|
The Trump administration's labor board has ordered Amazon to recognize and bargain with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, which represents workers at a warehouse in Staten Island. This is just the latest chapter in a multiyear standoff between Staten Island warehouse workers and Amazon, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The union has been trying to bring Amazon to the bargaining table for years to negotiate pay, benefits and workplace safety. The labor board's proclamation doesn't mean that the battle is over. It's highly likely this will be settled in court.
An Amazon spokesperson maintains that the vote to create the union was "wrong on the facts of the law" and that representatives from the National Labor Relations Board "improperly influenced the election." The company recently stated it is "confident an unbiased court will overturn the original certification."
Despite the eventual outcome, Teamsters President Sean O'Brien is lauding the Staten Island workers for becoming "the first group ever to force the company to recognize their union." Workers at the facility voted to unionize in 2022 and this was the first union victory for Amazon employees in the US.
It was considered a milestone victory for US workers across the board, given that Amazon is the country's second-largest
|
|
The Integrity, the name of the Orion capsule carrying Artemis II astronauts on a trip around the moon, has left Earth's orbit. NASA has announced that it has successfully completed a key burn of Orion's main engine. That six-minute firing of the engine provided approximately 6,000 pounds of thrust, which gave the spacecraft the acceleration it needed to set it on its path to the moon. "Today, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, humans have departed Earth orbit," said Dr. Lori Glaze from NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Orion is operating with crew for the first time in space, and we are gathering critical data, and learning from each step." Commander Reid Wiseman called seeing "the entire globe from pole to pole" after leaving Earth's orbit a "spectacular moment."
Artemis II launched on April 1 at 6:35PM Eastern time after a couple of delays caused by a hydrogen leak and then a helium issue. It's the first crewed flight of the Artemis program and the first time humanity has ventured beyond Low Earth Orbit after the Apollo program shut down. Within a few hours after its launch, the astronauts reported an issue with their onboard toilet, which crew member Christina Koch eventually fixed. Commander Wis
|
|