• From CNN:
"An Amazon worker who helped lead a milestone organizing effort to form what would have been the company’s first US union at a warehouse in Alabama said she has been fired by the e-commerce giant.
"Jennifer Bates became the face of the effort to unionize an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama, back in 2021 when she testified before lawmakers about her 'grueling' experience working at the company.
"The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which spearheaded the so-far unsuccessful effort to unionize the Bessemer facility, said on Friday she was fired by Amazon after returning from medical leave following injuries sustained on the job."
According to the story, "An Amazon spokesperson told CNN that Bates 'has the opportunity to appeal the decision'."
"'Our records indicate that Ms. Bates failed to show up to work for a period of time and didn’t respond or provide documentation to excuse her absences,' Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokesperson, told CNN in a statement. 'We work hard to accommodate our team’s needs for personal leaves of absence, but like any employer, we ask our employees to meet certain minimum expectations for leave approval'."
• The New York Times reports that "Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, down 59 percent from a year earlier, according to an internal presentation obtained by The New York Times. The company has regularly fallen short of its U.S. weekly sales projections, sometimes by as much as 30 percent, the document said.
"That performance is unlikely to improve anytime soon, according to the documents and seven current and former Twitter employees."
The Times notes that "the state of Twitter’s advertising is crucial because ads have long made up 90 percent of the company’s revenue. After Mr. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October and took the company private, he vowed to build “the most respected ad platform.” But he quickly alienated advertisers by firing key sales executives, spreading a conspiracy theory on the site and welcoming back barred Twitter users … Twitter’s ad sales staff is concerned that advertisers may be spooked by a rise in hate speech and pornography on the social network, as well as more ads featuring online gambling and marijuana products, the people said."
None of this should be a surprise considering Musk's 12-year-old-with-a-sugar-rush behavior. Remember, he bought the company for $44 billion, but it is now worth about $20 billion (according to Musk) and has more than $12 billion in debt. No wonder many advertisers want little or nothing to do with it.
