UNION BUSTING 101

Exxon tells locked-out Texas refinery workers non-union employees get higher pay

ONLY BECAUSE UNIONS HAVE SET PAY RATES, NON UNION MUST COMPETE AGAINST.


FILE PHOTO: An Exxon gas station is seen in Houston

Erwin Seba
Thu, October 28, 2021, 7:20 PM·2 min read

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp on Thursday sent a message to hundreds of union workers locked out of their jobs at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery saying that pay is greater at non-union sites.

"We are not allowed to make promises, and we will not do so. We can report that non-represented employees at comparable sites are paid 5% to 7% more and have similar benefits," Exxon said in the message called a "decertification update."

The message comes about two weeks before the 585 locked-out workers begin voting on removing United Steelworkers (USW) union Local 13-243 from the 369,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and adjoining lubricant oil plant.

An official with the United Steelworkers union 13-243 had no immediate comment about the company message.

The workers are scheduled to vote by mail between Nov. 12 and Dec. 22 in a decertification election overseen by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board that, if successful, will remove the USW.

Last week, Exxon laid down two conditions for ending the lockout: Adoption of its proposed contract, or decertification of USW 13-243.

A majority of union members rejected the contract proposal in a secret-ballot vote on Oct. 19.

Exxon locked out the workers on May 1 after the union did not accept a proposal during four months of talks that eliminates job seniority, which gives employees a say over job assignments, assuring the most experienced workers operate refinery units, the USW has said.
INEXPERIENCED WORKERS ARE LOWER PAID
Exxon has said ending job seniority and other changes are needed to ensure the refinery can be competitive in even low-margin environments.

Exxon continues to operate the refinery at about 60% of its capacity with managers and supervisors as well as temporary operators. SCABS

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

‘You can’t pay bills on $12 an hour’: Walmart employees left out of raises

Michael Sainato
Thu, October 28, 2021

Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Mendy Hughes, 46, has worked as a cashier for Walmart in Malvern, Arkansas, for 11 years.

Her hourly wage, after a recent increase, is $12.85 an hour, a mere 85 cents more than the hourly starting wage for new hires despite her 11 years with the company.

Related: ‘People are fed up’: Dollar General workers push to unionize amid hostility from above

“You can’t pay your bills, rent and buy groceries on $12 an hour. I don’t think anywhere in the United States, you can do that. No way,” said Hughes, who is a member of the campaign group United for Respect. “I don’t understand how they think $12 an hour is enough to live on, because it’s not at all.”

As the largest employer in the US with nearly 1.6 million workers, Walmart has faced criticism for years over low wages, working conditions, a reliance on keeping workers on part-time schedules and wage theft.

Walmart announced in September the company would raise the minimum wage at Sam’s Club locations from $11 to $15 an hour, but Walmart employees were left out as the parent company raised the minimum wage from $11 to just $12 an hour for Walmart workers. Earlier this year, Walmart announced it would raise wages for 425,000 employees to $13 an hour, emphasizing it would increase the company’s average hourly wage to more than $15 an hour.

But thousands of Walmart employees are still struggling to make ends meet with low pay and many are now speaking up to agitate and campaign for a wage increase. Walmart workers who are members of United for Respect for Walmart are pushing for a $15 minimum wage at the company.

A diabetic with four children, Hughes continued working throughout the pandemic.She said working conditions had worsened due to lack of Covid protections and customers who took out their frustrations on staff around missing products, understaffing, and Covid protocols.

“We never have enough people,” Hughes said. “We have long lines, people are backed up all the way to the clothes and sometimes wrapped around, because there are maybe two or three, sometimes only one cashier, and the self-checkouts are card only so people who can’t use those are mad and it’s hard to deal with people now.”

In recent years, Walmart’s competitors have raised their hourly minimum wage to $15 an hour, including Target in 2020, Amazon in 2018 and Costco to $17 an hour in 2021.

In the 2021 fiscal year, Walmart reported a profit of more than $13.5bn. In February, Walmart’s board of directors approved another $20bn stock buyback program. From November 2020 to the end of January 2021, Walmart repurchased more than 10m shares in the company at over $140 a share, spending more than $1.4bn.

Walmart is owned by the Walton family, the wealthiest family in the world, with an estimated net worth of about $238bn. During the pandemic, Alice, Jim and Rob Walton saw their net worths climb by over $10bn each.

Anna Turner worked at Walmart in Stockton, California, for more than eight years as a door greeter and customer service associate before she was fired in January, after she had spent months complaining to Walmart corporate, her store management and California Osha about Walmart’s poor Covid responses.

Through her time working at Walmart, Turner noted she made less than $15 an hour and she was never hired for full-time hours, though she said her department was chronically understaffed.

“After eight and a half years working the most difficult area of my store I was making just under $15 an hour at part-time. They would always cut our hours so we couldn’t get full-time and health benefits,” said Turner, who relied on Medi-Cal for health insurance through her employment at Walmart.

“I was fired for not lying on my Covid-19 health and temperature assessments. It was the last thing I said to management the day things started and eventually led to me being fired,” said Turner, who said she was terminated after an incident where she had to take a break after experiencing an anxiety attack when a customer threatened to assault her over trying to return an item. “That place gave me such bad panic attacks and I was mistreated on a regular basis because of the situation Walmart created by not staffing that department.”

In the first nine months of the pandemic, Walmart provided only a fraction of their Covid profits to workers in the form of hazard pay and additional compensation, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. The Waltons’ net worth increased 26 times more than the cost of Covid compensation for Walmart workers, estimated at 71 cents an hour in additional wages for workers, compared with a $6.2m-an-hour wealth increase for the Waltons.

A research brief by Human Impact Partners published in October found a $5-an-hour minimum wage increase for Walmart workers would improve mental and physical health for workers, including an increased lifespan of nearly two years.

“Walmart is the largest private employer in the country, they employ more women and people of color than any other employer in the country. So they have a large stake in terms of setting the tone for racial equity in our country and financial security as well,” said Sukhdip Purewal Boparai, research project director at Human Impact Partners and author of the brief. “Walmart really can set the stage and in shifting into transforming the lives of the people that work for them, especially during the pandemic, as they’re putting their lives at risk.”

Peter Naughton, a cashier and self-checkout host at Walmart in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for two years, recently saw his hourly wage increase from $11.55 an hour to $12.55 an hour with the new company-wide wage increases. But Naughton said the increase did not go far enough, and he criticized Walmart for eliminating quarterly MyShare bonuses for all employees, which often provided workers with an extra few hundred dollars every three months.

“A $1-an-hour increase does not help. We have less money now with a $1 raise than we did before,” said Naughton. “Walmart could raise our wages to $15, $18, even $20 an hour, but they don’t want to, out of greed. Walmart is the most subsidized company in America by the government.”

He said many of his co-workers have additional jobs and rely on Snap, rental subsidies and other government relief programs in order to make ends meet. In many states, Walmart is the top employer of Medicaid and Snap beneficiaries.

In April 2021, Naughton had to vacate his apartment and move in with his parents because he couldn’t afford the rent and other bills on his salary at Walmart.

“I couldn’t afford the rent, the utilities. I couldn’t afford food or to pay my car note and insurance at the same time,” added Naughton. “If they would raise our wages to even $15 an hour, that would help us have more money to spend. They could actually afford to do that. But they don’t want to do that. It’s really all about the money.”

A Walmart spokesperson said in an email: “While we are not going to provide details about individual personnel matters, the claims being made are simply not accurate. We are proud of the industry leading health screening protocols and emergency leave policies we’ve developed and maintained throughout this pandemic.”

They added the MyShare bonuses were eliminated and rolled into workers’ wages and claimed thousands of people are not on public assistance programs because they work or are insured through Walmart. They characterized the Human Impact Partners’ study developed with United for Respect as “misleading” and “flawed”.

A software engineer spent 8 hours daily applying to entry-level coding jobs for 6 months. 

She was rejected 357 times before receiving an offer.


Hannah Towey
Thu, October 28, 2021

A woman codes in Python (not Sophia Cheong). 5432action/Getty Images


After working in the restaurant industry for six years, Sophia Cheong decided to learn how to code.

She applied to entry-level software engineering jobs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for six months straight.

357 rejections, 40 interviews, and 2 offers later, she's making more than double her old salary.

Sophia Cheong's career started at a Korean barbecue restaurant in California, where she worked as a host while completing her bachelor's degree in business administration.

After graduating from Fullerton College, she was promoted to assistant general manager and, later, the director of operations. Then a coworker started teaching her how to code.

"I fell in love," Cheong told Insider. "I know it's cliche, but I felt like it was my true passion. ... I was getting up every morning really excited to learn."

Like the millions of Americans who quit their jobs during the "Great Resignation," Cheong had an opportunity during the pandemic to exit the restaurant industry and switch career paths, something she had been wanting to do for some time. With restaurant closures forcing layoffs, she volunteered to be among those let go.

Cheong immediately used the money she had saved from restaurant paychecks to enroll in a 13-week software-engineering boot camp called Hack Reactor, where she completed over 1,000 hours of full-stack coding.

One week after graduation, she set out on the job hunt.

Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Cheong applied to every entry-level software-engineering job or internship she could find, spanning 18 countries, she said. On top of submitting applications, she reached out to tech recruiters every day and created an online portfolio.

"I was pretty naive. I thought I'd have a job after a month because Hack Reactor has such a good reputation," she said. "But then one month turned to two months and then three and four, and I started thinking, 'Oh my God, why am I not getting a job? What's wrong with me?'"

A screenshot of Sophia Cheong's 359 applications around the world. Courtesy of Sophia Cheong

Constantly hearing about the national labor shortage and the ever-growing demand for tech talent didn't help her morale. According to US labor statistics, the shortage of engineers in the US will exceed 1.2 million by 2026.

Six months later, Cheong had interviewed with 40 employers and been rejected 357 times by companies big and small. She told Insider that most interviewers asked why she had switched careers and how her experience in the service industry would help her succeed in tech.

"Every time I would ask them why they didn't continue with me, they'd say, 'The other candidate is more senior than you,'" Cheong said, adding that recruiters would suggest reaching out in a year after she had more experience.

The same week Cheong was supposed to head back to working at the restaurant, she received two job offers. One, a junior software-engineer position at Homee, would pay 120% more than her previous salary, she said.

"We're all about taking chances with the newcomers," Cheong said the company's Chief Technology Officer Mitch Pirtle told her during the interviewing process. "We know how hard it is to get your foot in that door."

As she accepted her new position, Cheong posted about the strenuous job hunt on LinkedIn. Hundreds of job applicants struggling to find work flooded the comment section, asking for advice and sharing similar stories of constant rejections.

"I know there are shortages just about everywhere," Cheong told Insider. "But I also feel like there are so many people looking for jobs at the same time. I just don't know why it hasn't balanced out yet."

12 dock workers reveal the 'never-ending' chaos at shipping ports: 'We can't keep this pace up forever'

Grace Kay
Thu, October 28, 2021,

Container ships wait off the coast of the congested ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, in Long Beach, California, U.S., September 29, 2021. Mike Blake/REUTERS

Ports in Southern California have broken numerous records this year as over 100 ships wait to dock.

12 Longshoremen described what it's like keeping the supply chain moving despite historic backlogs.

The workers told Insider ports are running at a break-neck pace, but the situation is getting worse.

Dock workers have long been working day and night to keep the supply chain running. But, since the pandemic started, COVID-19 shutdowns and surging demand have cast the ports into chaos - and workers say there's no end in sight.

Insider spoke with 12 dock workers from across the US, including seven that work at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach - locations responsible for over 40% of the nation's imports. The workers asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about their jobs, but their identities have been verified by Insider.

Four longshoremen with more than 20 years of experience at the major California ports said they've never seen anything like the near-record backlogs. The issues are spilling over to ports in cities like Seattle and Houston, as well, workers said.

"It's just been one thing after another," a clerk at the Port of Los Angeles told Insider. "Half of my shift is just trying to make sense of all the containers. It's a never-ending situation where I'm just constantly putting out fires. It's nearly impossible to get anything else done."
'There's barely enough room to unload the ships'

The clerk, who manages incoming and outgoing shipments, said the high volume of containers is leading to chronic disorganization and mix-ups of long-distance and local deliveries. As a result, workers are frequently forced to stop unloading ships and stocking trucks - jobs that keep the flow of goods moving - to reorganize the containers.

The backlog of goods has also made it more difficult to unload ships. The number of cranes used to discharge ships has nearly halved due to a lack of space in the ports, as well as equipment shortages, 8 workers told Insider.

Associated Press

"Companies are packing their goods into massive ships that would require seven or eight cranes to unload them at full capacity, but no terminal can handle that many cranes on the dock," a crane operator at Port of Los Angeles told Insider. "Our job is so much more difficult when the ports are congested. Most days, I'm running with only one to two crane gangs at a time."

Even when the ships have been discharged and reloaded - a process that averaged 3.6 days in pre-pandemic times, but has since nearly doubled - it can be difficult to coordinate with truckers and make sure the right container is accessible to the cranes. Two crane operators said they've recently brought a container to be loaded onto a truck and nobody was there to pick it up.

The workers have been operating at record speed for the last year, but ports built to handle 30 to 40 ships cannot suddenly accommodate over 160 vessels.

"We can't keep this pace up forever," a union member from the Port of Long Beach told Insider. "They're never going to do it, but what needs to happen is a full shut down to only essential cargo."
'It's out of our control'

The ports are facing 30% more traffic with about 28% less workers. All 12 workers told Insider the private shipping companies that run the terminals have been reluctant to hire and train more longshoremen or utilize the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's capacity to work 24/7.

"We want to work as much as possible, but the employers don't want to pay the overtime to get these problems fixed," a part-time worker at Long Beach told Insider. "It's a balancing act, they want to scrape by with just enough workers, but the more ships that come in, the worse it gets."

Marine Exchange of Southern California

Workers say that leads to a chain reaction: Ports are wary of turning ships away because they earn money from docking fees and unloading containers. Overbooked warehouses won't stop shipping goods as long as companies continue paying for the deliveries. And once the goods arrive at the ports, some importers may not be incentivized to move them quickly onto trucks because warehouse space is running out, multiple workers said.

On Monday, the Southern California ports said they would begin charging a $100 per day fee for containers left in the yards for over 9 days.

"It's a fine orchestra," a crane operator, who worked at the Port of Los Angeles for over 40 years, told Insider. "From the cranes you can see how everything has to move perfectly for things to get done. There's no room for human error, a malfunctioning machine, or a scheduling error. If just one person isn't where they're supposed to be, it wreaks havoc on the entire area."

Biden's 24/7 port operations aren't working because truckers aren't showing up to collect cargo, data suggests

Mary Hanbury
Wed, October 27, 2021

California ports are running 24/7. -/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden moved the ports of Southern California to a 24/7 schedule this month.


But data shows that the crisis isn't getting better and truckers aren't turning up to collect cargo.


Experts say this is because of driver shortages, clogged warehouses, and a lack of available chassis.

President Joe Biden has ordered California ports to stay open all night to ease supply chain jams - but data shows that truckers aren't showing up to collect the cargo.

According to shipping giant Maersk, around half of its 2,000 available appointments for truckers at its giant terminal on the Port of Long Beach went unused on Friday, The Washington Post reported.

Truckers aren't showing up because they either don't have the chassis available to hold the cargo or because warehouses are full, experts say.


Plus, the industry is also grappling with a record shortage of drivers.

The number of boats at anchor, waiting to dock and unload at the crowded Southern California ports, reached record highs over the weekend, indicating that things haven't improved since Biden's 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule came into force.

The White House announced this new schedule earlier this month to help ease port jams. The ports of LA and Long Beach have remained clogged for months because of the global supply chain crisis. After a fall in shipping demand during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, a surge at the end of that year has led to delays and blockages across the world.

Insiders say that Biden's all-hours schedule won't resolve the supply chain jams on its own because it doesn't address the entire supply chain.

"This level of operations is not an overnight, simple solution to implement - and does not solve the broader supply chain capacity challenges and shortage of workers in trucking, warehouse, and supply chain jobs," Narin Phol, regional managing director of Maersk North America, said at an industry conference in South Carolina on Monday, The Post reported.

Truckers are also struggling to make space for new containers because they're having to store empty containers that should be back at the ports, but aren't, because of restrictions on returns, Matt Schrap, CEO of Harbor Trucking Association, a coalition of carriers that serves the ports of California, recently told Bloomberg.

"We are running out of space," he said. "These containers are just being stacked on top of each other."

The US is also currently short of 80,000 truck drivers, which means there aren't always enough people to collect the cargo that's clogging up the docks.

On Monday, the California ports announced that they would impose new fines on containers that are left on the docks for several days.

Industry insiders question whether the fees will simply end up being passed onto retailers who are already paying sky-high shipping rates.

"Key issues such as chassis availability and empty container returns still need to be addressed," the National Retail Federation said, according to The Post.

It continued: "We encourage ocean carriers to continue to work with importers and truckers to move cargo as quickly as possible and not just pass along the cost of the fee, which will further exacerbate the problems."

Afghan girls learn, code 'underground' to bypass Taliban curbs

Annie Banerji, Emma Batha and Shadi Khan Saif
Wed, October 27, 2021

NEW DELHI/LONDON/ISLAMABAD (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Cooped up at home in Herat, Afghanistan, Zainab Muhammadi reminisces about hanging out with her friends in the cafeteria after coding class. Now she logs on every day to secret online lessons.

Her school shut down after the Taliban took control of the country in August. But that did not stop Muhammadi from learning.

"There are threats and dangers to girls like me. If the Taliban get to know ... they might punish me severely. They might even stone me to death," said Muhammadi, who requested to use a pseudonym to protect her identity.

"But I have not lost hope or my aspirations. I'm determined to continue studying," the 25-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on a video call.

She is one of an estimated hundreds of Afghan girls and women who are continuing to learn - some online and others in hidden makeshift classrooms - despite the Taliban's closure of their schools.

Fereshteh Forough, the CEO and founder of Code to Inspire (CTI) - Afghanistan's first all-female coding academy - created encrypted virtual classrooms, uploaded course content online, and gave laptops and internet packages to about 100 of her students, including Muhammadi.

"You can be locked at home (and) explore the virtual world without any hesitation, without worrying about geographical boundaries. That's the beauty of technology," she said.

In September, the government said older boys could resume school, along with all primary-age children, but told older girls roughly aged 12 to 18 to stay home until conditions permitted their return.

The Taliban, who barred girls from education during their last rule about 20 years ago, has promised it will allow them to go to school as it seeks to show the world it has changed.

A senior U.N. official who met the Taliban earlier this month said the government was working on a framework, which would be published by the end of the year.

"The education gains of the past two decades must be strengthened, not rolled back," said Omar Abdi, deputy executive director of the U.N.'s children's agency UNICEF.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

After the Taliban were ousted in 2001, school attendance rose rapidly, with more than 3.6 million girls enrolled by 2018, according to UNICEF.

The number going to university, now in the tens of thousands, also jumped. Nearly 6% of women were accessing tertiary education in 2020, up from 1.8% in 2011.

Nonetheless, the country has one of the world's biggest education gender gaps, with UNICEF saying girls account for 60% of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school.

Failing to let girls finish their education bears a huge cost, including poverty, child marriage, early childbearing, and a lack of understanding of their rights and ability to access basic services, campaigners say.

"Education allows them to take care of their health, have a stronger voice in their family, prevent domestic violence and become breadwinners," said Forough, whose school teaches everything from English to graphic design and mobile application development.

"We didn't want to wait. We wanted to continue our mission."

SCARED TO STUDY

The Taliban have also suggested that they may turn to technology to help some women continue to study.

The education minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said at a news conference last month that women would be allowed to study in universities, but gender-segregated classrooms would be mandatory and female students should be taught by women.

Where this was not possible, he indicated teaching could be done through streaming or closed circuit television.

While some private universities have reopened, public universities remain closed.

Psychology student Aisa had hoped to use her degree to help the mental health of young Afghans - which she says is a major, but poorly understood issue in the country.

But her dreams evaporated as the Taliban swept to power and she is now in hiding following threats to her family.

Aisa is about to start a health science degree with the University of the People, a U.S.-based organisation providing online courses to students worldwide who face barriers to higher education.

The university is offering 1,000 scholarships to Afghan women who can no longer study.

"Without this scholarship I have no opportunities, and my future is broken. This is my last chance to get a degree," said Aisa, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. "It's safer for women like me to study underground."

All her girlfriends back in Afghanistan had been forced to give up their studies, she added. Even if the Taliban eventually allow women to return to university, she said many would be too scared to do so.

The University of the People said students only required a smartphone or tablet to take one of its four degree courses - business, education, computer science or health science.

"These women don't have any alternatives except for online education. Most cannot get out of the country. We are trying to give them some hope," said university president Shai Reshef.

SURVEILLANCE

Digital experts fear that the cash-strapped Taliban will not be able to maintain energy supplies, communication networks and tech infrastructure.

Not only could satellite companies and fibre providers from neighbouring countries such as Iran snap services, but the Taliban may start snooping on and censoring communications, said Mustafa Soltany, a Kabul-based IT consultant.

"The Taliban are very likely to put in place strict restrictions, monitoring and even spying in the digital arena where they can hunt dissidents, critics," said Soltany, who has seen Taliban soldiers snatching and searching people's mobile phones at checkpoints.

But this does not worry Pashtana Zalmai Khan Durrani, founder of non-profit LEARN that has enrolled about 100 girls in an underground school where they are learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) on tablets.

She is working with U.S. finance and tech firms to launch satellite internet to circumvent any Taliban curbs.

"I have my bases covered. They can't do anything even if they try to cut internet access. We will be doing our own thing," said the 23-year-old, who is hiding at an undisclosed location from the Taliban.

Like some of the students at LEARN, Muhammadi and her CTI classmates have been working remotely with global tech firms on app development and graphic design.

This allows them to earn up to $500 a month - mostly paid in cash or money transfers - and provide for their families, an unthinkable feat during the Taliban's previous rule.

But Muhammadi does not want to stop there.

"It is always said that Afghan women are weak and can do nothing ... but I want to prove that we are strong," she said.

"I want to continue to study and inspire more students ... and be known as one of the best coders in the world."

(Writing by Annie Banerji @anniebanerji, Editing by Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Solar wing jammed on NASA spacecraft chasing asteroids


This image provided by the Southwest Research Institute depicts the Lucy spacecraft approaching an asteroid. It will be first space mission to explore a diverse population of small bodies known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. NASA reported Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, that one of the craft's two giant, circular solar panels is only between 75% and 95% extended. A lanyard is holding it in place.

 (SwRI via AP)

MARCIA DUNN
Thu, October 28, 2021, 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is debating whether to try to fix a jammed solar panel on its newly launched Lucy spacecraft, en route to explore an unprecedented number of asteroids.

The problem cropped up shortly after the spacecraft's Oct. 16 liftoff on a 12-year journey.

After measuring the electric current this week, NASA reported Wednesday that one of Lucy’s two giant, circular solar panels is only between 75% and 95% extended. A lanyard is holding it in place.

Any attempt at reopening the wing — which is 24 feet in diameter (7 meters) — would not occur before mid-November.

So far, the problem has not affected Lucy's outbound flight, so there's no rush to figure out the next step, officials said. Everything else on the spacecraft — already 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) away — is working properly.

The mission's lead scientist, Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute, said the team is encouraged that the combined power from both solar panels "is keeping the spacecraft healthy and functioning."

“It's too early to determine longer range implications to the entire mission,” Levison said in an email Thursday. While the problem is concerning, “our team is working this very diligently and carefully to find a workable solution.”

The nearly $1 billion mission seeks to explore seven so-called Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the sun and another space rock closer to home. Lucy should swoop within 600 miles (965 kilometers) of each target.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Global Oil Demand Is Soaring and Refiners Are Reaping the Profit

Rachel Graham, Elizabeth Low and Devika Krishna Kumar, Bloomberg News

The U.S. gasoline crack is the highest it's been for this time of year since 2017 Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Fuel consumption is soaring around the globe, and with millions of barrels of daily refining capacity offline, refiners still in the game are reaping some of their fattest margins in years.

Globally, about 2.3 million barrels a day of refining capacity was shut during the pandemic and another 1 million barrels are likely to be shut in the next year, Facts Global Energy analyst Steve Sawyer said. That’s just as demand is returning to pre-pandemic levels. Fuel demand is soaring, with cars jamming roads again and gas-to-oil switching gaining speed ahead of winter.

As a result, refiners are enjoying hefty margins — a welcome change after a challenging 2020. In the U.S., the Nymex gasoline crack, a rough gauge of the margin refiners can capture with a barrel of crude based on futures prices in New York, was trading above $16 a barrel on Thursday, the highest since 2017, seasonally. Margins are also rising in Asia and Europe, where shortages of coal and natural gas are boosting the demand outlook for diesel, kerosene and propane ahead of winter.

The rising margins signal that crude oil demand will remain strong as refiners continue to process more to meet consumption needs. That could mean that global oil stockpiles will continue to fall in the coming months. Gasoline balances worldwide are set to tighten significantly over November and December, according to Energy Aspects.

U.S. margins are also being supported by seasonal refinery maintenance and a flurry of weather-related outages, most recently the flooding that ensued after the San Francisco-area experienced torrential rain earlier this week. That flooding pushed retail gasoline prices in San Francisco to an all-time high of $4.75 per gallon on Thursday, according to GasBuddy.

In Europe refiners have been making better profits on gasoline, partly as demand in transport has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Italy’s demand for gasoline in September was above 2019 levels while French consumption of gasoline is improving faster than diesel.

Rotterdam gasoline’s premium to Brent crude, or crack, has risen in October to the highest seasonally in data going back to 2018.

Asian refiners’ profits reached pre-pandemic levels as fuels processing powerhouse China slashed oil product exports in the midst of its own energy shortage, boosting transport fuel margins across the region ahead of a winter that could require more heating fuels.

Additionally, road fuels demand is rebounding with traffic roaring back from Vietnam to Malaysia and Australia over the first half of October as virus-led restrictions on mobility eased, according to figures compiled by Apple Inc. Refining margins in Singapore are the highest seasonally since 2018.

“China’s energy crunch is reducing exports of gasoline and diesel both into and out of the region just when nations are coming out of Covid lockdowns and demand for both are rebounding,” Sawyer said.

To be sure, the power crisis is curbing profits for refiners that rely heavily on diesel production because of the surging cost of natural gas.

Diesel margins in Europe are not as high seasonally. And most margin estimates don’t include energy and hydrogen costs, which are soaring as the region’s natural gas prices have spiked. Hydrogen is particularly important in units known as hydrocrackers, the big diesel-making machines that have traditionally been the profit centers for the region’s refineries.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

EXPROPRIATE BIG OIL
Canadian oil producer Suncor sees dividend doubling as sustainable

Petrochemical storage tanks are seen at the Suncor Energy chemical plant near Edmonton

By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -Suncor Energy Inc's strategy of returning cash to shareholders and repaying debt with its soaring profits is sustainable even if surging crude prices pull back, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

The stock of Canada’s second-biggest oil producer climbed as much as 10% after it said late on Wednesday that it would double its dividend, reversing a cut made last year when lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic hammered fuel demand.

Suncor also said it would buy back more shares than it previously planned and repay debt faster, just a year and a half after the pandemic's spread reduced travel and generated losses for oil producers. The company reported a net profit of C$877 million ($710.58 million)for the third quarter after losing money a year earlier.

Suncor's strategy is sustainable even if West Texas Intermediate oil prices fall to $55 per barrel, from the current price around $82, CEO Mark Little said on a quarterly call with analysts.

"The business is looking really strong," Little said. "And when you look at consumer demand, although it's off a bit, you're seeing (refineries) recover and providing significant and stable cash flows."

Other Canadian oil companies will likely follow Suncor and return more cash to investors, TD Energy analyst Menno Hulshof said in a note.

But while higher oil prices have swelled profits, soaring natural gas prices have raised Suncor's costs. Like other oil sands producers, Suncor uses steam from burning natural gas to extract oil, and the gas price spike has raised production costs, the company said.

Suncor shares have risen 45% this year, but have lagged the TSX energy index, which has gained 73%, as the company wrestled with operational problems at its Fort Hills mine. The mine now looks to fully ramp up production by year-end.

Suncor returns dividend to 2019 levels, hikes buyback plan

Michelle Zadikian, BNN Bloomberg

Suncor Energy Inc. is sharing the wealth with its shareholders as it benefits from surging oil prices and progress on its plan to increase its annual free funds flow.

The oil producer announced Wednesday that its board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend hike of 100 per cent to $0.42 per common share, from $0.21 per share – marking a return to 2019 levels.

Suncor is also increasing its share buyback plan by an additional two per cent to roughly seven per cent of its float, or 107 million shares.

“Operational initiatives and higher commodity prices than expected have accelerated the achievement of two key objectives, namely increasing return of capital to shareholders and reducing net debt,” the company wrote in an after-hours press release.

Oil prices have rallied in recent months as rising demand has outstripped supply.

Suncor said as of Sept. 30, it had paid down $3.1 billion in debt so far this year, which will continue to be a focus for the company.

In a separate release late Wednesday, Suncor said it swung to an operating profit of $1.04 billion in the third quarter, compared to an operating loss of $338 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, its quarterly funds from operations more than doubled to $2.64 billion, from $1.17 billion in the prior year.

ABOLISH BANKRUPTCY LAW
L.A. Mega Mansion Once Floated for $500 Million Put in Bankruptcy

CHAPTER 11 US BANKRUPTCY ACT 

Steven Church and John Gittelsohn
Wed, October 27, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- The developer of one of the biggest homes ever built in the U.S. -- featuring a moat and 30-car garage -- filed for bankruptcy to keep lenders from foreclosing on the Los Angeles property.

Dubbed “The One,” the mansion was being developed by Crestlloyd LLC when a fight broke out with lenders, including Hankey Capital. The lenders went to court in Los Angeles claiming they weren’t being paid, according to court papers. Eventually a receiver was appointed to handle the project.

Crestlloyd “believes that the receiver has hampered efforts to complete the property, as well as to market, show, and sell the property in its current state,” the company said in bankruptcy court papers.

Ted Lanes, the court-appointed receiver, declined to comment Wednesday.

“I’m disappointed,” Don Hankey, whose specialty is subprime auto financing, said about the bankruptcy filing. “All we want is to get our capital returned.”

Hankey, who loaned more than $82.5 million for the project, had a foreclosure sale of the property set for Wednesday.

Property developers sometimes use bankruptcy as a way to block lenders from foreclosing. Under Chapter 11 rules, lawsuits, including state foreclosure actions, are halted to give a company the chance to reorganize and clear its debts.

“The One” is worth about $325 million, but only has $176 million worth of secured loans attached to the property, Crestlloyd claimed in court papers. Even if the property sells for half its original $500 million price, there’s still plenty of value to pay all the debts, Crestlloyd said.

Lanes planned to list the home for $225 million. The 105,000-square-foot (9,750-square-meter) main house - almost twice the size of the White House - features four swimming pools, a two-story waterfall, a nightclub, movie theater, four-lane bowling alley, beauty salon, spa, gym and cigar lounge.

The case is Crestlloyd LLC, 21-bk-18205, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

Wall Street Journal Under Fire For Publishing Lie-Filled Letter From Trump

WELL AT LEAST IT WASN'T USA TODAY A MORE POPULIST PAPER

Josephine Harvey
Wed, October 27, 2021

The Wall Street Journal faced backlash Wednesday for publishing a letter to the editor from former President Donald Trump filled with demonstrably false claims about the 2020 election.

Responding to a Sunday Wall Street Journal editorial titled “The Election for Pennsylvania’s High Court,” the former president wrote, “Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out.”

He then provided a bulleted list of “examples” of voter fraud in Pennsylvania to support his claims, relying repeatedly on data from Audit the Vote PA, an organization that has no real experience in assessing elections and has promoted unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

Multiple audits into the state’s 2020 election results affirmed the vote count, and numerous lawsuits challenging the results failed in court. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state’s election.

The Wall Street Journal published Trump’s letter without noting these facts. The former president was deplatformed from Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites earlier this year after spreading disinformation about the election for months and inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol to try and overturn the results.

Since then, Trump has resorted to campaign-style rallies and tweet-like statements released through his spokesperson to spread his lies.

Media critics, journalists and political commentators slammed the Journal Wednesday for giving Trump another platform for disinformation and for passing off his false claims as “opinion.”

“Trump couldn’t post this on Facebook but the editors at the WSJ collectively decided to put it on their platform. Think about that. And they think they can distance themselves from it by doing it as an LTE. As of that magically absolves them from pushing the lies,” tweeted Amanda Carpenter, political columnist for The Bulwark.

Jordan Fischer, an investigative reporter for Washington, D.C., channel WUSA9, called it a “new low” for the Journal’s opinion section.

“Today they printed a litany of election falsehoods from former President Trump – without even a single mention of the fact that their own editorial side has thoroughly debunked these claims,” he tweeted.

Washington Post national correspondent Philip Bump made 14 observations about the letter’s veracity and observed that “the Journal would have been better served had it explained why it chose to run the letter without contextualizing it, since that might have at least offered some clarity on the otherwise inexplicable decision.” He noted that the paper had so far declined to comment on its rationale.

The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.