Philippines' most active volcano: Mayon eruption may last months 

DW News
14 hours ago

MAYON VOLCANO

Nearly 15,000 people have left their homes since the Philippines' most active volcano began showing signs of restiveness. A six-kilometer danger zone was expanded by one kilometer once the Mayon volcano began spewing hot lava. Authorities warn volcanic activity may persist for months.

 

Philippines: Tens of thousands evacuated or in standby to flee after Mayon volcano eruption

FRANCE 24 English

Jun 13, 2023 

 #volcano #eruption #Philippines

Tens of thousands of people who live near the nation's most active volcano in Philippines have been evacuated. Many of them are villagers who live in poor farming communities. Lava has been flowing from the "Mayon" volcano... and there are concerns of larger eruptions. FRANCE 24's Jean Emile Jammine.

CLIMATE CRISIS

New round of smoke from Canada fires prompts air quality alerts across the Upper Midwest

By Sara Smart, Taylor Ward and Aya Elamroussi, CNN
Published 12:12 AM EDT, Thu June 15, 2023

A haze enveloped Minneapolis as seen from the south across I-35W on Wednesday.Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune/Getty Images
CNN —

Thick plumes of smoke from dozens of wildfires raging in Ontario, Canada, are billowing across the US border, compromising the air quality for millions of residents in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The entire state of Minnesota and most of Wisconsin were under air quality alerts Wednesday as a gray haze from wildfire smoke shifted south, according to the National Weather Service.

Parts of both states experienced air quality marked as “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” on Wednesday afternoon – levels 4 and 5 out of 6, according to the monitoring website AirNow.



“Smoky skies and poor air quality will continue through Thursday with the worst conditions expected tonight,” the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said Wednesday.

By Thursday morning, air quality should begin improving as the smoke clears, the weather service in Duluth, Minnesota, said.

The air quality alert in Minnesota has been extended through Friday morning because smoke might take time to dissipate, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The air quality alert in Wisconsin is in effect until noon local time Thursday.

In Canada, at least 63 wildfires are spread across Ontario, where the worst conditions are in the northwest region while the northeast is experiencing less significant fire hazards, a wildfire map shows.

For most areas in Ontario, the air quality health index was observed as “low risk” Wednesday, ranging from level 2 to 3 of 10, according to the country’s air quality monitoring website.

Meanwhile, areas including Chatham, downtown Toronto and Windsor had an air quality health index of moderate, which is level 4 of 10. Those areas are also forecast to improve over the next couple of days. Montreal in Quebec faces a forecast of moderate risk with level 5 of 10 on Thursday.

Last week's haze may be just the beginning of a new 'summer of smoke'

In addition to Wisconsin and Minnesota, smoke from the fires was also detected over parts of Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and North Dakota as of Wednesday night, another map shows.

“Smoke originating from Canadian wildfires continues to move southeast across Wisconsin,” the state Department of Natural Resources said. “People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.”

The compromised air quality from Canadian wildfires comes just days after dense smoke clouds from wildfires in Quebec last week descended on eastern Canada and a large swath of the US, stretching from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to the Ohio Valley and Midwest.

Thick smog wrapped major metro areas including New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, in an orange haze for days. The dense smoke forced officials to close schools, ground flights due to poor visibility, shutter zoos and beaches and pushed many to mask up outdoors.

Scientists warn such events are more likely to continue as the planet warms, creating the ideal environment for more severe and frequent wildfires.

Wildfire smoke is particularly dangerous because it contains tiny particulate matter, or PM2.5, the tiniest of pollutants. When inhaled, it can move deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream.

It comes from sources including the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires. Such smoke has been linked to several health complications including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses.

Predicting and planning for forest fires requires modeling of many complex, interrelated factors

The Conversation
June 14, 2023, 6:59 AM ET

Kinkade Fire California Fires (Justin Sullivan AFP)

Global warming is here. As anticipated for more than 50 years now, the temperature and levels of atmospheric CO2 have increased.

Various models were able to predict these increases with precision, and we are seeing the impact now. One of the main effects of the changes in the atmosphere are frequent forest fires, which are more common globally and have affected Canada in the last month.
Complex models

Mathematical models to predict forest fire behaviors were first introduced in the 1940s and they have been evolving for decades. They consider various aspects and their complex interrelationships: the type of forest fuel (grass, shrub, small trees, large ones), the weather (wind direction, temperature, humidity), the topology of the terrain, and the source of the fire (human activity, lightning).

Modeling forest fires and forecasting fire behavior is a complex endeavor. A model can anticipate the direction and intensity of the fire, and help with evacuation, fire suppression and forecast of smoke pollution. The models can predict fire spread, which helps protect human life, housing and infrastructure, including crucial utility companies assets.

Mathematical models are important, but in the case of forest fires, we also need to build simulation tools to be able to handle the complexity. We need to consider the different types of fire fuels in each region, the localized winds within forest fire areas, variations in climate, whether a fire spreads from the crown of the trees or on the ground, and other variations.


Many factors can affect how quickly a fire spreads. (Shutterstock)

Using a computer to build a virtual laboratory for simulations helps with the prediction process in a safe, risk-free and cost-effective fashion. Experiments can be simulated on a computer to inform better decisions in the field, without affecting the environment, people or infrastructure.
Complex factors, small scale

Our lab — the Advanced Real-Time Simulation lab at Carleton University — has been working on new methodologies for modeling and simulation that improve results at a reduced cost.

We model forest fire behavior at a microscopic level. This is because models that work on macro, or larger, scales have some constraints when we want to study the low-level interactions between fire, weather and suppression efforts.

Also, traditional models are harder to interface with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software applications. We need to be able to interface the models with real-world data coming in real time from a variety of sensors: spectrometers, satellites, infrared scanners, laser or 3D remote sensing devices. Building models that can react to external data needs new methodologies.


Integration of a forest fire model and Geographical Information Systems (GRASS/Google Earth)

Our approach divides the geographical space of a fire into small areas and calculates the complex phenomena. Many existing methods study the spread of fire by dividing the area of interest using a regular topology (for instance, rectangles, squares or triangles over the area of study), but these models are more complex to integrate with GIS, which use polygons of many different shapes. Building models with irregular topologies helps with obtaining more precise results.


These techniques help with creating models that are simpler to understand, test and modify.

Similarly, we need the simulations of such models to run efficiently. We defined new parallel simulation algorithms to generate a larger number of simulations in a shorter period of time, improving the quality of the results.

We also used advanced calculation approaches that include advancing the simulation time irregularly (when important events are detected), as well as techniques to detect higher levels of activity in the simulation. These techniques allow us to pay more attention to the forest fire sections that need more calculations per second, without computing the equations where they are not needed. This saves simulation time and improves precision of the results.

Informed decision-making

Numerous government agencies — such as the U.S.-based National Center for Atmospheric Research — use various modeling and simulation tools like FireSmoke, Fire M3 and FireMars. These tools include web-based support for decision-makers and provide information to the general public.

To improve such tools, advanced research is needed in the field of web-based modelling and distributed simulation, which allows the software to run in remote sites.

Remote execution of forest fire models on mobile devices.

The future of forest fire research includes more sophisticated sensors, new artificial intelligence predictive methods, modeling based on Big Data algorithms and advanced visualization software to enhance the decision-making process.

We need to be prepared for future rounds of forest fires, and modeling and simulation can help in this complex effort.

Gabriel Wainer, Professor, Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Study shows climate crisis driving increase in California summer wildfire damage
Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
June 13, 2023

Bidwell Bar Bridge in Oroville, California is surrounded by flames during the Bear fire on September 9, 2020. (Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly all the recent increase in land area engulfed by California summer wildfires is attributable to human-caused climate change, a study published Monday revealed.

The study—published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), multiple University of California campuses, and three Spanish universities—quantified the influence of anthropogenic climate change on recent summer forest burned area in the nation's most populous state.

"The 10 largest fires in California history have all occurred in the past two decades, and five of those have happened since 2020," noted University of California, Irvine professor of civil and environmental engineering and study co-author Amir AghaKouchak.

"The results show the role of human-caused climate change in driving fire activity and highlight the need for protective adaptations against summer wildfire seasons."



LLNL scientist and study co-author Don Lucas said that "we show that nearly all of the observed increase in burned area in California over the past half-century is attributable to human-caused climate change."

"The results show the role of human-caused climate change in driving fire activity and highlight the need for protective adaptations against summer wildfire seasons," Lucas added.

According to the study's abstract:

Record-breaking summer forest fires have become a regular occurrence in California.

 Observations indicate a fivefold increase in summer burned area (BA) in forests in northern and central California during 1996 to 2021 relative to 1971 to 1995. 

While the higher temperature and increased dryness have been suggested to be the leading causes of increased BA, the extent to which BA changes are due to natural variability or anthropogenic climate change remains unresolved... Our results indicate that nearly all the observed increase in BA is due to anthropogenic climate change... We detect the signal of combined historical forcing on the observed BA emerging in 2001 with no detectable influence of the natural forcing alone.

"These findings strongly indicate that the observed increase in BA was primarily due to increased fuel aridity and not due to simultaneous variations in nonclimate factors such as human effects on ignitions, fire suppression, or by altering land cover," the study states.

In 2020, the CEO of PG&E, California's largest utility, pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 Camp fire, which was caused by the company's faulty equipment and incinerated the town of Paradise. The utility has also been implicated in numerous other California wildfires.

The study's researchers used climate models to forecast BA spread in California's future.

"Our paper makes it clear that the problem is ours to fix and that we can take steps to help solve it."

"We found that we can expect as much as a 50% increase in burned area from 2031 to 2050 relative to the past few decades," AghaKouchak said.

"Our paper makes it clear that the problem is ours to fix and that we can take steps to help solve it," he added. "By acting now to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions and pursue more sustainable transportation, energy production, and agricultural practices, we can reduce the adverse effects of global climate change.

Worker Deletes Thousands Of Files He Created After Finding Out That The Company That Fired Him For Being ‘Incompetent’ Is Still Using His Work


NyRee Ausl

annoyed man, deleting files

Most companies make new employees well aware that anything they create during work hours is no longer their intellectual property but belongs to the organization they work for. That doesn’t take the sting out of relinquishing the rights to everything you’ve spent time on when you leave employment as one fired employee learned the hard way.

In a Reddit post titled “I just deleted thousands of hours of work from my old job,” later shared on a TikTok account called “@reddit_replay,” a man described what happened when he realized his former employer was still using the work he created, despite telling him that he was not competent enough for the job.
The employee worked as a videographer, creating content for social media. Despite putting together up to 50 videos each day, the man claimed to have only been paid just above minimum wage.

RELATED: Woman Fired Because She Didn't Tell Her Boss Another Coworker Was Looking For A New Job

“I was freelancing and was on a loose contract. I was desperate for the money,” he explained while justifying why he would put forth so much effort for so little reward.

The workload was “insane,” according to him, but he managed to keep up with the company’s demands for six months. On top of the low pay and crushing work requirements, the freelancer described the office environment as “bitter” and “snide,” and even accused management of stirring up trouble between workers for their own entertainment.

As the six-month milestone approached, the contractor compiled the results of the video work he had done, including a graph that measured click-through sales that had come as a result of the content he created. He asked for a pay raise to compensate for the traffic he had delivered and hard work he had put in relentlessly.

The man even compared his salary to industry standards to demonstrate that he was being underpaid in hopes that managers would understand and correct his pay. He said that although he could make more money elsewhere, he would love to keep working for the company in the same capacity.

Stunningly, within a few hours of making his proposal, the company terminated him, saying that he was not “pulling his weight.”

Although he says he had laid out clear data connecting his social media campaigns to increased sales, the worker was told that his content had not produced the intended impact, therefore was no longer needed by the company. Naturally, the man was beside himself with anger. To make matters worse, he struggled for months to find work.

Three years after being tossed aside by a business he had given his all to, the former employee was browsing his personal Google Drive and came across a folder he had created and shared with the company during his tenure. He found that 18 staff members were still actively using his templates, adjustments, and presets to produce content for their social media accounts.

He couldn’t believe the company that fired him had the audacity to continue to use the cloud service that he was paying for. So, he saved all of his files to a local drive on his computer and deleted the online folder, leaving no video assets behind for his former employer, including projects already in progress.

RELATED: Boss Tells Worker He’s ‘Hard To Work With’ Because Of His ‘Elevated Needs’ After Demanding He Work A Shift He Wasn’t Scheduled For

Revenge can be sweet, but deleting company files can land you in court if you aren’t careful.

An inventions agreement releases all of your rights to things you created while employed. This means that you cannot intentionally destroy proprietary files and data when you are leaving. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act offers employers some recourse when they lose information due to malicious actions. The resentful worker would be subject to civil and criminal liability for their actions.


On the other hand, it is totally irresponsible for a company to continue to use cloud storage that they have no ownership over to keep any work-related documentation. The ex-employee had no obligation whatsoever to pay for and maintain their company records once he was let go. A comprehensive offboarding process would have helped to transition the employee out in an organized fashion while repossessing organization-specific information.

RELATED: Top-Performing Employee Tells Boss That Because His Pay Is 'Below Average' His Work Will Be Too After Getting Denied A Raise For Two Years

NyRee Ausler is a writer and author from Seattle. She covers issues navigating the workplace using the experience garnered over two decades of working in Human Resources & Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

This article originally appeared on YourTango

The Devil Bat (1940) | Bela Lugosi Classic Horror Noir Full Movie | 

Retrospective - Classic Movies

A mad scientist develops an aftershave lotion that causes his gigantic bats to kill anyone who wears it.  

AFTER THE COMPANY HE WORKED FOR CHEATED HIM OUT OF HIS FORMULA.

Why the White House and Fox News are fighting over gay pride

David Knowles
·Senior Editor
Wed, June 14,2023 

President Biden at a Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, June 10. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Tensions between the Biden administration and Fox News over Saturday’s Pride Month celebration at the White House boiled over this week, with the White House accusing the conservative network of lying about the meaning of a flag displayed at the event.

“@FoxNews is characteristically lying through their teeth,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a tweet that linked to a Fox News piece that read: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that promotes grooming and pedophilia, say critics.”

In the article, Fox News reporter Kerry Byrne said critics of the flag told the network “it appears to reference a cult of pedophilia infecting many institutions and represents an unwanted takeover of traditional gay symbolism.”


Bates added that “Fox never even communicated the malicious and discredited foundation of this article to the White House. Then they lie about whether we responded at all.”

Fox News deleted the tweet and reframed the article to focus on how the transgender flag “troubles some critics in the gay community.”

The Progress Pride Flag

The Progress Pride Flag displayed from the balcony of the White House. 

(Anna Rose Layden/Reuters)

The Biden administration hung what is known as the Progress Pride Flag at the White House to mark Pride Month. On its website, the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, explained the flag’s origin.

“The Progress Pride Flag evolved from the Philadelphia Pride Flag and was created by Daniel Quasar. Quasar added a white, pink, and light-blue stripe to represent the Trans community,” the group said.

“While the black and brown stripes still represented communities of color, the black stripe is also a nod to the thousands of individuals that the community lost during the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1980s and 1990s. Since its creation, the flag has become very popular.”

Flag code violation?

Conservatives upset over the display of the Progress Pride Flag also claimed its placement had violated the U.S. Flag Code, which requires the “flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.”

Fox News ran a story on those critics on Sunday, quoting Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, who echoed the conservative belief that transgender people are "targeting children."

“To advance revolutionary transgender agenda targeting children, Biden violates basic tenet of US Flag Code and disrespects every American service member buried under its colors,” Fitton wrote on Twitter.

But an American flag was also being flown atop the White House, claiming the highest spot on the property.

Topless trans activist

Rose Montoya at the Queerties Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 28. 

(Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)

At a time when conservatives have gone after private companies like Bud Light and Target for their promotion of gay and transgender rights, and Fox News airs regular segments promoting those boycotts, the decision for the White House to proudly champion those causes has been, for some, controversial.

That controversy was fanned when transgender activist and model Rose Montoya was photographed topless at the White House event. Fox News and other conservative outlets published multiple articles about the incident.

The White House released a statement barring Montoya from attending future events.

“The behavior was simply unacceptable. We’ve been very clear about that,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday. “It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families. So, you know, we’re going to continue to be clear on that, and that type of behavior is, as I said, unacceptable. It’s inappropriate, it’s disrespectful. And it really does not reflect the event that we hosted to celebrate the LGBTQ+ families.”

In an Instagram video, Montoya defended her support of “freeing the nipple.”

“Conservatives are trying to use the video of me topless at the White House to try to call the community groomers, etcetera,” she said. “And I would just like to say that, first of all, going topless in Washington, D.C., is legal, and I fully support the movement in freeing the nipple because why is my chest now deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off, however, before coming out as trans it was not?”

‘Wannabe dictator’

Tensions between the network and the White House were also exacerbated Thursday, when Fox News briefly ran a chyron that accompanied their coverage of former President Donald Trump's arraignment on felony counts stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

“Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested,” the chyron read.

Fox News explained Thursday that it had removed that description “immediately.”

Asked Thursday to respond to the chyron, Jean-Pierre referenced the $787 million judgement against the company in the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.

“There are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this,” she said. “That was wrong what we saw last night, but I don’t think I’m going to get into it.”

Transgender activist no longer welcome at White House after going topless at Biden event


President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Betty Who, left in red, arrive for a Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 10, 2023, in Washington. 

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Associated Press

Tue, June 13, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transgender advocate Rose Montoya is no longer welcome at White House events after posting on social media a video of herself and two others going topless for a time at Saturday's Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn.

“The behavior was simply unacceptable,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families.”

Speaking at the White House press briefing, Jean-Pierre said, “Individuals in the video certainly will not be invited to future events." The White House spokeswoman said the bare-chested display “was not a normal thing that has happened under this administration.”

President Joe Biden hosted the event to show the administration's support of the LGBTQ+ community. There has recently been a push by some Republican leaders at the state level to restrict drag shows and limit the options for youth who are seeking to transition their genders.

Biden said Saturday that he had a message for the entire community, but especially for transgender children: “You are loved. You are heard. You’re understood. And you belong.”

Parts of his speech appeared in the video posted on social media by Montoya, whose Instagram biography identifies her as an educator, model and actor.

Montoya defended her post on Instagram and Twitter, saying that “going topless in Washington, DC is legal and I fully support the movement in freeing the nipple.” She said critics of her toplessness affirmed that she is, in fact, a woman, as a man would not face similar pushback. She said she had “zero intention of trying to be vulgar or be profane in anyway," adding that she covered her nipples with her hands in the video “just to play it safe.”

Conservative outrage over transgender model posting topless video at White House Pride party

‘All you’re doing is affirming that I am a woman,’ the trans model said in response to conservative backlash

Graig Graziosi

INDEPENDENT
1 day ago

Rose Montoya, a trans woman who also advocates for her community, defended her decision to pose semi-topless with other trans activists during a White House Pride event over the weekend. She celebrated Pride with the other attendees and was given the chance to meet the president.

"I had the honor of attending @WhiteHouse Pride, the largest one in history where the pride flag flew for the first time," she wrote on Twitter. "This is trans joy. We're here at the White House unapologetically trans, queer, and brown."

After facing conservative backlash, she defended her decision.

Ms Montoya released a video following the backlash addressing the event and expressing their support for the “free the nipple” movement, which pushes back against the idea that women’s breasts are inherently sexual and should be covered in the name of “decency.”

She also pointed out the conservatives’ hypocrisy; while many refuse to acknowledge trans women as “real” women, she argued that their objection to their breasts only makes sense if they consider them a “real” woman.

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“I would just like to say that first of all, going topless in Washington DC is legal and I fully support the movement in freeing the nipple because why is my chest now deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off, however before coming out as trans it was not? All you’re doing is affirming that I am a woman. All you’re doing is saying that trans women are women because for some reason people like to sexualize women’s bodies and say that they’re inappropriate,” she said in the video.

“My transmasculine friends were showing off their top surgery scars and living in joy and I wanted to join them. And because it is perfectly within the law in Washington DC, I decided to join them and cover my nipples just to play it safe, because I wanted to be fully free and myself. I had zero intention of trying to be vulgar or be profane in any way. I was simply living in joy, living my truth, and existing in my body. Happy Pride! Free the nipple.”

She shared a video of the event on Twitter. At one point in the video Montoya can be seen exposing their breasts on the White House lawn near the Truman Balcony. A voice can be heard off camera asking "are we topless at the White House?"

A pair of transmasculine individuals who underwent top surgery also posed topless next to Montoya, who uses she/they pronouns.

Some social media commenters — mostly conservatives — offered their apoplectic reactions to the video.

Todd Starnes, a former Fox News staffer who was fired for saying Democrats worship the child-sacrifice-demanding pagan god Moloch, tut tutted at the sight of breasts near the White House.

"Could someone explain why transgender activists were permitted to disrobe in front of children on the White House lawn during Biden's gaypalooza?" he wrote on Twitter, along with the hashtags "pervert" and "criminal."

While children did attend the event, it is unclear if any children were present when the activists posed topless, or if that video was shot in a more secluded portion of the lawn.

CJ Pearson, another former Fox News commenter, lamented the "shame" of the event.

"This is the White House. Joe Biden has brought more shame onto this country than any other President in American history," Mr Pearson, whose presidential preference is a twice indicted former reality television host, wrote.

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik offered similar rage.

“OK, so who is running the f******* White House and allowing this deviant garbage to go on right outside the oval office?” the former official, whose city is known for a man nicknamed "The Naked Cowboy," wrote. “We know it’s not @JoeBiden – this dude has no idea where he is. So who is it? Who is the cause of this international embarrassment?”

Karol Markowicz, a columnist at the New York Post and Fox News, argued that conservatives would condemn a conservative president who "befouled" the White House.

"Again, if a Republican president befouled the White House like this there would be a dozen thinkpieces from conservatives about how wrong it is. Where are the sane liberals calling this disgusting behaviour out?" she wrote on Twitter. "Stop hiding under your beds."

TEAMSTERS VICTORY!
UPS agrees to add air conditioning to trucks



Jared Gans
Wed, June 14, 2023 

The delivery company UPS and a union representing workers have reached a tentative agreement to add air conditioning to trucks that could help avoid a possible national strike that workers have threatened.

UPS said in a release Tuesday that it reached an agreement with the Teamsters union to implement “heat safety measures” for workers. It said the company agreed to equip all newly purchased small package delivery vehicles in the United States with air conditioning starting on Jan. 1.

The new vehicles will be provided to the hottest parts of the country where possible.

“We care deeply about our people, and their safety remains our top priority. Heat safety is no exception,” the release states.

UPS also plans to have package cars retrofitted with a cab fan within 30 days of a contract being ratified. It has already worked to install cab fans in the cars, and a second fan will be added to those without air conditioning by June 1, 2024.

The release states that UPS will also include exhaust heat shields in the production of new package cars and will retrofit existing cars with them within 18 months of the contract being ratified. The shields minimize heat conduction from the powertrain into the vehicle’s floor, and tests have shown they can reduce floor temperature by 17 degrees.

UPS will add an air intake vent to new cars and retrofit them to existing cars within 18 months of ratification to bring in fresh air to the cargo area.

Teamsters said in a statement that the agreement came after a week of “intense lobbying” from its National Negotiating Committee on UPS to recognize the “enormous dangers of heat-related issues.”

“Air conditioning is coming to UPS, and Teamster members in these vehicles will get the relief and protection they’ve been fighting for,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said.

The union represents more than 340,000 employees for UPS.

NBC News reported that more than 100 workers have been hospitalized for heat-related illness in recent years, including some who approached kidney failure as a result. The outlet reported that the tentative agreement could reduce the chances of the workers going on strike as they try to negotiate for a new five-year contract before a deadline of July 31.

Teamsters said its subcommittees have reached tentative agreements on more than a dozen issues and are planning new proposals to UPS. It said bargaining would resume Wednesday

UPS Drivers Finally Get AC in New Trucks as Strike Authorization Vote Looms

Kevin Hurler
Wed, June 14, 2023 


Image: Jonathan Weiss (Shutterstock)

Don’t forget to thank your mailman, come rain, snow, heat, or hail. After years of putting up with sweltering temperatures inside their vehicles, UPS has reached a deal with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents nearly 340,000 drivers, to add air conditioning to UPS trucks both new and old.

According to a press release from UPS, air conditioning will be included in newly purchased trucks beginning on January 1, 2024. While this is a ways off, and excludes legacy vehicles, UPS added that trucks with AC will be dispatched to the parts of the country most susceptible to high heat first. Additionally, UPS will retrofit older trucks with a cab fan within thirty days of the union ratifying a new contract with the courier service—the union’s current contract expires on August 1. Trucks without air conditioning will get a second fan installed by June 1, 2024.

“The Teamsters and UPS agreed to tentative language to equip the delivery and logistics company’s fleet of vehicles with air conditioning systems, new heat shields, and additional fans,” Teamsters said in a tweet yesterday.

UPS also agreed to include exhaust heat shields in truck cargo bays both in new trucks and, within 18 months of the union ratifying the contract, in old trucks. UPS says that these heat shields can dramatically reduce the heat conducted onto the cargo floor by as much as 17 degrees Fahrenheit. Both new and old trucks will also receive an air intake vent on the passenger side of the vehicle leading into the cargo area to circulate air. Old trucks will be retrofitted with the vent within 18 months after the contract is ratified.

“We have reached an agreement with the Teamsters on new heat safety measures that build on important actions UPS rolled out to employees in the spring, which included new cooling gear and enhanced training,” UPS said in its release. “We care deeply about our people, and their safety remains our top priority. Heat safety is no exception.”

UPS drivers have been struggling with balmy trucks for years, and that struggle is only exacerbated as heat waves appear to become more commonplace. Just last month, a heat wave began to cook the Pacific Northwest—a region that is not typically equipped to handle lofty temperatures—with temperatures on both the low and high end of the region’s forecast on certain days hitting 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit higher than average. Some UPS drivers have gotten crafty, like Simone Martin, who would dunk fabric into a container of ice water to wear on the back of her neck in order to stay cool during a major heat wave last year.

“That was the worst day for me,” Martin told Gizmodo last summer, citing July 21, 2022 as a particularly hot day in the city. “​​I felt like I was going to pass out. I had to keep stopping and reapplying the ice thing to my neck and to my head.”

The agreement comes ahead of a strike authorization vote which, if passed, would lead to a work stoppage that could have devastating ripple effects on the U.S. economy and supply chain. The union’s contract with UPS was set to expire in less than seven weeks. Two of the workers major concerns, according to CNN, are air conditioning in trucks and higher wages. The former has now been met, but Teamsters and UPS did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment on the status of wage discussions. Still, the strike authorization vote is moving forward, according to a tweet from Teamsters.

More from Gizmodo

Columbus City Schools reaches tentative contract with union representing support staf

Cole Behrens, The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, June 13, 2023 

Columbus City Schools has reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with the Columbus School Employees Association, the union that represents support staff.

Columbus City Schools and the Columbus School Employees Association announced Tuesday they have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement that includes raises and expanded benefits over the next three years.

The Columbus Schools Education Association (CSEA), which is a part of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, represents more than 3,200 custodians, bus drivers, secretaries and other support staff.

The proposed three-year contract runs through July 31, 2026, and will go before the Columbus Board of Education for consideration next Tuesday. If approved, the contract will be signed and enacted.

The tentative agreement includes 4% salary increases for all CSEA members in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. The continued salary increases "are part of the District’s commitment to proactively address shifts in the economy and ensure employees earn competitive, livable wages," the district's release said.

All active CSEA members will also receive a $500 recruitment and retention stipend in December 2023, and another $500 recruitment and retention stipend in June 2024.

CSEA President Lois Carson said members "overwhelmingly" approved the contract because it "provides improvements across the board," including the raises and bonuses, as well as health care updates and a streamlining of the promotion process.

“The new contract is a reflection of the respect the district has for the important work we do to help educate our students, and it shows that they value our critical contributions," Carson said.

In addition to wage increases over the next two school years, the tentative agreement includes additional health care benefits, introduces work-from-home policies according to procedures adopted by the superintendent, and establishes new parental and family leave policies for all CSEA members.

Columbus City Schools Superintendent Angela Chapman said she is committed to "prioritizing the voices and needs of all employees.”

“This new agreement reflects that commitment, and it shows our District’s appreciation for the (CSEA) employees who play a vital role in the success of Columbus City Schools,” Chapman said.

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus schools reaches tentative contract agreement with staff union

Insider Reaches Deal To End Longest Strike In Digital Media History

Lydia O'Connor
Wed, June 14, 2023 

The Insider Union has reached a tentative agreement with management at the news site Insider, ending the longest strike in digital media history, the union’s bargaining unit announced Wednesday.

“Our strike is over ― we’re going back to work tomorrow!” read a tweet from the account of the unit, which consists of about 250 people.

Staff at Insider, organized through the NewsGuild, have been on strike for 13 days. Negotiations with the site’s management had fallen apart after more than two years of bargaining over increased health care costs, salary minimums and various other workplace conditions.



The three-year deal they reached Wednesday includes a $65,000 salary minimum, immediate raises for most unit members, a layoff moratorium through the end of 2023, a “just cause” requirement for disciplining employees, and a commitment from management to reimburse more than $400,000 in health care costs over the course of the agreement. The tentative contract now goes to the full unit for a vote on ratification.

“The deal we won today shows the power of solidarity,” Dorian Barranco, a member of the Insider Union bargaining committee, said in a statement. “We came together and refused to settle for anything less than what we were worth, and our collective power won a contract that will resonate in newsrooms across the country. It’s never an easy decision to go on strike, but today’s victory proves it was well worth it. We’re excited to get back to work with our new wins in hand.”

Increased health care costs were a major point of tension during bargaining. Last November, the NewsGuild filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against Insider with the National Labor Relations Board, which found merit with the complaint in May. The complaint alleged that management had unlawfully changed workers’ health care coverage, resulting in increased costs for unit members.

Up until now, striking staffers have encouraged readers not to cross the digital picket line by visiting Insider or clicking on any of the site’s stories. The non-unionized staffers who remained at work, meanwhile, recycled old stories and published unfinishedcontent.

At one point, Insider’s editor-in-chief, Nicholas Carlson, was captured on film biking around Brooklyn, New York, and ripping down pro-union fliers that called him out with the headline “Have You Seen This Millionaire?”

The Ugly Insider Battle Ends With a New Union Deal


Corbin Bolies
Wed, June 14, 2023 

Monica Schipper

The union at Insider, the digital news outlet dedicated to business and tech news, has reached a deal with its management, ending a historic 13-day strike that almost completely shut down the newsroom after the company laid off dozens of employees.

“Insider is a great place to work, and we're proud that the CBA formalizes many of our existing practices, policies, and benefits, including freedom to work from anywhere in the US, top of the market pay, 16 weeks of parental leave, and a commitment to building a diverse and equitable workplace,” the company’s president Barbara Peng wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday. “Over the past two years we have worked diligently to develop a contract that works for our union members, as well as the entire Insider team. That's why we're extending some great new benefits to all of our employees as well, including funds to put towards mental health and prescription costs.”

Staffers will return to work on Thursday, the guild announced.

“To those of you coming back: Welcome back,” editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson emailed staffers. “We missed you. Our audience missed you. Congratulations on your excellent CBA.”

He later added: “We have bright days ahead.”

The tentative deal includes a $65,000 salary floor, a 3.5 percent immediate raise for those who haven’t received one this year (with a 3.75 percent raise for all employees next year), and a commitment to not lay off any more employees for the rest of 2023. The agreement also addressed the Insider’s decision to change its healthcare providers, a charge the union claimed was illegal, by setting up a reimbursement account for employees that will pay out $2,200 over three years to spend on mental health and prescription costs.

Inside the Collapse of Insider’s Much-Hyped D.C. Team

As part of the contract, the union also agreed to settle its unfair labor practice charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board over the company’s move to switch its healthcare provider from United Healthcare to Cigna, a decision staffers said made their prescription costs skyrocket.

The road to ending the longest open-ended strike in online news was not so simple.

The agreement comes after the strike was called on June 2, following weeks of bargaining over both the union’s long-stalled contract and the company’s decision in April to lay off dozens of staffers, including 60 unit members. The two sides eventually agreed to a tally of 44 staffers getting laid off, including some not originally on the proposed list, just before the strike began.

The first few days of the strike were marred by an effective stalemate between the union and the company, with employees publicly calling for the outlet to come to the table at all. Jessica Liebman, the company's chief people officer, told staffers on June 6 that some points on professional development and wage issues had been agreed to, but conceded it was not enough.

“We still have a ways to go,” she wrote.

Eventually, the two sides moved to off-the-record bargaining sessions, hashing out the terms of the deal—and leaving striking staffers demanding for more money instead. The union also launched a strike publication, aptly titled “Business Outsider,” which gave some reporters the chance to publish pieces related to the strike—including getting the White House to praise the striking workers and grilling Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith.

The strike brought out all forms of support—and criticism from certain media villains. Elon Musk urged workers, perhaps facetiously, on Wednesday to continue striking (“Fight on, comrades!”), and Insider foe Dave Portnoy—whose lawsuit against Insider over two stories alleging Portnoy committed sexual misconduct was dismissed last year—tried to crash the union’s picket line.

Still, the solidarity seemed to waver at times. The union repeatedly warned staffers against leaking to the media, including after a video of union members confronting Carlson as he took down union-made posters, featuring his photo, that were plastered around his Brooklyn neighborhood. The video was posted in the union’s Slack channel last week.

“I think we should think very carefully before sharing the Nich video publicly,” a union member wrote in the chats reviewed by The Daily Beast. “Ultimately, we do need to work together productively as a newsroom after this is all over, rebuild trust, etc. Putting this out there may make that harder. Just something to think about.”

"Plz dont leak the video just [because] you want it out there,” another member wrote. “I know we’ve had some issues with leaks and that’s really not cool.”

Some staffers seemed not to care. The video ended up in the New York Post on Tuesday, prompting the company to declare Carlson was a “big boy” who was “not annoyed at the union — after all, it was only a handful who participated in the stunt.”

The leak enraged a plethora of staffers, who argued on Slack that it diminished their fight and risked eventual consequences with management. Some wondered if they should reach out to Carlson personally to apologize for the seemingly unauthorized leak.

“This is a super shitty thing tohave [sic] happened and if you want to leak stuff, you should honestly just log out of the union slack and go scab instead because it’s less harmful than this kind of shit,” a union member wrote. “In terms of damage control, what we’re worried about here is nich’s feelings and working with him moving forward.”

The leak seemed not to have impacted the union’s marathon, on-the-record bargaining sessions, with both unit chair Emma LeGault and Liebman writing staffers early Wednesday to announce a deal was imminent. After hours of bargaining throughout the day, the deal was announced just before 4 p.m. ET.

The strike was the first for a U.S. publication owned by German media empire Axel Springer, and the new deal becomes the first union contract since the company’s entry into the U.S. media market. Fellow Axel Springer-owned outlet Politico is also currently negotiating a contract.

The work stoppage at Insider, which is run by famed investor Henry Blodget, preceded other headline-grabbing walkouts like those at a number of Gannett newspapers (including the Palm Beach Post, Florida Times Union, and Arizona Republic), which occurred during the company’s shareholder meeting earlier this month.

A slumping economy and declining advertising revenues have resulted in industry-wide tumult, often culminating in layoffs, cuts to employee benefits, and other belt-tightening moves. In response, more and more media staffers have walked out in protest. Unionized employees at The New York Times, NBC News, and Reuters held walkouts over the last year, with the latter agreeing to a contract about a month after voting for a strike.

NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss told The Daily Beast on Monday that the organization has seen 27 one-day-or-longer walkouts so far this year, a marked jump from 21 labor stoppages in all of 2022.

 The Daily Beast.