Business
Amazon’s Fight With Unions Heads to Whole Foods Market
At a sprawling Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia, a battle is brewing. The roughly 300 workers are set to vote on Monday on whether to form the first union in Amazon’s grocery business.
Several store employees said they hoped a union could negotiate higher starting wages, above the current rate of $16 an hour. They’re also aiming to secure health insurance for part-time workers and protections against at-will firing.
There is a broader goal, too: to inspire a wave of organizing across the grocery chain, adding to union drives among warehouse workers and delivery drivers that Amazon is already combating.
“If all the different sectors that make it work can demand a little bit more, have more control, have more of a voice in the workplace — that could be a start of chipping away at the power that Amazon has, or at least putting it in check,” said Ed Dupree, an employee in the produce department. Mr. Dupree has worked at Whole Foods since 2016 and previously worked at an Amazon warehouse.
Management sees things differently. “A union is not needed at Whole Foods Market,” the company said in a statement, adding that it recognized employees’ right to “make an informed decision.”
Workers said that since they went public with their union drive last fall, store managers had ramped up their monitoring of employees, hung up posters with anti-union messaging in break rooms and held meetings that cast unions in a negative light.
Audrey Ta, who fulfills online orders at the store, said that she planned to vote in favor of unionizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers, but that there was unease among the workers. She has stopped wearing her union pin on the job.
“People keep their head down and try to talk not to talk about it,” Ms. Ta said. “Management really pays attention to what we talk about.”
Whole Foods said it had complied with all legal requirements when communicating with employees about unions.
U.F.C.W. Local 1776, which represents workers in Pennsylvania, has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Whole Foods of firing an employee in retaliation for supporting the union drive. The union also accused the chain of excluding the store’s employees from a pay raise that had been given this month to all its other workers in the Philadelphia area.
“They’re treating them differently,” said Wendell Young IV, president of U.F.C.W. Local 1776. “They’re discriminating against them for trying to form a union.”
Whole Foods denied allegations of retaliation. The company argued that it cannot legally change wages during the election process, and that it had delayed a raise until after the election to avoid the appearance of trying to influence votes.
A majority of the store’s workers signed union authorization cards last year before the union filed a petition for an election. But Ben Lovett, an employee who has led the organizing, said he expected the election to be close.
Whole Foods is the latest segment of Amazon’s business to confront the prospect of a union. In 2022, workers on Staten Island voted to form Amazon’s first union in the United States; it is now affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Amazon disputed the election outcome and has refused to recognize or bargain with the union pending a court challenge.
Delivery drivers, who work for third-party package delivery companies serving Amazon from California to New York, have also mounted campaigns with the Teamsters.
Rob Jennings, an employee in the prepared foods section of the Philadelphia store, has worked there for nearly two decades. He said he noticed a series of changes after Amazon bought the chain in 2017: a program that offered employees a portion of the store’s budget surplus was scrapped, part-time workers lost health insurance, staffing levels started to decline.
Even though Whole Foods had never been a worker paradise, Mr. Jennings said, “I have a fantasy about bringing back all the things they took away.”
Whole Foods said in a statement that the abandoned profit-sharing program did not evenly benefit all employees and that the company invested in wages instead; that part-time workers lost the ability to buy health insurance through the company and did not lose funded health insurance; that part-time workers receive other benefits like in-store discounts and a 401(k) plan; and that the company is committed to keeping stores appropriately staffed.
Khy Adams first knew the Philadelphia store as a high school hangout. She had been wanting to work there for years when, in August, she landed a job overseeing the hot foods bar.
But she did not find the work-life balance she had sought, she said, with management expecting an unreasonable level of availability. She said she hoped a union could help improve conditions.
In addition to Amazon’s pushback, the political transformation in Washington may pose hurdles. After the Biden administration’s embrace of unions, President Trump is expected to appoint a new N.L.R.B. general counsel whose approach could make it harder for organizing campaigns to succeed.
“Amazon has the machine behind them to prolong this, to shut this down, to make it the hardest thing for us to continue to work toward,” Ms. Adams said of the campaign to unionize.
Business
Sony, CBS settle ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ ‘Jeopardy!’ dispute
Sony Pictures Television and CBS have struck a compromise in their hard-fought legal battle over distribution rights to the popular “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” syndicated game shows.
“We have reached an amicable resolution,” Sony and CBS said Friday in a joint statement. “We look forward to working together to continue bringing these beloved shows to audiences and stations around the world.”
Financial terms were not disclosed.
As part of the deal, CBS will continue to distribute the shows in the U.S. for an additional 2 ½ years — through the 2027-2028 television season. After that, Sony will control the domestic distribution rights.
Sony owns both shows and produces them on its Culver City lot.
The shows have retained their popularity and solid ratings even in the streaming age, as traditional TV has declined. They remain among the most-watched programs on television.
The dispute began more than a year ago, when Sony terminated its distribution deal with CBS and later filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit that claimed CBS had entered into unauthorized licensing deals for the shows and then paid itself a commission. Sony also maintained that budget cuts within CBS, which is owned by Paramount, had hobbled the network’s efforts to support the two shows.
Earlier this year, Sony attempted to cut CBS out of the picture, escalating the dispute.
CBS has long maintained that it had the legal rights to distribute the shows to television stations around the country. The broadcaster previously alleged that Sony’s claims were “rooted in the fact they simply don’t like the deal the parties agreed to decades ago.”
For years, CBS has raked in up to 40% of the fees that TV stations pay to carry the shows. The network took over the distribution of the programs when it acquired syndication company King World Productions in 1999.
King World struck deals with the show’s original producer, Merv Griffin Enterprises, in the early 1980s to distribute “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.” Sony later acquired Griffin’s company, but those early agreements remained in effect.
As part of this week’s resolution, CBS will manage all advertising sales through the 2029-2030 television season.
However, Sony will take over all marketing, promotions and affiliate relations for the shows after the current television season, which ends in mid-2026. Sony will also handle the lucrative brand integration campaigns.
In another element that was important to Sony, the studio will claim international distribution rights beginning this December.
Business
Video: How the Government Shutdown Is Affecting Air Travel
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November 8, 2025
Business
Presents to arrive in time for the holidays, but may be more expensive
Consumers don’t have to worry about products arriving in time for the holidays, though they may be facing higher prices, say officials at one of America’s largest ports.
Imports at the Port of Long Beach are flowing smoothly through its facilities despite the government shutdown and tariff uncertainties, port executives said. Still, they acknowledge that the volume and prices of products in the millions of containers coming through the port suggest that imports are becoming more costly and consumers are more cautious.
Until now, retailers, manufacturers and other intermediaries have absorbed much of the cost of tariffs, but that is changing as it becomes more apparent which tariffs are here to stay, Mario Cordero, chief executive of the Port of Long Beach, said Friday during a virtual news conference.
“Consumers will likely see price escalation in the coming months as shippers continue to pass along the cost of tariffs on goods, and a higher percentage of these costs will be passed on to the consumer,” he said.
Cordero, who drinks Starbucks coffee, said he’s seen the price of a cup of coffee increase by 15% and that more consumers are going to discount stores to find deals. However, potential price hikes could be offset if the United States and China strike further trade agreements.
The Port of Long Beach, a gateway for trade between the United States and Asia-Pacific, released new data that offers a glimpse into how President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are affecting goods imported from key trade partners, such as China.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court also started to hear arguments as the justices examine the legality of Trump’s tariffs.
Over the past year, the port saw a drop in the movement of containers filled with certain goods such as winter apparel, kitchen appliances and toys that people typically buy as gifts, a sign that consumers are likely wary about spending.
Still, the impact of tariffs on cargo volume hasn’t been as bad as some experts predicted. Cordero said some experts had projected that the port could see as much as a 35% drop in cargo volume.
“Clearly today, it’s fair to say that the worst scenarios some predicted did not occur,” Cordero said. “The challenges were many, and there’s no doubt that many companies and their workers suffered, but cargo volume is turning out to be just as high this year as it was last year.”
In fiscal year 2025, which runs from October 2024 to September 2025, the port surpassed 10 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the first time, up 11% from the same period last year. TEU is a measurement used to describe cargo capacity for container ships and terminals.
While the port saw a decline in the amount of TEUs moved in October compared with the same period in 2024, Cordero said he thinks the port will end 2025 in “positive territory.”
In October, there were 839,671 TEUs moved. That’s because retailers and shippers started shipping goods earlier than normal to avoid fees and to stock up their warehouses because of tariffs.
The Port of Long Beach is an economic engine for California. Officials say it helps create 691,000 jobs in Southern California. More than 2.7 million U.S jobs are connected to the Port of Long Beach, they say.
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