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UK

Biggest day of strikes in a decade will involve up to half-a-million workers

Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent
Mon, 30 January 2023 

A strike by up to half-a-million workers in bitter disputes over pay, jobs and conditions this week should send a clear message to the Government that it cannot continue to ignore the causes of the unrest, according to the head of the TUC.

Teachers, train drivers, civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards from seven trade unions will walk out on Wednesday in what will be the biggest day of industrial action in over a decade.

Protests will be held across the country on the same day against the Government’s controversial plans for a new law on minimum service levels during strikes.

Unions have dubbed it the “anti-strike bill”, saying it could lead to workers who vote legally to strike, being sacked.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said Wednesday will be a “really important day” for workers and members of the public to show support for those taking action to defend pay, jobs and services, as well as for the right to strike.

He told the PA news agency: “I hope it will send a clear message to the Government that they cannot continue to ignore the demand for fair pay.

“In his recent statement on the economy, the Chancellor has chosen to ignore the staffing crisis and concerns of millions of public service workers.

“The Government seems tone deaf to the issues that matter to the public.”

Mr Nowak said the Government should be worried about the level of support for workers taking strike action.

“I joined physiotherapists on a picket line last week. It was the first time they had been on strike and they were loath to take industrial action, but they received huge support from members of the public, and their mood was upbeat and defiant.

“I think the Government has been taken by surprise at the level of public support for the strikes, because the issues cut across political boundaries.”

Mr Nowak said the Prime Minister and Chancellor now had to get involved in trying to resolve the long running disputes in the health service, education, civil service and other parts of the public sector.

“I wish they would spend as much time trying to resolve the disputes as in attacking the right to strike.”

Picket lines will be mounted outside schools, train stations, universities and Government departments on Wednesday, and rallies will be held across the country.

Thousands of people are expected to join a march through central London to Westminster for a rally to be addressed by union leaders.

The TUC will also hand in a petition to 10 Downing Street, signed by more than 200,000 people, opposing the new legislation on strikes.

The National Education Union (NEU) has announced seven days of strikes in England and Wales in February and March, with the walkout on Wednesday expected to affect over 23,000 schools.

Teachers on the picket line outside Falkirk High School in Stirlingshire (PA)

Teacher members of the union in sixth form colleges in England, who have already been balloted and taken strike action in recent months, will also take action on these days in a separate but linked dispute.

Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said: “We have continually raised our concerns with successive education secretaries about teacher and support staff pay and its funding in schools and colleges, but instead of seeking to resolve the issue they have sat on their hands.

“It is disappointing that the Government prefers to talk about yet more draconian anti-strike legislation, rather than work with us to address the causes of strike action.

“This is not about a pay rise but correcting historic real-terms pay cuts. Teachers have lost 23% in real-terms since 2010, and support staff 27% over the same period.

“The average 5% pay rise for teachers this year is some 7% behind inflation. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, that is an unsustainable situation.

“Teachers are leaving in droves, a third gone within five years of qualifying. This is a scandalous waste of talent and taxpayers’ money, yet the Government seems unbothered about the conditions they are allowing schools and colleges to slide into.

“The Government must know there is going to have to be a correction on teacher pay. They must realise that school support staff need a pay rise.”

Wednesday, involving members of the NEU, Aslef, Rail, Maritime and Transport union, University and College union, Public and Commercial Service union, Unite and the IWGB, will see the biggest day of strikes since 2011 when a national day of action was held by public sector unions over pensions.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/download/mass-str.pdf

The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions 

Publisher: Marxist Educational Society of Detroit, 1925. Translated: Patrick Lavin. Online Version: Rosa

Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999.

UK

BMA to test water for potential industrial action by senior doctors

Ella Pickover, PA Health Correspondent
Mon, 30 January 2023 at 5:01 pm GMT-7

The nation’s biggest doctors’ union is to assess whether the most senior medics in the NHS in England would be prepared to take industrial action.

The British Medical Association (BMA) is to open an indicative ballot to examine whether consultants would consider taking action over pay and pension issues.

While it is not a formal ballot, it represents a significant escalation towards it, the BMA said.

The union said consultants have faced significant pay cuts, while many have left the NHS or cut back on their hours due to tax issues with pensions.

The consultative ballot of consultants in England will take place in February.

The BMA said the average consultant in England has experienced a “real-terms take-home pay cut of nearly 35% since 2008/09” and that thousands have faced “large additional tax bills on their pensions”.

It said the Government “refuses to engage with the BMA on meaningful solutions”.

The union also called for the pay review process to be reformed after it accused the Government of “interfering” with the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB).

Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA consultants committee, said: “Despite repeatedly outlining our concerns to Government, ministers have been unwilling to act.

“The NHS is on its knees, patients are suffering and staff morale has never been lower.

“Senior doctors are cutting their hours or leaving the NHS in their droves, driven out of jobs they love by unfair pension tax rules and brutal cuts to their pay.

“This is having a catastrophic impact on the country’s health as waiting lists for treatment spiral out of control and patients struggle to get the care they need.”

He added: “Unless there is action by Government to address consultants’ concerns, waiting lists will simply continue to hit new record highs and staff shortages will only worsen as more senior doctors leave the NHS.

“The only way out of this crisis is to fix pay, fix pensions and fix the pay review body.

“Consultants would not take industrial action lightly, but, in the absence of meaningful solutions from Government, we’ve been left with no option but to consult our members’ views on whether they wish for us to hold a formal ballot for industrial action.”

The indicative ballot of consultants in England will open on February 10 and close on February 27.

Meanwhile, around 45,000 junior doctors who are members of the union have also been balloted over strike action – with the result due at the end of February.

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “The threat of more strikes is alarming for an overstretched NHS already battling to cope with the effects of the most widespread industrial action in its history.

“The workforce is the lifeblood of the NHS. It can ill afford to lose dedicated people because of stressful workloads exacerbated by severe staff shortages in the face of ever-growing demand.

“Pay is one key aspect of recruiting and retaining the staff which the NHS so desperately needs, therefore it’s vital that the Government sits down with the unions urgently to avert more strikes.

“Meaningful pension reform for NHS staff is also essential and overdue, with temporary fixes by the Government so far failing to get to the root of the problem.

“The longer the Government puts off meaningful talks about this year’s pay award, which fell far short of what trust leaders and staff hoped to see, the worse the impact of industrial action on the NHS and patients will get.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.

“We accepted the independent pay review body recommendations in full this year, giving consultants a pay rise of 4.5% and increasing their average earnings to around £128,000. This is on top of a 3% pay rise last year when wider public sector pay was frozen.

“We are also making practical changes to NHS pension rules to retain more experienced clinicians and remove barriers to staff returning from retirement.”

UK
Firefighters set to strike for first time since 2003 after real-terms earnings 'drop by 12%'



Mon, 30 January 2023 

Firefighters are set to stage strike action in a row over pay after experiencing what they say is a cut in real-terms pay.

Members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) voted for action in a ballot that closed on Monday - resulting in the UK's first nationwide fire service strike over pay since 2003.

Firefighters overwhelmingly backed strike action, with 88% voting yes on a 73% turnout.

The FBU said it has given the government and employers 10 days to to come up with an improved offer which could be put to a vote of members in an effort to avoid strikes.

Firefighters have experienced a 12% drop in real-terms earnings since 2010, the union says, while around one in five firefighter jobs have been cut in the same period.

It comes after members rejected a below-inflation 5% payoff in November.

Polling previously showed strong public support for strike action by firefighters, the union said, with around three in five people backing action.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: "This is an absolute last resort for our members. The responsibility for any disruption to services lies squarely with fire service employers and government ministers.

"Rishi Sunak's government has refused to make funding available for a decent pay offer to firefighters and control staff.

"Firefighters were among Britain's COVID heroes who kept frontline services going during the pandemic. The Prime Minister has badly misjudged the public mood by imposing pay cuts on key workers."

Read more:
Fresh wave of strikes this year- who is taking action and when

Rising public support for unions despite widespread strikes, Sky News poll suggests

Teachers' strike to go ahead after talks fail

Mr Wrack also also said firefighters have faced a "sustained attack on pay for more than a decade with average pay falling by about £4,000 in real terms".

He continued: "Our members face hazardous situations every day and sometimes risk their health to do the job.

"Facing double-digit inflation and rocketing energy bills, they are now being told to put up with an even bigger real-terms pay cut."

Mr Wrack said: "Meanwhile, the UK is home to a record number of billionaires. People join the fire service because they want to help people and serve their community.

"We have been pushed to the point of balloting by a government that is refusing to listen."

The strike announcement comes after research by the FBU and the University of Central Lancashire found firefighters are more likely to die of cancer than the general public.

The firefighters strike action was announced shortly after teachers said they will walk out on Wednesday with more industrial action planned in the following weeks.

The National Education Union has announced seven days of strikes in England and Wales in February and March, with the walkout on Wednesday expected to affect over 23,000 schools.

Essex unionists to down tools on 'biggest national strike day for a generation'


George King
Sun, 29 January 2023

(Image: Newsquest)

THE biggest national strike day for a generation will see everyone from teachers and civil servants to train drivers and university employees down tools on February 1.

But what has inspired these mass walk-outs and to what extent will the demonstrations impact commuters, students and residents in Essex?

When I ventured to the picket line outside Colchester Hospital, where nurses were taking part in two days of strike action, their demand for more pay took a back seat.

Those wielding placards and chanting “Save the NHS” were just as concerned about patient safety and working conditions, for example, as they were their own needs.

READ MORE: Burnt-out Colchester nurses say they 'saw colleagues crying in cupboards'

As long-serving Colchester Hospital nurse Anna Swan, 64, put it: “This is more than about the money. I love the NHS and it matters so much to me.

“But it I am very frightened for the NHS - it is crumbling around us.”

Although an increase in wages is of course one of the main demands being tabled by many of the unionists striking in February, the action is also about much, much more.

As many as 100,000 civil servants across 124 Government departments, for example, are also demanding their pensions and the future of their jobs be protected.

Workers at the University of Essex, which has a campus in Colchester, are also being encouraged to down tools over pension cuts and conditions, as well as wages.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said: "Students understand that staff working conditions are their learning conditions and we are proud to have their support in these disputes.

"A system that relies on low pay and the rampant use of insecure contracts is a system which fails everyone."

The news of the strikes has caused some concern among students, but bosses at the educational facility have moved to reassure them.

A spokesman for the University of Essex said: “We are aware that news of further industrial action may cause alarm to some students.

“We want to reassure you the university will do everything we can to ensure any disruption affects you as little as possible.

“We understand any uncertainty can cause worry. We want to remind you that our wellbeing services are available if you need them.”

Disruption to students in schools is also expected, as teachers in Essex who are part of the National Education Union prepare to stage mass walkouts on February 1.

The teachers are striking for a 12 per cent pay increase, a move which has been described as “deeply disappointing” by the Government. But not everyone agrees.

Colchester resident Christine Green said: “I am backing everyone who goes on strike for fair pay and conditions.

“This country is an absolute joke and everyone is going to suffer in the long run if people don't stand up for their rights.

“What a sad world we live in when we cannot all come together for each other.”

Gazette:

Greater Anglia train drivers who are part of the ASLEF union will also go on strike on February 1, as well as RMT members.

Both unions are asking for a pay rise, but the latter has also raised concerns over job security and compulsory redundancies.

Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary said: "This round of strikes will show how important our members are to this country and will send a clear message.

"We have been reasonable, but it is impossible to find a negotiated settlement when the dead hand of Government is presiding over these talks.

“Working people across our class need a pay rise and we are determined to win that for our members in RMT."

As a result of the demonstrations, Greater Anglia services will be affected and passengers are being advised to avoid travelling where possible.

Trains will still run – albeit less frequently - between Colchester and London Liverpool Street, but there will be no services departing stations in the likes of Clacton.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We are very sorry that once again our customers will be disrupted by strikes.

“We’re only able to run a fraction of our usual services, so our advice again is to avoid using our trains on strike days.

“The rail industry is working hard to resolve these disputes and talks will continue with ASLEF and RMT to reach an agreement.”

ROSA LUXEMBURG

https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/download/mass-str.pdf

The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions 

Publisher: Marxist Educational Society of Detroit, 1925. Translated: Patrick Lavin. Online Version: Rosa Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999.

SCOTLAND
Greens say they will not cross picket lines when Holyrood staff strike
Green MSP's would join protests to show their support.

Neil Pooran, PA Scotland Political Reporter
Sun, 29 January 2023 

The Scottish Green Party says it will not take part in parliamentary business on Wednesday, when staff at Holyrood are expected to go on strike.

Members of the PCS union are taking part in industrial action on February 1 as part of a day of action around the UK.

It means the parliament will be closed to the public, but chamber and committee meetings are still expected to go ahead.

The Scottish Greens said they would not cross “virtual or physical picket lines” – meaning they will not take part in person or remotely.

Some other MSPs, including Labour’s Richard Leonard and Carol Mochan, have also indicated on social media that they will not cross picket lines.

Green MSP Maggie Chapman said her party would join protests to show their support.

Ms Chapman said: “Scottish Green MSPs will not take part in parliamentary business on Wednesday in solidarity with striking workers.

“We are clear that we will not cross any virtual or physical picket lines, and hope that others will join us in that.

“The very rights of the trade union members to strike are under direct attack by the Tory government at Westminster.

“Everyone who recognises the vital work that unions have done to support us all should oppose this dangerous and anti-democratic slide towards authoritarianism and stand with striking workers.”

“As parliamentarians, we have a duty to defend those rights. We call on all trade union activists and others to stand tall together against this brutal assault on working people right across the country.”

Last week, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) – which is responsible for the administration of the parliament – said it is “committed to ensuring that Parliamentary business can continue” during the strike.

The SPCB stressed that it “respects the right of union member staff to act where they feel strongly about the issues that affect them” and also said it “recognises the vote for industrial action is often used as a last resort”.

It added: “Pay and job security are matters which are under the SPCB’s control. SPCB staff were awarded a pay increase of 4.5% for this financial year.

“A guarantee of no compulsory redundancy is in place until the end of March 2023.

“The SPCB is also looking to commence next year’s pay negotiations early to ensure there is no delay in finalising the pay award to its staff.”

The strikes of London: what you need to know-

aleeha adnan burntwood
Sun, 29 January 2023 


For the last couple of months, the uk has been overrun with industrial striking action from several crutial job industries, such as paramedics, nurses, emergency services, tfl, and most recently, teaching staff. As the cost of living goes up, the wages stay the same, leaving people with no choice but to strike to get the attention of the government.

On february 1 alone, more than 100,000 civil servants will be going on strike and 70,000 NEU members and train drivers will walk out: its the largest action yet. Throughout february, there will be several major industrial strike actions, even including emergency workers like the ambulance services and health and social care workers. The aim of their striking is to get a pay rise that supports this day and age's economy and, due to the cost of living crisis, is essential.

Due to NEU members going on strike, this will affect school across the country, most set to close for the day. Whilst most people can see why most workers are striking for a pay rise, some are harsh in their opinions, saying that it causes too many disruptions to the education of young people, as they are left without school. Some also think that the emergency staff striking is dangerous, as people could unintentionaly get hurt in the process. Others however, are understandable and agree with the people who are striking that because of the cost of living, the government needs to step up.

It is also worth mentioning that the tfl workers have not recived a pay rise from 2021-2023, and scince 2015 all annual pay awards have been between 1%-2%, which is partly the reason why there have been so many tfl and rail/train strikes in the last month. More industrial action is planned for the month of february and even going through to march, and it looks like it wont stop until the government steps up.

To ensure you have a day with the least disruptions, please search up what strikes will go ahead on the dates you are out.

Labour will fight laws designed to keep schools open during teacher strikes


Ewan Somerville
Sun, 29 January 2023 



Labour will launch an attack on Monday on new laws to keep schools open during strikes, as teacher walkouts bring chaos this week.

Some 100,000 teachers in the National Education Union are planning to strike on Wednesday, affecting 23,000 schools, demanding above-inflation pay rises funded by the Treasury.

Headteachers are racing to bring in contingency plans, including “giant classes” to keep children in class and a shift to Covid-era online learning.

But Labour is making a fresh attempt to block a new law introduced by ministers, currently in Parliament, which would keep schools open during strikes by introducing legally-required minimum service levels across six key public sectors, including education.

Labour will table an amendment this week in a bid to force Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, to undertake a comprehensive impact assessment on the proposals, including on workforce numbers, employers and equality law.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the law is “collapsing around the ears” of Mr Shapps, and vowed to “force them to go back to the drawing board with this dog’s dinner of a Bill”.

The intervention will raise further fears among parents and education leaders fearful that the strike - one of seven days of action by the hard-Left NEU in February and March - will be disastrous for teenagers.


In one sign of the emergency plans being drawn up, Ashton Community Science College, an 865-pupil secondary school near Preston in Lancashire, is preparing giant lessons, with up to three classes merged to be taught by a teacher.

Meanwhile, the Department for Education (DfE) has published new remote learning guidance urging schools to audit access to digital devices and help families with their internet connectivity to pivot to online classes.

Even for those teachers not striking, the union Unison, which represents 200,000 support staff, said its members “should not be expected to provide cover for, or take classes, where this would normally be done by teachers who are taking action”.

The impact could also trickle down to nursery closures, with staff needing to home-school their own children.

Neil Leitch, the chief executive at the Early Years Alliance, said: “This may well result in early educators needing to stay home on strike days, which in turn may force some early years settings to limit the number of children at their setting, or even temporarily close, to cope with this.

“As such, it is vital that those schools remaining open for critical workers ensure that those working in early years settings are included in this. This will help ensure that the care and education of our very youngest children is as unaffected as possible during this time.”

Last-ditch talks will be held on Monday between Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, and union leaders though Dr Mary Bousted, the NEU’s leader, said they were unlikely to stop the strike.

Ms Keegan has appealed to NEU members to inform schools whether they intend to strike or not, amid fears of “additional and unnecessary disruption” because schools close out of precaution.

Us For Them, a group of parents, warned that Year 11 pupils taking their GCSE exams this summer would be particularly hard hit, having lost at least 111 days of schooling during Covid lockdowns.

“A few days more days off school here and there may appear innocuous, but we are not in a normal educational environment - the repeated school closures have meant that one in four children is now persistently absent from school,” Arabella Skinner, from the group, said.

“On the back of lockdowns, youth mental health diagnoses have skyrocketed. The unions are making a cost of living argument that they partly caused, by being instrumental in forcing schools to shut during Covid.

“By closing schools yet again, we are telling our children that education is optional and that adults will always put their interests above children’s.”

Leora Cruddas, the chief executive of the Confederation of Schools Trust which represents academies, said that support staff and members of the NASUWT union who are not on strike “can’t be compelled” to cover for their striking colleagues and “that is a position that is protected”.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Strike action is highly damaging to children’s education, particularly following the disruption that children have experienced over the past two years.

“As part of our ongoing support to school leaders to do everything they can to keep as many children in school as possible, we have requested information from schools to help inform this work.”

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

JD Sports hit by cyber-attack that leaked 10m customers’ data

Mark Sweney
Mon, 30 January 2023 

Photograph: May James/Reuters

The fashion retailer JD Sports said the personal and financial information of 10 million customers was potentially accessed by hackers in a cyber-attack.

The company said incident, which affected some online orders made by customers between November 2018 and October 2020, targeted purchases of products of its JD, Size?, Millets, Blacks, Scotts and Millets Sport brands.

The retailer, which has notified the Information Commissioner’s Office about the security breach, said it was contacting affected customers warning them to be aware of potential scams.

Related: Poor customer service costs UK firms billions – so why can’t they get it right?

“We want to apologise to those customers who may have been affected by this incident,” said Neil Greenhalgh, the JD Sports chief financial officer . “We are advising them to be vigilant about potential scam emails, calls and texts and providing details on how to report these.”

The company said information that may have been accessed by hackers included names, billing and delivery addresses, phone numbers, order details and the final four digits of payment cards of “approximately 10 million unique customers”.

However, JD Sports said the “affected data is limited” as it did not hold full payment data and the company “has no reason to believe that account passwords were accessed”.

JD Sports said it had taken the “necessary immediate steps” to investigate and respond to the incident, including working with cybersecurity experts, and to be aware of potential fraud and phishing attacks and “be on the lookout for any suspicious or unusual communications purporting to be from JD Sports or any of our group brands”.

“We are continuing with a full review of our cybersecurity in partnership with external specialists following this incident,” said Greenhalgh. “Protecting the data of our customers is an absolute priority for JD.”

This month Royal Mail revealed it had been hit by a ransomware attack by a criminal group, which threatened to publish the stolen information online, and said it could not process international parcel and letter deliveries.

219 tech firms have sacked over 68,000 employees in January till now: Data

29 January,2023 | New Delhi | IANS

With more Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Google joining the ongoing layoff season, about 3,000 tech employees are now being laid off per day on average in January globally, including in India

In 2022, over 1,000 companies laid off 154,336 workers, as per the data by layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi. Image for representational purpose only. Photo Courtesy: istock

It has been a dismal January for many tech employees around the world after Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Google joined the ongoing layoff season. More than 3,400 tech employees are being laid off per day on average in the first month of the year globally.

As per the data by layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi, 219 companies have laid off more than 68,000 employees in January so far.

In 2022, over 1,000 companies laid off 154,336 workers, as per the data by layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi.

The mass tech layoffs of 2022 are continuing into the new year. The sacking episodes have gained speed amid global economic meltdown and recession fears.

Deeper layoffs are coming in 2023 as most business economists have predicted that their companies will cut payrolls in the coming months.

According to a report in CNN citing a new survey, only 12 per cent of economists -- surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) -- anticipate employment will increase at their firms over the next three months, "down from 22 per cent this fall".

This is the first time since early days of the Covid pandemic that more business leaders anticipate jobs shrinking at their firms.

The findings indicate "widespread concern about entering a recession this year", according to Julia Coronado, president of NABE.

With more Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Google joining the ongoing layoff season, about 3,000 tech employees are now being laid off per day on average in January globally, including in India.

According to the survey, a little more than half of the business economists feel the risk of a recession over the next year at 50 per cent or higher, which means more layoffs in the offing in 2023.

Amid the layoffs come another bad news for employees, especially from India in the US, as Google has paused its Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), a key step in acquiring an employer-sponsored green card.

Google has sent an email to foreign employees, notifying them that the tech giant will pause any new filings of PERM, leaving foreign workers in a limbo.

"Recognising how this news may impact some of you and your families, I wanted to update you as quickly as possible on the difficult decision we*ve had to make to pause new PERM applications. This does not impact other visa applications or programmes," an email from a company executive read.

A Google employee posted the email on Team Blind, an anonymous social networking site for certified IT workers.

A PERM application is a critical first step in the green card (permanent residence) process.

The process requires employers to demonstrate that there are no qualified US workers available for the particular role, which has been an increasingly difficult position for us to support given the labor market today.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn is full of job hunts, offers of support for laid off friends and colleagues, and advice for coping with career hurdles as several companies trim their workforce to navigate through an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

Some LinkedIn groups are providing assistance around signing exit paperwork and aiding with connections for new jobs.

CRYPTO CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Celsius bankruptcy examiner expected to report on Ponzi allegations

Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network, talks about "crypto tourists" in Beverly Hills, California

Mon, January 30, 2023
By Dietrich Knauth

(Reuters) - A court-ordered examiner is expected to release a report on Monday addressing whether bankrupt crypto firm Celsius Network operated as a Ponzi scheme, which could add to the pressure on founder Alex Mashinsky, who is already facing fraud allegations.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, who is overseeing the crypto lending platform's Chapter 11 case, appointed former prosecutor Shoba Pillay as an independent examiner in September, tasking her with investigating Celsius customers' allegations that the company operated as a Ponzi scheme and reporting on the company's handling of cryptocurrency deposits.

Hoboken, New Jersey-based Celsius filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors last July in Manhattan after freezing customer withdrawals from its platform. It listed a $1.19 billion deficit on its balance sheet.

Celsius had consented to an examiner's review after reaching a deal that scaled back a wide-ranging investigation proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog and state securities regulators from Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin.

After appointing Pillay to the job, Glenn expanded her role by asking her to address persistent customer complaints about Mashinsky's conduct.

Mashinsky was sued earlier this month by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who alleged that he defrauded investors out of billions of dollars in digital currency by concealing the lending platform's failing health.

A lawyer for Mashinsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has said previously that his client denies the allegations and looks forward to vigorously defending himself in court. A spokesperson for Celsius did not immediately respond for comment.

Mashinsky, 57, is an entrepreneur who founded companies like Arbinet, which went public in 2004, and Transit Wireless, which provides wi-fi service to the New York City subway.

In hundreds of interviews, blog posts and livestreams as the public face of Celsius, Mashinsky promised its customers that they would receive high returns if they deposited digital assets on his platform, with minimal risk, according to the New York AG's lawsuit.

Bankruptcy examiners can provide courts, judges and creditors with an impartial look into the failures of a bankrupt company, but their cost is a frequent source of controversy when limited funds are available to pay existing debts.

Crypto exchange FTX, which went bankrupt in November, has resisted calls for an examiner in its own Chapter 11 case, citing the cost of overlapping investigations.

FTX CEO John Ray, who worked with examiners in the bankruptcies of Enron and Residential Capital, said in a court filing that examiner reports in those two bankruptcies cost a combined $150 million and provided "minimal" benefits to creditors.

Pillay and her team have sought to be paid $1.86 million for work performed in October and $1.69 million for November, according to court filings.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Deepa Babington)

Osprey Funds Sues Grayscale for Misleading Advertising on Crypto Trust


Katie Greifeld and Vildana Hajric
Mon, January 30, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Digital-asset manager Osprey Funds is the latest firm to file a lawsuit against rival Grayscale Investments over its nearly $15 billion Bitcoin fund.

Osprey accused Grayscale of conducting “false and misleading advertising” for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (ticker GBTC) since late 2020, according to a complaint filed Monday in Connecticut Superior Court. Grayscale presented that GBTC would be converted into an exchange-traded fund as “foregone conclusion, when it knew that access was never likely to happen,” the suit read. US regulators denied Grayscale’s application for ETF conversion in June, prompting the firm to sue the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Because of those “unfair trade practices,” Osprey alleges that Grayscale has been able to conquer 99.5% of assets in trust-based crypto products despite the fact that GBTC’s fee is four times higher than a similar offering from Osprey. Fairfield, Connecticut-based Osprey manages about $100 million in assets.

“The lawsuit filed by Osprey Funds against Grayscale Investments is frivolous. The conversion of GBTC to an ETF is the best long-term product structure for Grayscale’s investors, and approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF would directly benefit our industry peers. At Grayscale, we remain confident in our common sense, compelling legal arguments, and we look forward to a final decision from the DC Court of Appeals by Fall 2023,” according to a Grayscale spokeswoman.

GBTC launched in 2013 versus Osprey’s Bitcoin trust, which was created in 2019.

Osprey had previously called out GBTC’s deep discount — currently around 41% — announcing earlier in January that it was looking to be installed as the sponsor of the beleaguered product in order to spur changes that could help narrow that gap. It also said at the time that were it in charge, it would reduce GBTC’s management fee from its current 2% tag.

But GBTC has come under fire on numerous other fronts, thanks to its trading at a discount, as well as due to troubles at its parent company, Digital Currency Group, whose Genesis lending unit recently filed for bankruptcy. Hedge fund Fir Tree filed a lawsuit against the asset manager related to GBTC’s discount, while Valkyrie launched an activist campaign to unseat Grayscale.

Osprey said in Monday’s filing that “through various unfair and deceptive devices, Grayscale has promoted itself and its sponsored trusts, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, by suggesting that their services provide access to investment opportunities that are safer and less susceptible to risk than they actually are.”

Apple Executives Violated Worker Rights, US Labor Officials Say

Josh Eidelson
Mon, January 30, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Comments by Apple Inc. executives and policies imposed on employees have been deemed illegal by US National Labor Relations Board prosecutors, who say they violate workers’ rights.

The NLRB general counsel’s office has determined that “various work rules” imposed by the tech giant “tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees” from exercising their rights to collective action, spokesperson Kayla Blado said Monday. The agency “found merit to a charge alleging statements and conduct by Apple — including high-level executives — also violated the National Labor Relations Act.”

Unless Apple settles, the board’s regional director will issue a complaint against the Cupertino, California-based company, Blado said in an email.

The dispute was brought to the agency by former employee Ashley Gjovik, who filed claims in 2021 alleging that an email Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook sent pledging to punish leakers, as well as a set of policies in Apple’s employee handbook, violated federal law. Gjovik’s filings cited policies restricting staff from disclosing “business information,” talking to reporters, revealing co-workers’ compensation or posting impolite tweets.

In his all-staff email, sent in September 2021, Cook wrote that “people who leak confidential information do not belong here.” Cook’s message said that Apple was “doing everything in our power to identify those who leaked” and that it didn’t “tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting.”

His email followed media reports about a companywide internal meeting the prior week at which management fielded questions about topics such as pay equity and Texas’ anti-abortion law.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday on the NLRB’s finding.

At a hearing earlier this month, company attorney Jason Stanevich said, “Apple fosters an open and inclusive work environment whereby employees are not just permitted, but encouraged, to share their feelings and thoughts on a range of issues, from social justice topics to pay equity to anything else that they feel is an important cause to promote in the workplace.”

US labor law protects workers’ rights to communicate with one another and engage in collective action about workplace issues. Complaints issued by NLRB prosecutors are reviewed by administrative law judges, whose rulings can be appealed to labor board members in Washington — and, from there, to federal court. The agency lacks the ability to impose punitive damages or hold executives personally liable for violations, but can order companies to change workplace policies.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, has faced an unusual wave of public dissent in recent years among its white collar staff, as well as unprecedented organizing campaigns by retail employees, who voted to unionize last year in Maryland and Oklahoma. NLRB prosecutors in recent months have also found merit in claims that Apple illegally coerced workers at its retail stores in Atlanta and New York City, where some employees were seeking to unionize. The company has denied wrongdoing.

Gjovik, a senior engineering program manager, was fired by Apple in September 2021 after filing complaints with several state and federal agencies. In documents shared by Gjovik, Apple claimed she was terminated for violating policies such as the disclosure of confidential product information. Gjovik has said she was fired in retaliation for her prior complaints, which alleged that — after voicing fears about workplace health hazards — she was harassed, humiliated and asked not to tell co-workers about her concerns.

“My hope is that for the first time Apple is told by the government that this culture of secrecy is not OK,” Gjovik said Monday. “I also hope that this sends shockwaves through other corporations that even Apple can be held accountable.”

UPS Faces Rising Labor Costs, Strike Risk in Upcoming Union Fight



Thomas Black
Mon, January 30, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- United Parcel Service Inc. will pay more for labor after replacing a union contract that expires in July. The main question for Chief Executive Officer Carol Tomé is how much more — and if it’s enough to avoid a strike that would throw package delivery into chaos.

In what are likely to be the most contentious talks since UPS workers were on strike for 15 days in 1997, the Teamsters union, which represents 340,000 UPS employees, says it seeks to increase wages for part-time workers to more than $20 an hour and eliminate a controversial two-tiered wage system. On the table will also be demands for air conditioning in vehicles and for blocking inward-facing cameras.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is promising a hard fight. He won election in late 2021 on a vow to get tougher with UPS and correct what he says was a flawed contract forced on workers in 2018. The union is also shortening the negotiation period with UPS. Talks on the nationwide contract will begin April 16, O’Brien said in an interview. The current contract ends on July 31.

“We’ve got some great arguments on why these folks should be paid,” O’Brien said. “We’ve got a great argument just on how much money the company’s been making.”

The stakes are high for Tomé and the US. UPS delivers about 20 million packages a day in the US, making it the second-largest ground courier behind the US Postal Service. If UPS workers were to walk out, it would likely be impossible for the postal service and rival FedEx Corp. to cover the volume from UPS’s customers, which include Amazon.com Inc. A strike now in the era of e-commerce would have a much bigger impact than in 1997, when most packages were sent by businesses and parcel networks operated five days a week instead of non-stop.

“It’s pretty clear that it’s going to be spicy,” Ravi Shanker, a Morgan Stanley analyst with an underweight rating on the stock, said of the negotiations. He predicts UPS may increase compensation as much as 10% a year.

Investors are eagerly awaiting the company’s fourth quarter earnings release on Jan. 31, when it is expected to provide 2023 guidance and Tomé may face questions about rising labor costs and the potential for shrinking margins from Wall Street analysts.

Wall Street has applauded Tomé, who became the company’s first woman chief executive and first-ever outsider selected for the top job in June 2020. She successfully steered UPS through the pandemic and met the challenge of keeping up with a surge in demand. Margins increased and operating profits soared, jumping 51% to $13.1 billion in 2021 from $8.7 billion in 2020.

Although the boom in home delivery has faded, UPS’s profits remained elevated — thanks in part to higher shipping prices. Tomé has pursued a “better, not bigger” strategy of seeking to focus on the most profitable operations, even going so far as to turn down some lower-margin business from large customers.

The current five-year contract had also kept labor costs predictable, shielding UPS from wage spikes that hurt profit and service at non-unionized rival FedEx. That had given UPS a temporary advantage during the pandemic when home-delivery demand surged and FedEx rushed to hire workers amid a nationwide labor shortage.

Analysts will want to know how Tomé plans to keep customers from preemptively shifting business away from the Atlanta-based courier to avoid a logistics nightmare if unionized employees do walk off the job.

“We want a win-win-win contract for our employees, our company, and the union,” a UPS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We have more alignment on key issues with the Teamsters than not. That’s especially true with respect to maintaining industry-leading pay and benefits, and delivering the best service in the industry with the best safety record.”

UPS argues that it already pays its workers, especially drivers, much more than competitors. The average wage for a delivery driver with at least four years on the job is $42 an hour, not counting pension and health benefits, the company says. A typical wage for an experienced driver at rival FedEx Ground, depending on the region, is $20 an hour and usually comes with no benefits. The company also added 72,000 Teamsters jobs in three years through August 2021, which is more than was pledged under the current contract. UPS has about another 100,000 US workers who aren’t unionized.

President of the Rank-and-File

O’Brien said he’s determined to uphold his campaign promises on UPS, the nation’s largest private-employer labor contract, and lay the groundwork to grow Teamsters membership.

During previous negotiations in 2018, then-president James P. Hoffa agreed to create a new class of driver that was paid less and would give the flexibility of also working as package loaders and on weekends. The majority of Teamsters voted against that agreement, but Hoffa ratified it anyway on a little-known rule based on low turnout.

Rank-and-file members angered by that move voted to eliminate the controversial turnout clause during their convention in the summer of 2021, before electing O’Brien to that top job.

Besides undoing the two-tier driver scale, O’Brien wants to boost the starting wage for part-time workers to more than $20 an hour from $15.50 now. His argument is bolstered by UPS’s need to pay above $20 an hour to attract part-time workers during the pandemic in what are called “market rate adjustments.”

O’Brien has a broader goal of organizing more warehouse workers, including at Amazon, and intends to showcase the UPS contract as an example of organized labor’s newfound leverage over employers.

“We’re going to use the UPS agreement as a template to basically say, this is what you get when you work for a unionized carrier,” O’Brien said.

Negotiations on the union’s master contract will start much later than usual, as union locals bargain their supplemental contracts first, O’Brien said. This is a reversal of order, and gives more leverage to locals and reduces traditional pressure on them to settle so the national agreement can take effect. It will also give the union some sense of UPS’s negotiating tactic. Those local talks should all be under way by Feb. 1, he said.

The later start may benefit UPS if by then inflation shows clear signs of abating, said Helane Becker, an analyst with Cowen Inc. who has a market-perform rating on the stock. Becker predicts UPS’s all-in expense for compensation and benefits to increase to 50% of revenue after the new labor contract, up from about 47% now. That ratio had hovered around 52% in the few years before the pandemic swelled sales.

Getting a good agreement will be a key test of Tomé’s managerial moxie, and it’s unclear how much wiggle room the company has. The new Teamsters leader declined to say what the bottom line is for walking out.

“At the end of the day, our members are going to guide us through what’s a strike issue and not a strike issue,” O’Brien said.

U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits

Mon, January 30, 2023 

By Tom Hals, Mike Spector and Dan Levine

(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court upended Johnson & Johnson's attempt to offload into bankruptcy tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products, ruling the healthcare conglomerate improperly placed a subsidiary into Chapter 11 proceedings even though it did not face financial distress.

The decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on Monday dismissed a Chapter 11 petition filed by a recently created J&J subsidiary in October to address more than 38,000 lawsuits from plaintiffs alleging the company’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

Before the bankruptcy, J&J faced costs from $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, including one in which 22 women were eventually awarded a judgment of more than $2 billion, according to bankruptcy-court records.

Several major companies, including J&J and 3M Co, have turned to bankruptcy court to manage their mass tort liabilities. Plaintiff attorneys have called the cases an improper manipulation of the bankruptcy system, while the companies say the Chapter 11 filings are aimed at compensating claimants fairly and equitably.

J&J’s maneuver is known as a Texas two-step for a state law used to create a subsidiary that shoulders litigation and then declares bankruptcy. The Third Circuit’s opinion allows talc litigation to resume against the company.

J&J said it would challenge the ruling and that its talc products are safe.

Its shares fell more than 3% - the biggest one-day percentage decline in two years.

The New Jersey-based company, valued at more than $400 billion, said its subsidiary’s bankruptcy was initiated in good faith and designed to equitably resolve talc claims for the benefit of all plaintiffs. J&J initially pledged $2 billion to the subsidiary to resolve talc claims and entered into an agreement to fund an eventual settlement approved by a bankruptcy judge.

A three-judge panel on the appeals court rejected J&J’s argument, finding the company’s subsidiary, LTL Management, was created solely to access the bankruptcy system and not because it faced financial distress.

"Good intentions - such as to protect the J&J brand or comprehensively resolve litigation - do not suffice alone," the judges said in a 56-page opinion.

The decision throws into doubt J&J’s long-planned strategy for disposing of talc litigation after it lost a bid to reverse a watershed verdict that eventually awarded more than $2 billion to 22 women who blamed their ovarian cancer on baby powder and other talc products.

More than 1,500 talc lawsuits have been dismissed without J&J having to pay anything, and the majority of cases that have gone to trial have resulted in defense verdicts, mistrials or judgments for the company on appeal, according to the J&J subsidiary's court filings.

'PROJECT PLATO'

A December 2018 Reuters investigation revealed that the company knew for decades of tests showing its talc sometimes contained traces of carcinogenic asbestos but kept that information from regulators and the public.

“As we have said from the beginning of this process, resolving this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible is in the best interests of claimants and all stakeholders,” J&J said in a statement. “We continue to stand behind the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder, which is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”

Facing unrelenting litigation, J&J enlisted law firm Jones Day, which had helped other companies execute Texas two-step bankruptcies to address asbestos lawsuits.

J&J’s effort, which Reuters detailed last year, was internally dubbed “Project Plato”, and employees working on it signed confidentiality agreements warning them to tell no one, including their spouses, about the plan.

The Texas two-step strategy has garnered criticism from Democratic lawmakers, and inspired legislation that would severely restrict the practice.

Jones Day did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Critics contend the strategy is an improper use of the bankruptcy system by solvent corporations wishing to escape jury trials in state courts. Bankruptcy filings typically pause litigation, forcing plaintiffs into often time consuming settlement negotiations while leaving them unable to pursue their cases in the courts where they originally sued.

“Bankruptcy courts are for honest companies in financial distress, not billionaire mega-corporations like J&J,” said Jon Ruckdeschel, a lawyer representing talc plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs and other legal experts urged U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan last year to dismiss the J&J subsidiary’s bankruptcy, arguing it was filed in bad faith and risked becoming a blueprint for large corporations seeking to avoid undesirable litigation.

Kaplan, though, denied the request, finding the J&J unit did face financial distress and that a bankruptcy court was a better forum for resolving the litigation then America’s tort system.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Mike Spector in New York; and Dan Levine and San Francisco; Additional reporting by Dietrich Knauth and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

US renewable energy farms outstrip 99% of coal plants economically – study

Oliver Milman
Mon, 30 January 2023 

Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA

Coal in the US is now being economically outmatched by renewables to such an extent that it’s more expensive for 99% of the country’s coal-fired power plants to keep running than it is to build an entirely new solar or wind energy operation nearby, a new analysis has found.

Related: How ocean wind power could help the US fossil fuel industry

The plummeting cost of renewable energy, which has been supercharged by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, means that it is cheaper to build an array of solar panels or a cluster of new wind turbines and connect them to the grid than it is to keep operating all of the 210 coal plants in the contiguous US, bar one, according to the study.

“Coal is unequivocally more expensive than wind and solar resources, it’s just no longer cost competitive with renewables,” said Michelle Solomon, a policy analyst at Energy Innovation, which undertook the analysis. “This report certainly challenges the narrative that coal is here to stay.”

The new analysis, conducted in the wake of the $370bn in tax credits and other support for clean energy passed by Democrats in last summers’ Inflation Reduction Act, compared the fuel, running and maintenance cost of America’s coal fleet with the building of new solar or wind from scratch in the same utility region.

On average, the marginal cost for the coal plants is $36 each megawatt hour, while new solar is about $24 each megawatt hour, or about a quarter cheaper. Only one coal plant – Dry Fork in Wyoming – is cost competitive with the new renewables. “It was a bit surprising to find this,” said Solomon. “It shows that not only have renewables dropped in cost, the Inflation Reduction Act is accelerating this trend.”

Coal, which is a heavily carbon-intensive fuel and responsible for 60% of planet-heating emissions from electricity generation, once formed the backbone of the American grid, generating enough power to light up 186m homes at its peak in 2007. However, by 2021 this output had dropped by 55%, while jobs in the coal mining sector have more than halved over the past decade, to less than 40,000.

... We need to accelerate the buildout of wind and solar so that when the time comes we can wean ourselves off coal.
Michelle Solomon

Most of the US’ coal plants are aging and increasingly expensive to maintain, while their fuel source has been widely displaced by cheap sources of gas. Environmental regulations, which Donald Trump vowed to roll back in an unfulfilled mission to revive the coal industry when president, have also imposed costs on the sector by enforcing cuts to toxic emissions such as mercury and sulphur dioxide.

Coal production hit a 55-year low in 2020 but the industry saw subsequent signs of an uptick in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which pushed up the price of energy worldwide and saw pressure on countries to find an alternative fuel source to Russian gas.

Supporters of coal contend it is a reliable fuel source at a time of instability and have attacked Joe Biden for attempting to shift the US away from fossil fuels. “Forcing essential coal capacity off the grid – without reliable alternatives and the infrastructure to support them – will only deepen reliability and economic challenges,” said Rich Nolan, president of the National Mining Association, in November.

“Look to our friends in Europe, who blindly rushed to close coal plants at a rapid pace and are now working from Germany to Denmark to bring those same plants back online. The global energy crisis is real and imposing costly burdens on people around the world and here at home; taking deliberate steps to intensify that crisis is reckless and unthinkable.”

While coal is in long-term decline it is unlikely to disappear in the immediate future – many utilities are still deeply invested in the fuel source and the scale of renewable infrastructure, including energy projects, new transmission lines and battery and other storage to cope with intermittent delivery, isn’t yet vast enough to trigger a mass shutdown of coal. But analysts say the broader trends, bolstered by last year’s climate spending, look set to call time on the era of coal.

A solar power farm in San Antonio, Texas. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA

“We can’t just snap our fingers and retire all coal plants but we need to accelerate the buildout of wind and solar so that when the time comes we can wean ourselves off coal,” said Solomon.

“There’s a huge opportunity here to invest in coal communities, build local economic resilience and save money in the process.”

James Stock, an economist at Harvard University who was not involved in the Energy Innovation report, said the analysis “rings true” and that coal is no longer economically competitive.

“We can’t shutter all these plants tomorrow, we need to do it in an orderly fashion to support grid reliability but we should be able to do it in fairly fast order,” he said. “Coal has been on a natural decline due to economics and those economics are going to continue, this is a transition that’s just going to happen.

“We built a lot of coal plants in the US around 50 years ago because we were worried about energy security in the world. That made sense at the time and they made an important contribution. But we know a lot more now about climate change, so now we need to make different decisions.”