UK

Co-op faces union heat over Amazon tie-up that will see customers ordering their shopping from the tech giant's website

By MATT OLIVER FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 16 September 2021

Co-op customers will soon be able to order their shopping from Amazon’s website.

The supermarket chain said the service would be trialled in Glasgow before being rolled out to other parts of the UK later this year.

It will allow Amazon Prime customers to do their full Co-op shop on Amazon.co.uk. Same-day delivery and two-hour scheduled time slots will be free on orders worth £40 or more, or cost £3.99 for orders under that amount, with a minimum shop of £15.

Co-op said the service allowing customers to order groceries from the Amazon website would be trialled in Glasgow before being rolled out to other parts of the UK later this year

However, Co-op, which also provides funerals and other services, reported a loss of £15m for the six months to July 3, compared with profits of £56m a year ago, as it was hit by supply chain problems and the pandemic.

Welcoming the deal with Amazon, Co-op boss Steve Murrells said: ‘We’re driving forward with exciting plans to provide rapid kerb-to-kitchen grocery delivery.’

However, union chiefs are enraged, claiming customers would be ‘shocked’ by Co-op’s partnership with the US tech giant.

Defending the tie-up, Murrells insisted Amazon ‘wants to be a force for social good’.

But Andy Prendergast, national officer of the GMB union, which represents Amazon workers, said: ‘It’s really disappointing to see a company with a proud ethical heritage like the Co-op teaming up with Amazon: a tax evading multinational with a horrifying health and safety record.’

An Amazon spokesman said it offered staff ‘excellent pay, benefits and opportunities for career growth, all while working in a safe, modern work environment’.

Co-op under fire for delivery deal with 

“tax-evading” Amazon

Simon English
Thu, 16 September 2021

(Getty Images)

Co-op Group today unveiled a delivery deal with Amazon, raising eyebrows in the sector and earning the immediate ire of unions.

The member owned grocer, insurer and funeral provider is trialling a deal that will see its food sold via Amazon to Prime subscribers. Orders over £40 will be delivered free, starting in Glasgow initially with plans for a quick roll out elsewhere.

Andy Prendergast, national officer of the GMB, said: “It’s really disappointing to see a company with a proud ethical heritage like Co-op teaming up with Amazon: a tax evading multinational with a horrifying health and safety record.

“Amazon has made billions throughout the pandemic and pays virtually no tax. Bosses won’t even recognise a union to improve the health and safety of their beleaguered workforce.”

Co-op chief executive Steve Murrells said he wasn’t “here to defend Amazon” but added: “We have been working with Amazon for many years. From our point of view it allows us to get more ethically sourced products to more homes. It is a good joining of bedfellows.”

It declined to give financial details of the deal with Amazon, saying they are “commercially sensitive”.

In the half-year to July 3 the group made a loss of £15 million. Debts jumped from £550 million to £712 million. Food sales are up 6.5% compared to pre pandemic levels.

Murrells says the group is investing heavily in staff and stores.

He says a shortage of lorry drivers is hitting supplies.

“If you got into any retailer today you will see gaps on the shelves, it is not a Co-op problem, it is not a UK problem it is a global problem.”

He says the situation will be mostly resolved come Christmas.

The Co-op has a “ten-point climate plan” including a commitment to match the pricing of own brand plant-based foods with meat-based equivalents.

Read More

Co-op link up with Amazon doesn’t look of mutual benefit

Co-op warns supply chain crisis will push up prices and put pressure on profits

Co-op announces acceleration of online strategy

Co-op criticised after announcing new partnership with Amazon in bid to double online sales


Daniel Keane
Thu, 16 September 2021


( Co-op/PA)

Co-op has faced criticism after announcing a new partnership with Amazon and extending robot deliveries as part of plans to double its online sales by the end of the year.

The alliance allows Amazon Prime customers to do their full Co-op grocery shop on the Amazon website with same-day delivery and two-hour scheduled slots.

The partnership launched in Glasgow and surrounding areas on Thursday, but will be rolled out to other parts of the UK before the end of the year, with the aim of it becoming a nationwide service at an unconfirmed date. All orders over £40 will be delivered for free by Amazon’s Flex service.

Co-op, which prides itself on its ethical image and sustainability, has faced criticism from the GMB trade union over the move. Amazon has been accused of not paying its fair share of tax in the UK and poorly treating the drivers who deliver its goods.

Andy Prendergast, national officer of the GMB, said: “It’s really disappointing to see a company with a proud ethical heritage like Co-op teaming up with Amazon.

“Amazon has made billions throughout the pandemic. Bosses won’t even recognise a union to improve the health and safety of their beleaguered workforce.”

Steve Murrells, the Co-op’s chief executive, said he wasn’t “here to defend Amazon” but added: “We have been working with Amazon for many years. From our point of view, it allows us to get more ethically sourced products to more homes. It is a good joining of bedfellows.”

Meanwhile, Co-op is also extending its partnership with Starship Technologies, the robot company launched by the co-founders of Skype, which allows the delivery of groceries in as little as 20 minutes.

The convenience retailer will increase the number of autonomous vehicles operating and delivering Co-op groceries from 200 to 500 by the end of this year, extending them from Milton Keynes and Northampton to Cambridgeshire and then into the north of England.

A Co-op spokesperson said: “We aren’t compromising our ethics and principles and the extension of the partnership is about getting our ethically sourced products into the hands of more people.

“It reflects the support Co-op members have shown for Amazon’s products by using its lockers and click and collect services through hundreds of our stores for a number of years.”

The news comes as Mr Murrells warned of food price increases and pressure on its annual profits from the growing supply chain crisis. He said the company will look to offset the cost pressures “as best we can”, but that “some of that will filter down” to customers.

Co-op reported underlying pre-tax operating losses of £15m for the six months to 3 July, compared with profits of £56m a year ago, as it was hit by product availability issues and the continuing impact of the pandemic.

John Boumphrey, Amazon UK country manager, said: “Our partnership with Co-op is another way for us to provide our Amazon Prime customers with more choice, value and convenience to shop for their everyday groceries.”

A spokesperson for the firm said they offered “excellent pay, benefits and opportunities for career growth” in a “safe, modern work environment”.

Heads of Exxon and BP called on to testify before Congress to address climate crisis

Chris McGreal
Thu, 16 September 2021

Photograph: Kathleen Flynn/Reuters

US congressional investigators say they have uncovered “very concerning” new documents about ExxonMobil’s disinformation campaign to discredit climate science.

Representative Ro Khanna, a leading critic of the petroleum industry on the House oversight committee, said the documents came to light ahead of a hearing next month to question the heads of major oil companies about their industry’s long history of undermining the evidence that burning fossil fuels drove global heating.

Khanna declined to discuss the information beyond describing it as “very troubling facts and some very concerning documents”.

On Thursday, the House oversight committee sent out letters summoning the heads of four firms – Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP – to testify on 28 October.

The letter to Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, said the “fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits” while devastating communities, ravaging the natural world and costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

“We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change,” the letter said.

The hearings follow a secret recording of an Exxon lobbyist earlier this year describing the oil giant’s backing for a carbon tax as a public relations ploy intended to stall more serious measures to combat the climate crisis.

“The big oil companies owe the American people an explanation,” said Khanna, a California Democrat who chairs the environmental sub-committee. “They need to admit what they’ve done on climate misinformation in the past, they need to acknowledge what they’re currently doing in terms of spending dark money, and they need to commit 100% that they’re going to stop any climate disinformation campaign.”

The congressman said it was “unbelievable” that oil industry leaders have yet to face questioning by Congress about the climate crisis. He likened the hearings to the groundbreaking appearance of seven tobacco company chiefs before Congress in 1994 to expose what the cigarette companies knew about the hazards of smoking. He said the oversight committee is currently being advised by some of those involved in those hearings.

Khanna said he wants to hear from the leaders of the oil giants not only about past actions but their continued funding of front groups and thinktanks pushing disinformation about climate science, the covert funding of denialist advertising and the use of lobby groups to oppose green legislation.

“The magnifying glass is particularly important now so that they don’t interfere with the Congress’s agenda to get all kinds of legislation. We will not tackle the climate crisis successfully if we don’t first put an end to climate disinformation,” he said.

The committee is also requesting that the heads of two major trade groups closely aligned with the oil industry, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Chamber of Commerce, answer questions about their role in the cover up.

Minnessota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, is suing API, alleging that it “engaged in a public-relations campaign that was not only false, but also highly effective” to undermine climate science.

Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse told the Guardian earlier this year that API was acting as a front for the industry by allowing oil firms to claim they were committed to addressing climate change while API lobbied against green policies in Congress. Whitehouse accused API of “lying on a massive industrial scale”.

In 1998, after countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to help curb carbon emissions, API drew up a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign to ensure that “climate change becomes a non-issue”. The plan said “victory will be achieved” when “recognition of uncertainties become part of the ‘conventional wisdom’”.

Similarly, the US Chamber of Commerce has helped downplay the climate crisis and oppose legislation to curb greenhouse emissions.

In 2015, Columbia Journalism School and the Los Angeles Times uncovered a raft of Exxon documents held at the University of Texas that showed the company worked to undermine climate science by promoting denialism.

Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, Lee Raymond, told industry executives in 1996 that “scientific evidence remains inconclusive as to whether human activities affect global climate”.

This story is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of news outlets strengthening coverage of the climate story

Democrats call oil giants to testify on climate campaign

Congressional Democrats are calling top executives at ExxonMobil and other oil giants to testify about what lawmakers say is a long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming

Via AP news wire

Congressional Democrats are calling top executives at ExxonMobil and other oil giants to testify at a House hearing as lawmakers investigate what they say is a long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming.

The House Oversight Committee on Thursday requested that executives at ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and Shell testify at a hearing next month, along with leaders of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's top lobbying group, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“We are deeply concerned that the fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits for decades while contributing to climate change that is devastating American communities, costing taxpayers billions of dollars and ravaging the natural world,” Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ro Khanna D-Calif., wrote in a letter to oil executives.

“We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change,” they wrote. Khanna, chairman of Oversight's environment subcommittee, has been pressing the oil industry for months for documents and other information on its role in stopping climate action.

Khanna has been focusing on Exxon after a senior lobbyist for the company was caught in a secret video bragging that Exxon had fought climate science through “shadow groups” and had targeted influential senators in an effort to weaken President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.

The comments by Washington-based lobbyist Keith McCoy were made public in June by the environmental group Greenpeace UK, which secretly recorded McCoy and another lobbyist in Zoom interviews.

Darren Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, condemned McCoy's statements and said the company stands by its commitment to work on finding solutions to climate change.

Woods is among the executives the House panel hopes to question at an Oct. 28 hearing, along with BP America CEO David Lawler, Chevron CEO Michael Wirth and Shell president Gretchen Watkins.

Maloney and Khanna said in a statement that ExxonMobil and other oil companies “have worked to prevent serious action on global warming by generating doubt about the documented dangers of fossil fuels and misrepresenting the scale of their efforts to develop alternative energy technologies.'' They compared the tactics to those deployed by the tobacco industry to resist regulation "while selling products that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.''

The oil industry's “strategies of obfuscation and distraction span decades and still continue today,'' Khanna and Maloney said. The five largest publicly traded oil and gas companies reportedly spent at least $1 billion from 2015 to 2018 "to promote climate disinformation through ‘branding and lobbying,' ” the lawmakers wrote.

Union for striking Nabisco workers reaches tentative agreement after month of protests and boycotts


Alex Woodward
Thu, September 16, 2021

(REUTERS)

The union representing hundreds of striking Nabisco workers has reached a tentative agreement with the snack giant’s parent company as work stoppages in several states, nationwide boycotts and protests entered a second month.

Workers behind Oreo and Chips Ahoy! cookies and Ritz crackers initiated a strike in August after failing to reach a deal on a new contract with Mondelez International, the brand’s parent company.

The strike spread to Nabisco facilities in five states, as workers reached a breaking point amid factory closures, concerns over outsourcing to Mexico, and changes to pay, schedules and healthcare coverage that workers and unions say have undermined their labour, all during the coronavirus pandemic that has seen a “snack boom” with record profits.

Workers called for a product boycott, drawing widespread public attention, including from actor Danny DeVito, who called his Twitter followers to support workers “striking for humane working hours, fair pay, outsourcing jobs”.

“NO CONTRACTS NO SNACKS,” he wrote.

US Senator Bernie Sanders also announced his support for striking workers.

“If Nabisco can rake in billions of dollars in corporate profits, they can afford to treat their workers with dignity and respect,” he said on 18 August.

Mondelez briefly threatened legal action against the union, which was hit with a cease-and-desist notice for interrupting the company’s operations.

The union reached a “tentative agreement” on a new contract on 14 September, according to Anthony Shelton, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

Local union chapters will vote on the contract after it is presented to members “in the coming days”, he said.

“I want to thank and commend all of the members of the bargaining committee for their many, many hours of extremely hard work to reach this tentative agreement,” Mr Shelton said in a statement. “As always in our Union, the members will have the final say on the contract.”

This year, Mondelez closed Nabisco facilities in Georgia and New Jersey, where the company’s decades-old bakeries employed roughly 1,000 workers combined.

Those shutdowns triggered concerns among workers that the company could eliminate their union jobs and move production to Mexico, after closures at a Chicago plant and a shift to production in Mexico in 2016 made headlines during that year’s presidential race.

The 2021 strike kicked off in Portland, Oregon, where more than 200 workers at a Nabisco bakery ignited a strike that spread to Illinois, Virginia, and distribution centres in Colorado and Georgia.

Workers have objected to company proposals to roll back healthcare coverage and work shifts that include 12-hour days without overtime pay.

In an offer released publicly on 31 August, Mondelez modified a work schedule proposal and offered a bonus of $5,000 per employee, annual wage increases, and a boost to the company’s matching contributions to workers’ 401k plans.

It also offered “alternative work schedules of 12-hour shifts” which would alternative three to four days a week “only on select, high-demand lines in bakeries”.

That offer expired on 7 September, and the company and union resumed in-person bargaining this week.

Mondelez said the latest agreement for new contracts has been “fully recommended by both parties”.

Union employees at the Portland, Richmond and Chicago bakeries and at distribution facilities in Aurora, Colorado, Addison, Illinois and Norcross, Georgia “will have the opportunity to vote on ratifying the new contracts in the coming days”, the company said in a statement.

Waste from one bitcoin transaction ‘like binning two iPhones’

Alex Hern UK technology editor

THE GUARDIAN 
Fri, 17 September 2021,



A single bitcoin transaction generates the same amount of electronic waste as throwing two iPhones in the bin, according to a new analysis by economists from the Dutch central bank and MIT.

While the carbon footprint of bitcoin is well studied, less attention has been paid to the vast churn in computer hardware that the cryptocurrency incentivises. Specialised computer chips called ASICs are sold with no other purpose than to run the algorithms that secure the bitcoin network, a process called mining that rewards those who partake with bitcoin payouts. But because only the newest chips are power-efficient enough to mine profitably, effective miners need to constantly replace their ASICs with newer, more powerful ones.

“The lifespan of bitcoin mining devices remains limited to just 1.29 years,” write the researchers Alex de Vries and Christian Still in the paper, Bitcoin’s growing e-waste problem, published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.

“As a result, we estimate that the whole bitcoin network currently cycles through 30.7 metric kilotons of equipment per year. This number is comparable to the amount of small IT and telecommunication equipment waste produced by a country like the Netherlands.”

In 2020 the bitcoin network processed 112.5m transactions (compared with 539bn processed by traditional payment service providers in 2019), according to the economists, meaning that each individual transaction “equates to at least 272g of e-waste”. That’s the weight of two iPhone 12 minis.

The reason why e-waste is such a problem for the cryptocurrency is that, unlike most computing hardware, ASICs have no alternative use beyond bitcoin mining, and if they cannot be used to mine bitcoin profitably, they have no future purpose at all. It is theoretically possible for these devices to regain the ability to operate profitably at a later point in time should bitcoin prices suddenly increase and drive up mining income, the authors note.

“Nonetheless, there are several factors that generally prevent substantial extension of the lifetime of mining devices,” they add. Storing mining hardware costs money, and the longer it is stored for, the less likely it is that it will ever be profitable.

The authors also warn that the e-waste problem will probably grow further if the price of bitcoin continues to rise, since it will incentivise further investment in and replacement of ASIC hardware.

If the community were to try to reduce its e-waste problem, the paper concludes, it would need to replace the bitcoin mining process in “its entirety with a more sustainable alternative”, and the paper suggests “proof of stake”, an experimental replacement. Ethereum, a bitcoin successor, announced in May plans to move to proof of stake within months, although the switchover has yet to occur.

Other bitcoin alternatives have been less successful at limiting their environmental footprint. Chia, a cryptocurrency that is built on a “proof of time and space” algorithm, has been accused of leading to shortages in hard drives and SSDs, a type of storage medium popular in fast computers. “Instead of just wasting electricity, Chia chews through SSDs at a fantastic rate and also has thoroughly wrecked the market for big HDs,” said David Gerard, a cryptocurrency expert.

Statue to bitcoin inventor unveiled in Budapest


Thu, 16 September 2021, 



Statue to bitcoin inventor unveiled in Budapest

To reflect the mystery surrounding the true identity of bitcoin's founder, sculptors Tamas Gilly and Reka Gergely turned the face into a sort of mirror (AFP/ATTILA KISBENEDEK)More


Hungarian bitcoin enthusiasts unveiled a statue in Budapest on Thursday which they say is the first in the world to honour Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic inventor of the virtual currency.

The bronze bust is of a hooded figure, in an allusion to the fact that the true identity of Nakamoto -- a pseudonym -- is unknown.

The sculpture, erected in a business park alongside a statue of Apple founder Steve Jobs and an installation by Hungarian inventor Erno Rubik, was the brainchild of entrepreneur and bitcoin journalist, Andras Gyorfi.

It was financed by four Hungarian cryptocurrency organisations.

"Back in March, I was researching the connection between digital art and blockchain," the technology behind bitcoin, Gyorfi told AFP before the unveiling.

"And I thought: 'why shouldn't Satoshi have a statue in Budapest?'", he said.

To reflect the mystery surrounding the true identity of bitcoin's founder, sculptors Tamas Gilly and Reka Gergely turned the face into a sort of mirror.

"The basic concept of bitcoin is that it belongs to everyone, the people of the internet, that we are all Satoshi," Gilly told AFP in his workshop just outside Budapest earlier this month.

"So anyone can recognise themselves when looking at the face," he said.

Created following the 2008 global financial crisis, bitcoin aspired to overthrow traditional monetary and financial institutions such as central banks.

The founding white paper, published on October 31, 2008, and penned by Nakamoto, included the key goal of processing online payments between two parties without passing via a financial institution.

Since a first block of 50 bitcoins was created in January 2009, around 18.8 million units are currently in circulation.

The cryptocurrency has been on a rollercoaster ride recently, witnessing wild swings in price.

But over the past year, bitcoin has increasingly won support from small and large investors alike, including on Wall Street and from Tesla boss Elon Musk.

It struck a world first this month by becoming legal tender in El Salvador.

pmu/spm

SHOULD NATIONALIZE THEM

Berlin to buy 15,000 flats for 2.46 billion euros from rental firms

Fri, 17 September 2021


 An office building of the German property group

 Deutsche Wohnen & Vonovia are pictured in Berlin


BERLIN (Reuters) -German residential rental companies Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen are selling almost 15,000 apartments to Berlin for 2.46 billion euros ($2.90 billion), the companies said on Friday.

The acquisition comes nine days before elections in the German capital, where housing shortages and rapidly rising prices have become a hot issue. An advisory referendum on expropriating the two housing companies is due to be held in parallel with the city election.

Deutsche Wohnen would be selling 10,700 apartments and 4,250 would come from Vonovia's portfolio.

Vonovia, the largest German residential rental company is in the process of acquiring its smaller competitor, creating a housing behemoth with some 550,000 apartments worth more than 80 billion euros.

In an effort to win political support for the deal announced in May, the two companies have pledged to limit regular rent increases in Berlin and offered to sell about 20,000 apartments to the city for at least 2 billion euros. [L2N2NB1I4]

However, a group behind the referendum initiative, has criticised the proposals and reiterated its opposition to such a transaction on Friday.

"We are in principle in favour of taking over the apartments by the public, but not through backdoor deals at speculative prices," Moheb Shafaquar said in a statement.

But Vonovia's Rolf Buch said the price was fair.

"With this sale of housing stock in Berlin to the municipal housing companies, we are fulfilling a central promise to the Berlin Senate," he said. "We are selling the apartments at a fair price."

($1 = 0.8488 euros)

(Reporting by Mattias InverardiEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

PROPERTY IS THEFT

Some Landlords Would Rather Evict Tenants Than Accept Federal Rental Aid

Arthur Delaney
Fri, September 17, 2021, 

Congress set aside $46 billion to cover rent for people struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic, but states and cities have so far distributed only a fraction of the funds.

Some local governments lack the staff and the know-how to distribute the aid, and many have saddled renters with tough paperwork requirements.

But another problem is that some landlords refuse to accept the money.

In Baltimore, one property management firm told local TV station WBAL earlier this week that it wouldn’t take the payment because the wording in the city’s rental assistance contract “contained ambiguities and conflict,” an apparent reference to the city’s requirement that participating landlords hold off on evictions for 90 days.

“If you’re getting paid in full and all the balances will be zero, I’m not understanding,” the property manager’s struggling tenant told WBAL.

Another tenant in Broward County, Florida, voiced a similar complaint to TV station WSVN last month after she said her landlord wouldn’t accept federal rental assistance: “If the funds are there and the government are giving funds to help people, why are you denying me?”

For the most part, landlords like rental assistance. Lobbying groups for the rental housing industry have supported the federal rental aid programs, viewing them as a much more favorable alternative to the eviction moratoriums that were in place for much of the year. Rental housing trade associations and renter advocacy groups alike have lobbied for a simplified application process for landlords to get paid.

But not all landlords want to participate. Nearly half of rental aid program administrators struggled with landlord responsiveness, according to an April survey by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, with one administrator sharing that “many landlords are not looking to keep unreliable tenants.”

Just making the rental aid program less bureaucratic might help.

“Sometimes, landlords just need help in understanding the advantages of rental assistance and how to access it,” Rachel Garland, managing attorney for housing at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, told HuffPost in an email.

Philadelphia is one area that has had success with distributing rental aid, thanks in part to a local court order requiring landlords to apply before filing for eviction, plus an eviction diversion program that links renters to housing counselors who set up mediation sessions with landlords.

Some landlords dislike the document requirements, which can involve handing over sensitive information in tax forms ― a particularly dicey proposition for landlords with unlicensed units. Other landlords might be looking for new tenants, and hot rental markets may create a strong incentive for evictions, as NLIHC director Diane Yentel has suggested.

“Our real estate market has been red hot throughout the pandemic because we have, in addition to our already pretty strong demand, a lot of people moving from New York and Philadelphia to New Jersey,” Adam Gordon, executive director at Fair Share Housing Center in New Jersey, told HuffPost.

“We’ve seen a lot of landlords who want to evict long-standing tenants, and especially long-standing tenants of color, to slap a new coat of paint on the deck to try to attract newcomers,” Gordon added.

(New Jersey still has its own eviction moratorium through the end of the year.)

Nationally, the federal rental assistance program had paid out only $5.1 billion of the $46 billion allotted as of the end of July, with several dozen localities having failed to disburse a dime in more than eight months. The Treasury Department has been pleading with local governments to drop their paperwork requirements and let renters “self-attest” to their hardship and risk of homelessness.

One way around obstinate landlords would be for governments to pay renters directly — which they can already do, but most don’t. Only 28% of local rental programs advertised direct payments to renters, according to the NLIHC.

Earlier this week, the House Committee on Financial Services approved legislation that would make it easier for renters to receive payments directly. The bill would also temporarily prohibit evictions by participating landlords ― a provision loathed by the rental industry ― and require more public outreach about the program. It’s not clear whether Democrats plan to include the measure in an upcoming budget bill they’re hoping to send to President Joe Biden’s desk this fall.

Jurisdictions that fail to distribute their rental aid allotment by the end of the month stand to lose the funds, which the Treasury Department will redistribute to other local governments that will actually use them.

Amanda Terkel contributed reporting to this story.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

THIS IS CONDOIZATION & RENOVICTION

'They came in like we were nothing': New Hampshire woman with housing voucher evicted

Megan Fernandes, Fosters Daily Democrat
Thu, September 16, 2021

Dover resident Mary Cameron is seen packing her things Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in her apartment, but she has been unable to find a new home that will accept her Housing Choice Voucher as payment.

DOVER, N.H. — Sixty-four-year-old Mary Cameron’s belongings are currently collected in brown boxes stacked in the living room of her one-bedroom apartment.

She spends a lot of time with local organizations that provide resources for houseless people in the community, often donating and helping pack personal hygiene bags and volunteering with Waypoint. Now, she finds herself in need of help as the uncertainty and pressure builds to find a new place to live before she finds herself without a roof over her head.

“I knew all along that I was only one step away from being in their shoes, that there wasn’t much separation between our situations,” Cameron said, referring to people who are houseless. “I don’t know what’s next, I don't know what more I can do.”


On Aug. 1 she and the eight other tenants in Dover received eviction notices in their mailboxes from the building's new owner, Commonwealth Collective LLC, which bought the property earlier this summer.

Dover resident Mary Cameron holds up the eviction notice she received Aug. 1 after being a tenant for seven years in an apartment at 20 Pierce St. She spoke about her situation on Tuesday, Sept.14, 2021.

Cameron said tenants were told they were being evicted so the apartments could be remodeled and put back on the market with increased rent prices.

Housing crisis: Supreme Court blocks Biden's COVID-19 eviction moratorium in a blow to renters

Cameron's rent has been $850 per month, but her voucher would pay a landlord up to $1,136 per month, the capped amount per the rules of the federal program in the area where she lives.

The new rent after the planned renovations will be priced much higher than Cameron and the other tenants can afford, she said. Some tenants have to be out by the end of August, but some, like Cameron, were given until the end of September.

“In two weeks, we went from a closing of the property in July that we didn't know about until the last minute, to an eviction notice in our mailboxes. I’m trying to find another place, but there's nothing within my means,” Cameron said.

As the deadline quickly approaches, Cameron hasn’t been able to find an apartment with a landlord who accepts a Housing Choice Voucher (formerly known as Section 8 voucher) as payment. She’s anxious about what happens next for her and her support animal Hailey, an African grey parrot that has been her companion for 26 years. She said because she is disabled she relies on the voucher and Social Security, along with the help of local food pantries to make ends meet.

Housing Choice Voucher Program is a lifeline

The program assists low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies. Most of those who qualify are applicants whose incomes do not exceed 30% of the area median income.

Cameron has been a tenant of her current residence for seven years, and she has a glowing recommendation from the prior landlord, but she can’t find a new apartment. Cameron said her neighbors are experiencing similar challenges, with some forced to sleep in their vehicles or move in with family until they find housing. Cameron isn’t the only tenant with a housing voucher, and they are all scrambling to find a new home.

Local government step in: White House calls for state, local eviction moratoriums after Supreme Court ruling

Dover resident Mary Cameron is seeking a new apartment that will accept her Housing Choice Voucher as payment and also accept her support animal Hailey, a 30-year-old grey parrot that has been her companion for 26 years.

“I’ve looked around everywhere including well outside of Dover, and I have not been able to find anything out there, even with a portable housing voucher that I can take with me wherever I go,” Cameron said.

Commonwealth Collective LLC, the company that now owns the building where Cameron is about to depart, lists its founders as Michael Ketchen, Hannah Ketchen and Matthew Hitchcock on its website. They did not reply to multiple attempts to reach them for comment on this story, including emails and phone messages. The company's website states it specializes “in revitalizing and increasing the value of neglected, distressed, or underutilized properties” and “optimizing the property management process, increasing the ultimate return on investment.”

The company currently owns and operates residential and commercial rental properties in Maine and New Hampshire. According to its website, this includes a five-unit residential apartment building on Park Street in Dover. The company states that after completing upgrades and increasing all five units to market-price rental rates, the property's value “nearly tripled from the original purchase price of $300,000.”
‘Crisis’ on the Seacoast

Cameron isn’t alone in her struggle to find housing as a voucher holder. According to the Dover Housing Authority, the wait list for its elderly housing is 20 years. Within Dover, there are about 880 units of government owned or managed affordable housing, with 347 occupied by Housing Choice Voucher holders.

Dover Housing Authority Executive Director Ryan Crosby said the DHA is often ignored by landlords its staff approaches about accepting Housing Choice Voucher payments.

Those who apply for vouchers may be on the waitlist for two to three years before being selected, after which they have 120 days to find a unit. When tenants are evicted in situations that are no fault of their own, they are given extensions up to 120 days to search for a new place.

Ryan Crosby, executive director of the DHA, said it's common for housing authorities in the Seacoast area in New Hampshire to have more people with vouchers in hand than available units. In an already tight housing market, voucher holders are at a disadvantage and find their options even tighter than the average renter.

Crosby said the current market is worsening these challenges. As people who bought into the market three to 10 years ago can turn properties around now to recoup their investment for top-dollar profits, he said.

“Landowners assume that they are passing their tenants on and the new owners will rent to them, too,” Crosby said. “Except that everyone that's buying in this market is buying at an inflated market price, which means in order to have rents sufficient to justify the mortgage that they took out, they're probably going to have to leverage higher rents. The units that currently offer HUD rents are not being preserved if there's no obligation to maintain those HUD rents.”

According to a study published by the nonprofit National Low Income Housing Coalition, the fair market rate for a one-bedroom apartment is around $1,000 in New Hampshire and fair market value for a two-bedroom is $1,286. The New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority in its 2021 rental survey report said the median rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Strafford County is $1,394 per month and that in the five-year period from 2016 to 2021 rents have jumped by 28.7%. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate in the county is just 0.9%.

Related story: 89% of federal rental assistance remains unspent as potential evictions crisis looms

Crosby said the Seacoast is “in a real affordable housing crisis” and has been for some time. He said the intensity of that crisis is ramping up. Crosby said simply that chances are, those with the money to invest in real estate and rentals right now, are out of state investors hoping to make money through passive income streams as owners; and those are the harder owners to convince to rent at HUD rates.

Since the rental market is increasingly expensive and competitive and some landlords are reluctant to work with voucher holders, recruiting and retaining landlords has become more difficult, according to Cathy Gallagher, a Housing Choice Voucher specialist at the Dover Housing Authority.

“When we pull from our waitlist up to 20 to 30 households waiting for a Housing Choice Voucher, we may issue seven out of that pull, and one or two might actually find housing with it,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher said when trying to reach out to new owners of apartment buildings that formerly took vouchers, like in Cameron’s situation, they are often shut down. The Dover Housing Authority and other organizations do a lot of work to educate current and prospective landlords of the benefits of accepting the vouchers.

Dover Housing Authority Executive Director Ryan Crosby and Cathy Gallagher, Housing Choice Voucher specialist for DHA, seen on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, say it's difficult recruiting and retaining landlords to accept the vouchers from low-income residents.

The Dover Housing Authority is aware of Cameron’s situation, but said conversations with the new owners to keep the tenants on vouchers were unsuccessful, noting that the price of rent for that building will significantly increase upon completion of its remodeling project.

“We’re always encouraging landlords to preserve what affordable housing they have by whatever method we can, even if it’s asking: 'Can you accept the voucher for another year, can you extend the lease just a little longer.' Beyond that we’re vigorously advocating and engaging with legislators, cities, Seacoast partners, regional partners and national partners,” Crosby said.

There are incentive measures in place that try to encourage more developers to have some HUD rate rental apartments, through things like tax breaks or density bonuses. Every private housing development that promises to have a percentage of HUD- restricted rents and adds to the affordable market is considered “a success story” Crosby said.

“Even 20% of units at HUD rates are a huge advantage for us, but it’s only a small percentage of the Seacoast,” Crosby said. “We’re losing affordable apartments faster than we’re gaining them. When you say HUD rents, people assume it's a crazy low amount, but we pay up to 110% above fair market rate. If you ask a landlord if they charge fair market rent and look at the fair market rates, we see some charging 150% to 200% above fair market value.”

Recruiting landlords to help

Donna Marsh, executive director of Home For All, a Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based housing and homelessness prevention coalition, is among the area organizations working to match voucher holders with landlords, in addition to recruiting new landlords.

She notes they’ve seen similar success with a program to incentivize landlords to set aside a small percentage of units for voucher holders. Marsh hopes to scale the program up in the future, but right now they are nearly maxed with having matched all of their units with tenants.

“We have partnered with landlords who are interested in helping solve this problem and are willing to devote a certain percentage or portion of their properties to help low-income tenants,” Marsh said. “We have generous landlords that have been willing to take voucher holders in a market that doesn't necessitate that, but they do it because they know that it's best for their communities and the people that live there.”

Housing market finds: Should I rent or buy a home right now? Well, that depends on where you want to live.

Marsh is also a board member of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority. Marsh says that homeless shelters across the area are at capacity, which leaves many with nowhere else to go.

Crosby said that it's frustrating seeing properties that accept vouchers be sold, because the voucher-holding tenants were the ones able to consistently pay their rent as the nation suffered massive layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic that led to many being unable to pay rent. He said it feels like those tenants were taken advantage of during the pandemic as a source of steady income to pay the mortgage, but when new owners come in and take a different direction, those tenants are left in the dust.
Uncertainty on the horizon

Dover resident Mary Cameron, 64, on Sept. 14, 2021 in her apartment, faces eviction at the end of the month and says her children's landlords will only allow her to stay with them for two weeks.

If Cameron doesn’t find a place to live, she will continue the search. In the meantime, she plans to move all her belongings into a storage unit and live with her children for two weeks, which is all their landlords allow. Cameron doesn’t want to think much past that, noting stress and fear are having a physical impact on her health.

Cameron hoped to be able to use the rent moratorium to keep a roof over her head for another month, but was told it was only for tenants that couldn’t afford to pay rent and she didn’t qualify. She is hopeful that when the moratorium ends, more units will go on the market, but she is skeptical that will happen.

“We did everything right. We are steady tenants that always pay their rent on time, and they came in here like this was nothing, like we were nothing,” Cameron said. "What else can we do?"

While there is no clear cut solution as to how to address these issues facing the Seacoast and beyond, Crosby and Marsh said, it starts with making a small dent in the affordable housing market where you can, and working closely alongside landlords.

“If we could see a greater collaboration between landlords, the community and community agencies that work with low income clients, I think in the future we may be able to find more creative and collaborative housing solutions,” Marsh said.

Follow Megan Fernandes on Twitter: @Meg_Fernandes.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Eviction notice left N.H. woman with housing voucher nowhere to go

Property is theft! - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_is_theft!

"Property is theft!" (French: La propriété, c'est le vol!) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government. If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder!, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument woul…

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By "property", Proudhon referred to a concept regarding land property that originated in Roman law: the sovereign right of property, the right of the proprietor to do with his property as he pleases, "to use and abuse," so long as in the end he submits to state-sanctioned title. Proudhon contrasts the supposed right of property with the rights (which he considered valid) of liberty, 

UK

City comment: ESG goes up in smoke at L&G in handling of Philip Morris’s Vectura bid

Fri, 17 September 2021

Philip Morris makes Marlboro cigarettes (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Archive)

Look up ESG — the buzzword du jour for ethical investing — on Legal & General Investment Management’s (LGIM) website and you’ll find this bold statement: “Our very purpose at LGIM is to create a better future through responsible investing.”

You wouldn’t know it from how it has handled the Vectura takeover deal. LGIM bowed out with a whimper last night, announcing in a mealy-mouthed statement that it was agreeing to sell its 3.7% stake in the inhaler maker to Philip Morris International (PMI), the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes.

It’s a deal that lets PMI profit twice from smoking, as campaign group STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products) points out: once from the sale of cigarettes and then again from the treatment of problems caused by smoking. Scientists working on health products now find themselves awkward bedfellows with executives whose main business is cancer sticks.

LGIM spent “considerable time reviewing the competing ESG factors and financials” of the “highly sensitive bid,” it says. But ultimately it concluded that accepting the offer was “the optimal result for our clients, investors and the futures of both companies”. So much for a better future.

Contrast LGIM’s response with Axa’s. The French business also owns Vectura stock and is selling out, but doesn’t mince its words. Axa “did not support” the takeover and is “uncomfortable with the ethics behind a tobacco group’s purchase of an inhaler manufacturer,” it says. The company backed a rival bid from private equity firm Carlyle, which ultimately went nowhere. It’s only selling now because it is forced to by PMI’s controlling position.

LGIM should take note. If it wants to be taken seriously as an ethical investor, it shouldn’t pull its punches in crunch moments.

More broadly, the asset management industry needs to figure out how they square the circle of ethical investing and fiduciary duty. It’s all very well to put pictures of turtles on your website and praise the ocean but when push comes to shove, a challenging - but financially attractive - bid like PMI’s can be difficult to turn down. If financial returns trump ethics, then at least be clear about it from the start.

Read More

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Vectura’s cancer scientists will question if they want to work for Big Tobacco

Battle for health firm Vectura cools as Carlyle pulls plug on bidding war with Marlboro maker

Vectura barred from major medical conference after Philip Morris takeover

James Warrington
Thu, 16 September 2021

Inhaler

British inhaler developer Vectura has been barred from a major medical conference amid a growing backlash over its £1bn takeover by tobacco giant Philip Morris International.

The drugmaker had been listed as a sponsor and participant at an Oxford Global event on inhaled drug delivery in London next week, but has been banned from taking part after other speakers threatened to withdraw.

Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, seized control of Vectura on Thursday after securing 74.8pc of the company’s shares, fending off a rival offer from private equity firm Carlyle Group.


One of Vectura’s largest shareholders, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), confirmed it had accepted the offer and vowed to “exert influence from within”. It has built a reputation for speaking out on the importance of ethical investing and in 2017 launched a tobacco-free pension fund for Cancer Research UK.

Nicholas Hopkinson, professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, said the decision to remove Vectura from the event was “a clear and immediate example” of the firm being excluded from scientific activities.

Scientists working for Vectura were now likely facing a moral quandary over their future at the company, he added. “If you stick with Vectura you’re stuck with the tobacco industry possibly for the rest of your career.”

Oxford Global, the life sciences conference operators behind the event, declined to comment.

The Philip Morris takeover of Vectura has faced stiff opposition from the scientific community and anti-smoking charities.

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, accused Vectura of having “sold out millions of people with lung disease”, adding that it had “prioritised short-term financial gain” over its long-term viability as a business.

In a letter to the public health minister, Jo Churchill, 35 charities, public health experts and clinicians renewed calls on the Government to intervene, warning the merger could lead to greater tobacco industry influence over public policy.

“We think it clear that this deal is not in the public interest and that it creates perverse incentives for PMI to increase harm through smoking so they might then profit again through treating smoking related diseases,” they said.

Legal & General, which had been a top 10 shareholder in Vectura, said it had spent “considerable time” reviewing the environmental, social and governance factors and financials of the deal before backing the bid.

“During this highly sensitive bid process, we came to the conclusion that based on the information available to us, the sale of our shares was the optimal result for our clients, investors and the futures of both companies. As a responsible investor and steward of our clients capital, our approach is to engage with companies and exert influence from within,” a spokesman said.

Several high-profile respiratory organisations are now poised to cut links with Vectura due to ethical firewalls that prohibit work with the tobacco industry.

The British Thoracic Society said the deal was “inappropriate, unethical and should have been prevented”, adding that companies and individuals who have a relationship with Vectura now fell foul of its policies.

The European Respiratory Society said the merger was “not suitable, ethical, or in the best public interest”, adding that it was also considering the implications on its partnerships.

An industry source said further distancing by the medical community was inevitable, adding that it was a case of “when it happens not if it happens”.

Vectura’s ability to win future contracts from partners such as Novartis, Bayer and Recipharm will now also be in doubt due to ethical concerns. All three companies declined to comment on their future relationships with Vectura.

The takeover also raises questions over Vectura’s tie-ups with universities due to similar rules about academic institutions accepting funding from tobacco firms.

It is understood that Imperial College London, which has previously accepted funding from Vectura for research into viral lung inflammation, will not pursue any future partnerships once the deal goes through.

In a further blow to Vectura’s standing in the medical world, critics have warned that the link to PMI could prevent it from publishing articles in top publications such as the British Medical Journal and the Lancet.

PMI has defended the deal, insisting it fits with its strategy of expanding beyond tobacco and nicotine products into a broader healthcare company.

Chief executive Jacek Olczak told The Telegraph last month that opponents of the deal were “not interested in progress, but rather in settling old scores”.

On Thursday he pledged that the takeover would provide Vectura’s scientists “with the resources and expertise to grow their business”.

Inhaler firm Vectura removed from conference over Philip Morris takeover

Julia Kollewe and Rob Davies
Thu, 16 September 2021

Photograph: Vectura/Reuters

Asthma inhaler maker Vectura has been excluded from a pharmaceutical conference after academics staged a rebellion over the company’s £1.1bn takeover by cigarette company Philip Morris International (PMI).

PMI effectively sealed the takeover on Thursday, after more than half of Vectura’s shareholders agreed to sell their stock.

But within hours the deal was overshadowed by the removal of Vectura as a sponsor of, and participant in, a conference called Formulation and Delivery UK due to take place next week.

Emails seen by the Guardian show that a group of leading clinicians who were invited to the event objected to Vectura’s involvement because of its links to PMI, which says it is aiming for a “smoke-free future” but still derives 75% of its revenue from selling cigarettes.

Peter Barnes, professor of thoracic medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, coordinated a letter from multiple academics to event organiser Oxford Global, describing the takeover as “extremely unwelcome news”.

“Unless the sponsorship and invitation to Vectura to participate is withdrawn, we will no longer be able to take part in the conference next week and will have to withdraw from the programme,” he said.

Further correspondence shows that Oxford Global later confirmed that Vectura “will no longer be participating in or sponsoring the event”.

Barnes said he expected other pharmaceutical industry events would follow suit because professional societies for specialist respiratory scientists and clinicians did not allow them to participate in any events with links to the tobacco industry.

Vectura’s removal from the conference appears to lend weight to warnings from academics that the company could be prevented from working with leading scientists in its field, respiratory medicine. Vectura declined to comment. The Guardian has approached PMI for comment.

PMI wrapped up the Vectura deal on Thursday morning, saying it had either bought shares, or received acceptances of its offer, reaching just under 75% of the company, well ahead of the 50% it needed.

The offer has become “unconditional”, meaning the remaining shareholders cannot prevent it and can in effect be compelled to sell.

The takeover of a respiratory disease specialist by a cigarette company has sparked outrage among health charities and public health experts around the world.

But the Marlboro maker has argued that its transition away from cigarettes requires it to move into fields such as respiratory medicine, where it already has some expertise.

Jacek Olczak, the chief executive of PMI, said on Thursday: “We are very excited about the critical role Vectura will play in our beyond nicotine strategy and look forward to working with Vectura’s scientists and providing them with the resources and expertise to grow their business to help us achieve our goal of generating at least $1bn [£725m] in net revenues from beyond nicotine products by 2025.”

Vectura investors had been given until 15 September to decide whether to sell to PMI. Under market rules governing takeovers, PMI was not allowed to build its stake by buying shares from investors within the US.

But it was able to buy stock from other international investors to move closer to its 50% target. It said in August that it had gathered 29% of the stock, as it sought to reach 50%.

At that point, which PMI has now reached, reluctant shareholders have little incentive to hold out because PMI would take control of the company anyway. PMI said on Thursday morning that investors could still sell their shares to it until 30 September.

Sarah Woolnough, the chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said: “There’s now a very real risk that Vectura’s deal with big tobacco will lead to the cigarette industry wielding undue influence on UK health policy.”

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https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/09/us-cigarette-giant-seals-takeover-of.html