It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, September 28, 2023
MEDICAL JIM CROW Mostly Black or mostly white. Dozens of hospitals have racially exclusive patient populations, data show
Josiah Bates Wed, September 27, 2023
A report states “hospitals will say their doors are open to everyone and that they don’t turn anyone away, but that can be misleading.”
Two Midwest hospitals and one in the South top a list of the most segregated U.S. hospitals and as a result, in one county white people live nine years longer than Black residents, a study of federal patient data shows.
Specifically, If you’re Black and live in St. Louis, Detroit or New Orleans, chances are your local hospital has stark racial disparities. It’s the worst in New Orleans, the city that leads the list with the highest percentage of hospitals with what amounts to de facto segregated healthcare. Of its 14 hospitals, five have the “least inclusive” racially diverse patient population. On the other hand, if you’re fortunate enough to live near certain hospitals in Chicago, Newark or Boston, then you’re closer to more inclusive healthcare.
That’s what the Lown Institute — an independent healthcare think tank — reveals in a newly released report on healthcare equity in America. The report shows which cities have the most racially segregated hospitals in America and also includes information on the hospitals that are the most inclusive.
“We wanted to put numbers on something that everyone knows about but because people are so used to it, it becomes invisible,” Dr. Vikas Saini, the president of the Lown Institute, told theGrio. “It’s deep in the structure of our society. It relates to segregation in the labor market. It relates to health insurance [being] employer-based.” The Lown Institute, an independent healthcare think tank, reveals a snapshot of inequalities and inclusivity in American hospitals. The report shows which cities have the most racially segregated hospitals in America and also includes information on the hospitals that are the most inclusive (Credit: Getty Images).
To collect the data, the experts measured information from 3,142 hospitals to determine the populations they serve. They used data from Medicare claims and the U.S. Census Bureau. They found that the most inclusive and segregated hospitals are usually in the same metro area.
“What we found is there are often hospitals that aren’t far away from each other, one that tends to cater to [people of color] and one that tends to cater to people who have higher income and tend to be white,” Saini said. They also found large gaps in life expectancy by race in the areas with the most segregated hospitals.
Cities on the list of the most segregated hospital markets include Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Denver. Of the top 50 most racially inclusive hospitals, Boston Medical Center Corporation is No. 1. The inclusive list includes hospitals in cities such as Chicago, New York, Dallas and Washington D.C.
“Each hospital’s racial inclusivity score reflects how well the demographics of the hospital’s ‘community area’ (containing people who the hospital could serve) compare to the demographics of the patient population (who the hospital does serve). The community area is determined using the zip code tabulation area (ZCTA) from which a hospital’s Medicare patients come and includes a travel time adjustment,” the report said.
Health inequality is just one of the many issues that plague the Black community. Despite efforts on the ground to address it, Saini believes that policy will ultimately drive the change.
“Hospitals will say their doors are open to everyone and that they don’t turn anyone away, but that can be misleading,” Saini said in a statement. “If hospitals really want to undo structural racism’s hold on their communities, they can’t be bystanders. They need to act more systematically and with more intention.”
AMERIKA
4 in 5 Black adults see racist depictions in the news either often or sometimes, says new study
DAVID BAUDER Updated Wed, September 27, 2023 Kevin Richardson, far left, Yusef Salaam, second from left, and Raymond Santana Jr., far right foreground, three of five men exonerated after being wrongfully convicted as teenagers for the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park, along with Cicely Harris, second from right, chair of Harlem's Community Board 10, unveil the "The Gate of the Exonerated" at the northeast gateway of Central Park, Monday Dec. 19, 2022, in New York. In a new study, Black Americans expressed broad concerns about how they are depicted in the news media, with majorities saying they see racist or negative depictions and a lack of effort to cover broad segments of their community.
(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, FIle)
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new study, Black Americans expressed broad concerns about how they are depicted in the news media, with majorities saying they see racist or negative depictions and a lack of effort to cover broad segments of their community.
Four in five Black adults say they see racist or racially insensitive depictions of their race in the news either often or sometimes, according to the Pew Research Center.
Three years after George Floyd's killing triggered a racial reckoning in the news media, Pew took its first broad-based look at Black attitudes toward the media with a survey of nearly 5,000 Black adults this past winter and follow-up focus groups.
The survey found 63% of respondents saying news about Black people is often more negative than it is toward other racial or ethnic groups, with 28% saying it is about equal.
“It's not surprising at all,” said Charles Whitaker, dean of the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University. "We've known both anecdotally, and through my personal experience with the Black press, that Blacks have long been dissatisfied with their coverage.
“There's a feeling that Black Americans are often depicted as perpetrators or victims of crime, and there are no nuances in the coverage,” Whitaker said.
That attitude is reflected in the Pew study's finding that 57% of respondents say the media only covers certain segments of Black communities, compared to 9% who say that a wide variety is depicted.
“They should put a lot more effort into providing context,” said Richard Prince, a columnist for the Journal-isms newsletter, which covers diversity issues. “They should realize that Blacks and other people of color want to be portrayed as having the same concerns as everybody else, in addition to hearing news about African American concerns.”
Advertising actually does a much better job of showing Black people in situations common to everybody, raising families or deciding where to go for dinner, he said.
Prince said he's frequently heard concerns about Black crime victims being treated like suspects in news coverage, down to the use of police mug shots as illustrations. He recently convened a journalist's roundtable to discuss the lingering, notorious issue of five Black men who were exonerated after being accused of attacking a white jogger in New York's Central Park in the 1980s.
During a time of sharp partisan differences, the study found virtually no difference in attitudes toward news coverage between Black Democrats and Republicans, said Katerina Eva Matsa, director of news and information research at Pew.
For example, 46% of Republicans and 44% of Democrats say that news coverage largely stereotyped Black people, Pew said.
Negative attitudes toward the press tended to increase with income and education levels, Matsa said. While 57% of those in lower income levels said news coverage about Black people was more negative than it was about other groups. That number jumped to 75% of wealthier respondents, the study found.
A large majority of those surveyed, young and old, expressed little confidence that things would improve much in their lifetime.
While 40% of survey participants said it was important to see Black journalists report on issues about race and racial inequality, the race of journalists wasn't that important about general news.
Prince said it's important for journalists to know history; he wrote on Monday about the idea of a government shutdown was raised in 1879 when former Confederates in Congress wanted to deny money to protect Black people at the polls, and how the filibuster started to prevent civil rights legislation.
At Northwestern, professors are trying to teach students of the importance of having a broader sense of the communities that they're covering, Whitaker said. Medill is also a hub for solutions journalism, which emphasizes coverage of people trying to solve societal problems.
“We're trying to get away from parachute journalism,” he said.
Prince said there was notable progress, post-Floyd, in the hiring of Black journalists into leadership roles in the media. Unfortunately, the news industry continues to contract while social media increases in importance, he said.
“We're integrating an industry that's shrinking,” he said.
39 percent of Black Americans say news about them is ‘racially insensitive’
Cheyanne M. Daniels Tue, September 26, 2023
A new poll found that nearly half of Black Americans feel news coverage of them and their community is “racially problematic.”
In a survey of nearly 5,000 Black adults, the Pew Research Center found that 39 percent of Black Americans said they often see news that in some way is racist or racially insensitive, with 43 percent saying the coverage largely stereotypes Black people.
Respondents attributed the problems to a host of issues, including outlets pushing agendas, uninformed journalists and racist views among people at news outlets. More than 35 percent attributed the racially insensitive coverage to a lack of Black staff at news outlets.
The survey also found that 63 percent said news coverage about Black people is often more negative than news about other racial and ethnic groups, with half of the respondents believing coverage is often missing important information.
These views persisted regardless of gender, age and political party affiliation.
But the survey also highlighted how Black Americans believe problematic news coverage can be addressed.
Sixty-four percent of respondents said “educating all journalists about issues impacting Black Americans” is a very effective way of making coverage fairer.
More than 50 percent said including more Black people as sources and hiring more Black people as newsroom leaders would be also highly effective.
But 45 percent of Black Americans also said that Black journalists do a better job covering issues related to race and racial inequality.
Forty percent also said it is “crucial” that the news they get about issues related to race and racial inequality comes from Black journalists.
New Survey Reveals Black People Still Don't Trust Media When It Comes to Our Portrayal
Candace McDuffie
THE ROOT Wed, September 27, 2023
According to a new study released Tuesday by Pew Research Center, Black Americans rightfully remain skeptical as hell when it comes to how the media covers our communities.
The survey reveals that nearly two-thirds of Black adults (63 percent) believe news about Black people is usually more disparaging than news about other racial and ethnic groups.
Earlier this year, Pew surveyed almost 5,000 Black adults from Feb. 22 to March 5. In addition, online focus groups were conducted in July and August of 2022 where Pew asked how they believe Black people are portrayed in the media, whether it is accurate or fair, and if it will ever get better.
Though many people rely on social media for information, Black Americans understand that’s not a reliable source for truth either. Around one-in-five (18 peecent) say they trust the accuracy of the information they see on social media, which is much less than the number of people who rely on local and national news outlets (48 percent and 44 percent, respectively).
Some solutions presented by participants include implementing Black folks as sources, journalists and newsrooms leaders. But as we’ve seen, the diversity, equity and inclusion that was promised following the Floyd protests was nothing but lip service.
The Root
Majority of Black Americans say they are depicted unfairly in news – study
Edwin Rios in New York and agency
THE GUARDIAN Wed, September 27, 2023 Photograph: Dean Mitchell/Getty Images
A majority of Black Americans say that their communities are unfairly depicted in news coverage, according to a sweeping new survey on Wednesday.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents observed that their community received more negative coverage than other racial and ethnic groups, the Pew Research Center survey found. Roughly four in 10 surveyed said that the media not only stereotyped Black people but also felt that they saw racist and racially insensitive coverage sometimes or fairly often.
The center’s findings reflect the shortfalls of a so-called racial reckoning that swept through newsrooms across the United States in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, when news outlets focused on hiring for roles centering diversity and inclusion and reporters and editors focused on covering communities traditionally underrepresented in news coverage.
The latest survey indicates that the so-called reckoning inside newsrooms has struggled to reach the communities that they are meant to serve, including as the news business continues to experience layoffs, and failed to change the way communities feel about the coverage they receive.
Charles Whitaker, dean of the Northwestern University’s Medill school of journalism told the Associated Press he was unsurprised by the findings.
He echoed the lack of nuance in coverage as a longstanding feeling among Black Americans who feel they are often portrayed as either victims of crimes or those who commit them. “We’ve known both anecdotally, and through my personal experience with the Black press, that Blacks have long been dissatisfied with their coverage,” he said.
The center surveyed nearly 5,000 adults over the winter to get their opinion on how Black Americans felt about how their communities are covered in the news media. The feelings of unfair coverage cut across political lines with Black Democrats and Republicans feeling very similar about how news coverage stereotyped Black communities.
More than two-thirds of Black adults surveyed noted that educating journalists about the history and context surrounding the issues facing their communities played a vital role in helping to improve coverage.
What’s more, a majority of Black Americans also noted that including more Black people as sources in news coverage would also heighten feelings of fairness in coverage for them. A majority also found that hiring more Black people in leadership positions helped to make news coverage about their communities more fair.
At least four in 10 people surveyed also found that hiring more Black reporters would make such coverage more fair. What’s more, they saw it was crucial that race and racial inequity coverage came from Black reporters, though just over half said it mattered as much for overall news coverage.
Richard Prince, a columnist for the Journal-isms newsletter, told the Associated Press that the findings reinforced the idea that Black Americans, like other groups, “want to be portrayed as having the same concerns as everybody else. Still, he acknowledged that progress had been made in the upper echelons of newsrooms at a time when the industry experiences layoffs, adding: “We’re integrating an industry that’s shrinking.”
Few of those surveyed, no matter the age, say they were confident that their communities will be covered fairly over the course of their lifetimes.
Black people's distrust of media not likely to change any time soon, survey found.
Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY Updated Tue, September 26, 2023
WASHINGTON − Black Americans, scarred by a history of mistrust of the media, have little faith that news organizations will do a good job of covering their communities fairly, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon, according to a Pew Research Center study released Tuesday.
“Few actually believe that this will change, not giving a lot of hope into the future,’’ said Katerina Eva Matsa, director of news and information research at the Pew Research Center.
The Pew Research Center conducted the survey to examine the relationship between Black Americans and news in the U.S. It comes more than three years after the murder of George Floyd ramped up social justice movements, calling out institutions, including the media, about their role in covering communities of color and the impact that has in forcing change.
Pew surveyed nearly 5,000 Black adults from Feb. 22 to March 5 this year and online focus groups in July and August of 2022 on a host of questions, including how they think Black people are portrayed in the media, whether much of it is negative or fair, and whether it’s likely to improve.
Only 14% of Black Americans are highly confident Black people will be covered fairly in their lifetimes, saying it is extremely or very likely to happen, the survey found. Of the respondents, 38% said it’s not likely or not at all likely to happen, and 40% said it’s somewhat likely.
Bremanté Bryant, an adjunct professor at Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C., said he’s not surprised by the Pew findings, which he said are in line with what he hears from students and young adults.
“They feel that more of the reports and the reporters should have a better sense of the communities they're covering,’’ said Bryant, who teaches multicultural media history.
“When they look at the mainstream media, they see that as 'the white media' and the news that they often get are from social media sites that come from a Black perspective, whether that’s Black Twitter or that's the Root,’’ Bryant said. “They want to get news from as they see it, ‘Black folks talking about Black things.’ And to be honest, even with that, they're not totally trusting of that.”
What do Black Republicans and Democrats say about the media?
The Pew survey found that nearly two-thirds of Black adults said the news they see or hear about Black people is often more negative than news about people from other racial and ethnic groups. That’s in contrast to 28% who say Black people are covered about the same as other groups and 7% who say coverage of Black people is often more positive.
Matsa said one reason is that respondents said some news organizations support specific agendas. They also point to journalists not being well informed and news outlets holding racist views.
“There’s a lot of those issues and opinions that Black Americans are holding as major reasons why coverage that they're seeing is racist or racially insensitive,’’ Matsa said.
The survey found that 53% of Black Republicans and 50% of Black Democrats said media coverage often misses important information about Black communities. And 46% of Black Republicans and 44% of Black Democrats agree that media coverage largely stereotypes Black people.
Who is telling Black stories?
Black Americans' mistrust of the media is not new, experts said. That’s in part why the Black press was created. It was the Black press that often reported on pressing issues in the Black community, including the wave of lynchings and violence against Black citizens, particularly in the South.
“The Black press was really a counter to what the mainstream press was not doing, which was either not telling the stories or telling the stories from a negative point of view of the Black and African American community,’’ Bryant said.
He said media coverage of Black communities has improved in some ways, but “we're starting to regress because you are seeing more and more small newspapers being wiped out and that includes the Black press.”
Mainstream media has a long history of racial profiling and perpetuating stereotypes of Black Americans. Some newspapers not only supported Jim Crow and segregation practices but also defended them.
“Black Americans distrust of media and perceptions of the Fourth Estate as another institution that inflicted harm is there and those perceptions were well earned,’’ said Sherri Williams, assistant professor in race, media and communication at the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.
Do newsrooms reflect diversity in the United States?
After the protests that followed Floyd’s death, many news organizations vowed to improve coverage of communities of color. Some pledged to do more to diversify their newsrooms and increase the number of people of color leading those newsrooms.
Those promises have often fallen short, experts said.
“There still hasn't been sustained coverage of Black communities in a way that not only prioritizes what's important to them, and also doesn't lean into stereotypes,’’ said Williams, who teaches classes on race and representation including Identity, Power and Misrepresentation and Race, Ethnic and Community Reporting.
She said some newsrooms hadn’t changed much of their culture, which is often very white, very monolith “and just not ideologically prepared to cover the news in a different way.’’
Poll: Journalists should talk to more Black people
The Pew survey found respondents said there are some paths to improving coverage, including diversifying more newsrooms and sources for stories and better educating reporters about the history and issues in Black communities.
They also said including more Black people as sources (54%) and hiring more Black people as newsroom leaders (53%) and as journalists (44%) at news outlets would be highly effective.
Many said it’s important the media gets all sides of an issue and understand the history and community.
“Large majorities believe that this is extremely important and very important for how we cover news in general,’’ Matsa said.
One way to improve relations is to do more community outreach and be transparent about how decisions are made and how news is covered, Williams said. She said it might also help for mainstream media to partner with more Black media outlets, often trusted sources.
Still, she said, repairing that trust soon looks grim in part because of the polarization and corporatization of news.
"I don't think that newsrooms should give up,'' Williams said. "They should look at ways of really being in communities and earning their trust. But I also think if they really are serious about doing this they need to get serious about investing the time and resources to do it.’’
TIME Tue, September 26, 2023 Credit - Photo-illustration by Lon Tweeten; Getty images
This year, during the heat of summer, when temperatures in New York surpassed 90°F, the 22 solar panels on the roof of my house were doing absolutely nothing.
This is not something I learned until September, four months after my husband and I bought this house with a purportedly functional leased solar system in upstate New York, months after logging into a website that inaccurately told us that the panels were working, months after we forked over $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the 20-year lease to the company supposed to be maintaining the solar panels, Spruce Power, which happens to be the largest privately held owner and operator of residential solar in America.
A third-party technician dispatched to our house by Spruce in September blamed squirrels that chewed on some important wires. Spruce blamed the previous owners, who they said fell behind on lease payments; in September, Spruce told us it had disconnected the system previously but that did not explain why they’d taken our money to prepay the lease on the panels in June. The panels are still not working to full capacity. (Made aware that this article was in the works, Spruce said in September that it will repay us for the months the panels were not working.)
We are not alone. Obscured by the recent rush to sign up households for rooftop solar and speed up the electrification of America are those who already have solar panels on their roof that do not work. Many were early adopters who did the “right” thing for the planet, installing solar before the expanded financial incentives that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Because solar was more expensive in the 2010s, many entered into leases with solar companies to defray upfront costs, and many were left in the lurch when those companies went out of business. Often, their solar leases were packaged and sold, alongside thousands of others, to private equity companies and other investors who were not incentivized to ensure, years into the leases, that service was good or that panels even worked.
“Bad operators have left many people with broken systems and a bitter taste in their mouth,” says Daniel Liu, head of asset commercial performance at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm. “It costs a lot to actually service these panels, and a lot of people have fallen through the cracks.”
There were 5,331 complaints containing the words “solar panels” submitted on reportfraud.ftc.gov between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19 of 2023, up 31% from the entire year of 2022 and up 746% since 2018, the first year for which the Federal Trade Commission has data, according to the FTC’s response to a Freedom of Information Act filed by TIME.
These cases are important to consider amidst the growing interest in rooftop solar, prompted by big incentives in the IRA and volatile energy prices that are leading people to want to have more control over the cost of their own power. Around 4 million U.S. homes now have rooftop solar, up from 300,000 a decade ago, according to Eric O’Shaughnessy, a clean energy consultant.
But in terms of regulation of the companies providing those solar panels, not much has changed since ours were installed in 2014. The thousands of households signing up for solar today hoping for energy independence could also find themselves dependent on opaque companies who are slow to respond to problems or who are no longer in business. For all the promise of solar—that it can help wean us off fossil fuels and cut our energy bills—the focus on speeding adoption has come at a cost: it allows unreliable players to flourish in a booming industry.
“The issue is regulation—there’s none of it, and customers like us are just sitting ducks,” says Steve Drapeau, who lives in Walnut Creek, Calif., and says his solar system has not worked since August 2022. He’s an active member of a Facebook group for customers of Spruce Power whose systems do not work as promised, and says he tries to get the company to pay attention to his case almost every single day.
Spruce is not the only company with unhappy customers, although it seems more hated than most; it gets an “F” from the Better Business Bureau and receives an average rating of 1 out of 5 stars from customers on the BBB’s website. Sunnova, a competitor, also receives an “F,” though it gets 2.61 stars out of 5 on the BBB’s website. A third competitor, SunRun, receives an A+ but the BBB makes a note on its page that “based on BBB files this company has a pattern of complaints.”
Companies that sell, rather than lease, solar panels are unpopular, too; dozens of customers have filed complaints against a company called Pink Energy, which abruptly went out of business in September 2022 and filed for bankruptcy after allegedly selling defunct solar panels and misleading customers about their benefits. Even some of the biggest solar-power companies in the U.S., including SunRun, Tesla, and SunPower have faced legal complaints about the sales practices, solar panels, and financing options at their companies or companies they’ve acquired.
“I get so many calls about solar I could never take every case—I would be working forever,” says Kevin Kneupper, a lawyer who represents consumers in cases against solar panel companies. “You could occupy every state attorney general, full-time, just doing solar.” (Kneupper says that when people ask him if they should get solar panels, he no longer can say yes in good conscience because of what he’s seen.)
The attorneys general in many states have sued companies that they say targeted vulnerable populations and misrepresented the benefits of rooftop solar. But the attorneys general appear focused on emerging companies trying to sell new solar systems door-to-door rather than those ostensibly servicing systems already in place. Their lawsuits do not tackle a bigger, more intractable problem: there are companies whose job it is to maintain or guarantee solar systems that are already on customers’ homes, and their track record is decidedly mixed. As William Tong, the attorney general of Connecticut, told me, “if you’ve been deceived, we will help you, but at that point, the damage is already done.”
Indeed, it’s not something that the solar industry likes to talk about—in a time of extreme climate change, advocates are so hellbent on expanding rooftop solar that they are loath to criticize the industry’s bad actors, worrying that it may slow broader adoption. No one wants to get in the way of a good idea, even if that good idea can go very wrong.
The problem with residential solar leases
The solar system on my rooftop is leased; the house’s previous owners signed a 20-year contract in 2014 with a now-defunct Minnesota company called Kilowatt Systems. It is not rare for a solar company to go out of business and for its leases to be acquired by another firm; around 8,700 different companies installed at least one residential solar system between 2000 and 2016, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Many of these installers were contractors who only dabbled in solar, but still, only 2,900 of those companies were still active by 2016.
We did not think the panels were a very good deal when we bought the house, but couldn’t find anyone who could confirm this; our real estate agent had never sold a house with leased panels before and our lawyer said she didn’t review solar contracts. Under the lease the previous owners had signed, which we were expected to take over, payments had started out at $67.92 a month but rose each year, reaching $116.93 in 2034; meanwhile, the amount of energy guaranteed each year lessened as the panels aged.
Still, the panels cost a tiny fraction of what the house did, so when the previous owners agreed to split the cost of paying off the rest of the lease with us, we figured we’d gotten a good deal. We each spent around $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the lease, deciding not to buy the panels outright because we wanted the benefit of maintenance and support from Spruce Power.
Leasing is still an option for people who want solar panels on their roof, but it was even more popular in the early days of solar a decade ago. Only about one-third of residential solar systems installed in 2014 were owned by the customer, compared to two-thirds today, according to data from Wood Mackenzie.
The leasing model helped rooftop solar flourish in the 2010s, eliminating at least one barrier to adoption: high upfront costs for homeowners. Companies got the money to finance these costly installations from packaging and selling tens of thousands of solar leases to private equity and institutional investors.
But it’s much easier to sell solar systems than it is to install them on thousands of homes and maintain them, and cash flow became a problem for many companies who were trying to gain market share as quickly as possible. As early businesses ran out of money and went kaput, solar lease portfolios were sold from one company to the next, sometimes acquired in bankruptcy proceedings for pennies on the dollar. “These companies went out of business, bankers bought the portfolio and are still collecting fees, but they’re not set up to provide support,” says Vikram Aggarwal, the CEO of EnergySage, a solar services marketplace. He estimates that over half of all solar installations have been orphaned, meaning that the company that originally installed the panels or pledged to maintain them has gone out of business.
It’s not surprising that companies struggled to keep up with necessary maintenance and repair for solar panels on peoples’ homes; it costs much more, on a per watt basis, to maintain rooftop solar than utility-scale solar, says Liu, the Wood Mackenzie analyst. Utility-scale solar provides such relatively large amounts of power that they have the cost of regular inspections and maintenance built in, while residential rooftop solar is often installed and then largely forgotten. Even so, one recent study found that utility-scale solar projects degraded at a higher rate than analysts had predicted, meaning they produced less solar than anticipated.
The same is likely happening on rooftops, especially since homeowners can’t see what’s happening on their roof or if there are squirrels gnawing on their wires. What’s more, it’s expensive to send a truck to repair rooftop solar panels because electricians have been in high demand and because a company’s clients may be spread out across a metropolitan area, requiring technicians to spend a lot of time in transit.
The stories I’ve heard of “efforts” to repair solar systems are almost comical. Spruce Power, for instance, contracts with a company called NovaSource to service panels. But one Spruce Power customer, Joel Zuckerman, who initially leased a solar system for his Maryland home with a now-bankrupt company called Sungevity, says that it took NovaSource months after his panels stopped working to send a technician to his house, and when they did arrive in March 2022, they didn’t even go on the roof to check out the system. They came back in July, he says, but without the equipment they needed to fix the panels. It took over a year before technicians arrived, in September 2023, with the right equipment, he says—but still were unable to fix the system. “I realize I am just screaming into the void at this point,” Zuckerman says. (NovaSource did not return a request for comment. Spruce said it was not familiar with the case but that “in certain markets, it takes NovaSource a while to respond.")
When we bought our house with Spruce panels on the roof, the closing was delayed for weeks because its customer service took that long to transfer the solar agreement from the sellers’ name to ours. When we called Spruce before the sale to make sure the system was working, a customer service representative told us to log into the company’s portal, where we could see how much the panels were producing. It showed that in March, the system produced just over 600 kilowatt hours (kwh) of power, with production increasing to about 680 kwh per month in July. An asterisk at the bottom said “shown monthly billed production data,” and though we later learned that this amount was just an estimate, nowhere did the page make that clear. The website Spruce told us to check showed our solar system was still producing. Screenshot taken Sept. 25, 2023
After getting a surprisingly high energy bill in August, a month after we moved in, I emailed Spruce’s customer service to check if the panels were working. I never got a response. When I called customer service later that month, a representative told me that the system had been disconnected since at least January because the previous owners hadn’t paid the bills. It was not until the end of August when I emailed Spruce Power saying I was a reporter that the company said it would send a technician; at that point, we also learned that Spruce does not do any of its own maintenance but hires another company to do it. The technician came in early September, looked at our system, fixed some of the panels but said he would have to come back another time to fix the rest. Spruce has not yet sent anyone back, even though I got a personal note from Jon Norling, the company’s chief legal officer, apologizing for the problems.
Norling says that until September 2022, Spruce was owned by private equity, which did not see the need to invest in customer service. Since being acquired by XL Fleet, a distributed solar energy provider, the company has invested significantly in improving the customer experience, he says. It launched “Spruce University” earlier this year in an effort to improve customer service, and wait times appear to have shrunk from nearly an hour earlier this year to just a few minutes now. Spruce’s leases are designed to be a 10% savings over the local utility rate, he says, and if the customer can show that they’re not saving money, Spruce will modify the lease rate. Norling apologized for my experience, adding that only about 40-50 customers of the roughly 72,000 rooftop solar systems across 13 states owned or administered by the company—or less than one tenth of a percent—have issues like mine.
Norling also had an explanation for why Spruce told me that our panels were working when they in fact weren’t: 3G technology. Older residential solar systems were installed with meters that communicated over 3G, he says, and when cell phone service providers discontinued 3G, those meters were forced offline. Spruce is upgrading the meters to 4G, but the chip shortage has led to slow production of new meters. Until they’re all fixed, what I and other customers saw on Spruce’s portal were estimates, and not the actual amount of solar we were getting. (The company never made that clear, and Norling apologized that the company did not specify that those calculations were estimates.) Spruce has offered to reimburse me for the months I did not receive solar power, but I also recently received an email from customer service, to whom I had sent my energy bills, saying they “were not able to review them to completion,” which is a sentence that may or may not have been written by an actual human.
The technician who came in September helped me log in to a system run by Enphase, the company that made the inverter, or brains, of the panels, and it showed that the panels had been offline since January 2019. Spruce says the previous owners were delinquent on their bills since 2019 and that it had sent them numerous notices about their system; the previous owners say they never received any notices from the company and that they were paying their solar bills until they sold the house in June 2023.
I should say here that my experience is by no means typical of everyone who gets solar installed on their roof. Sunnova, another company with poor BBB ratings, told me, for instance, that they upgraded all of their 3G meters before the 3G transition so that no meters went offline; Sunnova also has a global command center in Houston that allows the company to monitor every system in real-time and troubleshoot problems. It expanded its service technician team by 230% since 2020.
A neighbor of mine, Thomas Wright, installed solar panels on his home a year ago from SunCommon and has only positive things to say; he expects to have earned his money back in seven years and for the remaining 18 years that the panels are guaranteed, he’ll be generating electricity for free.
New York’s Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) would like me to tell you that the annual cost of solar is almost always cheaper than the price customers pay to the utility for power, and that solar panels increase a home’s value. States like New York use tax rebates to incentivize consumers to choose reputable contractors to install their panels, and modern technology enables homeowners to monitor their panels’ production hourly so they know if something is not working, says Noah Ginsburg, the executive director of NYSEIA.
There is a need, he says, for more real estate brokers and lawyers to be educated about solar leases and rooftop solar so they can better serve their clients. “We could do a better job proactively doing outreach to brokers and educating them, but they should be educating themselves as well,” he says. “This is going to be the rule, rather than the exception: rooftops in the United States are gonna have solar over the next decade.” Solar customers can lose their right to sue
You might think there is a simple way out of these solar leasing nightmares: stop paying the company until it fixes your solar panels, or hire a lawyer to get your money back. But most solar leases have a clause in them requiring any disputes to be resolved by arbitration, which has been found to restrict the amount of relief consumers can receive.
Brad Cummings, who lives in Long Beach, Calif., says that subsidiaries of Spruce Power have been sending him collection notices and charging him late fees for more than three years even though the solar system he originally leased from a company called Tredegar Solar Fund I LLC has not been operating at full capacity since 2019. Tredegar “has simply been making up the numbers it bills,” he alleged, in a demand for arbitration he filed in 2021; he also says that Enphase, the company that owns his inverter, told him that his system had not reported data since November 2019, but Tredegar continued to send him bills that included specific amounts of power generated. During this time, he says, Tredegar hired Spruce to service his account.
The arbitrator ruled in January 2023 that Tredegar had materially breached the billing and payment provisions of its contract and owed Cummings $2,225 —much less than Cummings had requested. Despite that ruling, Cummings is continuing to get invoices from Spruce, which claims he owes $5,239.63 and is also charging him late fees for not paying those invoices. In July 2023, they sent him a letter warning him that failing to pay “could have significant negative impacts on your overall credit profile.”
The ruling that Tredegar breached part of its contract should mean that Cummings has no obligations to the company, says his lawyer, Kevin Kneupper. But Norling, of Spruce, contends that the system is now fully functioning (which Cummings disputes) and therefore that Cummings is responsible for ongoing lease payments. Spruce hasn’t responded to requests to stop sending him collection notices; Cummings has now filed a suit in California Superior Court accusing Spruce of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Cummings says Tredegar originally promised him he’d have no power bills and that the system would function for decades. “This is the whole thing with them auto-debiting your account,” he says. “People want to sell you stuff, they sign you up for auto-debit, and then they don’t honor the job.”
He’s right, in a way. Even if solar leases are not as popular as they once were, the last decade has seen an explosion of the as-a-service model, where customers don’t own things like software or music or even homes but instead pay a monthly fee. “Our as-a-service model allows consumers to access new technology without making a significant upfront investment,” Spruce said, in a March announcement that it had bought a portfolio of 22,500 solar leases.
These deals turn problematic when the company holding the lease keeps collecting monthly fees but, in an effort to keep costs low for investors, skimps on the actual service part of the deal.
Before Spruce returned my emails, I filed complaints with the New York State Attorney General’s office and with the New York Department of Public Service, which oversees regulation of the state’s utilities and rooftop solar. So far, neither has intervened. (A spokesperson for New York’s Department of Public Service told me that the agency has refunded more than $3.4 million to consumers this year based on complaints about solar billing issues.) A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission, which focuses on consumer fraud, said that my case falls outside the agency’s purview; a spokesperson for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that the conduct I described was likely covered by state and federal statutes that prohibit unfair or abusive practices.
“There’s a lack of regulation and it’s something that we have been trying to broadcast: the state is purely focused on mobilizing renewables, but at the expense of what?” says Daphany Rose Sanchez, executive director of Kinetic Communities Consulting, a company that helps lower-income customers in New York assess their renewable energy options. She’s had customers sign up for solar only to find that the company placed a lien on their home, rather than just on the panels, making it difficult to sell or refinance.
Regulators are eyeing their options, but they also don’t want to put in place barriers that might slow the development of a technology that, when it works, can be very good for society. “Consumers want solar panels, and nobody wants us to stop the availability of solar panels. ” says Tong, the Connecticut attorney general. “They don’t want the government making it more difficult or getting in their way.”
There's no slowing rooftop solar
Indeed, rooftop solar is booming. Around 6.4 gigawatts of rooftop solar was installed in the U.S. in 2022, which broke the record for the most small-scale solar capacity added in one year. Industry watchers expect the 2023 number to be even higher, after the Inflation Reduction Act increased a tax credit for rooftop solar panels to 30% of the cost of the project, up from 26% in 2020 and 2021.
The adopters of rooftop solar today may have fewer problems than the customers of the last decade; more people are now buying their systems outright, rather than leasing them, and the rise of battery storage has enabled homeowners to use more of the energy their panels generate, saving more money. What’s more, says Liu, the Wood Mackenzie analyst, as the market matures, solar companies are investing more into both selling systems and maintaining them.
That doesn’t solve the problem that I and many others are facing—we can’t sign up for new solar systems or take advantage of new tax credits because we’re already stuck with older panels on our homes that are owned by companies that don’t seem to want to maintain them. Indeed, while solar does save money for a lot of people, for many people with older systems, the savings are pretty low; Zuckerman, the Maryland resident, says his savings come out to about $7 a month. And that’s even before the nightmare of dealing with a company that still has not fixed his panels. He, like many people I talked to for this story, says he wishes Spruce would just come and take the panels away so he could stop dealing with the headaches.
I haven’t gotten there yet—I like the idea of making some energy on my roof instead of buying it from a power company that is still burning fossil fuels. But I did like it better when I thought I could just have solar panels on my roof that were going to chug along and produce power without me having to constantly worry about squirrels or wires or billing issues. Now I’ve learned: with rooftop solar, someone has to be vigilant, and if the company maintaining your system won’t do it, you have to.
But vigilance is a hassle. Now that my 3G meter has been replaced, I can log online to Enphase’s monitoring system every day and see how much my system is producing, but even then, it seems almost set up to remind me of how little I can do as a person just trying to create some energy on my rooftop. On Sept. 21, for instance, the panels—which are still not working to full capacity—produced the most they have generated since the technician gave them a partial fix: 27.7 kwh. That means that even at its most efficient, the system can only generate about 18% less energy than my house uses on a daily basis.
GREEN CAPITALI$M
US hopes Europe will join 'race to top' on green subsidies
Reuters Tue, September 26, 2023 at 11:51 AM MDT·2 min read Investing in African Mining Indaba 2023 conference in Cape Town
BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States hopes Europe will take similar measures to its Inflation Reduction Act to drive a "race to the top" on support for green technologies, a senior U.S. official said in Berlin on Tuesday ahead of economic talks with German counterparts.
The two sides will hold broad-ranging discussions on issues like managing the risks of artificial intelligence, diversifying supply chains, and Ukraine's reconstruction, Jose Fernandez, under secretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the State Department, told a news briefing.
The United States understood European Union concerns about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides massive subsidies for the domestic manufacturing of green tech, he said. But it had pointed out the technology would benefit all and the green transition required all hands on deck.
"We can't do this alone. We hope Europe will take similar measures to encourage a race to the top," he said, noting that Washington was still working with Brussels on a critical minerals deal that would enable EU companies to better take advantage of U.S. green subsidies.
Asked about concerns about weakness in the German economy, Fernandez said its track record as an engine of the European economy for decades with a competitive export industry should give observers reason to be optimistic about its long term prospects.
"You've heard the statement don't bet against the United States? I would say the same thing about the German economy," said Fernandez, who will attend the talks in the chancellery on Wednesday.
Asked about the extent to which the United States and Europe are converging in their approach towards China, Fernandez said there was a consensus on certain issues like the need to diversify supply chains.
"But you are always going to have views that may not necessarily be opposing but just different nuances," he said. "So I can't point to anyone but the Europeans make up their own minds."
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Mark Potter)
Germany halts e-car solar subsidy programme after one day amid high demand
Riham Alkousaa Updated Wed, September 27, 2023 Two e.Go Life city cars of Germany's electric car startup e.GO Mobile AG are seen in the prototype production line in Aachen
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany on Wednesday halted a subsidy scheme less than 24 hours after it was launched due to strong demand for the payments to install rooftop solar panels, storage and charging points, highlighting questions about the effectiveness of one-off subsidies in the switch to green energy.
With a budget of 300 million euros ($317 million) from the transport ministry for this year, the programme offered a subsidy of up to 10,200 euros for homeowners with electric cars to install a photovoltaic system and a charging station.
The exhaustion of the program's funds so quickly raised questions in the solar power market about the effectiveness of one-time market interventions in creating sustainable demand and boosting the switch to renewables.
"On the scale of 33,000 cars in a market where you have 3.3 million new cars per year ... it's not very effective," Philipp Schroeder, chief executive of solar company 1Komma5, told Reuters.
The programme, launched on Tuesday morning, was aimed at boosting the switch to electric cars and reducing the need for public charging stations.
Around 33,000 applications were submitted within 24 hours of launch, meaning the earmarked funds had been exhausted, a spokesperson for KfW bank, which is giving out the funds, said.
The transport ministry announced the program earlier this month and had allocated a total of some 500 million euros for the programme, with 200 million reserved for next year.
The programme was thus disrupting the already-booming market and creating uncertainty as most consumers who were considering installing a solar system with a wallbox may wait for the second part of the subsidy to kick in next year, Schroeder added.
"The message from our side is: Please, please don't make it worse. Just do not come up with any one-time subsidies ever again," he said.
BIGGER WALLETS
The application for the subsidy was open online on Tuesday morning around 0800 am CET and closed at around 2 am on Wednesday, the KfW spokesperson said, adding that the initial application only requires an investment plan, with documents needed within two years of the bank's approval.
The eligibility conditions for the program do not include a maximum household income but do require ownership of a house and an electric vehicle.
"The big share of the population who are tenants are excluded, and those who own apartments are excluded too," Lion Hirth, energy markets professor at Hertie School, told Reuters.
The program was introduced by the ministry of transportation, whose sector has been consistently failing to meet its climate targets.
The transport ministry was not immediately available to comment.
Germany's solar power association BSW said it was not surprised the funds were exhausted so quickly, citing booming demand for residential photovoltaic systems and wallboxes to charge electric vehicles.
Demand for solar power systems more than doubled in the first half of 2022, compared with the year before, and one in six German homeowners are planning to install panels on their roofs, BSW said.
As the cost of electric car charging at home with home-generated solar power falls to less than third compared with purchasing from the grid, some 42% of people installing panels on their roofs would install a wallbox, it added.
A typical 70 square meter residential photovoltaic system could offer electricity for up to 20,000 kilometers of electric travel in addition to powering a four-person household.
($1 = 0.9463 euros)
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Friederike Heine and David Holmes)
Indian hackers target Canadian military website amid row over murder of Sikh leader
Gareth Corfield
TORY TELEGRAPH Wed, September 27, 2023 Justin Trudeau has been caught in a diplomatic spat with New Delhi over the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada
Hackers calling themselves the Indian Cyber Force have claimed credit for knocking the Canadian Armed Forces’ official website offline as a diplomatic row grows between the two countries.
The group, not thought to have formal links to New Delhi, said on Telegram that it had “taken down” the www.forces.ca website.
Operators of the channel shared a screenshot of an error page with the message “#f—canada”.
Last week they posted the message: “Get ready to feel the power of IndianCyberForce attacks will be launching on Canada cyber space… it’s for the mess your started”. [sic]
The cyberattack, thought to be a “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) assault, came as tensions between New Delhi and Ottawa continued to simmer over the murder of an Indian dissident in Canada.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader in British Columbia, was shot dead by two masked gunmen outside Canada’s largest Sikh temple in June 2023.
Unacceptable violation of sovereignty
Justin Trudeau formally accused India of orchestrating the murder, saying: “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
India’s foreign ministry has denied the claims, calling them “absurd and motivated”.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was labelled a 'terrorist mastermind' by New Delhi
- Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
Mr Nijjar was a vocal advocate for the Khalistan movement, which calls for the creation of a self-governing Sikh homeland within India.
New Delhi labelled him a terrorist “mastermind” and claimed he was a driving force behind the Khalistan Tiger Force, a separatist group banned under Indian anti-terror laws in February 2023.
An unofficial group whose modus operandi consists of temporarily knocking Indian critics’ websites offline, the Indian Cyber Force broadcasts its efforts through Telegram and Twitter.
Perfect tool for hacktivists
Brett Callow, a researcher with cyber security company Emsisoft, said: “Given current geopolitical tensions, Canadian organisations – and organisations everywhere, for that matter – should assume that these attacks will continue.
“They’re cheap, easy to carry out, and highly visible. That makes them the perfect tool for hacktivists or, in some cases, states’ cyber operations.”
In recent weeks the Indian Cyber Force has claimed to have taken down the websites of a Canadian hospital, the Bangladeshi police and Indonesia’s equivalent of the SAS.
DDoS attacks of the type deployed by the hacker gang are typically short-lived, lasting hours or days at most. Online criminal gangs maintain networks of hacked computers, known as botnets, which they use to flood targeted websites with millions of requests until the target collapses under the strain.
Most DDoS attacks are a method for internet activists to draw attention to themselves rather than a serious effort to cause damage.
Canada’s Cyber Security Establishment, the country’s equivalent of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Indian consulate in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Las Vegas hospitality workers overwhelmingly permit union to call strike against hotels, casinos
Culinary Union members, including Veronica Flores Serrano, who works at The Linq, cast their ballots during a strike vote, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. Tens of thousands of hospitality workers who keep the iconic casinos and hotels of Las Vegas humming were set to vote Tuesday on whether to authorize a strike amid ongoing contract negotiations.
(K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tens of thousands of Las Vegas hospitality workers fighting for new union contracts voted Tuesday to authorize a strike that could impact more than three dozen casinos and hotels, the city’s economic backbone.
The Culinary Workers Union hasn’t gone on strike in more than three decades.
The union didn't immediately set a deadline for a walkout as it continues bargaining for better pay, benefits and working conditions with the top casino employers on the Las Vegas Strip, including MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts.
A walkout by Nevada's largest labor union would be the latest in a series of high-profile job actions around the country, including walkouts in Hollywood. The same day the Culinary Workers Union vote took place, President Joe Biden joined United Auto Workers strikers on a picket line in Michigan.
Workers calling for higher wages, better conditions and job security, especially since the end of the pandemic, have been increasingly willing to walk out on the job as employers face a greater need for workers.
In Nevada, the Culinary Union is the largest labor union, representing about 60,000 hospitality workers statewide. Contracts for 40,000 of those members recently expired.
“We are the glue that keeps these hotels together, and we should be paid what we deserve,” Deanna Virgil, a longtime employee at Wynn Las Vegas, told The Associated Press after casting her vote.
Virgil was among 53,000 housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters, cooks, bartenders and other hotel employees in Las Vegas eligible to participate in the vote. The union is scheduled to return to the bargaining table next week with MGM Resorts, Caesars and Wynn Resorts.
In a statement Tuesday night, MGM Resorts said it has a decades-long history of successfully bargaining with the union and believes that “both parties are committed to negotiating a contract that is good for everyone.”
Caesars did not respond to emailed requests for comment, and Wynn Resorts said they had no comment.
Virgil, who has worked in the hospitality sector for 38 years, said she is able to make do with her current salary and benefits because she lives with her adult daughter.
“There’s no telling where I would be if I didn’t have the support of my daughter,” Virgil said. “There are a lot of us who have two jobs, but one job should be enough.”
Bethany Khan, the union’s spokesperson, said all members receive health insurance and currently earn about $26 hourly, including benefits. Khan declined to say how much the union is seeking in pay raises because “we do not negotiate in public,” although the union has said it is asking for “the largest wage increases ever negotiated” in its history.
In 1991, more than 500 workers went on strike at the now-shuttered Frontier hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas. It became one of the longest strikes in U.S. history, stretching more than six years. The union said all the strikers returned to their jobs afterward, with back pay and benefits.
The union last voted to authorize a strike in 2018. Five-year contracts were reached soon after a majority of the participating 25,000 hospitality workers cast votes to walk off the job. Rory Kuykendall, 40, said he is hopeful that Tuesday’s vote will have the same effect.
“It’s great to see all the huge numbers in turnout,” said Kuykendall, a bellperson at Flamingo Las Vegas. “It’s a chance for all the members to come out and show that we’re really ready to fight.”
Last summer, the casino workers’ union in Atlantic City negotiated landmark contracts that gave workers the biggest raises they’ve ever had. It also removed any chance of a strike for several years, an important consideration for Atlantic City’s casino industry as it tries to return to pre-pandemic business levels.
In past contracts, the Atlantic City union had concentrated on preserving health care and pension benefits, but this time sought “significant” pay raises for workers to help them keep pace with spiraling prices for gasoline, food, rent and other living expenses, the union said. Las Vegas hospitality workers vote to authorize strike
Michael Sainato
THE GUARDIAN Wed, September 27, 2023 Photograph: KM Cannon/AP
Hospitality workers in Las Vegas have voted to authorize a strike if their union does not reach a contract deal with dozens of hotels on the Las Vegas strip.
Thousands of workers attended the strike vote on Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack Center on the University of Nevada – Las Vegas (UNLV) campus. The union slogan headlining the event was: “One job should be enough.”
Of the 53,000 members, 95% voted in favor of authorizing the strike.
“Companies are generating record profits, and we demand that workers aren’t left behind and have a fair share of that success,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, in a statement.
“As companies reduce labor, there are less workers who have even more responsibilities and are doing more work instead of spending quality time with their families, and that has to change. Workers have built this industry and made it successful and that’s why we are demanding that workers share in that prosperity,” he said.
Pappageorge said the two sides were still “far apart” after months of negotiations with the largest three gaming companies in Las Vegas.
Among the asks from the union include “winning the largest wage increases ever negotiated in the history of the Culinary Union” amid high inflation rates in recent years, the high cost of living in Las Vegas, and furloughs during the beginning of the Covid pandemic that greatly affected hospitality workers.
The union is also pushing for reducing housekeeping workloads, mandating daily room cleaning, which was eliminated throughout much of the hotel industry during the pandemic, expanding safety protections for workers on the job, and adding clarifying language to a no-strike clause that gives casino workers the right to respect picket lines and does not prevent the union from taking action against non-union restaurants on casino properties.
“My job got so much harder since the pandemic and I’m in constant pain at work. When I get home I feel guilty that I don’t have energy to spend time with my son, help him with his homework, or even cook dinner some nights,” said Evangelina Alaniz, a guest room attendant at the Bellagio and a Culinary Union member for 18 years. “Often, I have to go to bed so I have enough strength to go to work the next day and serve the guests.”
The union has not yet set a strike deadline, but workers are currently working under expired contracts at 22 locations among MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn/Encore Resorts. Negotiations began in April, with contract extension agreed upon in June that expired in early September as the union noted a lack of substantial progress.
In 2018, 25,000 hospitality workers voted to authorize a strike, with contracts settled with employers soon after the vote.
What Las Vegas hospitality workers are looking for as possible Culinary Union strike looms KLAS Las Vegas Wed, September 27, 2023
Nearly 53,000 hospitality workers from MGM, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn properties, and more are ready to strike if contract negotiations stall.
Nearly 53,000 hospitality workers from MGM, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn properties, and more are ready to strike if contract negotiations stall.
Las Vegas hospitality workers vote to call a strike
Hospitality workers in Las Vegas have voted to authorize a strike against major hotels and casinos. The Culinary Workers Union, which represents around 60,000 employees, said 95% of voters approved calling a strike if necessary. Workers are seeking improved wages, benefits, and working conditions in new contracts. Yahoo Finance's Live Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman explain the details of the Culinary Workers Union vote and discuss the rise of recent union strikes. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Hospitality workers in Las Vegas have voted to authorize a strike against major hotels and casinos. The Culinary Workers Union, which represents around 60,000 employees, said 95% of voters approved calling a strike if necessary. Workers are seeking improved wages, benefits, and working conditions in new contracts. Yahoo Finance's Live Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman explain the details of the Culinary Workers Union vote and discuss the rise of recent union strikes. Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: And moving on today, some news from casinos. Coming today, a strike as Vegas hospitality staff have voted overwhelmingly to call a strike against hotels and casinos. Tens of thousands of members of the Culinary Workers Union are currently fighting for new contracts, bargaining for better pay benefits and working conditions.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. This is a very interesting story. Coming-- I mean, these waves of union action. And it's a bit of a paradox, if you will, because union membership overall has been declining for quite a while in the United States.
JOSH LIPTON: To about 10%.
JULIE HYMAN: But we have Union actions that have been on the rise, whether we're talking about the UAW or the Hollywood writers or actors, right, or a Starbucks, or Chipotle workers that have also been starting to organize, Amazon as well. So the list is long and they're quite visible. This one also is visible.
As we saw today, it doesn't seem to be affecting the stocks. These stocks have not done great year-to-date. It's sort of a mixed bag, but none of them has significantly really outperformed the market. And we're talking about a lot of workers here in this case. The Culinary Union is the largest labor union in Nevada. It represents about 60,000 workers statewide. And so we're talking about 53,000, I believe, in Las Vegas specifically that are eligible to participate in this strike.
JOSH LIPTON: To your point, the bigger picture, though, I think you made a good one, it's actually almost tough to keep up with the number of strikes at this point, because it covers so many companies and sectors in industries. It's-- I mean, as you said, it's airline, it's airline workers, it's UPS workers, UAW, Hollywood. It does feel, Julie, like, maybe the pendulum is starting to swing back to labor a bit, because not only are they striking, though, when they get to the table, they are securing better pay. That complicates the picture for the Fed.
It also complicates the picture for investors, because you begin to think like, if that is the trend and it continues and broadens, what does that mean for profit margins?
JULIE HYMAN: Well, I would argue the pendulum has been in labor's favor and in workers' favor over-- you know, coming out of the pandemic when we have seen such a tight, tight labor market. And I've been asking when is the pendulum going to swing back in the other direction? Obviously, the unions are not judging that the labor market is loose enough yet, that they don't have--
JOSH LIPTON: They think now's the time to strike.
JULIE HYMAN: Exactly. So that's a really good point you make, though. If I'm the Fed and I'm watching this, this doesn't indicate that we are going to see maybe unemployment go up enough.
JOSH LIPTON: If you're Jerome Powell, you're thinking--
JULIE HYMAN: --in order to bring inflation down enough.
JOSH LIPTON: --wages are going up, right, complicates his job.
JULIE HYMAN: It does. Yeah.
Culinary, Bartenders Union workers in Las Vegas demand change, possible strike looming
KLAS Las Vegas Tue, September 26, 2023
Culinary, Bartenders Union workers in Las Vegas demand change, possible strike looming
Thousands of Las Vegas strip workers have threatened to walk off the job if things don't change.
Thousands of Las Vegas strip workers have threatened to walk off the job if things don't change.
95% of Las Vegas area Culinary Union votes to strike
Kyle J. Paine Tue, September 26, 2023 95% of Las Vegas area Culinary Union votes to strike
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – On Tuesday, the largest union in Nevada authorized its leaders to strike if it fails to reach an agreement with the three major hotel and casino operators on and along the world-famous Las Vegas Strip.
95% of those union members voted yes –and rallied throughout the day Tuesday – at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. The two sides are expected to resume negotiations next week, union officials told the 8 News Now Investigators.
“After that, if we can’t get somewhere, I think we’ll get a strike,” Ted Pappageorge, the Local 226’s secretary-treasurer said.
Pappageorge said the union is asking for its largest wage increase ever, along with better health benefits and defense against technology – namely artificial intelligence – whittling down its workforce.
Union workers like Cherine Jackson, a guest room attendant at Linq, said it was no coincidence that Tuesday’s vote is within weeks of the much-ballyhooed Formula One auto race in November.
When asked if she was willing to use the F1 race as leverage, Jackson said, “Yes, I am..” Upon further questioning about her colleagues’ willingness to strike, as many of them were walking through Thomas & Mack chanting about a new labor contract, Jackson said, “Yes they are. Look around.”
“Workers are not dumb,” Pappageorge said in response to the same line of questioning. “They’re really smart. They’re really smart.”
He continued: “We’re concerned that companies have forgotten how this town really was built and how these companies got their profits.”
Pappageorge said the hotel is still taking advantage of lower staffing requirements that were put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reminded a throng of news reporters that his union has a history of long, nasty strikes, saying a work stoppage would last “as long as it takes.”
Jeff Bezos's Former Housekeeper Sued Him, Alleging That 14-Hour Shifts And Lack of Bathroom Access Led to Frequent UTIs; Claims She Was Only Allowed To Eat In The Laundry Room And Faced Racial Discrimination — Hired To Work Without Being Seen By The Family
Jeannine Mancini Tue, September 26, 2023
Mercedes Wedaa, a former housekeeper for Amazon.com Inc. Founder Jeff Bezos, filed a lawsuit against him and two companies responsible for managing his properties. The lawsuit, filed in November 2022 in Seattle, claims that she and other employees worked in unsafe and unsanitary conditions for extended 14-hour shifts without breaks. According to Wedaa, she was hired in 2019 with the requirement that she "work around a family without being seen."
One significant issue raised in the lawsuit is the lack of readily accessible bathrooms for housekeeping staff. While the Bezos family was at home, the housekeepers could only enter the residence for cleaning purposes. Accessing a bathroom directly from the laundry door was not an option because that led to the family's living space. To reach a restroom, housekeepers had to climb out of the laundry room window, walk along a path to a mechanical room and proceed downstairs to a bathroom. This arrangement was in place for about 18 months, leading to frequent urinary tract infections among the staff because of restricted toilet access, Wedaa alleges.
Wedaa's other complaints include the absence of resting spaces for housekeepers, meals consumed in laundry rooms and discriminatory treatment toward Hispanic employees. She also claims she raised concerns about the employment of undocumented workers, the lack of rest breaks and unsafe working conditions. Following these complaints, Wedaa said she was demoted and then dismissed on the grounds that she seemed "unhappy" and was negatively affecting the team's morale. She seeks back pay, benefits and an undetermined amount in damages.
Bezos's attorney Harry Korrell refutes these claims, labeling them as meritless and absurd. Korrell notes that Wedaa was a lead housekeeper who made a six-figure salary and was in control of her break and meal times. He asserts that multiple bathrooms and break rooms were available to staff. In addition, he said that Wedaa filed the lawsuit after her demand for a $9 million settlement was rejected, and he insised she was terminated for performance reasons.
Patrick McGuigan, Wedaa's lawyer, supports his client as a "very credible person" with "compelling evidence" to back her allegations. The lawsuit contends that housekeepers were initially allowed to use a restroom in a security room, but this was later revoked for being a "breach of security protocol."
A source from one of the managing companies named in the lawsuit, Northwestern LLC, claims that staff had access to break rooms with seating, tables, stocked refrigerators, a coffee machine and snacks. They add that multiple bathrooms were available near the break rooms and that when the family was not in residence, staff could also use the family kitchen and other amenities.
In the midst of these competing narratives, Wedaa's lawsuit also states that she and other Hispanic housekeepers were treated differently from their Caucasian counterparts, adding another layer of complexity to a case already fraught with sensitive issues. Bezos's fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, is Mexican-American, and Korrell argues that the suggestion of racial discrimination against Wedaa is "absurd."
The lawsuit is still pending, and the amount of damages Wedaa is seeking will be determined at trial. Bezos is the third-richest man in the world with a net worth of $153 billion, according to Forbes.
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