Friday, September 08, 2023

UNION VICTORIES ARE FOR ALL WORKERS

Grocery store workforce stands to benefit from gains made by Unifor with Metro strike

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

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As Metro workers at 27 Toronto-area grocery stores return to work after a month-long strike, experts and union representatives say their new collective agreement raises the bar for grocery store workers across the country.

“It's the workers' time to be recognized for what they've given to these companies,” said Kim Novak, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Local 1518 in British Columbia.

More than 3,700 Metro workers went on strike at the end of July after rejecting their first tentative agreement, fighting for better pay. On Aug. 31, they voted ‘yes’ on a second agreement, which included front-loaded wage gains beginning with a $1.50 hike.

The Unifor-Metro deal helps set a floor for future agreements, though they won’t be identical, said Stephanie Ross, an associate professor in the school of labour studies at McMaster University.

“They’re going to ... these next tables with a victory in their pocket,” she said.

Unifor has made it clear that it intends to use the Metro agreement to pattern bargain, meaning it will try to seek similar gains in upcoming negotiations with grocers.

The union said it has 13 contracts with grocers, mainly in Ontario, that are set to expire before the end of 2024, covering a total of more than 6,000 workers. Another two are currently being negotiated and one recently expired.

But Unifor isn’t the main union for grocery store workers in Ontario, or in the country. Now, there’s pressure on the UFCW to make similar inroads, said Ross.

The UFCW calls itself the union for grocery store workers, representing around 140,000 people in food retail countrywide. In B.C., Novak's Local 1518 represents around 18,000 grocery workers, and in 2023 its two biggest contracts were up for negotiations.

One was with Save-On-Foods, covering stores across the province under the chain owned by Jim Pattison Group. Aggressive negotiations resulted in a deal with the highest wage increases those workers had seen in 25 years, said Novak.

But she said at the other big bargaining table, talks with Empire Co. Ltd.-owned Safeway have not gone as well. Eight months in, the grocer has offered wage gains that amount to less than one per cent a year over a five-year deal, she said. The union is holding a strike vote next week.

Empire did not respond to requests for comment on the Safeway negotiations.

Empire, Loblaw and Metro make up the Big Three grocers, which take up a large chunk of the market. Those grocers have come under fire in recent years for their high profits amid skyrocketing inflation. Workers are asking for their fair share, said Novak, especially after losing their pandemic-era 'hero pay.'

If the Safeway workers strike, it would affect 40 B.C. stores, including 29 on the Lower Mainland, said Novak. While meat, deli and seafood workers are covered by a different agreement, they could be in a position to strike at the same time, effectively shutting down the stores, she said.

Working at a grocery store once offered a decent job with good pay, but that’s changed, said York University associate professor of labour geography Steven Tufts. Unions took concessions at the bargaining table over the 1990s and 2000s as grocers tried to compete with Walmart.

Now that the Big Three grocers are on solid ground and reporting strong profits, Tuft said the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost.

“The Walmart threat is over,” he said. “They are all very profitable institutions.”

The Unifor-Metro deal doesn’t mean grocery negotiations will be easy going forward, said Alison Braley-Rattai, an associate professor of labour studies at Brock University, in an email.

“Workers will still have to be prepared to walk, if negotiations aren’t shaping up,” she said.

“But the past year seems to signal that workers are increasingly saying, ‘Enough is enough’, and that they are pushing not just their employers, but their own unions by rejecting tentative agreements that were recommended to them.”

One challenge is that union coverage for grocery workers is fragmented across the country between different unions, locals and agreements, said Tufts.

Unions need to scale up bargaining, he said, so that they can negotiate with employers at a higher level — like the UFCW’s B.C.-wide contracts with Save-On-Foods and Safeway.

The unions should also work together and strategize their sector-wide bargaining, but likely aren’t doing that, he said.

Regardless, the Metro deal in the GTA will help both Unifor and the UFCW argue for more at the table amid labour market conditions that are also giving workers more power, said Tufts.

In a market where the grocers are also competing for workers, even non-unionized workers will likely stand to gain from the improvements Unifor and UFCW are making, Ross said.

Right now, the landscape has shifted and grocery store workers are in a position to make real advances across the country, Novak said.

“I think it is a really powerful moment.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2023.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M ON THE SEA

Samskip Admonishes Iceland for Misrepresentations Over $32M Collusion Fine

Samskip vessel — Samskip strongly commended the Icelandic Competition Authorities' finding of collusion (Samskip file photo)

The long-running Icelandic investigation into the alleged collusion between Dutch shipping company Samskip and Iceland’s Eimskip heated up with the release of a report finding serious violations and illegal actions by Samskip and announcing a $31.7 million fine. Samskip released a response using strong accusatory language to reject the “assumptions and conclusions” of the Icelandic Competition Authority and promising to use all available means by law to overturn the decision.

The investigation into the purported collusion between the two shipping companies has been going on for 13 years. The Icelandic Competition Authority started the action in 2010, followed by raids on Samskip and Eimskip’s offices in 2013 and 2014. Samskip accused them of “seizing large amounts of information.”

The ICA issued initial reports in 2018 and again in 2019, with a third and final report in November 2020. The reports are more than two thousand pages and the accompanying documents number in the tens of thousands. The full report was published on August 31 in 15 volumes plus an appendix. Samskip says that it submitted detailed comments on the reports illustrating how the ICA’s preliminary conclusions were fundamentally incorrect.

The ICA concludes that Samskip violated the country’s competition law and conducted illegal consultations with Eimskip. Further, they reported that the investigators believed Samskip during the investigation provided “incorrect, misleading, and insufficient information and data delivery.” In addition to making recommendations for measures that the company needs to take to “prevent further infringements and promote competition,” the ICA is leveling a $31.7 million administrative fine.

The investigation had initially centered on the time from 2008 to 2013 alleging continuous collusion with the main objective to restrict competition. The investigation was exploring charges that the companies colluded by making changes to their operating schedules and routes. They said it was done to maintain or increase prices to customers. During the investigation, the time span was expanded to reach back as far as 2001, looking at actions for the transport services to North America between 2004 and 2009, actions in 2005, and alleged collusion in 2007 on stevedoring in the Iceland port of Reyðarfjörður.

“Samskip is deeply disappointed by the ICA’s procedure in the case. The ICA’s conclusion is characterized by half-truths, misleading statements, and misrepresentations of facts,” Samskip said in its public response to the report and the imposition of the fine.

The company went on to call the process “extraordinarily cumbersome,” saying that it has had a “crippling effect” on its operations. They contend that they had submitted detailed comments on the reports illustrating how the conclusions were “fundamentally wrong.”

Eimskip in June 2021 settled with the ICA acknowledging that there was communication and collusive behavior with Samskip between 2008 and 2013 in violation of Icelandic law. Eimskip paid a nearly $12 million administrative fine and agreed to certain actions to prevent further violations and promote competition.

The ICA in its report released yesterday says that when Samskip became aware that Eimskip was in settlement negotiations, they too requested settlement talks. The ICA says the discussions took place in June and July 2021, but it was “clear that they would not produce a result in the opinion of the ICA that included a satisfactory outcome.” They terminated the negotiations.

The Icelandic Competition Authority reports that Samskip has one month to pay the fine. Samskip said in its response that it would “not abide by the ICA’s decision,” and use all legal means to overturn the decision.

Police Investigate Co-CEOs of Stellar Daisy Shipowner Polaris

Police in Seoul have raided the offices of Polaris Shipping, the operator of the ill-fated bulker conversion Stellar Daisy, in connection with alleged breach of trust. The new round of law enforcement attention comes just as the company's owners were preparing to sell the firm.

On August 28, the Seoul Metropolitan Police's Financial Crimes Investigation Unit dispatched a team to Polaris' headquarters with orders to seize record books and computer hard drives with data on the firm's accounts. The authorities suspect that the firm's co-CEOs - Kim Wan-joong and Han Hee-seung - extracted about $38 million from Polaris' holding company, Polar Energy & Marine. The alleged transactions took the form of loans and were used "arbitrarily" to secure management rights, the Seoul police said.

Kim already faces criminal charges in connection with the sinking of the Stellar Daisy. He was convicted of failing to report known defects aboard the vessel in 2020, and was sentenced to six months in prison. The case is currently on appeal at South Korea's supreme court. In 2022, he was also indicted on charges of negligence and "ship-burying" in connection with the case.

Polaris was put up for sale in May, and about 20 firms have expressed interest, according to Chosun Daily. The value of the transaction is estimated at about $425 million. A sale would also buy out the firm's second-largest shareholders, NH Private Equity and Aeneas Private Equity.

Polaris is a leading owner of very large ore carriers (VLOCs), the super-large bulkers used to transport iron ore from Brazil to East Asia. It has 15 ships in this size category, and it holds valuable contracts with some of the world's largest ore mining companies and ore importers.

The firm came under intense scrutiny after the sinking of the Stellar Daisy, an aging VLCC-to-VLOC conversion that suddenly disappeared in the Atlantic in March 2017. The flag state, the Marshall Islands, determined that "catastrophic structural failure" was the cause of the casualty. Extensive cracking in the hull was identified as early as 2011, six years before the sinking.

Polaris sold its last VLCC-to-VLOC conversions for scrap in 2021, bringing its exposure to this vessel class to a close.

NOAA Calls Out Seven Nations for IUU Fishing

IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) fishing identifications

Last week, NOAA Fisheries (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) released its regular report on international fisheries management, citing several nations for IUU fishing and bycatch of protected living marine resources. For the first time, the report also included forced labor and shark catch in its IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) fishing identifications.

The biennial report is part of the NOAA’s statutory requirement to the U.S Congress under the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act. Countries negatively certified for IUU fishing under the report could be denied U.S port privileges. The report also helps the U.S government to collaborate with identified countries in dealing with their problematic fisheries issues.

In this year’s report, seven nations were identified for IUU fishing and two nations for shark catch without having a regulatory program comparable to that of the U.S.

Angola, Grenada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, The Gambia and Vanuatu were identified for reported or alleged IUU fishing that occurred between 2020 and 2022. China and Taiwan’s identifications also include allegations on seafood-related goods produced through forced labor.China and Vanuatu were also identified for shark catch despite lacking a proper regulatory program.

After each report is issued, NOAA Fisheries works with nations and entities for two years to address the activities for which they were identified. Afterwards, NOAA Fisheries issues a certification determination. A positive certification is issued if the nation or entity has provided evidence for actions that address the activities for which it was identified. If sufficient action is not taken, NOAA proceeds to give a negative certification.

The 2023 Report announced positive certifications for Costa Rica, Guyana, Senegal and Taiwan following IUU fishing identifications in 2021. Mexico, China and Russia received negative certifications following IUU fishing identifications in 2021.

IUU fishing remains a serious global problem that threatens ocean ecosystems and sustainable fisheries critical to global food and economic security. As IUU fishing is a low-risk, high reward activity, especially on the high seas, it puts law abiding fishermen and seafood producers at a disadvantage.

IUU fishing has become so pervasive that a report by the International Trade Commission found that the U.S imported $2.4 billion worth of seafood derived from IUU fishing in 2019.

“The U.S. for the first time, is identifying countries in the report for both IUU fishing and forced labor. The report outlines there is still work to be done, but we are encouraged by NOAA’s action to ensure fishing vessels uphold the law,” commented Beth Lowell, Oceana’s Vice President for the U.S.

THIS IS THE EPOCH OF STATE CAPITALI$M

Korean Government Pledges Financial and R&D Support for Shipbuilders

Hanwha shipbuilding Korea — South Korea plans to expand its financial support for the shipbuilding industry (Hanwha Ocean file photo)

The South Korean government announced a new round of financial support for the country’s shipbuilding industry during a visit by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance to the Hanwha Ocean yard in Geoje. The new support comes as the industry continues to struggle with rising costs and competition, as well as slowing orders.

The government officials cited the strong contribution shipbuilding is making to the country’s economy while stressing that they would expand the industry’s leadership in eco-friendly shipping and new technologies. They highlighted that the industry contributed $9.22 billion to the country’s export volume in the first half of this year, an increase of 12 percent from 2022. The total orderbook is reported to be at nearly 39 million compensated gross tons, the highest level in 12 years.

Despite the industry’s success in the first half of 2023, orders are lagging behind 2022 levels. HD Hyundai reports that in total it has received nearly $15.5 billion in orders in 2023, which is 98 percent of its target which was lowered from its 2022 target of $17.4 billion due to the slowing in the industry. Samsung Heavy Industries has secured $6.3 billion in orders, which is 66 percent of its annual target, while Hanwha Ocean blames the uncertainties until it closed the acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) contributing to the fact they have only booked a quarter of their annual target or just $1.47 billion in 2023.

The industry continues to struggle with a labor shortage, despite the government relaxing some visa restrictions to attract foreign workers. Now, HD Hyundai’s shipbuilding yards are in a labor contract dispute that could see its workers start a strike as early as this week.

The government officials said the purpose of their visit was to tour the shipyard, including one of the world’s largest dry docks, where Hanwha Ocean can build four large ships at one time. They wanted to hear about the difficulties during meetings with yard and industry executives. Several of the yard’s subcontractors also took part in the meetings.

They announced a three-fold plan that includes increasing government support for financial guarantees issued by the shipbuilders during the construction of ships. It will be the first increase since 2019. They will raise the amount to $300 million from the current $91 million. The government will re-guarantee approximately 85 percent of the bank-issued guarantee. This is to become effective so that it will cover a new order Hanwha Ocean expects to book in the second half of the year from Qatar for LNG carriers.

The government will also expand its training support efforts providing up to $6,000 in payments to workers. This is in addition to other employment efforts to attract more young people to the industry as well as support the use of foreign workers.

R&D support for eco-friendly ship technology to expand low- and carbon-free shipping as well as autonomous ship technology will also be increased. In total, the government plans to provide more than $20 million to continue to develop leadership in these high-value segments of shipbuilding.

During the meeting, the government officials also said they are working on a comprehensive plan to support the growth of the shipbuilding industry. They look to drive industry growth to continue its contribution to South Korea’s export trade.

Oceaneering Joins the Robotic-Survey Revolution

Veteran subsea robotics company Oceaneering has joined the crowd of organizations pursuing uncrewed survey technology, following early adopters and developers like Nauticus, NOAA, Saildrone, Reach Subsea and Ocean Infinity.

Oceaneering announced Tuesday that its subsea robotics division has acquired one uncrewed surface vessel (USV) to support its contracts for survey work. Oceaneering is buying a DriX USV from manufacturer Exail, and it will be used for deepwater geophysical surveys and asset inspections. The task set will also include supporting autonomous underwater vehicle positioning.

"The DriX allows us to remotely gather the same high-quality data at a lower operational impact, without the need for an offshore-based crew. This reduces health, safety, and environmental risks while freeing up multi-service vessels to complete other tasks," said Oceaneering SVP Martin McDonald in a statement.

DriX has a long track record for a commercial USV. It has been in operation since 2016 and has racked up several thousand hours' worth of proven experience, including patrol work for the U.S. Navy in the Middle East and fishery survey trials for NOAA. It is capable of over-the-horizon, AI-controlled operations, and can continue to collect quality survey data in conditions up to sea state 5.

The vessel has a small diesel engine and can operate at relatively high speed, accelerating survey acquisition times, according to Oceaneering. However, it sips fuel when compared to a full-size manned survey vessel, reducing cost and carbon.

Oceaneering says that the addition of a USV is a welcome complement to its existing portfolio of remotely-operated systems. The firm has been piloting ROVs from shore bases since 2016, removing about 9,000 personnel sea-days and accomplishing about 100,000 hours of operation over the period.

Oceaneering's entry into the unmanned-vessel field is at a smaller scale than some of its competitors. Ocean Infinity has gone all-in on minimally-manned or unmanned survey technology, building what it describes as an "armada" of more than a dozen oceangoing vessels designed to conduct subsea services without any crew aboard. Reach Subsea is pursuing a similar path with an order for two midsize unmanned subsea-service vessels. And Houston-based autonomous vessel developer Nauticus Robotics has plans to build 20 USV/AUV pairs to do much the same kind of survey, maintenance and subsea intervention work that makes up Oceaneering's main line of business.

Russia Outlaws "Undesirable" Union Over its Support for Ukraine

ITF representatives at a solidarity meeting in Ukraine, Jan. 2023 (ITF)

Russia's top prosecutors' office has decided that the International Transport Workers' Federation's is an "undesirable organization" in the Russian Federation, based on ITF's longstanding support for Ukraine.

"By its activities, the foreign international non-governmental organization International Transport Workers Federation poses a threat to the constitutional order of the Russian Federation," claimed the Prosecutor General's Office in a statement.

The designation makes it legally difficult for an organization to continue operating in Russia, and it applies to ITF affiliates, including the Russian seafarers' union SUR. The SUR represents about 77,000 seafarers throughout Russia and has been an ITF affiliate since 1993. It has ITF-approved contracts on about 400 ships.

Russian prosecutors pointed to the ITF's opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, which is illegal to oppose under Russian law. Shortly after the Russian invasion began, the ITF-affliated dockers' union Unite announced its refusal to work Russia-linked vessels at British ports. The MUA, ITF's powerful Australian affiliate, advocated for governments to apply economic pressure to Russia in order to bring an end to the war. This is unlawful under Russian bans on statements “discrediting Russian armed forces."

“Workers around the world are defiant in opposition to Russia’s invasion including thousands of dock workers showing solidarity with the people of the Ukraine and contempt for Putin’s aggression," said ITF President and Dockers’ Section Chair Paddy Crumlin in a statement last year. “We are witnessing indiscriminate attacks on civilian and commercial infrastructure by the Russian forces. The situation is dire. Our hearts go out to the people of the Ukraine. We condemned this war and continue to call on all parties to seek peaceful solutions immediately.”

ITF joins a list of high-profile groups on Russia's "undesirable organization" list, like Memorial, the Russian NGO dedicated to the remembrance of communist purges; independent news channel TV Rain; Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; the Marshall Fund; the Atlantic Council; Chatham House; and Greenpeace, among others.

The designation means that ITF affiliates will not be able to hold public meetings, distribute promotional materials, or advertise through the media within Russia. They will be cut off from the Russian banking system, and may be forced to disband.

Maintaining connections with an "undesirable" organization can carry a penalty of up to six years in Russian prison.

DNV: Shipping Must Look Beyond Fuel as 2020s is Critical in Decarbonization

shipping decarbonization — DNV looks beyond fuel to the other steps to achieving decarbonization

The current decade is a critical one for the shipping industry on its course to net zero, but in its latest outlook report, DNV concludes the progress is slow and the industry faces significant challenges. In their new iteration of the Maritime Forecast to 2050, DNV outlines challenges including costs, an expected shortage of low-carbon fuels, a lack of infrastructure, and the need to share the investment to develop new technologies.

“The 2020s is proving to be the decisive decade for the decarbonization of shipping,” writes DNV pointing to the emergence of the latest regulations from the European Union and the International Maritime Organization’s revised goals. “Focusing on fuel alone can distract us from making an impact this decade, and ambitious future declarations are not good enough. What we need is tangible actions that will reduce emissions,” said Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV Maritime.

DNV points out that the large-scale transition to new fuels is underway. As an example, the report cites that half the orders tonnage will now be capable of using LNG, LPG, or methanol-dual fuel engines. This compares they said with a third of the orders last year. Further, 6.5 percent of the tonnage in operation can now operate on alternative fuels, up from 5.5 percent a year ago.

While those numbers are seen as a signal that the industry has begun to move, DNV compares the speed of the change to that of a supertanker coming about. They highlight that overall, only 0.1 percent of the fuel used by merchant shipping is biofuels currently.

They warn the clock is ticking louder for the efforts to identify, define, and resolve barriers to successfully and safely decarbonize. However, they recognize that decarbonization will increase costs for individual shipowners for technology, fuels, and carbon pricing, which will all impact the commercial attractiveness and long-term profitability of the operations. Careful consideration they say will be required to avoid unattractive or stranded assets.

DNV believes that a dependence on low-carbon alternative fuels alone with not be enough highlighting that the shipping industry will face competition from aviation and road transportation in particular as well as other industrial users that are also considered to be hard to decarbonize. The report calculates by 2030 the shipping industry would require 17 million tonnes of carbon-neutral fuels. That would represent 30 to 40 percent of the expected available production.

The report reiterates basic measures that should be implemented to achieve immediate fuel savings. Among the energy-efficiency measures they highlight are speed reduction, route optimization, and hull and propeller cleaning. They also point to smart and digital technologies. Still, they also point to an urgent need for low-emission technologies.

DNV selected six technologies that are increasingly drawing attention and adoption in the industry examining them and developing scenarios. The ones they focused on are solid oxide fuel cells, liquified hydrogen, wind-assisted propulsion, and air lubrication systems to reduce hull drag.

The other technologies they looked at are longer-term including onboard carbon, which DNV remains skeptical of despite progress on various tests. They however did find onboard carbon capture can be operationally feasible in their scenario for a large container vessel. Still, they highlight the lack of the infrastructure to handle CO2 captured aboard ships. They also look at the potential of expanding nuclear propulsion from military applications into the commercial industry. They report there would be a “long road to travel before nuclear can be scaled.”

They conclude that the maritime industry needs to adopt an integrated approach that incorporates the evolution of regulations, fuel supply, and technologies. DNV believes the cost of decarbonization must be carried through the maritime value chain and points to mechanisms such as green corridors as providing support during this critical decade.

The complete report is available online.

Report: $12B Shipbuilding Need for Vessels to Meet Floating Wind Plans

floating wind farm — Report says that $12 billion in shipbuilding is requires to meet the plans for floating offshore wind (file photo)

Analysts and wind farm developers have already been highlighting the growing need for vessels to support the emerging offshore industry. As the industry begins to explore floating offshore wind the need will be even more acute according to a new market analysis from Intelatus Global Partners. They are highlighting the shortage of suitable vessels, an issue that leading developers have also cited as contributing to their concerns in the market.

The new report focuses specifically on the needs of the floating offshore wind energy segment. Intelatus estimates that capital expenditure within this segment will require more than $250 billion by 2035, but the build out could be challenged by the lack of vessels able to meet the needs of the sector.

Global floating wind capacity is projected to grow to around 61 gigawatts over the next 12 years from less than 200 megawatts at the end of 2022. To achieve this, the report estimates a requirement to pre-lay more than 6,000 mooring spreads and the hook-up of around 5,400 turbines. The available market for vessel owners, ranging from pure transport and installation to full floater engineering, procurement, construction, and installation scopes of work, will amount to between $28 and $145 billion according to Intelatus.

To support this development the report identifies two segments, anchor handling vessels and subsea construction vessels, as those that will see the strongest demand to support the development of floating offshore wind. They estimate an opportunity for as much as $12 billion in shipbuilding activity required in the short to medium term to support the development of floating wind farms.

The main vessel category that will be deployed to pre-lay, tow, and hook up the majority of floating wind turbines will be anchor handlers. However, according to Intelatus, of today’s approximate global fleet of 2,400 anchor handlers, less than 50 are identified as suitable and efficient for floating wind projects. They note that several designs however are emerging for anchor handlers specifically designed for commercial-scale floating wind.

“There has been no building of very large anchor handlers in recent years, and those that are active have mainly been built to service oil and gas drilling rigs and floating production systems,” writes Intelatus. “None have been built with floating wind in mind, and many of the existing vessels lack one or several of the features required for efficient floating wind project delivery.”

Similarly, with subsea construction vessels, Intelatus estimates that “only close to 85 out of around 500 vessels feature the capabilities required by floating wind projects.”

The report identifies a further challenge which is the growing oil and gas activity as the offshore energy markets rebound and the competition it is creating for available capacity in these segments. Intelatus notes that the resurgence in the oil and gas segment is reducing the available supply of suitable vessels to undertake floating wind installation projects. Similarly, the lack of shipbuilding capacity and long lead times for new vessels will also become a factor for the wind sector as it seeks to proceed with installations.

Several of the leading wind far developers have already discussed the problems of limited installation capacity and the rising costs. Ørsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind farms, last week detailed a litany of problems in its U.S. projects that it said could result in an impairment charge of as much as $2.3 billion. Among the issues cited is the shortage of installation vessels which they said could result in delays and extra costs. Ørsted shocked the industry by indicating that it is prepared to walk away from several of its U.S. projects due to the changing financial dynamics and the expectation that they would no longer meet the company’s financial return criteria for development.

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