The state of work: Employees need feedback in order to be productive


ByDr. Tim Sandle
April 23, 2024

A business professional going to work. Image © Tim Sandle

There is often widespread disconnect between management and employees and seeking to contain it as best as possible should perhaps be near the top of the list for companies. A survey from the firm Betterworks looked at employees at every level to find where these gaps exist and how business leaders can close them.

The company has issued a State of Performance Enablement Report. This research exposes a common disconnect between organizational leaders, employees, and their managers. The results have been passed to Digital Journal for review.

The survey findings were gleaned from over 2,000 employees and organizational leaders in the U.S. and U.K.

The disconnect that is central to the survey findings, can be broken down into different segments:

The perception gap

While 90 percent of leaders (including Human Resources) consider their performance management processes successful, only 55 percent of employees share this sentiment. This indicates there is a perception difference between different levels of the organisational strata.

This disparity can detrimentally impact employee empowerment, productivity levels, and perceived support for skills development.

1:1’s are critical

Another finding is that 20 percent of employees lack access to one-on-one conversations with their managers, while 40 percent say they do not receive peer feedback.

Seven out of 10 employees report feeling highly productive when performance management is deemed successful, in contrast to five out of 10 when it is perceived as a failure.

Employees who receive feedback consistently are at least three times more likely to feel supported in their work, skills, and career development.

Middle managers need support

Managers, as well as other employees, also need help. The survey finds that two-thirds of managers express a need for greater clarity regarding their roles, increased support in delivering performance management, and assistance in guiding employees’ skills and career development.

Both employees and managers appear to lack adequate guidance to perform at their best, report feeling less enabled than leadership, and often do not have access to the right tools.

The skills squeeze

While the vast majority of employees (86 percent) expressed the desire for career and skills development, along with coaching to support both, just over half (54 percent) see these processes as successful.

Survey reveals huge gaps in knowledge about what we eat


ByDr. Tim Sandle
April 23, 2024

UK consumer prices rose by an annual rate of 7.9 percent, down from 8.7 percent in May as food price inflation eased - Copyright AFP ATTA KENARE

A new assessment reveals scientific knowledge gaps in relation to food and nutrition. The findings appear in the science journal Nature Food, based on data from the Periodic Table of Food Initiative. The initiative identifies a list of 1,650 foods for biomolecular analysis to advance nutrition and planetary health.

Of the foods listed: 30 percent are fruits; 25 percent are vegetables, 8 percent are nuts and seeds, 8 percent are land animal products and 7 percent are aquatic animal products.

The Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI) Initiative is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and its public charity, RF Catalytic Capital, Inc. and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and facilitated by the American Heart Association and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture).

Of the ‘missing’ foods for biochemical analysis more than 1,000 are not included in any globally recognized food composition databases. Such databases are typically used to issue dietary guidelines and to guide agricultural policies.

This means the information presented on dietary labels is often limited or inaccurate.

According to Selena Ahmed, Global Director of PTFI at the American Heart Association: “We may think we know what we’re eating, but most of the time, we have limited understanding.”

The list was compiled through a global participatory process involving 40 experts from regions around the world. It represents a cornucopia of foods chosen for their contribution to the human diet, cultural relevance, diversity and innovation potential as the climate changes.

Furthermore, the nutritional assessment of food is too often simplified to calories and essential nutrients.

To redress the gap, analysis is underway on hundreds of the listed foods, using sophisticated new technologies (like high resolution mass spectrometry and artificial intelligence) to discover the so-called “dark matter” of food.

Some 476 foods are considered global in nature (broadly cultivated and consumed), while the others are regionally important, originating from either the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Pacific or Europe

As an example, one of these foods — wattle seeds — come from Acacia trees native to Australia and have been used by Aboriginal communities for thousands of years. The list also includes 98 African crops, 56 of which are undocumented in food databases.

The research paper, in Nature Food, is titled “Periodic Table of Food Initiative for generating biomolecular knowledge of edible biodiversity.”

Your morning coffee may be more than a half million years old

THAT'S WHY IT'S BITTER


Arabica coffee beans harvested the previous year are stored at a coffee plantation in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala. In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics on Monday, April 15, 2024, researchers estimate that Coffea arabica came to be from natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species over 600,000 years ago. 

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

 Mohammed Fita picks coffee beans on his farm Choche, near Jimma, 375 kilometers (234 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, Sept. 21 2002. Wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been primarily roasted and brewed in Yemen starting in the 1400s. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim, File)


BY ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

April 15, 2024

That coffee you slurped this morning? It’s 600,000 years old.

Using genes from coffee plants around the world, researchers built a family tree for the world’s most popular type of coffee, known to scientists as Coffea arabica and to coffee lovers simply as “arabica.”

The researchers, hoping to learn more about the plants to better protect them from pests and climate change, found that the species emerged around 600,000 years ago through natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species.

“In other words, prior to any intervention from man,” said Victor Albert, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who co-led the study..

These wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been first roasted and brewed primarily in Yemen starting in the 1400s. In the 1600s, Indian monk Baba Budan is fabled to have smuggled seven raw coffee beans back to his homeland from Yemen, laying the foundation for coffee’s global takeover.

Arabica coffee, prized for its smooth and relatively sweet flavor, now makes up 60% - 70% of the global coffee market and is brewed by brands such as Starbucks, Tim Horton’s and Dunkin’. The rest is robusta, a stronger and more bitter coffee made from one of arabica’s parents, Coffea canephora.

To piece together arabica coffee’s past, researchers studied genomes of C. canephora, another parent called Coffea eugenioides, and more than 30 different arabica plants, including a sample from the 1700s — courtesy of the Natural History Museum in London — that Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used to name the plant.

The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics. Researchers from Nestlé, which owns several coffee brands, contributed to the study.

The arabica plant’s population fluctuated over thousands of years before humans began cultivating it, flourishing during warm, wet periods and suffering through dry ones. These lean times created so-called population bottlenecks, when only a small number of genetically similar plants survived.

Today, that renders arabica coffee plants more vulnerable to diseases like coffee leaf rust, which cause billions of dollars in losses every year. The researchers explored the makeup of one arabica variety that is resistant to coffee leaf rust, highlighting sections of its genetic code that could help protect the plant.

The study clarifies how arabica came to be and spotlights clues that could help safeguard the crop, said Fabian Echeverria, an adviser for the Center for Coffee Research and Education at Texas A&M University who was not involved with the research.

Exploring arabica’s past and present could yield insight into keeping coffee plants healthy – and coffee cups full – for future early mornings.
___

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

US advances review of Nevada lithium mine amid concerns over endangered wildflower

NOT JUST THE FLOWER BUT ITS ECOLOGY


This photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity shows a Tiehm’s buckwheat plant near the site of a proposed lithium mine in Nevada, May 22, 2020. The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what’s next in line to become only the third U.S. lithium mine, as conservationists fear it will lead to the extinction of the endangered Nevada wildflower near the California line. 

(Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, File

BY SCOTT SONNER
April 22, 2024


RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S., amid anticipated legal challenges from conservationists over the threat they say it poses to an endangered Nevada wildflower.

The Bureau of Land Management released more than 2,000 pages of documents in a draft environmental impact statement last week for the Rhyolite Ridge mine. Lithium is a metal key to the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles — a centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s “green energy” agenda.

Officials for the bureau and its parent Interior Department trumpeted the news, saying the progress in the review of the lithium-boron mine project “represents another step by the Biden-Harris administration to support the responsible, domestic development of critical minerals to power the clean energy economy.”

“Federal agencies cooperating to solve issues efficiently while protecting vulnerable species and other irreplaceable resources is exactly how we will need to move forward if we’re going to produce these critical minerals in the United States,” said Steve Feldgus, deputy assistant Interior secretary for land and minerals management.

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Environmentalists vowing to fight the mine say it’s the latest example of the administration running roughshod over U.S. protections for native wildlife and rare species in the name of slowing climate change by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In this photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity, Mining impacts to Tiehm’s buckwheat habitat in the high desert in the Silver Peak Range of western Nevada about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, June 1, 2019. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, File)

Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, described it as “greenwashing extinction.” The nonprofit conservation group first petitioned in 2019 for federal protection of the rare flower, Tiehm’s buckwheat, which grows near the California line.

“We believe the current protection plan would violate the Endangered Species Act, so if BLM approves it as proposed, we almost certainly would challenge it,” he told The Associated Press last week.

Nevada is home to the only existing lithium mine in the U.S. and another is currently under construction near the Oregon line 220 miles (354 kilometers) north of Reno. By 2030, worldwide demand for lithium is projected to have grown six times compared to 2020.

In this photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity, Tiehm’s buckwheat grows in the high desert in the Silver Peak Range of western Nevada about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, June 1, 2019, where a lithium mine is planned. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, File)

The bureau said it published the draft review and opened public comment through June 3 for the new mine after Ioneer Ltd., the Australian mining company that’s been planning for years to dig for lithium at this site, adjusted its latest blueprint to reduce destruction of critical habitat for the plant, which exists nowhere else in the world.

Bernard Rowe, Ioneer’s managing director, said lithium production could begin as early as 2027. He said the company has spent six years adjusting their plans so the mine can co-exist with the plant, invested $2.5 million in conservation efforts and committed an additional $1 million annually to ensure the plant and its surrounding habitat are protected.

“Rhyolite Ridge will help accelerate the electric vehicle transition and secure a cleaner future for our children and grandchildren,” Ioneer Executive Chairman James Calaway said.

In addition to scaling back encroachment on the 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter-tall) wildflower with yellow and cream-colored blooms, the strategy includes a controversial propagation plan to grow and transplant flowers nearby — something conservationists say won’t work.

The plant grows in eight sub-populations that combined cover approximately 10 acres (4 hectares) — an area equal to the size of about eight football fields. They’re located halfway between Reno and Las Vegas in a high-desert oasis of sorts for the plants and the insects that pollinate them.

The Fish and Wildlife Service added the flower to the list of U.S. endangered species on Dec. 14, 2022, citing mining as the biggest threat to its survival.

Less than a week later, the government published a formal notice of intent to begin work on the draft environmental impact statement. Three weeks after that, the Energy Department announced a $700 million conditional loan to Ioneer for the mining project it said could produce enough lithium to support production of about 370,000 electric vehicles annually for four decades.

In this photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity, Tiehm’s buckwheat grows in the high desert in the Silver Peak Range of western Nevada about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, June 1, 2019, where a lithium mine is planned. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, File)

The Center for Biological Diversity said a series of internal documents it obtained from the Bureau of Land Management through a request under the Freedom of Information Act show the administration has rushed its review of the mine.

Scott Distell, BLM’s project manager in charge of the review, raised concerns about the expedited schedule in an email to his district boss when it suddenly was accelerated in December 2023.

“This is a very aggressive schedule that deviates from other project schedules on similar projects completed recently,” Distell wrote in the Dec. 22 email.

The draft environmental impact statement lays out three different options for the project, including a “no-action alternative” that would mean no mine would be built. The one the bureau said it prefers anticipates Ioneer’s protection plan would allow for direct destruction of about 22% of the plant’s habitat in the 910 acres (368 hectares) the Fish and Wildlife Service designated as critical habitat when it listed it as endangered. That’s down from an estimated 38% in an earlier version of the plan.

“For an extremely rare species confined to such a small area, no amount of destruction of its critical habitat is acceptable,” said Naomi Fraga, director of conservation at the California Botanic Garden.

Donnelly points to the Endangered Species Act’s requirement that federal agencies consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service whenever a project could affect a threatened or endangered species to ensure it won’t “result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat.”

“Reducing the destruction of this rare plant’s habitat from 38% to 22% is like cutting off one leg instead of both,” Donnelly said. “They’re still dealing a fatal blow to this precious, rare wildflower.”

Boeing’s financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge US to prosecute the company


BY DAVID KOENIG
 April 24, 2024

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.

CEO David Calhoun said the company is in “a tough moment,” and its focus is on fixing its manufacturing issues, not the financial results.

Company executives have been forced to talk more about safety and less about finances since a door plug blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, leaving a gaping hole in the plane.

The accident halted progress that Boeing seemed to be making while recovering from two deadly crashes of Max jets in 2018 and 2019. Those crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which killed 346 people, are now back in the spotlight, too.

About a dozen relatives of passengers who died in the second crash met with government officials for several hours Wednesday in Washington. They asked the officials to revive a criminal fraud charge against the company by determining that Boeing violated terms of a 2021 settlement, but left disappointed.


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Boeing officials made no mention of the meeting, but talked repeatedly while discussing the quarterly earnings of a renewed focus on safety.

“Although we report first-quarter financial results today, our focus remains on the sweeping actions we are taking following the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident,” Calhoun told employees in a memo Wednesday.

Calhoun ticked off a series of actions the company is taking and reported “significant progress” in improving manufacturing quality, much of it by slowing down production, which means fewer planes for its airline customers. Calhoun told CNBC that closer inspections were resulting in 80% fewer flaws in the fuselages coming from key supplier Spirit AeroSystems.

“Near term, yes, we are in a tough moment,” he wrote to employees. “Lower deliveries can be difficult for our customers and for our financials. But safety and quality must and will come above all else.”

Calhoun, who will step down at the end of the year, said again he is fully confident the company will recover.

Calhoun became CEO in early 2020 as Boeing struggled to recover from the Max crashes, which led regulators to ground the planes worldwide for nearly two years. The company thought it had sidestepped any risk of criminal prosecution when the Justice Department agreed not to try the company for fraud if it complied with U.S. anti-fraud laws for three years — a period that ended in January.

Boeing has been reaching confidential settlements with the families of passengers who died, but the relatives of those killed in the Ethiopia crash are continuing to press the Justice Department to prosecute the company in federal district court in Texas, where the settlement was filed. On Wednesday, department officials told relatives that the agency is still considering the matter.

Leaving the meeting, Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, called it “all for show.” He said the Justice Department appears determined to defend the agreement it brokered in secret with Boeing.

“We simply want that case to move forward and let the jury decide if Boeing is a criminal or not,” he said.

It was an emotional meeting, according to Nadia Milleron, whose daughter Samya Stumo died in the 2019 crash.

“People are angry. People are shouting. People are starting to talk over other people,” said Milleron, who watched online from her home in Massachusetts while her husband attended in person. Relatives believe the Justice Department is “overlooking a mountain of evidence against Boeing. It’s mystifying,” she said.

According to Milleron, the head of the fraud section of the Justice Department’s criminal division, Glenn Leon, said his agency could extend its review beyond this summer, seek a trial against Boeing on the charge of defrauding regulators who approved the Max, or ask a judge to dismiss the charge. She said Leon made no commitments.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

A federal judge and an appeals court ruled last year that they had no power to overturn the Boeing settlement. Families of the crash victims hoped the government would reconsider prosecuting Boeing after the Jan. 5 door-plug blowout on the Alaska Airlines jetliner as the plane flew above Oregon.

Investigators looking into the Alaska flight say bolts that help keep the door plug in place were missing after repair work at a Boeing factory. The FBI told passengers that they might be crime victims.

Boeing stock has plunged by about one-third since the blowout. The Federal Aviation Administration has stepped up its oversight and given Boeing until late May to produce a plan to fix problems in manufacturing 737 Max jets. Airline customers are unhappy about not getting all the new planes that they had ordered because of delivery disruptions.

The company said it paid $443 million in compensation to airlines for the grounding of Max 9 jets after the Alaska accident.

Several former and one current manager have reported various problems in manufacturing of Boeing 737 and 787 jetliners. The most recent, a quality engineer, told Congress last week that Boeing is taking manufacturing shortcuts that could eventually cause 787 Dreamliners to break apart. Boeing pushed back aggressively against his claims.

Boeing, however, has a couple things in its favor.

Along with Airbus, Boeing forms one-half of a duopoly that dominates the manufacturing of large passenger planes. Both companies have yearslong backlogs of orders from airlines eager for new, more fuel-efficient planes. And Boeing is a major defense contractor for the Pentagon and governments around the world.

Richard Aboulafia, a longtime industry analyst and consultant at AeroDynamic Advisory, said despite all the setbacks Boeing still has a powerful mix of products in high demand, technology and people.

“Even if they are No. 2 and have major issues, they are still in a very strong market and an industry that has very high barriers to entry,” he said.

And despite massive losses — about $24 billion in the last five years — the company is not at risk of failing, Aboulafia said.

“This isn’t General Motors in 2008 or Lockheed in 1971,” Aboulafia said, referring to two iconic corporations that needed massive government bailouts or loan guarantees to survive.

All of those factors help explain why 20 analysts in a FactSet survey rate Boeing shares as “Buy” or “Overweight” and only two have “Sell” ratings. (Five have “Hold” ratings.)

Boeing said the first-quarter loss, excluding special items came to $1.13 per share, which was better than the loss of $1.63 per share that analysts had forecast, according to a FactSet survey.

Revenue fell 7.5%, to $16.57 billion.

Moody’s downgraded Boeing’s unsecured debt one notch to Baa3, the lowest investment-grade rating, citing the weak performance of the commercial-airplanes business.

Boeing Co. shares closed down 3%. They have dropped 34% since the Alaska blowout.

Norfolk Southern’s earnings offer railroad chance to defend its strategy ahead of control vote


A Norfolk Southern freight train runs through a crossing Homestead, Pa. 

Norfolk Southern reports earnings on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

BY JOSH FUNK
April 24, 2024

Norfolk Southern’s first-quarter earnings report Wednesday gave the railroad the opportunity to publicly defend CEO Alan Shaw’s strategy again before investors decide on May 9 whether to back him. Since the railroad already preannounced its disappointing results earlier this month when it disclosed a $600 million settlement over the disastrous February 2023 Ohio derailment there were few surprises in Wednesday’s numbers.

Norfolk Southern confirmed the $53 million, or 23 cents per share, that it earned in the first quarter. Without the settlement and some other one-time costs, the railroad said it would have made $2.39 per share while Wall Street was predicting earnings of $2.60 per share. The Atlanta-based railroad’s profit dropped from $466 million, or $2.04 per share, a year ago even though the railroad delivered 4% more shipments during the quarter.

“Our strategy is about balancing service, productivity and growth with safety at its core,” Shaw said, and he promised to close the profit margin gap with other major railroads over the next couple of years though several analysts have expressed doubts about whether Norfolk Southern will be able to do that as all the other railroads keep improving.

The railroad and Ancora Holdings disagree over whether Shaw ’s strategy of keeping more workers on hand during a downturn to be ready to handle the eventual rebound is the best way to run Norfolk Southern and whether he is the best man to lead the railroad.


Ancora’s CEO candidate, Jim Barber, was formerly UPS’ chief operating officer and said keeping more workers on hand during slower times is wasteful.

“This concept of Precision Scheduled Railroading is the exact same way that UPS has run its network for 60 or 70 years, which is you run it very efficiently, very effectively, and very balanced with as few assets as you can and leverage the efficiency of your employee base and the assets,” Barber said in an interview with The Associated Press.

All the railroad unions, which have been complaining about the deep job cuts since PSR became the industry’s standard operating model, came out in support of Shaw even though Norfolk Southern has also cut workers. And key regulators at the Surface Transportation Board and Federal Railroad Administration warned that Ancora’s strategy could jeopardize the advancements in safety and service Norfolk Southern has made since the East Palestine derailment.

But control of the railroad will ultimately be decided by investors — not the unions or regulators — who will vote on Ancora’s seven board nominees, and investors have reason to be disappointed in Norfolk Southern’s results given that the railroad’s profit margins have lagged behind peers. Several big investors, including EdgePoint Investment Group that ranks in the top 10 of the railroad’s shareholders, have said they will back Ancora’s slate, and a Deutsche Bank analyst said in a research note that the activists seem to have strong support among institutional investors.

Barber and Ancora’s pick to be chief operating officer argue that Norfolk Southern needs to aggressively implement the lean Precision Scheduled Railroading model to make the best use of its locomotives and crews and bring its profits in line with the other major freight railroads. That model calls for running fewer, longer trains on a tighter schedule and switching cars less often, so the railroad won’t need as many workers, locomotives and railcars.

If keeping more workers on hand was really the answer, Barber and the man Ancora wants to be Norfolk Southern’s Chief Operations Officer, Jamie Boychuk, questioned why Norfolk Southern can’t deliver more shipments on time now while business remains slower. The railroad said Wednesday that during the first quarter, it delivered 86% of the shipping containers it handled and about 76% of all the other goods on time. Norfolk Southern predicted that would improve in the second quarter, but its nearest competitor in the East, CSX railroad, was already significantly better.

Ancora wants to shrink Norfolk Southern’s workforce by about 1,500 jobs through attrition over the next three years while working to cut more than $800 million in expenses in the first year, and another $275 million by the end of three years.

Norfolk Southern says there’s no way to save that much in a year without laying off about 2,900 workers. The railroad said it believes the steps Ancora has outlined would only save about $400 million in the first year. Norfolk Southern has predicted that its own plan will generate that much cost savings within two years.

In one example of the dueling letters and presentations to investors, Ancora replied to that criticism and said most of its initial $800 million in projected savings come from things like parking hundreds of unneeded locomotives and thousands of railcars and improving fuel efficiency — not from layoffs

Boychuk has experience helping CSX implement Precision Scheduled Railroading after a different investor group pressured that railroad to hire industry legend Hunter Harrison in 2017. That led to all kinds of service problems that year when CSX overhauled its operations quickly in the last few months of Harrison’s life, but since those initial problems CSX has come to be regarded as the industry leader in most respects and routinely outperforms Norfolk Southern in the eastern U.S.

Boychuk and Barber have promised to implement the model more gradually at Norfolk Southern, but they say major changes are needed — not the incremental adjustments the railroad is making under new Chief Operating Officer John Orr that it paid CPKC railroad $25 million to get the right to hire this spring.

Orr touted his background at other railroads and the efforts he has made in the first month on the job to streamline the way Norfolk Southern’s railyards are working.

But Boychuk said improving the way individual railyards operate without reworking the entire network will just push the problems out somewhere else along the railroad.

“It’s not about a point here, a point there. Or because I massaged a yard,” Boychuk said.

Norfolk Southern shares fell more than 3.5% Wednesday to trade around $236 after the report. Ancora predicts shares will reach between $420 and $525 over the next three years if it implements its plan.

Regardless of how the vote ends up, the fight over Norfolk Southern has already put all rail CEOs on notice, and the industry already had a history of investors forcing changes. Just last year, Union Pacific hired a new CEO in response to pressure from a hedge fund, but the most famous examples were when CSX and previously Canadian Pacific both hired Harrison to implement Precision Scheduled Railroading.

Current CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs knows he has to keep costs in line while also trying to improve customer service and grow the railroad.

“I think the way to bring those two together is to continue to deliver efficiency while demonstrating the ability to serve customers. And that’s the balance we’re trying to achieve and what we’re focused on,” Hinirchs said. “I think when you can’t achieve that, like we’ve seen, people are going to push for improved cost performance, to improve margins. And so we talk very openly and actively with our team about that.”

Connecticut House votes to expand state’s paid sick leave requirement for all employers by 2027


Connecticut state Rep. Manny Sanchez debates a bill in the House of Representatives chamber that would expand the state’s current paid sick leave law, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Hartford, Conn. The bill would eventually require all employers to provide time off by 2027. (AP Photo/Susan Haigh)

BY SUSAN HAIGH
April 24, 2024

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut’s first-in-the-nation paid sick leave law from 2011 moved closer Wednesday to being updated, requiring all employers, down to those with a single worker, to provide their employees with time off by 2027.

Cheers were heard from the House of Representatives gallery after lawmakers voted 88-61 in favor of legislation that attempts to provide guaranteed time off to people left out of the old law, including many low-wage and part-time workers across the state. The bill is expected to clear the Senate in the coming days.

Both chambers are controlled by Democrats.

While Republicans argued the bill will be a burden for small businesses, proponents said the proposed expansion is common sense, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve experienced quite a culture change since 2011, and that’s especially true even more since we experienced the pandemic,” said Democratic House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, who said people no longer want themselves or a coworker to go into work sick. “People shouldn’t have to choose between being sick, making other people sick, and losing out on compensation.”

If the bill is ultimately signed by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, as expected, Connecticut will join Washington, D.C., Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington in requiring paid sick leave for any business with one or more employees.

Republican House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said that would be a mistake. He and other GOP lawmakers argued the bill will create a financial and bureaucratic hardship for small business owners and break the state’s recent cycle of economic growth.

Connecticut’s current paid sick law generally requires certain employers with at least 50 employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave annually to “service workers” in certain specified occupations. This bill applies to all employees and affects employers with 25 or more workers beginning Jan. 1, 2025; 11 or more workers beginning Jan. 1, 2026; and one or more workers beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

An employee would accrue one hour of paid sick leave for each 30 hours worked, for a maximum of 40 hours of paid leave per year.

“We are now taking a giant leap and going to have a broad-brush impact every business throughout the entire state of Connecticut — and I don’t think people here appreciate or understand how it’s going to affect them,” Candelora said.

The bill, the result of months of negotiations to ultimately get a proposal that could clear the House, was also criticized for being too lenient and not requiring workers to provide their employer with a doctor’s note.

“This could be for somebody to take a day off and go to the beach,” said Republican Rep. Steve Weir of Hebron. “Let’s be honest. This not sick leave. It provides an unfunded mandate on our employers.”

Lamont, a Democrat and former businessman, said he believes the bill strikes an appropriate balance between protecting the workforce and providing safeguards so the benefit is not misused and small business owners are protected.

“Especially considering what we learned during the recent outbreak of a viral pandemic, it’s appropriate that we take a look at our existing paid sick days laws and evaluate how they are working and how we can strengthen them,” Lamont said in a statement.

Lamont said he will sign the bill once it passes the Senate.

Biden picks up another big union endorsement, this one from building trades workers


President Joe Biden talks with NABTU President Sean McGarvey after speaking to the North America’s Building Trade Union National Legislative Conference, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden speaks to the North America’s Building Trade Union National Legislative Conference, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

SINGING SOLIDARITY FOREVER

President Joe Biden arrives to speak to the North America’s Building Trade Union National Legislative Conference, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE AND CHRIS MEGERIAN
 April 24, 2024


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden picked up the endorsement of North America’s Building Trades Unions at a Wednesday event where the president and his allies set out to dismantle Republican Donald Trump’s reputation as a successful real estate developer.

“Donald Trump is incapable of running anything,” said Sean McGarvey, the organization’s president. “God help us if he gets anywhere near the White House in the future.”

The event, held in a Washington hotel ballroom with a boisterous crowd of union members, was another salvo in the battle for votes from blue collar workers. Trump has tried to chip away at Democrats’ traditional advantage with organized labor, while Biden has been adding to his roster of endorsements and trying to fend off his predecessor’s comeback bid.

Biden said unions would help him make Trump a “loser again,” and he mocked Trump’s inability to pass infrastructure legislation when he was president, saying “he never built a damn thing.”

The Democratic president repeatedly torched his likely Republican opponent as a callous businessman who turned firing people into entertainment as part of his long-running reality show “The Apprentice.”

“He looks down on us. I’m not joking. Think about it,” Biden said. “Think about the guys you grew up with that you’d like to get in the corner and just give him a straight left. I’m not suggesting you hit the president. But we all know those guys growing up.”

Biden recently campaigned in his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he’s increasingly used economic arguments to portray Trump as out of touch with workers’ concerns.

In this election, Biden said, “it’s either Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values.”

The endorsement adds to Biden’s considerable union support. The United Auto Workers backed him in January, and the United Steelworkers Union followed suit in March.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Trump has also sought support from organized labor, including meeting with the Teamsters earlier this year.

“Usually a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” Trump said. “But in my case it’s different because I’ve employed thousands of Teamsters and I thought we should come over and pay our respects.”

TRUE TRUMP FACT: TEAMSTERS WERE REGULAR ENDORSERS OF REPULICAN POTUS CANDIDATES INCLUDING RICHRD NIXON

Trump’s popularity with white working class voters has been a challenge for Democrats who puzzle over his appeal.

McGarvey promised “an unprecedented field program in key battleground states” to help defeat Trump this year.

How US changes to ‘noncompete’ agreements and overtime pay could affect workers


The Federal Trade Commission building is seen, Jan. 28, 2015, in Washington. U.S. companies would no longer be able to bar employees from taking jobs with competitors under a rule approved by the FTC on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, though the rule seems sure to be challenged in court. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

A hiring sign is displayed in Riverwoods, Ill., Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The Biden administration has finalized a new rule set to make millions of more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay in the U.S. The move marks the largest expansion in federal overtime eligibility seen in decades. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

BY CATHY BUSSEWITZ AND MAE ANDERSON
April 24, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — For millions of American workers, the federal government took two actions this week that could bestow potentially far-reaching benefits.

In one move, the Federal Trade Commission voted to ban noncompete agreements, which bar millions of workers from leaving their employers to join a competitor or start a rival business for a specific period of time. The FTC’s move, which is already being challenged in court, would mean that such employees could apply for jobs they weren’t previously eligible to seek.

In a second move, the Biden administration finalized a rule that will make millions more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay. The rule significantly raises the salary level that workers could earn and still qualify for overtime.

The new rules don’t take effect immediately. And they won’t benefit everyone. So what exactly would these rules mean for America’s workers?

WHAT IS A NONCOMPETE AGREEMENT?

Noncompete agreements, which employers have deployed with greater frequency in recent years, limit an employee’s ability to jump ship for a rival company or start a competing business for a stated period of time. The idea is to prevent employees from taking a company’s trade secrets, job leads or sales relationships to a direct competitor, who could immediately capitalize on them.

Many industries use noncompete agreements, often among their salespeople, said Paul Lopez, managing partner at Tripp Scott, a Florida law firm that has handled more than 100 cases involving noncompete clauses.

“They’re the ones out there generating leads and sales,” Lopez said. “The last thing you as a business will want is for that person to go over to your competition and do the same thing.”

WHO IS TYPICALLY SUBJECT TO THESE AGREEMENTS?

People may assume that noncompete agreements apply only to high-level executives in the technology or finance industries. But many lower-level workers are subject to the restrictions as well. The rules vary by state.

In Florida, one medical sales worker was barred by his employer from joining a competitor for 10 years — and once he left his job, was unemployed for more than five years, said Stefanie Camfield, assistant general counsel with Engage PEO, a Florida company that handles human resources for small and medium-sized businesses.

“He was able to find another sales position in a completely different industry,” Camfield said. “But the learning curve was there, so he wasn’t making the same amount of money.”

In another case, a company in the optical industry that had hired a sales associate was informed by his former employer that it intended to enforce a noncompete agreement. So the optical company terminated the employee, Camfield said.

“They thought they had a qualified sales associate hired and ready to get to work, and all of a sudden now they’re back to square one.”

WHY BAN NONCOMPETE AGREEMENTS?

Some view noncompete agreements as harmful and unfair to workers by limiting their mobility. Career opportunities are often more attractive outside an employee’s current workplace. And with restrictions on the type of work they can do for a competitor, it can be hard to shift into a more suitable or lucrative position.

Many hiring managers, after all, most value job candidates who already have a certain level of experience in the same industry.

“A noncompete would unilaterally ban someone from getting exactly the kind of job that it’s reasonable to want,” said Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, a professor of organizational behavior at Babson College in Massachusetts. “To cut people off from that is overly paternalistic. It’s using a really blunt instrument to limit people’s mobility, when in reality there are other legal mechanisms to prevent trade secrets being disclosed.”

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M SUBJECT TO A NONCOMPETE?

People are sometimes surprised to learn that they’re bound by such an agreement. They might not even find out until after they’ve left for a new job, and their former employer intervenes and causes them to be fired.

“When you join a company, you’re so focused on the opportunity in front of you, you might not be thinking about what’s that next jump,” Tosti-Kharas said.

Experts suggest that employees consult their human resources department about any noncompete agreements that might exist. If a workplace doesn’t have an HR department, an employee should ask a lawyer for the company.

ARE TRADE SECRETS NOW LIKELY TO BE SPILLED?

There are still laws on the books that protect companies’ trade secrets. The FTC decision doesn’t change that.

And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already filed a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission, calling its decision a dangerous precedent for government micromanagement of business. Lawsuits could delay any implementation of the FTC’s new rule, potentially for years.

WHAT ABOUT THE NEW OVERTIME RULES?

Starting July 1, employers of all sizes will be required pay overtime — time and a half salary after 40 hours a week — to salaried workers who make less than $43,888 a year in certain executive, administrative and professional roles. That cap will then rise to $58,656 by the start of 2025. Previously, the cap was $35,568.

WHO QUALIFIES?

The Labor Department estimates that 4 million salaried workers who weren’t previously eligible will qualify. Some occupations, though, including teachers, doctors and lawyers are not eligible for overtime pay and thus are not affected by the change. And some states, like California and New York, already have salary thresholds that exceed the federal level.

WHAT’S THE REACTION SO FAR?

Predictably, groups that represent companies have lined up against the new rule. Conversely, worker groups are applauding it as a necessary and long-overdue change.

The National Retail Federation argued that the new rules “curtail retailers’ ability to offer the most flexible, generous and tailored benefits packages to lower-level exempt employees across the industry.”

It also asserted that the new rules don’t give employers adequate time to make the changes needed. And it complained that the inclusion of automatic increases “exceeds the Department’s legal authority and oversteps longstanding Fair Labor Standards Act and Administrative Procedure Act principles.”

On the social media site X, the AFL-CIO labor organization said the rules will “restore and extend overtime protections for hard-working Americans.”

WILL THE CHANGES BE CHALLENGED IN COURT?

Almost certainly so. A 2016 effort by the Obama administration was scuttled in court just days before it was set to take effect. Because the new overtime rules won’t take effect until July 1, groups have time to study the ruling before mounting a challenge.

“I would expect there will be some legal challenges,” said Ted Hollis, a partner at the law firm Quarles & Brady. “When the Obama administration published its proposed rule in 2016, that was almost immediately challenged in court.”

HOW SHOULD BUSINESSES PREPARE FOR THIS?

Companies of all sizes will have to reclassify workers who will now qualify for overtime pay — and make sure they track hours and pay them properly.

Another option is to raise employees’ salaries so they would remain exempt from overtime. But employers should keep in mind that two more increases are coming under the new timetable.

They’ll also have to determine how they will budget for the extra pay for overtime. Small businesses will have the toughest time.

“Some are going to have to cut workers,” Hollis said. “Others will have to cut hours from existing workers.

“Some are going to have to raise prices, and some probably won’t be able to figure out a way to make it economically work and wind up having to shut down, unfortunately.”

MAE ANDERSON
New York-based reporter covering small business.

Another ex-State Department official alleges Israeli military gets ‘special treatment’ on abuses


Israeli honor guard soldiers salute during the funeral Israeli reserve Major Dor Zimel in Even Yehuda, Israel, Monday, April 22, 2024. Zimel , 27, died of his wounds after Iran-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah group fired a volley of rockets and drones on northern Israel on April 17. The attack wounded at least 14 Israeli soldiers, six seriously, the army said. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)Read More


BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER
April 24, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former senior U.S. official who until recently helped oversee human-rights compliance by foreign militaries receiving American military assistance said Wednesday that he repeatedly observed Israel receiving “special treatment” from U.S. officials when it came to scrutiny of allegations of Israeli military abuses of Palestinian civilians.

The allegation comes as the Biden administration faces intense pressure over its ally’s treatment of Palestinian civilians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. And matters because of who said it: Charles O. Blaha. Before leaving the post in August, he was a director of a State Department security and human rights office closely involved in helping ensure that foreign militaries receiving American military aid follow U.S. and international humanitarian and human rights laws.

Blaha said his departure from the State Department after decades of service was not related to the U.S.-Israeli security relationship. He is the second senior State official involved in that relationship to assert that when it comes to Israel, the U.S. is reluctant to enforce laws required of foreign militaries receiving American aid.


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“In my experience, Israel gets special treatment that no other country gets,” Blaha said. “And there is undue deference, in many cases, given” to Israeli officials’ side of things when the U.S. asks questions about allegations of Israeli wrongdoing against Palestinians, he added.

He spoke to reporters at an event where he and other members of an unofficial, self-formed panel of former senior U.S. civilian and military officials released a report pointing to civilian deaths in specific airstrikes in Gaza. They said there was “compelling and credible” evidence that Israeli forces had acted illegally.

Blaha’s comments echoed those of another State Department official and panel member, Josh Paul. Paul resigned as a director overseeing arms transfers to other countries’ militaries in October in protest of the U.S. rushing arms to Israel amid its war in Gaza.

Asked about the allegations from the two, a State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said “there is no double standard, and there is no special treatment.”

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel consistently says it follows all laws in its use of U.S. military aid, investigates allegations against its security forces and holds offenders accountable.

Israel historically is the United States’ biggest recipient of military aid, and Biden on Wednesday signed legislation for an additional $26 billion in wartime assistance. But Biden has come under growing pressure over that support as Palestinian deaths mount.

The latest Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 34,000 people, according to local health officials.

In coming days, the administration says it will announce its official findings from reviews it did into allegations of especially serious human rights abuses by specific Israeli military units. Those units would be barred from receiving U.S. military aid if the U.S. review confirms those allegations.

Separately, the Biden administration also is expected to disclose by May 8 whether it has verified assurances from Israel that the country is not using U.S. military aid in a way that violates international or human rights law. Both Israel’s written assurance and the U.S. verification were mandated by a new presidential national security memo that Biden issued in February.

The February agreement was negotiated between the Biden administration and members of his own Democratic Party, who had been pushing for the U.S. to begin conditioning military aid to Israel on improving treatment of Palestinian civilians.

Panel members released their report Wednesday to urge the U.S. to scrutinize specific attacks in Gaza that the former officials argued should lead to a conclusion that Israel was wrong when it confirmed it was complying with the laws. If that determination is made, the U.S. could then suspend military aid.

Wednesday’s unofficial report points to 17 specific strikes on apartments, refugee camps, private homes, journalists and aid workers for which the former U.S. officials and independent experts allege there’s no evidence of the kind of military target present to justify the high civilian death tolls.

They include an Oct. 31 airstrike on a Gaza apartment building that killed 106 civilians, including 54 children. Israeli officials offered no reason for the strike, and a Human Rights Watch probe found no evidence of a military target there, the officials said. Israel has said in many of the instances that it is investigating.