Business and Finance

Amazon Hub in Newark is Canceled Following Unions and Local

Published

4 months ago

November 19, 2022

The amazon hub e-commerce giant planned to build an airport cargo center, hire 1,000 workers and invest hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years.

Table of Contents

For the second time, plans by Amazon to substantially expand its presence in the New York area have been abandoned after labor and community groups mobilized in opposition.

In 2019, Amazon abruptly canceled plans to build a second headquarters in New York City after facing a barrage of criticism that it did not anticipate. This time, the e-commerce giant was unable to complete a deal for a cargo hub at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The Amazon hub project, which hinged on a 20-year lease worth hundreds of millions of dollars, attracted opposition after the Port Authority disclosed it last summer

Amazon hub

“Unfortunately, the Port Authority and Amazon have been unable to reach an agreement on final lease terms and mutually concluded that further negotiations will not resolve the outstanding issues,” Huntley Lawrence, the Port Authority’s chief operating officer, said in a statement on Thursday.

Advocacy groups and unions involved had said they could not support the lease unless Amazon made a set of concessions that included labor agreements and a zero-emissions benchmark at the facility.

“This victory signals that if Amazon wants to continue growing in New Jersey, it’s going to have to do it on our terms,” said Sara Cullinane, director of Make the Road New Jersey, an advocacy group that had questioned the deal.

Amazon hub, which expressed confidence in May that the deal would close, expressed disappointment in a statement, adding that “we’re proud of our robust presence in New Jersey and look forward to continued investments in the state.”

Amazon hub: The company appears set to lay off approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs, in what would be the largest cuts in the company’s history.

Amazon hub: The parent of Facebook said it was laying off more than 11,000 people, or about 13 percent of its work force

Google: The tech giant agreed to a record $391.5 million privacy settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information.
Amazon had estimated that the project would create more than 1,000 jobs, though many of those jobs could still be created if the Port Authority awards the lease to another company. Two other companies bid on the project.
“The growth of air cargo and the redevelopment of airport facilities in a manner that benefits the region as well as the local community remain a top priority of the Port Authority,” Mr. Lawrence, the chief operating officer, added in his statement.
The bigger long-term impact may be on Amazon’s ability to deliver packages efficiently in the Northeast, which it serves with airport hubs near Allentown, Pa.; Hartford, Conn.; and Baltimore.
“Newark was the obvious choice,” said Marc Wulfraat, an industry consultant who closely tracks Amazon’s facilities. “It is right there on the doorstep of New York City.”
Mr. Wulfraat said Amazon could look for other commercial airports in the region, even if their locations were less ideal, to support the growing package volume.
It was in part the company’s prominence in the state that attracted opposition to the project. A report produced by groups seeking to block it pointed out that the number of.
Amazon facilities in New Jersey grew to 49 from one between 2013 and 2020, helping to nearly triple the number of warehouse workers in the state, to about 70,000. Over the same period, the average wage for those workers fell to about $44,000 per year from over $53,000 per year, adjusting for inflation, according to Labor Department data.
New Jersey is one of the more unionized states in the country, while Amazon has opposed unionization efforts at its facilities.
Amazon said that average starting pay for its hourly workers is more than $18 nationally. The median hourly wage in New Jersey was about $23 last year. The company also cited its benefits, including full health coverage for full-time employees as soon as they start working; a 401(k) plan with a 50 percent company match; and up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave.
The Port Authority revealed the proposed lease with Amazon in August, the day its board voted to authorize the deal. The authority said that it expected the lease to take effect on or around Nov. 1, according to minutes of the meeting.
“It was something that they were trying to slip in without notifying the community, which was quite unfortunate,” said Kim Gaddy, executive director of the South Ward Environmental Alliance, which focuses on environmental issues affecting Newark residents.
Under the proposed deal, Amazon tentatively committed to investing $125 million in renovating two buildings at the airport, and to paying the Port Authority more than $300 million over 20 years — including $150 million up front.
By September, the groups led by Ms. Cullinane and Ms. Gaddy, along with other advocacy groups and unions like the Teamsters and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, began to coordinate their opposition.
The groups circulated petitions that collected thousands of signatures from residents and staged public events like rallies and a march.

The project appeared to stall after the November timetable for finalizing the lease passed without any announcement.

In late March, a spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphy, who had initially praised the deal, said in a statement that “the governor encourages anyone doing business in our state to work collaboratively with labor partners in good faith.”

(The governor’s office declined to comment on Thursday.) Other politicians in the state appeared to grow skeptical after the Amazon Labor Union’s election victory this year at a Staten Island warehouse, a result Amazon is contesting.

Amazon has opened air hubs in recent years to move products through its own logistics network, rather than rely on outside providers.

It prefers to fulfill customer orders with local inventory, for cheaper, quicker delivery, but when the product a customer wants is not in a nearby warehouse, it will fly the product to meet its shipping promises.

Its operations expansion went into overdrive during the pandemic as e-commerce sales boomed. “We doubled our capacity that we built in the first 25 years of Amazon in just 24 months,” Andy Jassy, the chief executive, told investors in May.

But the company has acknowledged that it overbuilt, expanding and hiring more than demand required, and in April it posted its first quarterly loss since 2015.

This year Amazon has pulled back from some investments. “We’re trying to defer building activity on properties where we just don’t need the capacity yet, and we’re going let some leases expire as well,” Mr. Jassy said.

FAQ

3. Do you get paid to be an Amazon Hub?

Up Next

Are ‘soft Launches Victoria Paris’ Right For Your Relationship?

Don't Miss

Linda McMahon, Business Administrator | Resigns from Cabinet

Anoop Kumar

Business and Finance

Deadline Extended: Link PAN with Aadhaar by March 31, 2023 or face penalties

Published

4 days ago

March 20, 2023

Anoop Kumar

The deadline to link your Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Aadhaar has been extended until March 31, 2023. Please be aware that there is now a penalty associated with linking PANs with Aadhaar; if you link them now, there will be an additional fee of Rs 1,000 as the last date without penalty was June 30th 2022 which has passed already.

Table of Contents

Prior to the March 31st deadline for linking your PAN and Aadhaar, all non-exempt PAN holders who do not fall under an exemption category must link their PANs with Aadhaar. Without this link, inoperative status of your PAN will take effect as of January 1, 2023; thus, don’t wait – link it now!

Please be advised!According to the Income-tax Act of 1961, all persons holding a PAN who do not fall within an exempt category are required to file returns… https://t.co/qvF4FWKsQz

Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) 1677558673000

According to a Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) circular dated March 30, 2022, “Rule 114AAA of the Income-tax Rules provides that if someone’s PAN becomes inoperative, they cannot furnish, intimate or quote it and shall face all consequences under the Act as a result.”

According to an advisory published in The Times of India on March 6, 2023 by the income tax department, here are six consequences of not linking your PAN with Aadhaar.

Your PAN card will no longer function.

Filing an ITR will not be possible.

Pending returns will not be processed.

No refunds can be issued once an order has been placed.

Pending proceedings, such as those related to defective returns, cannot be completed.

Tax will be deducted at a higher rate.

If you have not linked your PAN with Aadhaar yet, here is how to do so according to the Income Tax Department website.

How to Link PAN with Aadhaar

Step 1: Navigate to the Income Tax website (https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/) for assistance with filing an income tax return.

Step 2: Navigate to the Quick Link section and click on ‘Link Aadhaar‘.

Step 3: Enter Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number, then pay late fee of Rs 1000 using ePay tax functionality after following onscreen instructions.

Step 4: Once payment is complete, visit ‘Link Aadhaar’ section again and enter your name, mobile number, Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number (PAN).

Step 5: Confirm the information by selecting ‘I agree to validate my Aadhaar details’ and clicking on the ‘Link Aadhaar’ option.

Step 6: Enter the OTP received on your mobile number and click ‘Validate’ to complete linking.

How to Verify Aadhaar-PAN Link Status

Are you uncertain if your Aadhaar and PAN numbers are connected or not? Here’s an easy way to verify.

Step 1: Navigate to the Income Tax e-filing website at www.incometax.gov.in to begin filing your taxes electronically.

Step 2: Under Quick Links, you will locate the ‘Link Aadhaar Status’ option.

Step 3: Enter your PAN and Aadhaar numbers, then click ‘View Link Aadhaar Status’.

Step 4: If your PAN is linked with your Aadhaar, a message will appear on your screen.

Here are essential FAQs regarding PAN (Pay As You Earn) and Aadhaar linking, according to the Income Tax website through March 31st 2023.

Who Needs to Link Aadhaar and Permanent Account Number (PAN)?

According to the Income tax website, Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act requires every individual who has been allotted a permanent account number (PAN) as of July 1st, 2017, and who is eligible for an Aadhaar number, to inform it in the prescribed form and manner before the prescribed date (31st March 2022 without fee payment or 31.03.2023). For further details regarding this requirement, refer to CBDT circular No.7/2022 dated 30.03.2022.”

Who does not require Aadhaar-PAN linkage?

The Aadhaar-PAN linkage requirement does not apply to anyone who is:

I) Living in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, or Meghalaya.

II) A non-resident as defined in the Income-tax Act, 1961, if they reached eighty years or older at any point during the prior year;

III) Not a citizen of India as per the Income Tax website

(Originally Published March 06, 2023)

Business and Finance

Motilal Oswal Financial Services: Buy Tech Mahindra Targeted Price RS 1180 Lets Explain In Details

Published

4 days ago

March 20, 2023

Rahul Mehra

Motilal Oswal Financial Services has issued a buy call on Tech Mahindra with an objective price target of Rs 1180. At present, the stock’s market value stands at Rs 1106.95. Motilal Oswal Financial Services advises investors to maintain their stop loss at Rs 1100.

Table of Contents

Tech Mahindra, established in 1986, is a large-cap company (with a market cap of Rs 107651.26 Crore) operating within the IT Software sector.

Tech Mahindra’s key products/revenue segments for the year ending 31 March 2022 include Software Services.

Motilal Oswal Reports

Financials

For the quarter ended 31-12-2022, the company reported a Consolidated Total Income of Rs 13981.70 Crore, up 4.19 % from last quarter’s Total Income of Rs 13419.65 Crore and 19.77% higher than last year’s same quarter Total Income of Rs 11673.90 Crore. Net profit after tax for this latest quarter came to Rs 1294.30 Crore.

The company’s top management consists of Mr. Anand G Mahindra, Ms. Shikha Sharma, Mr. Haigreve Khaitan, Dr.Mukti Khaire, Mrs.M Rajyalakshmi Rao, Penelope Fowler, Manoj Bhat, Dr.Anish Shah, C P Gurnani and T N Manoharan; B S R & Co LLP is its auditors; as of 31-12-2022 the company had 97 Crore shares outstanding.

Investment Rationale

The stock has reversed its lower highs on both daily and weekly time frames, suggesting it may have broken out of consolidation mode on a monthly basis.

Promoters/FII Holdings

On 31 December 2022, promoters owned 35.19 percent of the company; FIIs held 27.95 percent and DIIs 23.54 percent stake respectively.

(Disclaimer: Any recommendations given in this section or reports attached herein have been authored by an external party and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). ET does not guarantee, endorse, or support any of their contents and expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, related thereto. We advise you to consult your financial adviser for independent advice before making any decisions.

Also, Read-:

Business and Finance

CEO faces backlash for crying selfie after layoffs announcement on LinkedIn

Published

1 week ago

March 15, 2023

Anoop Kumar

CEO Crying Selfie Layoffs: A CEO of a US company is facing flak for the way he announced the firing of his employees on LinkedIn, with people deeming it reprehensible.

Braden Wallake, the CEO of HyperSocial, posted a photo of himself crying while trying to explain why few employees had to be laid off from his company.

CEO Crying Selfie Layoffs | Jump Two

CEO posts crying selfie on LinkedIn after firing employees

CEO criticised for his crying selfie after firing employees

CEO posts crying selfie on LinkedIn after firing employees

“I’ve gone back and forth whether to post this or not. We just had to layoff a few of our employees. I’ve seen a lot of layoffs over the last few weeks on LinkedIn. Most of those are due to the economy, or whatever other reason. Ours? My fault,” Wallake wrote.

LinkedIn/Braden Wallake

“I made a decision in February to stop selling our main services and focus on a new service. A higher priced service. It’s a great service, and something we will continue to offer, but it’s for the right kinds of companies,” he added.

“Now, I know my team will say that ‘we made that decision together’, but I lead us into it. And because of those failings, I had to do today, the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

Wallake said despite the layoffs, the company has always been a people first business. “We’ve always been a people first business. And we always will be. Days like today, I wish I was a business owner that was only money driven and didn’t care about who he hurt along the way.”

“So, I just want people to see, that not every CEO out there is cold-hearted and doesn’t care when he/she have to lay people off. I’m sure there are hundreds and thousands of others like me. The ones you don’t see talked about. Because they didn’t lay off 50 or 500 or 5000 employees,” he said.

He further went on add that hoped his employees realised how much he loved them. “I know it isn’t professional to tell my employees that I love them. But from the bottom of my heart, I hope they know how much I do. Every single one. Every single story. Every single thing that makes them smile and every single thing that makes them cry. Their families. Their friends. Their hobbies,” he wrote.

CEO criticised for his crying selfie after firing employees

The post has gone viral and people have laid into Wallake for the crying selfie he posted.

Screengrab/LinkedIn

“Don’t worry everyone. Not every CEO is cold hearted. Some are attention seeking narcissists. it’s fine. Stop worrying,” one user commented.

“Taking a selfie while crying. I applaud your ability to multitask under distress,” another user said.

“Three things that disturb me about this post – one, this strikes as “how hard this is for me, pity the poor CEO” when people have just lost their jobs. A bit insensitive. Two, the authors replies to peoples comments seem in a tone that suggests he’s not exactly heart broken. And three, if you’ve laid people off and you are taking to LinkedIn to post about it, maybe link them, sing their praises and skills and let other companies know they would be amazing people to hire. This post just comes off as attention seeking,” a third user added.

Also Read: