AFP

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in the state of New York voted decisively against establishing a union, US officials announced Tuesday, dealing a setback to the fledgling labor drive at the e-commerce behemoth.

The tally was 406 against Amazon Labor Union’s (ALU) proposal and 206 in support of the organization, said a spokeswoman for the National Labor Relations Board.

The election marks the second straight defeat for the ALU, which surged to prominence in April following its upset win at a large Staten Island warehouse that voted to become Amazon’s first US facility to unionize.

ALU president Christian Smalls dismissed the vote at the Amazon facility near the city of Albany in New York state as unfair.

“It was a sham election where workers were subjected to intimidation and retaliation on a daily basis and even the workers who volunteered to be election observers were faced with threats of termination,” Small said in a statement.

Smalls said he was “proud of the brave workers in upstate New York who stood up in the face of a vicious anti-union campaign to challenge a trillion-dollar corporation.”

“We will continue to empower all workers to give them the right to unionize. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!” he added on Twitter.

Amazon, which has continued to contest its defeat in the first Staten Island vote, said it was pleased with Tuesday’s outcome.

“We’re glad that our team in Albany was able to have their voices heard, and that they chose to keep the direct relationship with Amazon as we think that this is the best arrangement for both our employees and customers,” said spokesperson Kelly Nantel. 

The elections at Amazon have come amid a wave of labor drives at consumer-facing companies, including Starbucks, Apple, REI and Chipotle, all of which have voted to unionize one or more store or restaurant. 

But Amazon’s initial victory in Staten Island, a New York borough, was on a much bigger scale, providing a jolt to the US labor movement while propelling Smalls and other ALU leaders to prominence. 

Smalls, a former Staten Island Amazon worker, and other current and ex-employees established the group  2021, denouncing Amazon’s rigid workforce practices during the pandemic and arguing a union was the way towards better pay and benefits.

But after prevailing in the 8,000 employee JFK8 warehouse, the ALU had also lost a second election in May at the smaller LDJ5 warehouse, which is also in Staten Island.

Besides trying to spread the ALU to new Amazon sites, the union’s leadership is also facing barriers in getting Amazon to come to the bargaining table to recognize the union and negotiate a contract.

Amazon has refused to accept the election outcome in the first Staten Island vote, citing alleged improprieties.

Last month, a National Labor Relations Board official rejected Amazon’s claims as groundless after a 24-day hearing.

But Amazon has said it plans to appeal that decision.

More than 26 years after a California student disappeared while walking back to her dorm room from a college party, a man was convicted of her murder Tuesday.

The body of 19-year-old Kristin Smart has never been found, and for decades billboards and even a true-crime podcast appealed for evidence in a case that haunted the community, before long-standing suspect Paul Flores was arrested last year.

Flores, now 45, was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury at Monterey County Superior Court on Tuesday following a three-month trial.

“Our criminal and victim justice system has now finally delivered justice for Kristin,” Dan Dow, San Luis Obispo district attorney, said after the verdicts were read.

“The impact that Kristin Smart’s disappearance and the… investigation has had on the Smart family, on our community, spanning a quarter century, has been profound.”

“Today, justice delayed is not justice denied,” he told a press conference.

But Smart’s remains have still not been located, and Paul’s father Ruben was found not guilty Tuesday of helping to hide her body.

Smart’s father Stan said: “Without Kristin, there’s no joy or happiness in this verdict.”

“After 26 years, with today’s split verdicts, we learned that our quest for justice for Kristin will continue.”

Both Smart and Flores were students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on California’s central coast, when she went missing in May 1996.

Flores was the last person seen with Smart, accompanying her on the 10-minute walk back to her dormitory from a party that night.

Prosecutors said Flores raped, or attempted to rape, and killed Smart before burying her remains under his father’s house deck.

During the trial, prosecutors said Paul Flores had stalked Smart for months, and suggested he may have drugged her drink at the party the night of her murder.

Smart was declared legally dead in 2002, but the mysterious case remained prominent in the San Luis Obispo community, drawing amateur sleuths including the “Your Own Backyard” podcast.

The court case had to be moved from San Luis Obispo to neighboring Monterey county to ensure a fair trial.

In 2019, a witness told detectives that Flores had admitted the crime to her.

As investigations intensified once more, prosecutors alleged that activity spotted at his father’s house the following year indicated attempts to move Smart’s remains.

– ‘Not over’ –

Ian Parkinson, the sheriff for San Luis Obispo County, vowed to continue searching for her body following the verdict.

“The reality is, there is some form of justice today, holding the person responsible,” he said.

“However, that doesn’t change the fact that their daughter, at 19, disappeared and was murdered. And they don’t have the opportunity to see her graduate from Cal Poly, be married, have grandchildren for them.”

Parkinson added: “Even though Paul was convicted today, this case is not over. This case will not be over until Kristin has returned home.”

Paul and Ruben Flores have always denied any involvement in Smart’s disappearance, and Ruben’s lawyer Harold Mesick told the San Luis Obispo Tribune there is a “reasonable inference” she is still alive, and that he expects his son to appeal.

Flores is due to be sentenced on December 9, and could face up to life in prison.

Paul Flores’ attorney Robert Sanger told AFP via email that “the matter is still pending” and declined to comment further. 

Netflix on Tuesday reported that it gained more than 2 million subscribers in the recent quarter, calming investor fears that the streaming giant was losing paying customers.

The company said it ended the third quarter with slightly more than 223 million subscribers worldwide, up some 2.4 million, after seeing subscriber ranks ebb during the first half of the year.

Netflix shares shot up more than 14 percent in after hours trading to $275 on the earnings news.

“Well, thank God we’re done with shrinking quarters,” Netflix co-chief executive said during an earnings call.

“We’re back to the positivity; we’ve got to pick up the momentum.”

The turn-around in subscriber growth comes as Netflix is poised to debut a subscription option subsidized by ads in November across a dozen countries.

The new “Basic with Ads” subscriptions will be priced at $6.99 in the United States — three dollars less than a no-ads basic option, Netflix chief operating officer Greg Peters said in a briefing.

“The timing is great because we really are at this pivotal moment in the entertainment industry and evolution of that industry,” Peters said.

“Now streaming has surpassed both broadcast and cable for total TV time in the United States.”

Netflix is working with Microsoft on its ad-supported tier, and teams at both companies will likely need to be bulked up to handle the huge demand by advertisers, Peters said.

“We’re turning some folks away right now because we just don’t have the marketing capacity to serve everyone,” Peters said

After having shunned advertising since it started its streaming service, Netflix acquiesced as competition in the market intensifies and as consumers recoil from soaring inflation.

Rival streaming platform Disney+ is to launch ad-subsidized subscriptions in December.

With the launch of cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions, Netflix and Disney+ are expected to bite into the revenue of traditional television channels.

“In directly acknowledging competition and using advertising, Netflix is adapting to the streaming landscape’s new normal,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Ross Benes.

– Covid ‘logjam’ –

Netflix expects to add another 4.5 million subscribers in the final quarter of this year.

“Although international growth continues, the US video streaming market is hitting its ceiling for subscribers,” said Third Bridge analyst Jamie Lumley.

“After periods of rapid expansion and extraordinary spending, Netflix, Disney and their competitive set will soon be forced to focus on improving margins and cutting back on content spending.”

Netflix said in a letter to shareholders that it believes its competitors have been losing money as they invest heavily to win audiences.

Netflix reported a quarterly profit of $1.4 billion on revenue of $7.9 billion — a net income slightly less than in the same period a year ago when it brought in more money.

Netflix plans to hold steady with spending some $17 billion a year on content, said co-chief executive Ted Sarandos.

“I feel better and better about that $17 billion of content spend, because what we have to do is be better at getting more impact per billion dollars spent than anybody else,” Serranos said.

“Big shows that folks engaged with and talk about drive a lot of growth.”

Peters noted hits such as “Stranger Things” and “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” and pending releases of keenly anticipated films such as “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

Netflix is also working to smooth out the show release rhythm that was disrupted by the pandemic, according to executives.

“Covid got a lot of content jammed up,” Sarandos said.

“It will take several years to completely unwind the Covid logjam.”

President Joe Biden will announce Wednesday he’s putting the final 15 million barrels on the market from a record release of US strategic oil reserves, with more releases possible if energy prices spike, a senior US official said.

The new tranche of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be “completing the 180 million barrel release authorized in the spring,” in response to price hikes linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a senior US official said Tuesday.

The order, which Biden will announce in a speech, means the president will be “making clear that the administration is prepared to undertake significant additional… sales this winter if they are needed due to Russian or other actions disrupting global markets,” the official added.

The decision to make the biggest ever dip into the emergency oil reserves — usually kept for responding to situations such as hurricane-related shutdowns at oil refineries — was Biden’s gambit to calm energy markets and shield the world’s biggest economy from Ukraine war shocks.

Major energy exporter Russia was hit with US and European sanctions soon after it invaded Ukraine in February, causing turmoil on markets. In addition, the Kremlin has threatened to use its leverage over energy supplies as an economic weapon against the West, which supports Ukraine’s fight to repel the invasion.

For Biden there are serious domestic concerns, with gasoline prices at one point averaging more than $5 a gallon, causing nationwide anger. While prices have since moderated, inflation remains the biggest factor driving Republican hopes of defeating the Democrats in November’s midterm legislative elections.

– Reserves in good shape –

The senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was not being used irresponsibly.

At the same time as announcing the 15 million barrel drawdown for delivery in December — and flagging the possibility of more to come — Biden is highlighting a plan to refill the reserve as soon as prices hit around $67-72 a barrel, the official said.

This is “an important signal for producers that the SPR will be part of helping to moderate and stabilize price flows, not only when prices are going high but when prices are going low,” he said.

The reserve, meanwhile, remains in good shape, the official said, with more than 400 million barrels. “That is still a large amount” and allows for “additional opportunity… if we need to do more sales.”

The official described the SPR use as a “brilliant” bridge out of a crisis moment, playing “an incredibly constructive role through a very challenging time period.”

However, with “additional volatility” expected from Russia and production levels still not back to pre-Covid pandemic levels, stability is “not quite there yet.”

Asked whether the United States could take the more radical measure of curbing fuel exports — something that would help tamp down domestic prices but hurt foreign buyers, including in allied countries — an official declined to confirm or deny.

“We’re keeping all tools on the table,” the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

But with the midterm vote just three weeks away, Republicans are seeking to paint Biden as a manipulator of the oil reserves in order to win support for his Democrats.

The move is not an effort to steady markets, “it’s a bid to try and save his party from getting walloped in the Midterm elections,” House Republican Byron Donalds tweeted, adding that “Biden’s mismanagement of our strategic oil reserves is a dire threat to national security.”

Climate change is a prime suspect in a mass die-off of Alaska’s snow crabs, experts say, after the state took the unprecedented step of canceling their harvest this season to save the species.

According to an annual survey of the Bering Sea floor carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimates for the crustaceans’ total numbers fell to about 1.9 billion in 2022, down from 11.7 billion in 2018, or a reduction of about 84 percent.

For the first time ever, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the Bering Sea snow crab season will remain closed for 2022-23, saying in a statement efforts must turn to “conservation and rebuilding given the condition of the stock.”

The species is also found in the more northward Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, but they do not grow to fishable sizes there.

Erin Fedewa, a marine biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, told AFP the shocking numbers seen today were the result of heatwaves in 2018 and 2019. 

The “cold water habitat that they need was virtually absent, which suggests that temperature is really the key culprit in this population decline,” she said.

Historically an abundant resource in the Bering Sea, their loss is considered a bellwether of ecological disruption.

There are thought to be several ways that warmer temperatures have depleted the species.

Studies have pointed toward a higher prevalence of Bitter Crab Disease as the temperature heats up. 

The crustaceans, named for their love of cold water, are also under greater metabolic stress in warmer waters, meaning they need more energy to stay alive.

“A working hypothesis right now is that the crabs starved, they couldn’t keep up with metabolic demands,” said Fedewa.

Young snow crabs in particular need low temperatures to hide out from their major predator, Pacific cod, and temperatures in regions where juveniles typically reside jumped from 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2017 to 3.5 Celsius in 2018 (35 degrees Fahrenheit to 38 degrees Fahrenheit) — with studies indicating 3C might be an important threshold.

– Overfishing not blamed –

More research is underway and findings should be published soon, but in the meantime, “everything really points to climate change,” Fedewa said.

“These are truly unprecedented and troubling times for Alaska’s iconic crab fisheries and for the hard-working fishermen and communities that depend on them,” Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers said in a statement, lamenting that second and third generation crab-fishing families “will go out of business.”

The industry was also hit by the cancellation of Bristol Bay red king crab fishing for the second year in a row.

Fedewa also noted that overfishing isn’t a big factor in the population collapse of snow crabs. 

Fishing removes only large adult males, she said, “and we’ve seen these declines across all sizes of snow crab, which really suggest some bottom-up environmental driver is at play.”

Male Alaska snow crabs can reach six inches (15 centimeters) in shell width, but females seldom grow larger than three inches, according to NOAA.

In some good news, this year’s survey saw significant increases in the immature crabs compared to last year — but it will take four or five years before the males among them grow to fishable size.

Following the heatwave years, temperatures have returned to normal, and “the hope is that leaving crabs untouched will allow them to reproduce, there’ll be no mortalities, and we can just let the stock try to recover,” said Fedewa. 

A hope that is pinned on no further heatwaves.