions I’ve seen on the subject: how Sweden, and other European countries like it, emphasize the notion that immigrants must integrate their lifestyles, customs and even humanity to that the country in which they’ve settled. And many expect this assimilation even if those customs not only run counter to what the immigrants’ home traditions are, but against what most humans would do (like serve food to a guest in your house!). As a Black woman who lived and studied in Sweden, this discussion resonated with me quite a bit. I was able to identify with the immigrant experience in a European country, while also being able to tell what about the #Swedengate debate was real and what was speculative.

Spoiler alert: Swedish people *do* feed their guests… sometimes. But in my experience, they are also quite excellent at making you feel quite alone/different if you’re not a white/white-passing person born in Sweden.

Twelve years ago, I left my comfortable life in Toronto for a very big change in scenery to pursue my Masters degree, hopeful to change my uninspiring career trajectory in the process. Although I had considered myself well-traveled, I hadn’t been to any of the Nordic countries, so the opportunity for a relatively low-cost, graduate-level education and living expenses in a new country seemed very exciting. Apartment emptied, possessions sold, and student visa and life savings in hand, off I went to the land of IKEA and socialism to study at Mittuniversitetet (Mid Sweden University).

My first three months in a little town in northern Sweden were jarring. I consider myself an easygoing person who makes friends easily and figures things out as I go, but the very things that make me who I am were against “normal” Swedish social norms. I was met with the stoic, stone-faced, expressionless wall of aloofness that they showed towards strangers, even after a night out of drinking and having in-depth personal conversations. There were awkward stares from people who couldn’t figure out who I was outside of their neatly confined boxes. I had to get used to the sharp inhale of air that replaces the word “yes” in Swedish (that’s only in the north, btw). I learned that a beloved chocolate dessert in the country was originally known as “negerbollar” (negro ball) before being changed to the more politically correct name “chokladbollar” (I still don’t like them to this day). Because of these experiences, the transgressions described in #Swedengate weren’t surprising to me. I deeply understood the unwelcoming culture people were joking about on Twitter, but I also wanted to understand why it was even happening in the first place.

There were exceptions to this rule of course. There was Johanna, my very sweet and inviting half-Swedish, half-Danish neighbour in student residence who became a fast friend in the first few weeks of my arrival. The motley crew of Swedish students and locals who I joined in a weekly round of volleyball at a local gym (and a round of drinks afterwards). Rike, my German friend who was my guide through Swedish life and shared my love of cooking (and yes, we shared meals all the time). What truly saved my sanity, and helped me develop my identity outside of the one I had made for myself at home and a new dimension of my Blackness, was the warm embrace and familiarity of the international student community —we were all united in our differentness from our friendly but exclusionary hosts.

Swedish society follows many “rules”; one of the most interesting ones to me is the concept of “allemansrätten,” or “the right of public access.” It’s the right of everyone to enjoy Sweden’s nature, including foraging for mushrooms and berries in one’s local forest –(though I know people who keep their preferred locations secret, never sharing with even family members). If Swedes are apparently taught to make things available for everyone, then why are we hearing about people refusing to share food? Though the stinginess and exclusionary behavior outlined in #Swedengate is unfortunately still happening to this day — albeit much less than in the past — whether you experience it for yourself truly depends on what part of Sweden you live in and who you’re interacting with. And based on that, there seems to be a general rule of “the right to refuse hospitality.”

I spoke to a few people of color who shared their experiences living in Sweden.

Heated discussion w/ my Swede on #Swedengate. He said kids over to play weren't 'guests' and I was like 🙄. In 🇯🇲 anyone who isn't family is a guest. I reminded him "it takes a village". He was silent then agreed. Honestly I think this was a breakthru in our relationship 😂— Allie Lindo | Get boosted 🌻 (@AllieLindo) June 3, 2022

Bianca*, a UX designer from Colombia who also studied at Mid Sweden University, gave me a quick and quirky anecdote about the time a mutual friend — let’s call her Sara — invited her and another friend to a house party a few years ago. They were greeted with strange looks from the other party guests (because Sara didn’t tell the hosts she had invited anyone). Despite a smorgasbord (pun intended) of offerings at the party, no food or drinks were shared with Bianca or her friend. Sara had to sneak food and drinks to their car so they could eat and drink.

Simone*, an assistant professor at Mid Sweden University, left her native Brazil many years ago to travel abroad. She met her Swedish husband and settled in Sweden with him. She’s had the unique perspective of living as a Black woman abroad and seeing the changes in Swedish society first hand over the last couple of decades.

When I asked Simone about the customs described in #Swedengate, she told me that yes, her Swedish friends and their families did withhold food from guests in the 1960s and 1970s but there were reasons other than inhospitality. “Their families would send visitors home for dinner, unless the kids slept over, in which case they would have breakfast with the family. All of this was considered normal; their parents grew up poor, and putting food on the table for their families was expensive. So in that sense, it was everyone for themselves; feeding other people was seen as unnecessary.”

The very excellent book The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth helps to illustrate this in his quirky account of Swedish history of the individual’s relationship to the state and how it manifests in everyday life. “…one must be able to solve one’s own problems. Swedes don’t like to ask favors of each other: they keep their problems to themselves and suffer in silence….to ask for help —or even to give it —is a low-level social taboo… Debt of any kind, be it emotional, a favour or cash, is to be avoided at all costs.”



Simone went on to say that while baby boomers came from a mindset of being as economical as possible, their children were the first generation to start to move away from it. “…They don’t have the same attachment to that scarcity mentality as their parents did, even though they may owe their house to the bank. Their relation to money is different; unlike their parents, they would call the parents of the child who has been spending time at their home and ask if it’s okay for them to stay for dinner rather than just sending them home; and if they stay over, they would have breakfast with the family.”

A sentence that I’ve enthusiastically highlighted and underlined in my copy of Booth’s book, especially in light of #Swedengate, is this: “The Swedish system’s logic is that it is dangerous to be dependent on other people, to be beholden to other people. Even to your family.” Given the history, customs, and context, I guess you can understand why Swedes may choose to not want to be in debt to anyone (except maybe the bank or the state), but it’s still weird that anyone would see sharing a meal as being indebted to someone.The reality is that the very essence of humanity is to depend on other people to survive and thrive in your own life and in society as a whole.

Some of my best memories of living in Sweden involved moments where I shared food and laughs with my fellow international students. I loved going to hang out with students from various African countries when they hosted house parties in the winter and BBQs in the summer; we’d eat, drink and dance all night. My classmates, a tight group representing nearly every continent, decided that we missed the food from our cultures so much that we would cook it for each other; we hosted a weekly night where we’d eat and enjoy Ethiopian food one night, Japanese curry another. Of course I had to represent my West Indian heritage by making fried corned beef and rice. We’d always send each other home with extra portions for the next day, without a second thought.

Every now and then, the Swedes would want to be part of the action despite quite literally having to go outside their comfort zones. The thing about Swedes is that on the rare occasion they decide they trust you and that stoic wall comes down… they’re all in. As a Black woman living there, I didn’t experience this openness often, but on the few occasions when I did experience this, it resulted in loyal, long-lasting friendships. One instance in particular comes to mind. To celebrate the end of the school year and our birthday, Bianca and I planned what we thought was going to be a cool Animal House-inspired toga party with a few dozen friends. A few hundred people showed up. When word got out that two international students were throwing a party that emulated the American college culture that Swedes are obsessed with, nearly every student in town showed up dressed in a toga made with their favorite material, drinks and snacks in hand to share with everyone (gasp!), and some even showed up with flowers for us.

I suppose I should feel good for not having the gumption to send each of the Swedish guests home with a bill for the good time we provided them (or for not refusing to feed them)… but then again, I was raised to share with everyone, even if they don’t see me as someone they can share anything with.

*Names have been changed for privacy.

Over half of South Asian women in Canada are planning to quit their jobs -- here's what needs to change

MoneyWise - Friday

Over 50 per cent of South Asian women in Canada say they plan on quitting their jobs within the next two years, according to a recent report commissioned by Pink Attitude.


© Provided by MoneyWise Canada



“If they’re voicing their [needs], and they’re not being heard, they’re not going to stay,” says Ruby Dhillon, founder of Pink Attitude, a non-profit organization created to support South Asian women in Canada.

This proportion was higher compared to other population groups in the study. Also, 82 per cent of South Asian women reported being dissatisfied with their job (compared to 75 per cent of all women and 75 per cent of all men).

“What we’ve learned in this journey … is that [South Asian women] were the highest unemployed group in Canada,” says Dhillon. “And yet, they were amongst the fastest growing population in Canada, and the highest educated cohort, from a university and post-grad perspective.”

As Canada ramps up immigration — the country plans to admit over 1.3 million immigrants by 2024 — it’s unclear whether it can support and retain South Asian women, who make up the highest proportion of the female immigrant labour force.
South Asian women report feeling underutilized in their jobs

“They’ve been overlooked, underutilized and marginalized,” says Dhillon.

She also adds that the issue is one that is shared by foreign-trained or educated South Asian women, and Canadian-born South Asian women.

However, those who have Canadian educational backgrounds and work experience may have an advantage in the labour force, since employers are more likely to recognize and value Canadian credentials. On top of that, South Asian women who have been raised in Canada are more familiar with the job-seeking process.

“We know how to navigate the Canadian system, we’ve thought through the educational backgrounds, how to network, how to apply for internships, what kind of places we can go to find the positions we want,” explains Dhillon, who is a second-generation South Asian Canadian herself.

“If [South Asian immigrants] don’t have that network and support, they’re truly, you know, lost, and it’s that untapped potential that we lose.”

South Asian women who were in the first three to five years of their careers tended to be more concerned about pay. Those further along in their careers focused on unfair treatment and lack of career advancement, says John Stevenson, the founding principal of Cultural IQ, the market research and strategy agency that carried out the study.

Some of the biggest concerns pushing South Asian women to leave their jobs include unsatisfying work and poor management:

64 per cent say they now have lower expectations for their salaries than they did a few years ago


64 per cent feel they missed out on a job opportunity because they have an accent

Pink Attitude’s study also found that even the South Asian women who self-identified as successful still had ongoing experiences with discrimination in the workplace. They were more likely to report feeling belittled by their peers and managers and unfairly passed over for promotions compared to white women and other major minority groups.
Intersectionality matters in the workplace

Corporations need to get ahead of these issues to avoid losing out on valued employees, especially as immigration continues to play a major role in the future of Canada’s labour market, says Dhillon.

The report advocates for targeted mentorship and sponsorship opportunities — 80 per cent of respondents said mentorship was important for their professional development and 70 per cent said that a mentor with a similar cultural background would be more relatable.

“When I was leading a team in the banking world … I felt like I was not supported as a South Asian woman because all of my bosses were white,” recounts career consultant Sweta Regmi, who is based in Greater Sudbury, Ont.

She says that companies that advocate for diversity and inclusion need to practise what they preach, such as placing people of colour in higher positions.

“When I’m [being interviewed for a job], I need to see a person like me on the table — HR and VP level and board of directors, right?”

Organizations that offer support and resources for women often fail to include the nuances of intersectionality, adds Sarah Saska, co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based DEI consulting firm Feminuity.

“It tends to be white women who are also probably cisgender, probably heterosexual and probably not disabled and so forth, that end up benefiting from those programs,” Saska says.

She says that it’s important to ask employees what they want and have policies that account for different needs and cultural backgrounds, such as religious leave and caregiving for young children and aging parents.

The Pink Attitude report also recommends that employers offer networking and professional development opportunities and effective DEI initiatives, provide flexible working arrangements and recognize international credentials.

Saska suggests that more companies need to recognize international experience as work experience and include this within their anti-discriminatory policies as well.
South Asian women need to speak up for what they want

“The study shows that there’s a resiliency and confidence level for the South Asian community … which remains throughout their careers, so the risk is to the organization,” Stevenson points out.

Regmi says she sees this determination to succeed more with first-generation South Asian immigrants.

“When they’re coming on as a newcomer and trying to settle, they have that resiliency built-in, they’re willing to go and do anything it takes, even with survival jobs.”

However, Regmi adds that South Asian women who are born in Canada don’t shy away from celebrating their successes and accomplishments, while the first-generation tend to be unwilling to speak up for themselves.

The problem starts at home, she explains, as South Asian women often tend to make sacrifices in their career development to meet familial expectations.

While corporations need to do more to support their employees, South Asian women must also push for change.

“You own your career, you’ll be a driver and you need to learn how to celebrate your accomplishments. And then go in with the attitude of ‘I can do this,’” Regmi advises.

“That’s the way I did it. I went somewhere that I felt like I’m going to be celebrated, and I started my consultancy … Make your soul happy, right? Please yourself first.”

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

VIDEO
Johns Hopkins leaders address what they’re calling a gun violence crisis in the U.S.

 

There have been at least 20 mass shootings in the two weeks since the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas according to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive

JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE PARANOID...

Elon Musk Revives Debate Over CIA Spying

The CEO of Tesla and space company SpaceX doesn't hesitate

 to get involved in anything.

• LUC OLINGA
• JUN 2, 2022 THESTREET

Elon Musk is operating on all fronts.

He is almost everywhere. 

Not a day goes by that he doesn't tweet. When it's not news about one of his multiple companies -- Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Tesla Inc Report, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink -- he posts about politics, geopolitical affairs, or engages with his millions of followers on a variety of topics, ranging from his states of mind to metaphysical questions such as happiness. 

Often the tweets are about his quarrels and enmities. Basically, when Musk's tweets aren't about his companies, they're about him.

For two months, since April to be precise, he has monopolized the headlines with his ongoing acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion. This takeover, which is supposed to be finalized by the end of October, has made him more political. It comes in the wake of his public support for Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia on February 24.

This media overexposure is not about to recede as Musk knows how to feed it. It's all the more difficult to ignore him because the billionaire is one of the main reasons Tesla's stock market valuation hit $1 trillion last fall.

He is not only the CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer, but also the chief product officer, the chief marketing officer and above all the spokesperson. For those who doubt it, Tesla stock had a tough time when Musk shifted his time in April and May, talking mostly about his bid to buy Twitter. Investors were worried he will be distracted.

Musk's importance to Tesla is equal to his importance to SpaceX. The rocket company is on a mission to take humans to live on Mars. This bold ambition is based on Musk's vision. 

The richest man in the world has decided to use his platform to alert his millions of followers to another problem that concerns him. He has just revived a new worry, that of spying on American citizens by the CIA, saying that he would be surprised if he was not being spied on.

Musk Fears He's Spied on

Musk tweeted a sort of meme with the logo, the name of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the following message:

"Does anyone else feel like their (sic) being watched?"

"You are," responded tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who is  who is accused of netting millions from his Megaupload file-sharing service. "24/7 on all your devices and online services, including your own Starlink. In your case it's not just mass surveillance. You are a priority target. Welcome to the club."

Which Musk confirmed by commenting on the post.

"I would be shocked if I’m *not* being spied on haha," the billionaire said without saying which agency might be spying on him.

"My only ask is that anyone spying on me please not affect call quality too much or I can’t hear what’s being said!"

Musk did not provide any evidence to support his claims, which some Twitter users pointed out to him.

"Prove it that it's a bad thing! I dare you," said one user.

The CIA did not respond to requests for comment from TheStreet.

New Accusations Against the CIA

It's noteworthy that SpaceX has national security contracts, including the launch cargo for NASA, a secretive spy satellite for the intelligence community and national security payloads for the US military. Some of the mission might require Musk to have security clearance.

In February, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico raised alarms that the CIA is again spying on Americans.

They alleged, in a letter, that the Agency has a secret, undisclosed database of information collected on Americans. Although neither the agency nor lawmakers wanted to release details about that data, the two senators say the CIA had long hidden details of the program from the public and Congress. 

Wyden and Heinrich, both democrats, called for more transparency from the CIA, including what kind of records were collected and the legal framework for the collection. 

Information that the intelligence community gathers domestically has long raised concerns, not least because of past violations of Americans' civil liberties. The CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) have a mission abroad and are generally prohibited from investigating Americans or American companies by the CIA's 1947 charter.

But the collection of foreign communications by American spy agencies results in the collection of American messages and data.

In 2013, NSA contractor turned whistle-blower Edward Snowden disclosed to the public the existence of a program of data collection, known as PRISM, using extensive internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence.

It was ruled unlawful by a court.

Last year, a government watchdog disclosed two CIA data collection efforts. Wyden and Heinrich claimed in February that the agency is likely to be again subjecting Americans to warrantless searches.

The CIA released a declassified report on one of the program in February, but declined to declassify the other to protect "sensitive tradecraft methods and operational sources,"  the agency said,

"What these documents demonstrate is that many of the same concerns that Americans have about their privacy and civil liberties also apply to how the CIA collects and handles information under executive order and outside the FISA law," the two senators said in a press release.  In the release they quoted the a letter sent to senior intelligence officials in April 2021.

"In particular, these documents reveal serious problems associated with warrantless backdoor searches of Americans, the same issue that has generated bipartisan concern in the FISA context.”

Wyden and Heinrich learned about this program because they're members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. They urged top spy officials to declassify the details of this secret program. 

HIS WORKFORCE REPLACEMENT

Musk Promises a Working Humanoid Robot in September

The CEO of Tesla has often made big promises. 

But he doesn't always hold to them.

• LUC OLINGA
• JUN 3, 2022 
• THESTREET 

Elon Musk built Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Tesla Inc Report with spectacular promises. This is his strength, say his admirers. It's his visionary side, they say, applauding.

But If he has kept some of these commitments, they were often not on time. It would be reasonable to say that the billionaire has almost always been late compared with the schedule he he'd laid out. 

And one of his key promises has yet to materialize: autonomous vehicles. Musk had promised that Tesla cars would be self-driving in 2018. 

"In ~2 years, summon should work anywhere connected by land & not blocked by borders, eg you're in LA and the car is in NY," the disruptor in chief said in January 2016.

Four years later, the electric-vehicle manufacturer continues to display the following warning on the webpage dedicated to full-self-driving, or (FSD, its driving-assistance system:

"All Tesla cars require active driver supervision and are not autonomous." 

A Working Humanoid Robot in September?

Earlier this year the world's richest man again promised that Tesla vehicles would be self-driving, this time by the end of 2022.

But it is another promise on the agenda that's particularly noteworthy since it would revolutionize the daily operations at Tesla factories. 

Musk has just postponed the second edition of Tesla Day, dedicated to artificial intelligence to the end of September from Aug. 19.

The reason? Musk promises to present a working prototype of Optimus, a humanoid robot that will replace people in Tesla's factories.

"Tesla AI Day pushed to Sept 30, as we may have an Optimus prototype working by then," Musk wrote on Twitter on June 2.

If Musk delivers on his promise, it would be the first time he's delivered on a commitment ahead of schedule. 

The billionaire had said in January that a prototype Optimus would be ready by the end of the year and Tesla planned to market it from 2023.

"I think actually the most important product development we're doing this year is actually the Optimus humanoid robot. This, I think, has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time," the tech tycoon said during the first-quarter-earnings call.

The latest news has energized the man's tens of millions of followers.

THE RESULT OF PUBLIC CRITICISM
Musk backtracks on job cuts, says Tesla salaried staff to be 'fairly flat'

Yesterday 3:38 p.m.

(Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Saturday that the electric vehicle maker's total headcount will increase over the next 12 months, but the number of salaried staff should be little changed, backtracking from an email just two days ago saying that job cuts of 10% were needed.


© Reuters/MIKE BLAKEFILE PHOTO: Tesla service and sales center in Vista, California

"Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat," Musk tweeted https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533176789022957568 in a reply to an unverified Twitter account that made a "prediction" that Tesla's headcount would increase over the next 12 months.

Musk in an email to Tesla executives on Thursday, which was seen by Reuters on Friday, said he has a "super bad feeling" about the U.S. economy and needed to cut jobs by about 10%.

In another email to employees on Friday, Musk said Tesla would reduce salaried headcount by 10%, as it has become "overstaffed in many areas." But "hourly headcount will increase," he said.


Tesla's shares sank 9.2% on Friday on the news.

According to a Tesla U.S. regulatory filing, the company and its subsidiaries had almost 100,000 employees at the end of 2021.

Ahead of his emails on staffing levels, Musk on Wednesday in an email to Tesla employees issued an ultimatum to return to the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week. Failure to do so would be taken as a resignation, he wrote.

Musk on Thursday said Tesla's AI day has been pushed to Sept. 30, and said a prototype of Optimus, a humanoid robot that is a company priority, could be ready by then and could be launched next year

(Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Tesla layoffs catch the attention of U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh

Brian Sozzi
·Anchor, Editor-at-Large
Fri, June 3, 2022,

U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says it's time for his new billionaire acquaintance Elon Musk to give him another phone call as the Tesla CEO eyes mass layoffs at the EV maker.

"I had a conversation with Mr. Musk about two months ago," Walsh told Yahoo Finance Live about potential layoffs at Tesla (video above). "I would love to follow back up with him about what more we can do as a government. Quite honestly, this is not just a government response. This is a business response as well [as a response to] where we are headed with the economy."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 02: Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

In a new internal memo obtained by Reuters, Musk stated that Tesla would be pausing hiring and laying off 10% of the company's 100,000 global workforce as the world richest man had a "super bad feeling" about the economy.

"Certainly Elon Musk is a very smart person and he is looking at where he is in the economy, where the company is," Walsh said. "I am hopeful that won't happen out there. I am hopeful as we continue to move forward we will continue to see our economy get stronger."

Tesla stock fell nearly 9% on Friday as the news came as a surprise to the bulls with the automaker putting up a strong first quarter and noting strong order trends. The stock was the top trending ticker on the Yahoo Finance platform for the entire trading session.

The lines of communication have recently opened up between Musk and the Biden administration after a long stretch of iciness.

Musk gave Walsh a tour of Tesla's new Gigafactory on March 14, ten days after Walsh told Yahoo Finance Live that he welcomed a call from the EV titan.

"We had a good conversation," Walsh told Yahoo Finance Live in May when asked about the meeting, which marked the first public olive branch by the pro-union Biden administration to the famously anti-union Musk.

"I'd like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience," Musk tweeted on March 3. "Tesla will do nothing to stop them."

Elon Musk Has an Original Idea to End Manager-Worker Divisions

The CEO of Tesla is known for working to the extreme in his businesses.

• LUC OLINGA
• JUN 4, 2022 

Elon Musk doesn't like unions and does not hide it.

He is opposed to the creation of a union at Tesla, and will do anything to make unionization efforts fail.

His favorite argument is that the manufacturer of electric vehicles offers among the most attractive working conditions and wages and benefits.

His aversion to unions is one of the sources of tension with the Biden administration. President Joe Biden is a big supporter of the unions. He even hosted labor leaders after their April historic victory at Amazon, another anti-union stronghold.

"Chris Smalls is making good trouble and helping inspire a new movement of labor organizing across the country," the Democratic president posted on Twitter on May 11, referring to an Amazon Labor union organizer. "Let’s keep it going."

'Everyone Is a Worker'

But Musk has just put forward a very original idea which could well have the approval of the unions. The tech tycoon recommends abolishing the class system present in companies. Basically, Musk wants to end the famous distinction between managers and employees and everything that goes with it.

"There shouldn’t be this workers vs management two-class system," the serial entrepreneur wrote on Twitter on June 2. "Everyone is a worker."

Such an idea seems revolutionary, even Marxist, but Musk explains that at Tesla, the barriers were abolished between managers and employees. In Tesla factories, there is no special treatment for managers. Everyone is housed in the same boat, says the CEO.

"Everyone eats same food, uses same restrooms, etc – no executive chef or other ivory tower stuff," the tech tycoon said.

The system described by Musk somewhat resembles Toyotism, which is already found in tech companies where employees are supposed to have much more freedom to plan and execute their work. The workplace must be welcoming and friendly to retain employees.

In Toyotism, imported from Japanese companies, managers and executives participate in the execution tasks and the workers are called upon to give their opinion to improve the organization of work and productivity, often through so-called quality circles, for example.

Australian billionaire slams Elon Musk’s return to work order right as his $48 billion firm discloses a huge security flaw

Tristan Bove
Fri, June 3, 2022,

Australian tech billionaire Scott Farquhar started a war of words with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over the latter’s return-to-work policies. But a Twitter feud with Musk might need to wait, as Farquhar’s $48 billion software company is dealing with a serious hacker problem.

Musk, the world’s richest man, made waves earlier this week when a leaked email he sent to Tesla employees on Tuesday revealed how the CEO really feels about working from home.

“Remote work is no longer acceptable,” the subject of the email read, as Musk announced that white-collar Tesla employees who do not report to the office at least 40 hours a week can start looking for a new job.

Some tech companies, such as Farquhar’s Atlassian, appear to have taken that literally.

In a Twitter thread on June 1, Farquhar likened Musk’s proclamation to “something out of the 1950s,” and highlighted Atlassian’s move to fully embrace working from home as a “key for our continued growth.” He ended the thread with a link to Atlassian’s career page, inviting disgruntled Tesla employees to apply.

It wasn’t long before Musk responded to Farquhar’s provocation with a jab of his own: “The above set of tweets illustrate why recessions serve a vital economic cleansing function,” he replied.

Musk has a history of criticizing other billionaires on Twitter—having previously done so with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. But he didn’t even mention the current controversy surrounding Atlassian’s security protocols.

Atlassian, which was founded in 2002 and now competes directly with established developers including Microsoft and IBM, scaled new heights during the pandemic, briefly hitting a $100 billion market cap last year. Now valued around $48 billion, it recently issued an advisory warning on June 2 about a “critical severity” security flaw in its products, having detected multiple instances of “current active exploitation” by external parties.

The bug is affecting Atlassian Data Center and Server, a collaborative “groupwork” software commonly marketed to businesses, and one of the company’s best-selling products. Confluence has been designed to enable and facilitate remote working, with its homepage on the Atlassian website emphasizing it as a “remote-friendly team workspace.”

The company released a fix at 10 a.m. on Friday, less than 24 hours after the advisory as posted. But the recently-discovered bug impacts older versions of Confluence dating back to 2013, according to tech news outlet The Register.

Atlassian has urged users not to expose their Confluence software to the internet until a patch is released.

It isn’t the first time that weaknesses in Atlassian’s Confluence server have been considered vulnerable to hackers. Last year, the Australian Cyber Security Center issued an alert to Confluence users warning of a “serious vulnerability” in the product’s privacy protocols that could allow attackers to access the server and execute code remotely without authorization or authentication.

Confluence’s security issues exemplify one of the persistent problems associated with companies allowing employees to work from home indefinitely: cybersecurity concerns. It has been a headache for CEOs throughout the pandemic, and for executives like Musk—who reportedly has a habit of destroying his phone once a year out of security concerns—security issues with essential remote-work products like Confluence are just another reason to ask employees to return to the office.

That’s not out of the 1950s.

June 3, 2022: This article was updated to reflect that the bug affected Atlassian Data Center and Server, and what time the company announced they fixed the bug.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Recruiters at major companies like Amazon are going after Tesla employees angered by Elon Musk's return-to-office demand: 'If the Emperor of Mars doesn't want you, I'll be happy to bring you over'

Grace Kay
Fri, June 3, 2022, 

Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Recruiters at major companies offer to hire Tesla employees who want to keep working remotely.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk told Tesla employees they must return to the office or resign, reports say.

Remote working opportunities have become a key benefit amid the great resignation.

Tesla workers might not have to return to the office after all — if they're willing to jump ship.

On Thursday, tech recruiters put out calls to Elon Musk's employees who might be looking to dodge his return-to-work edict.

On Thursday, Zafar Choudhury, who identifies himself as a technical recruiting leader at Amazon Web Services on LinkedIn, issued a call for disgruntled Tesla engineers to join the tech giant.

"If the Emperor of Mars doesn't want you, I'll be happy to bring you over to #AWS," Choudhury wrote on LinkedIn, referencing Musk's fixation with colonizing Mars.

Choudhury didn't respond to a request for comment from Insider. Spokespeople for Tesla and Amazon also didn't respond to requests for comment.

The recruiter took aim at reports that Musk sent emails to executive staff on Tuesday, calling for the workers to stop "phoning it in" and come into the office at least 40 hours a week.

"If you don't like to be micromanaged by the Elon Musk's of the world, come to #AWSIdentity!" Choudhury wrote. "We'll find you a happy home here that respects you, your time and your profession. We will find you a team that treats you with dignity."

Last year, Amazon announced that it would let corporate employees work from home indefinitely. It has been one of several tech companies to make the shift from an office-centric work environment to a more distributed workforce.

Choudhury was one of several recruiters on LinkedIn who pushed for Tesla employees to join Amazon, as well as smaller tech companies, such as Insight and Bestow. A Microsoft recruiter also joined in on the hiring frenzy, The Next Web reported.

In a post that has since been deleted, Tiana Watts-Porter, who identifies herself as a technical recruiter for Microsoft, told Tesla employees they would be given more freedom at Microsoft. Watts-Porter did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

The tech company has embraced a hybrid work environment. Last month, Microsoft announced that workers would be allowed to work remotely over 50% of the time so long as it was approved by their managers.

"You can do things your way, and be yourself here at Microsoft!" Watts-Porter wrote, The Next Web reported.

In his companywide email, Musk took a dig at companies such as Amazon that have allowed employees to work from home, Electrek reported.

"There are of course companies that don't require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product?" Musk said in a companywide email, the report said. "It's been a while."

The billionaire appeared to justify his decision to bring workers back to the office on Twitter, saying his ultimatum was part of an effort to promote equality between factory workers — who have been required to come to work in person throughout the pandemic — and executives.

Musk's stance on remote work could inhibit Tesla's and SpaceX's recruiting efforts. Remote working opportunities have become a key benefit amid the Great Resignation.

In March, a survey of 3,019 employees conducted by Blind, an anonymous employee community app, found that 64% of workers at employers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google would rather work from home than receive a $30,000 raise.

"Companies simply cannot force people back to the office, especially when there are other remote jobs available elsewhere," Kyum Kim, Blind's cofounder, previously told Insider's Caroline Hronich and Ebony Flake.